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Canopy polishing


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The $42 million question, what am i missing? Hopefully this picture shows the difference between these two. Left is the kit windscreen as received. Right is the kit windscreen after i polished it. Not good. I’m hoping the slightly blurry lettering will show the haziness to what I’ve done. I worked from 3200 up to 12000 grit sanding sponges then a plastic polishing compound.

previously I wasn’t happy with just using the polishing compounds. I read some history here and thought doing the sanding first was the answer. Still not there yet.

IMG_5033-X2.jpg

 

any advice?

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I'm with you man!! I hate polishing canopies! Lately, though, I've been having pretty decent success with a cloth polishing wheel in my dremel tool on low speed with a stick of plastic polishing compound, or fine grit paste. Meguiars makes a liquid just for acrylic that's not bad, too. Bottom line is that I'm never able to do it well enough by hand, I have to use the dremel. 

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Haveblue I'm using the novus brand. On this i used step 2 and 1. The 3 is for deep scratches. In terms of technique i went the same direction with the sanding pads each time. Sounds like that is creating some of my problem. I was using a circular motion with the novus polish after sanding. Let me know what you think?

BiggTim I’m going to try that today. I’ve got the dremel and polishing pads but never used them for fear of going to fast and burning the plastic. I’m thinking i may use the pad in my battery operated drill to keep it slower? My dremel minimum is 1000rpm.

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Here’s what it looks like after the polishing compound on my drill.

IMG_5038-X2.jpg

 

Much better but I don’t think it’s show quality yet? 

I did it twice and it got  better each time so maybe just more time? About a minute each time polishing at a medium speed, maybe 300-400rpm. 

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13 hours ago, BiggTim said:

I'm with you man!! I hate polishing canopies! Lately, though, I've been having pretty decent success with a cloth polishing wheel in my dremel tool on low speed with a stick of plastic polishing compound, or fine grit paste. Meguiars makes a liquid just for acrylic that's not bad, too. Bottom line is that I'm never able to do it well enough by hand, I have to use the dremel. 

Here's the stuff I've been using:

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20190209-114138.jpg

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I only wet sand to about 1200 or 1500, then use the paste (green can) or the hard stick to get the scratches out, then the tan bottle or the gray bottle, then finish with the white bottle of cleaner. The cloth wheel seems to work better than any other disc I've tried (felt, foam, etc.) but it's kind of hard to get inside canopies with it. The key is LOW rpms, I should think 10o0 would be perfect, but just experiment with it. I also often stick my canopy down to a glob of the squishy rubber eraser to keep it from flying away. I'm not saying my canopies are the greatest, but they seem pretty clear to me.

 

Tim

 

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21 hours ago, themongoose said:

Haveblue I'm using the novus brand. On this i used step 2 and 1. The 3 is for deep scratches. In terms of technique i went the same direction with the sanding pads each time. Sounds like that is creating some of my problem. I was using a circular motion with the novus polish after sanding. Let me know what you think?

BiggTim I’m going to try that today. I’ve got the dremel and polishing pads but never used them for fear of going to fast and burning the plastic. I’m thinking i may use the pad in my battery operated drill to keep it slower? My dremel minimum is 1000rpm.

 

Ok I'm not familiar with the Novus brand, but that doesn't mean much at all because I'm a complete novice at this stuff!

 

But what I have found is that polishing at 90 with progressively finer grades can help remove the fine embedded scratches, I also do this when I sand the primer/paint on a model. 

 

Also, I use the Tamiya polishing compounds and have found them to be excellent, along with their gloss varnish to finish/protect the canopy, and it worked quite well for me. From memory I think I even used a circular motion with progressively finer compound pastes and it wasn't an issue :) (used the Tamiya polishing clothes as well)

 

For clarification I just put a dab of the compound straight on the canopy then polish until the compound has disappeared. Then I'll move to the next fine grade etc etc...so it's all "wet" polishing. I used to use micro mesh with progressively finer grades (3200 -12000 etc) but now I just use the Tamiya paste in progressively finer grades :)

 

What I can't tell you is how the gloss varnish will react to CA glue, haven't tried that as I use white glue to attach  my canopies.

 

YiUTnu.jpgznDmc9.jpg

 

 

 

 

Edited by haveblue
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