Any cure for crazing? (plexiglass bezel)

Scucci

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I've got a really nice bezel for Breakout... the art is in really good shape. The only issue is the plexi is has some pretty bad crazing in it. It's not surface scratches or anything like that, it's in the plexi. Is there any real cure for it?
 
There's no cure for crazy. At least that's what people keep telling me.

Oh, wait. Crazing.

None that I know of - once the paint starts to crack, about all you can do is prevent it form cracking more. If it were some kind of damage on the outside of the plastic, you could polish it with Novus. But I think what you're talking about is like, the layer that the paint is glued to is starting to change, right? So it appears as if these marks are all inside the plastic. Is the paint itself cracking, or are you just seeing lines in it?

Either way, I don't believe there's a fix. Someone prove me wrong - if there's a cure for this, than maybe someone can help me with my crazy too.

-Ian
 
There's no cure for crazy. At least that's what people keep telling me.

Oh, wait. Crazing.

None that I know of - once the paint starts to crack, about all you can do is prevent it form cracking more. If it were some kind of damage on the outside of the plastic, you could polish it with Novus. But I think what you're talking about is like, the layer that the paint is glued to is starting to change, right? So it appears as if these marks are all inside the plastic. Is the paint itself cracking, or are you just seeing lines in it?

Either way, I don't believe there's a fix. Someone prove me wrong - if there's a cure for this, than maybe someone can help me with my crazy too.

-Ian

Na, nothing to do with the paint. The art is in as close to perfect shape as can be expected for a 35+ year old machine. There's just tiny "stress" fractures in the plexiglass itself. It LOOKS like swirl scratches all over the surface, but it's actually just tiny little hairline cracks all in the plexi itself, between surfaces. I'm not seeing it in the art, just in the clear area where the screen is. It IS there were the art is on the borders, but you can't see it. You can really only see it when light shines through it. If I were to take it out of the machine and set it down with no light behind it, it would look perfect.

I've read that it's cause by UV light exposure and heat/time... but I'm not 100% sure of that. It's really annoying because the rest of the cabinet is in great shape. The sides are good, the marquee is decent, the coin door isn't mutilated... just this f'ng bezel is dragging me down.

(if I misunderstood your questions with that first paragraph, just lemme know... I'm only on my first pot of coffee so still not really "awake" yet)
 
Nothing you can do to reverse plastic breakdown.

What you should do, if it hasn't already been done, is get a good scan of that artwork. No reason why someone can't vectorize it and silkscreen some on acrylic in the future, if there's demand.
 
if they arent too deep sometimes a hard sand and polish
(like 400,800,1000,1200,1500,2000,3000 and a super polish) will get them out bu depends.

You could also try sanding to 800 and then clear coating but it will probhably come out cloudy or wavy.

Ive failed twice and once i knew the thing was way too far gone but had to try. The other was an afterburner monitor bubble and the thing had some sort of anti scratch coating that WOULD NOT sand off, not even with 80 grit and a da sander.

I guess it helps that as a mechanic i restore alot of headlights on cars, so , same tools, same principle.
 
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