Scratches in radio display

[Jimmy9190]

I bought a radio-CD player off Ebay. It has 2 fine scratches across the display. Most of the time they are not visible, but if the sun or a shadow hits the display right you can see them and it looks bad.

This is a smooth hard clear plastic surface on the front of an Alpine CD player. I don't think the scratches would show up in a picture here. I was thinking of using Meguiar's Plast-X applied with a soft cloth baby diaper to try to buff the scratches out.

My question is Plast-X too harsh or abrasive to use on a smooth plastic like that? I sure don't want to make things worse. I thought about trying it first on an old clock radio display, it's about the same type of surface.

Any ideas, tips or tricks are very much appreciated.

 

[mikered30]

try brasso

 

[dgee]

I used Plast-X on my instrumental panel and it worked great.
got rid of all the fine scratches and swirl marks

 

[Trav]

PlastX works great on cell phone displays so i would guess it will work fine on the radio display also.

 

[sunfire]

Try practicing on a CD/DVD first. You decide if Plast-X is too abrasive. Use a quality Megs foam pad. Paper towels are too thin and will probably make the abrasives scratch the surface.

Tape the area off, don't apply to areas that don't need it.

Or just live with the scratches.

 

[DaHen]

I also found the PlastX worked great on the instrument panel. But made the plastic display on the stock Nissan radio worse.
Even had tried 303's Aerospace Protectant.

Let me give good old Brasso a try.

 

[Jimmy9190]

This morning I tried Plast-X on a scratched CD, it did not work at all. The Plast-X bottle says not for use on LCD displays, and that's what I have on this CD player, a nice smooth hard clear LCD surface. So if anyone else has any other scratch removal suggestions, I am all ears.

I even looked into just buying a new faceplate. The main parts supplier for Alpine says it is discontinued, and if I tried to buy it through Alpine directly, it would probably cost about $90.00, if they still have one for it.

If I can't get the scratches cleared up or at least diminished somewhat I might pursue the Ebay buyer Protection policy on it and try to get a partial refund. I want to keep the CD player but the seller presented it on Ebay as having "no blemishes or marks on the faceplate". So I may try to get part of my money back.

Thanks.

 

[mikered30]

How did the brasso work?

 

[DaHen]

Originally Posted By: mikered30
How did the brasso work?


Ta-Da.
Hey, the Brasso worked pretty darn good.
Applied three applications and worked the Brasso in with a microfiber cloth. Not a top of the line cloth, rather one the was purchased from one of the local car parts store.
After each application, I wiped the Brasso off and buffed the heck out of the display. Almost let the third application dry to much but again buffed the heck out of it.
Buffed it so much, that I built up some static electricty that lit up some of the elements in the display, lol.


Thus, the Brasso did remove the slight abrasions that were on my plastic display. Wouldn't call them "scratches", such as feeling them with your finger nail.
Rather like someone tried to clean the display with an old stiff cloth.

Thanks mikered30 for your suggestion.

 

[GMBoy]

You may also try Meguires Plastic Cleaner or their Plastic Polish. Works miracles on helmet face shields and dash displays for me.

 

[mikered30]

Glad it worked.

 

[SkyGod]

Never touch radio displays or the dash display.
Nothing will take out the scratches..nothing.
Leave the dust and current scratches where they are.

 

[Spector]

My son's used Altima had the same issue, dealer said they could do nothing about it when purchased. I used both a cleaner wax and also a plastic cleaner with lots of elbow grease. After much rubbing (plastic cleaner the best) it is at the point where it looks like new. Just time consuming to get the scratch out.

 

[Jimmy9190]

With my CD player I just decided to follow others' advice from here and just left well enough alone. I don't want to ruin the display. The scratches are only noticeable in bright direct sunlight and I don't see them 90% of the time. I got a good deal on the CD player so I really don't mind it much anyway.