Getting scratches out of marquees?

You can do it with sandpaper. The depth of the scratches determines which grit sandpaper you start with. Use the wet and dry paper and finish with something very fine (3600g - 4000g) and give it a buff with some cutting compound and polish (automotive). For very fine scratches I would start with 1200g and work my way up to 4000g.

Try it on a non-valuable marquee or something else as a test. I have done it and it works sweet.
 
You can do it with sandpaper. The depth of the scratches determines which grit sandpaper you start with. Use the wet and dry paper and finish with something very fine (3600g - 4000g) and give it a buff with some cutting compound and polish (automotive). For very fine scratches I would start with 1200g and work my way up to 4000g.

Try it on a non-valuable marquee or something else as a test. I have done it and it works sweet.
Do you have to sand the whole marquee or just trouble areas?
 
Hi - I sand the whole thing. The idea is to start with low grit sandpaper and cut the layers. It will be difficult (imo) to sand one area only and have it unaffected by the side to side action that will go over to other areas.

Depending on the severity of the marquee (plexi) scratches, deep scratches that my fingernail can get into, i may start lower on the grain scale. 220 typically. The reason is i am tearing down the plexi to lower level and once i get there, higher grit paper will get rid of the micro scratches i caused.

For lighter surface, i start with 400. When you are done with 400 or 220 (sanding from side to side), you will panic - the thing looks worse than when you started.

Dont worry - go to 600 grit, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000. At each point, clean up the plexi and see the improvement - the surface scratches are getting buffed out by the increase in grit.

For application, I do combination of Wet (wet the paper with spit or spray cleaner), dry, and, YES, NOVUS. Novus 3 followed by novus 2, using that near the 1000 - 2000 range.

This does the trick. In the last week, ive got a dig dug marquee looking nice, Tmolding looking almost new, and the back of my truck has plastic that was all deep scratched and sanded that out too.

Sanding rules!
 
Question for LARGER pieces of plexi....

Bumping this for question:

Does it make sense to speed this up with an electric or an air sander?, especially if you're working with a LARGE piece of plexi, for example, a Punch-Out!! plexi. Mine has large, deep scratches all over.
 
You can have nice results by hand on Plexi. If using the electric thats fine too (depends on how you feel) - slightly faster result on Plexi but not enough to purchase one. Side to side motion with sandpaper. Again, starting at the lower grit will cause the fogginess / scrub that down until the scratches are gone, work your way up on the grit scale until it looks like new.

If you do use the electric, as you near the higher grits (1500, 2000, Novus) go back to hand because you dont want to rescratch the surface with the machine.
 
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