Re: [APD] Used Acrylic Tank Repair

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

By polishing you *can* actually remove the scratch. The idea is to grind it way, so to speak, with finer and finer grit/polish until the abrasive is fine enough to not leave visible marks. You can start with rubbing compound and work down to a cleaning and then a finishing polish (see links below for examples). Or you can contact an acrylic shop for specialty products that are much the same but probably more expensive.
 
It's a lot of work and jumping down too far from one grit to another can leave behind visible marks. You will want to use a random orbit sander ( like this, for one example: http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=3826 ) or else give up a few weeks of you life to dispensing healthy dollops of elbow grease. If you let the polishing work longer in one spot than another, you'll end up with clear but wavy panels. It's a task most folks would gladly pay a small fortune to avoid.
 
 
http://www.meguiars.com/estore/product_list.cfm?sectionname=Professional%20(Mirror%20Glaze%20Brand)>Auto%20Paint%20Care>Car%20Polishes>Pure%20Polishes&sectionID=31401
 
http://www.meguiars.com/estore/product_list.cfm?sectionname=Professional%20(Mirror%20Glaze%20Brand)>Auto%20Paint%20Care>Car%20Polishes>Cleaner/Polishes&sectionID=31402
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----- Original Message ----
From: DurocShark <durocshark at gmail_com>
To: aquatic plants digest <aquatic-plants at actwin_com>
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 11:18:07 PM
Subject: Re: [APD] Used Acrylic Tank Repair


>
>
> The tank also is pretty badly scratched with some clouding all over. Has
> anyone had any lick with acrylic repair kits, and/or recommendations for
> fixing this?

. . .
As for scratches, I saved a pet store I worked at many years ago bunches of
money on their tanks. They had all acrylic tanks and the neighborhood punks
like to come in and tag the tanks with keys. They were replacing them
because hand polishing with the Novus kits wouldn't do enough.

I brought in my DA buffer and some meguiar's cleaner wax. A few minutes on
each tank and the scratches were reduced enough to make them usable again.
You have to use some judgement here though, because you're not removing the
scratch, but removing material around the scratch to make it seem to
disappear. You're making your tank thinner in this process.
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