Polishing a scratched TT dust cover

I got two persons asking how I polished my TT dust cover in the "fixing those scratched dust covers"-thread. As I wrote a thread on a swedish forum about this and took pics of the process I might aswell post them here. As there was a lot of pictures I publish these in this thread, not ruining the original thread.

IMPORTANT!

I don't take responsability for any cautions maybe by these procedures.

You do this at your own risk!

Do it outside and use crappy clothes that you don't care about.

This is only my own thoughts and trial methods to obtain a clear dust cover. I haven't use this practice proffessionally and it is my first polished cover.

Do not do this in direct sunlight or UV-light.

IMPORTANT!

These steps does not cover the process of sanding with wet sanding paper. If you have deep scratches you have to use fine wet sanding paper to get rid of deep scratches. I have not tried this(yet) so I can't give you any help about this.

Here is a theoretical pic of the problem. A cut through in microscopical view.



1. The material with scratches
2. Dream scenario would be to sand/polish it down until the surface is perfectly even.
3. Cheating a bit and less work as point 2. Will make the cover a bit bulby with big slopes that can be seen.
4. This is what I am going to obtain. Reducing the sharp edges of the scratches will reduce the angles creating less optical/visually visible scratches.

I am doing this in 3 steps.

1. Polishing with machine and metal polish. (Autosol)
2. Polishing with machine and car polish.(Sonax car polish)
3. Polishing by hand with Meguiars PlastX.

Everything I use can be bought at a car service store, which makes shopping easy.

First, decide what finish you want before you start this procedure, otherwise you can go on forever. If you want it like new, depending on original shape of the cover of course, most times you have to wet sand.

I took a lid that was quite abused for a Pioneer PL-516. As it was going for the thrash the former owner had put som other stuff that put rust on the lid aswell. I got the record player for free, cleaned and lubed the engine, new belt and finally polished cover made it look quite OK.



Cleaned with hand dish soap(?) and a soft sponge:



Rust:


Acryl/Plexi can be fragile. Use something similiar in size inside the cover to even up the load(for example some books). The cover must be above the table/ground and NOT standing on its sides. Apply a soft towel over the books for softer landing and better friction.



Now use masking tape for covering the aluminium label/logo if there is one at your lid.

I used a oscillating polishing machine with double pads.



New pads:



Oscillating(this means that the pad is rotating around its own axle while it rotates.):



HERE IS A CRITICAL POINT! DO THIS OUTSIDE! (look what happened to me):







Start the machine with the pads touching the lid and stop with the pads touching the lid, DON'T LIFT IT.

Use systematic patterns while polishing, for example:



Bad example:

Polished one time with machine and Autosol:



Well, it is not that great:



Clean the cover between polishing with a clean towel.

I polished 3 times with Autosol/metalpolish. The surface was now quite "even" and I couldn't see any improvements in clarity polishing more with Autosol.

Over to the car polish, results after one polish:



Observe the small scratch, it is not on the top of the cover, it is on the other side, be observant working with transparent material.



Holding it against a light source tells us that is not perfect:



Second polish, the result is much better:







I feel that I am good with 2 rounds of car polish. I leave the machine and go for Meguiars Plast X(got the tip from AK). I used two micro fiber towels, one for applying and one for removing:



Work in circulating movements (Karate Kid) and try to keep the big picture in mind. Don't focus on one little scratch or something small irritating, if you polish on one single spot too much it will only result in a difference in the total, making the polishing mark more visable than the original scratch:



OK surface:



When I used PlastX on my polished top it almost felt like the surface was water/moist resistent. On the inside the was more like a rough surface(although clear) and I had some problems polishing it of, I had to use my wonderful breath to steam it a bit.:

OK for a MOTL record player. Only polished once with PlastX. For even more mirrorlike surface, polish more with PlastX. The pics are lying a liiiittle bit. If I look at it today I can see that it is a bit milky, but it is way better than before:







A bit milky, but I guess this is the material:



Anothe pic:



Attached:





Focus on the cover:









Tape off, I only had to retape 2 times while polishing 5 times:



Cosy(through the cover):


A bit shaky:



Conclusion: I spent about 2-2,5 hour on this. I think it is worth it. Nice to know that you can polish the cover if you find a really good player with a bad cover.

