Polish glass on Bomar hatches

[jorgefife]

It's me again!
Greetings
This is a nice and easy one: how do I clean/polish/shine the bomar hatches?
The plastic is very dull, and with a good clean and polish they will probably be transparent
No cracks, just dull
Any suggestion will be much welcome
Thank you for helping
Jorge

 

[SamLust]

I use fine automotive compound on plastics. I have used it on hatches, wrist watch lenses, "cultured stone" (resin) bathroom sinks and so-on. I just brightened up the headlights on my wife's forester. I leave my Bomars obscured by the fine scratching. It lets light in but maintains privacy without a curtain. My ports are New Found Metals Stainless so that's one less thing to think about.

 

[stephen Penny]

If it is dull then it is likely crazed. resulting from sunlight/UV/acid rain degradation of the plastic. If the plastic has that kind of damage you can replace it with something more durable like Lexan. You can also send it to Select Plastics at 219 Liberty Square, Norwalk, CT 06855-1029 (203) 866-3767 and they will make you a new one from your frame with gaskets.

If it is scratched you can there are some products you can buy that "restore" plexiglass. Most of them start with an aggressive compound to buff out the scratches and then move on to finer polishing materials. Meguiar's plastic scratch remover followed by Meguiar's plastic polisher work well for that. Other products simply fill the scratches or cracks and hide them. When the stuff wears off, all of the scratches come back.

 

[rardiH36]

The plexiglass of my hatches was not crazed, but the surface was dull and oxidized. I started with 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper, and along the lines of SamLust's advice, followed with a very fine auto paint polishing compound and then a polish/restorer designed for plastics. The result was great. BUT it seems that once the whatever original factory surface treatment has broken down, the surface does oxidize again quite quickly and the plastic polish needs to be used every month or so to restore the gloss look again. This only takes a few minutes.

Here's an example of a plastic polish: http://www.meguiars.com/estore/prod...r's Brand)>Clear Plastic Care&sectionID=15101

 

[tomgrigsby]

Jorge
Auto parts stores sell a little kit now for polishing up headlight lenses. It comes with a pad that chucks into an electric drill and about 10 self adhesive pads. You just mist the plastic with water and polish away. It works very well on my headlight lenses so I'd think it would work great on the boat too. The abrasive is very mild so it takes a while, but it looks good when done. It would probably make a good tool kit to use with a polishing compound. In any case it's cheap. Seems like $12, but I'm not sure. The kit lasts a long time doing headlights and I bought it last summer.

 

[jorgefife]

Thnk you Tom, it sounds great; also Sam and all of you
I will give it a try
One of these days, now that I know how to post pictures, I am gonna post a bunch so that you will regret the day you showed me how to
Thanks for the help!
Jorge

 

[capejt]

Whatever you do..... DON'T use "Soft Scrub". I watched a marina neighbor make that mistake. Far too abrasive!