polishing Turn signal lenses

[pwm74]

At hershey I bought a pair of turn signal lenses. good price however they have some little scratches in it. He said you can use blue magic plastic polish. Does this work. Can I use mothers rim polish as well.

I also got bumperettes,kinda faded Would you guys spray this with polyurethane bumper paint, does it look good
thanks in advances

[Jdub]

Yes, you can use either, but you must use the least harshest to start, check your work, and only then move to a harsher solution.

So, if very, very bad shape, start with rubbing compound or toothpaste (yes, it's true!). Next up comes Mothers/Simichrome. Then any variety, in order of harshness, of the McGuiar's family of products: glaze, waxer/cleaner all the way up to the fine finish cleaners. Finally, McGuiar's plastic polish is hands-down the best for the final finish. Use it twice, always moving in a line and never circling the cloth.

John

[Craig]

pwm,

Not sure what you mean by 'bumperettes', but if you are talking about the black rubber 'blocks' that fit on the back bumper, I used some 2000 on them and they came out looking brand new.
I first used a little scrub brush and washed them them real well (they were off the car at the time like yours are). I then applied the 2000 and they look great. The body guy thought I had bought new ones.
The 2000 comes in a bright lime green bottle with orange letters. It is like Armour All, except it is urethane based instead of silicone based.

If bumperettes means something else, please disregard my ignorance!
Craig

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Or, if you don't want to bother collecting a lot of mismatched ingredients, buy a MicroMesh kit. It's used to polish scratches out of Plexiglas aircraft windows and windshields, and you can get it through Sporty's Pilot Shop, Aircraft Spruce, Wicks Aircraft and a variety of other sources that have good websites. Costs about $25--haven't bought one in awhile--and is designed for exactly the use you wish. It basically consists of about six or eight graduated sheets of rubber-backed "sandpaper" of grits going up to something like 8,000 (think of a baby's bottom...) plus a bottle of jeweler's rouge and a sanding block. Sure renewed all of my lenses easily.

Stephan

[pwm74]

cool, but does the 2000 last a long time or is it a temp, does rain and washing effect it.

[Vipergrün]

Just this weekend I *freshened* up the rear bumperettes on my SC. I used a Meguiars 2000 grit sanding block and water to wet sand the imperfections, stains, etc. I finished it with Meguiars rubber treatment. They look new. Nope, not affliliated with Meguiars, just use some of their products

cheers
-Brad
80SC

[Craig]

PWM,

The 2000 seems to last for me. I put it on just about a year ago, and haven't reapplied yet. They are still pretty sharp looking, but not quite as jet gloss black as they were when first applied. I was thinking when I responded that it is just about time to reapply, now that spring is here!

Edit: They still look nice and black, not that 'gray-black' that
rubber can fade to.

Craig

[pwm74]

I am going to autobarn after work, I should get meguiers 2000 grit sanding block and there rubber treatment, then I will have some nice bumber bellows,

Thank you all

[pbs911]

I did this a few months ago. My front turn lenses were pitted and weathered. I tried polish but it didn't take out anything but the fine scratches. I figuered I had nothing to lose so I took off the lenses and gave them a once over on the belt sander. After I removed all pits, I block sanded with fine sandpaper. Then finished it off with the placitc polish. The result was better than new. IMHO, if the lenses are pitted, you will not be able to rub them out with just polish. You must remove provide a smooth surface for the polish to have any effect.