Hi all!

Have just re-started building on my old Top Flite GS P51 Mustang. After long time storage the canopy has suffered some hangar-rash.
Does anyone know of a good way to polish a canopy to a nice transparent shine again?
Thanks for your input!

Benny

You can sand out the scratch with 600 grit paper, sand the whole canopy, then shoot clear coat over the entire canopy and it will be perfectly clear again.

Sure, just follow these simple steps:

Take a piece of plastic
Telephone Top Flite
Tell them the number on the piece of plastic
Wait for the mailman

Seriously, I doubt that you will be able to polish any but the most minor scratch on a TF canopy. I have however found TF to be very good on getting spare parts to you.


Terry

Auto parts stores have headlight renewal kits. I just used one to polish the headlights on one of my daughter's car. Headlight lenses nowadays are plastic. Some are better quality than others. The kit I used has two grades of abrasive cloth, two grades of polish and a buffer and a protectant.

All the while I was working, I was wondering if the kit would work on model airplane canopies.

The problem with scratches compared to oxidation is that scratches can be a lot deeper. Back in the old days, there were some reports of guys rubbing out scratches with toothpaste. That suggests that scratches aren't always too deep. Unfortunately, today's toothpastes probably don't have abrasives in them anymore.

whatever......

The cleaner rock mentioned works pretty well if these are small scratches, If they are gouges then you can either live with them or do as Red suggests and replace it. The lens cleaner works pretty well and if nothing else the plastic comes out clear and clean. I use Ritt dye and tint mine and it helps hide scratches.

HighPlains' suggested method works just fine if you prefer to throw elbow grease rather than cash at the problem.

Hi!
It's very easy to remove scraches provided they are not to deep.
You first use fine sand paper, made for wet sanding (grade 1200-4000) and then polish the canopy using polishing compound bought at a car paint shop.
The results will be better than new!