Whether it is your tuner windows on boomboxes or the cassette windows in walkmans there is nothing as pleasing and satisfying as a crystal clear finish instead of the nastily scratched appearance that is most usually seen on account of years of use, misuse and abuse by the time it lands on ebay or in the dumpster.

1. Cleaning : Household detergent is fine, Kerosene to remove greasy deposits is quite okay but with anything that is a solvent try wiping off the residue immediately and go back again to a detergent wipe. Some alcohols make the acrylic surface go opaque and this can be quite scary/disappointing although it can be reversed by subsequent buffing it it is just the surface! So be a bit careful on this note.

2. Removal of deep scratches : Removal of deep scratched will require careful sanding out of the scratch by manually cancelling out the scratch. This involves removing a bit of the surface so that the defective area is smoothed out by way of abrading the surface in opposing directions/a circular manner. of Water emery paper is available in the following grits :

a)fine (P120), b)very fine(P220 or P360) c)Extra fine (P600) d)Super Fine (P1200) & Ultra Fine (P2500)

The secret to using emery the right way is PATIENCE and controlled pressure...extremely light pressure/almost a feather touch for the Fine(P120) grit as you are effectively creating new scratches at 90 degrees to remove the original scratch. It is important to make sure you have a drop of water and that the process is always being done 'wet' to prevent 'surface burns' . The water lubricates the surface allowing for better control with the circular motions of initial abrading. Progress slowly through the finer grits each time using only a small piece of emery paper (approx 1 sq.inch) thus forcing you to use more control and also preventing the edges of the emery from damaging surfaces adjacent to the window if it hasn't been removed.

3. Polishing : Abrasion done with a much finer grit or much less pressure is the precursor of the polishing process. After finishing a run through with the Ultra Fine (P2500) emery paper I would advise a shift over to polishing paste (better than polishing cakes/compound). A few examples :

http://www.audioadvisor.com/pr....asp?number=CLACRPOL

http://www.theplasticshop.co.u...-xerapol-3373-0.html

I normally go with CIF scouring cream or 3M Finesse it followed by toothpaste followed by Formula1 Scratch out

http://systemhygiene.co.uk/pro...am-2ltr-product.html

http://www.formula1wax.com/pro...scratchOutLiquid.php

Soft cotton cloth (an old T shirt/Vest) will serve as a decent enough buff cloth for the manual stage of buffing. It is again important to try and keep your hand motions circular. If you want to go 'professional' a piece of Chamois leather will be quite fine although I'd stick with the cotton cloth.

4. High Shine /Gloss : Achieving a mirror shine or Gloss actually requires 'micro melting' the surface of acrylic. Although some industrial processing employ flame polishing I wouldn't recommend this approach at all. What you need is to generate enough heat at the surface to just make a microscopic layer melt and re-solidify as a single glaze layer.

This either requires a polishing lathe like what we dentists have and use for polishing dentures or a hand held polisher like what is used to buff up your Car's paint job although this tool is a bit cumbersome and big. The best is a Dremel drill (again similar to a dental laboratory drill ) with miniature buff wheels (like the stuff we dentists use ) :

Cotton yarn /muslin cloth/cotton cloth buff wheels

http://www.rutinident.com/lab-...shes-handpiece-buffs

ebay 390385448740 ,140877083421

A Dremel 7000-N/5 6-Volt Cordless handpiece/hobby drill should cost approx $25 on amazon.com.

Hope this helps Happy mending!

Just to satisfy curiosity

http://www.acrylicflamepolishing.com/

Very informative and detailed as always Doc. But more importantly a guide that no one else would have put up. Will try this out this weekend.

great practical post! thanks DocP 

Hahaha, sorry Prakash, I thought this was another spam post, the title looked like some PVC double-glazing trickery.

Great post, I'll mark is a sticky

Thanks Prakash very nice post, very informative.

I Use PolyWatch Polish - Scratch remover it does an excellent job.
and it is very cheap indeed just £4.25

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Polywatch-SCRATCH-REMOVAL-plastic-acrylic-watch-crystals-glasses-repair-vintage-/200825031353

Thanks for the kind words folks Hope you all will end with lovely gloss on the plastic and a proud gleam in the eye

Ha ha : ) seriously! I just realized the title definitely  does like a window repair service Spam post    Thanks for the sticky

thanks to you DocP, before your post i only knew cotton rags & swabs, screen cleaning gel and A LOT of elbow grease...

One lousy example is window damage due to 'prolonged storage' in warmer climates like what we have...you end up with the walkman pouch rexine's inner surface melt-imprinting in a pitted pattern corresponding to the inner 'cloth' surface

These pits are approximately a quarter millimeter deep if not deeper....the equivalent of a pretty deep scratch.

So here are a few before and after pics for you to have a rough idea

lol carefull with 90% alcohol. I used it only to whipe out logo marks on clear blank tapes for a cool and clear look. Don't try it on your walkman markings

I had the exact same issue with my WM-20. I found using Brasso lightly worked well. Thankfully I did remember to check the printing was on the other side of the gunked up side before commencing, so it was an easy fix!

Very informative

well, i also tought, this is a great product ... until i realized, that many watch collectors use ordinary toothpaste - its doing the same for 10% of the price ... the best are with "whitening formula" or for smokers... they`re the most "aggressive" in polishing...

and, well... your walkman might also have a fresh peppermint smell ^_^ ...

i tried it on watches, gameboy display, etc .. if you don`t believe me, just take some old CD or cassette cover with that fine scratches on it, which  they collect within the years. make a "before" macro photo... start some polishing sessions with toothpaste and take a photo again .. compare it, you will see ...

I did use the polish for my car-headlights to fix the window of my WM-30, as it had the same problem as the one above here.

works great!