Here's the latest on polishing my canopy. I bought this canopy from a fellow builder unused for less than half price, Seemed too good to refuse and in my haste, I failed to notice a fair few scratches it got while laying around in his workshop. Fact is when I got it home and out in direct sunlight I was disappointed that I bought it at all. Anyway being the type of person that I am I don't give up easily, and I decided to try polishing out most of the scratches. Here is how I'm going about it. First polish out the heavy (deep)scratches with 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Next I used my 7" sander polisher with a high density foam rubber buffing pad mounted, on the slow speed setting.(Taking extreme care not to over heat the plastic and scorch it) With this pad I used a buffing compound made for plastics, the one I used is made by Sutton, for compound polishing. It's a light blue stick of clay type material and is applied to the wheel while it's spinning. This achieves good results for the scratches but leaves the surface cloudy. After polishing with this material I buffed the surface with a very soft terry towelling cloth to remove any excess buffing compound. Then I take a new and perfectly clean lams wool machine buff pad, and put it on my rubber backing disc on the sander polisher again on slow speed, Buff away merrily with just the plain lamswool and the surface shines beautifully. Next coat the surface with a good quality automotive polishing wax and hand buff off.
JOB DONE This method has yielded a surface not as good as new but close to it!!! It looks like a new screen that has been cleaned quite a few times and may not be great flying into the sun. As always try it on something that can't be seen or some scrap. Yet to be tested. As they say results may vary. Gav