Cost approx:
Polishing machine: Borrowed, maybe 30 USD?
New pas: 4 USD
Metal polish: 4 USD a tube, used 1/3 of a tube (100ml)
Car polish: Found in the garage, maybe 14 USD? Used 1/5 of a bottle(250ml)
PlastX: 17 USD here in Sweden. Used maybe 1/7 of a bottle (296 ml)
Micro fiber towels: 4 USD.

Still interested in: Using PlastX with machine. Exchanging PlastX to car wax(smells the same, feels the same). Exchaning PlastX with Fakopol.

IMPORTANT! You do this at your own RISK! IMPORTANT!

Please add your best tips or trix, come with critic if there is something thats wrong. How do you do?

Best regards and good luck

/Filip

Great post!


I love the Karate Kid reference.

Congrats on your work.

Awesome thread. I was thinking last night about posting a thread asking just this question - the dust cover on my newly resurrected PS-X70 needs some care.

Beautiful work and great thread!

Thanks!

Thanks for taking the time to log this. very informal.

Great! Job!

Thanks for you post, I am in need of some Dust cover clean-ups. Beautiful Work!

Awesome Work!

Thanks,
John.

Josafan
Thank you.
~Glenn

I did this process on both my Technics 1200 MK2 dust covers. The results are great. I used turtle wax chrome polish with a randomized orbital buffer. That was the longest step. I did that for about 45 min on each cover. Mostly on the tops but a bit on the bottom. Think like 70% of the time on the tops and 30% on the bottoms. Next step was the Meguires rubbing compound. Same randomized orbit buffer but with a new pad only 25 to 30 min each same 70 - 30 split. Then it was time for the plastic X put it on with a new foam and micro fiber buffing pad microfiber cloth for buffing by hand this time with a lot more time about an hour this time. Looks good I have had them since my university days in 1996 I bought them new and they still look like new especially now. Keep in mind they have been babied and they spent their first 15 years in separate Calzone turntable cases and now are in an Odyssey coffin style case. I had the pitch adjustment replaced on both in 2006 but that’s it that’s 20 years. Hope to get 20 more.

Nice work thanks for sharing and creating another task lol

Beautiful. DIY is what makes AK better than the others.

Depending on the severity of the scratches, you can use Rain X automotive head lamp restorer kits. Mequaires makes products for restoring plasti-coated finishes on fiber glass boats and RV's that will work. too. Companies like Parts Express sold kits, too. I don't know if they still do or not. There was a product sold in automotive paint shop for polishing coated Aluminum wheels on heavy duty trucks and RV's that will work, too. There are many different grits of polishing compounds that paint people use when taking out orange peel on cars and to smooth paint jobs that are covered with plastic type finishes that work well. Our techs that repaired TT's were always polishing Dust covers. There was a company in Albuquerque that sold pre- owned CD;s and DVD's and they would polish out the scratches of pre-owned discs before re=selling the discs. Some electronic companies never made tamper proof covers. So I would have a glass company cut the plastic parts the right size and I would assemble them and then polish out the imperfections and the raw cut edges. Where there's a will there is a way....

Thank you! Puts some hope in my heart. I'm terrible with polishing but with simple off the shelf supplies I might give it a try again.

I use Novus products. 3 grades: 3 = heavy scratch; 2 = fine scratch; 1 = clean & polish. With a small orbital buffer. Wet sand to start if needed (down to about 2000 grade). I've found the Novus products to be much better than PlastX. Meguiars makes a multi-step system too, but seems hard to find. I've found Novus easier to find in marine stores than automotive stores.

As the final step you can skip ... or supplement if you wish .... the Novus 1 with a 50/50 mix of Windex and Pledge furniture polish. Just be careful as the dustcover will be extremely slippery after that!

That's awesome,better than using sandpaper. Where did you get that polisher?

Thanks for the tips. I have an Onkyo dustcover that's badly yellowed and a bit scratched so I'm hoping your technique will work for me. I tried a headlight restoration kit and it helped a lot but it still looks like an old dustcover.

I keep a clean microfiber cloth atop my dustcovers to prevent accidental scratches and scuffs.

Nice post! And great result!

Don't count sandpaper out though. It can work wonders and save covers that look beyond hope. One just has to make sure to use the correct kinds. 500/1000/2000/3000/4000 wet sanding papers can work miracles.

Very nice, educative post! Many thanks!

This a fantastic, exhaustive and informative thread. Thank you! I have never dared to touch the cover of my Pioneer PL-540, which is quite scratched, out of fear of making things worse. This thread gives me hope.