Restoring Sinistar Marquee

SynaMax

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Donor 2013, 2024
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Back in 2006 when I was 15, I purchased a Sinistar marquee on ebay, my first ever original arcade cabinet part. This is the item that kinda started this whole collecting thing for me.

It's been really awesome to have all these years but I must admit this particular marquee is not perfect. There are some scratches to the rear side and it has taken off small parts of the artwork as a result. All things considered, the flaws are minor and don't detract a lot from the overall look but it's easy to see up close that the signature has been slightly damaged and it has always kinda bothered me.

Recently, I've been fortunate enough to purchase a second marquee. In the auction photos, I saw there was some moderate scratches to the front side but the rear side appeared to be in very good condition and it looked like an authentic non-repro marquee.

Here's the two of them together:

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My camera isn't the greatest so here's images from the original auction. If you look closely, you can see where some kid tried to key the Sinistar's face, and then some asshole used sandpaper on the letters. Fortunately, the scratches are not very deep and I'm hoping Novus Plastic Polish will fix this. If anyone has any additional advice for restoring plexiglass like this or any tips on using Novus, that would be much appreciated.

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I'd suggest the following:

Pick up bottles of Novus 1, 2 and 3.

Pick the worst area. Place the marque with the side you want to work up, on a soft, clean cloth, on a stable surface (I used a quartz countertop)

Follow the Novus 3 instructions, and treat ONE area of the marque. Then follow with Novus 2 on the same area, and Novus 1 after that, following the instructions.

Now look at it. Is it nice and smooth, or are there still scratches?

Smooth: Continue treatment on the rest of the marque.

Scratches still there - Move on to 1000 grit wet sanding

Go to the hardware store, and get 1000 grit sandpaper which can be used for wet sanding.

Get a spray bottle with water, spray down the section you are working on.

Polish the scratches out of the marque with the 1000 grit sandpaper. You are going to use circular strokes working from left to right, and do the whole thing.

When the scratches are polished out, follow with Novus 3, then 2, then 1, following the instructions.

Now you can bask in the limelight of a job well done.

Here is the start of my journey with the crt surround on my Tail Gunner 2 you can use for reference. It starts at post 149 and runs for a page.

 
Getting scratches out of plastic is all about scratching it up more so they are all the same size, then using a finer grit paper and removing the big scratches with smaller ones. Eventually they are so small it looks smooth :)

Joust Cocktail CP cleanup Just like @ArcadeTechGW, It is about using a lower grit paper and then increasing.
I went down to 600G, you may need to go to 400G to get all of those out.
Use wet paper only - if you sand that dry - the dust will gouge up the plastic and it gets worse. Keep it wet with a spray bottle.

Then you have to go through all the grits in order..
400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000.
This wet paper assortment is really good for this type of work. I made a cork backed sanding block for it.

The low numbered grits are the ones you end up spending all the time on.. you need to get a uniform scratch pattern (i.e. can't see the damage scratches) before moving on to the next level. I personally do not like circular motions.. I prefer crossing motions with wet sanding. So long way first - I can see all the scratches and the bad ones oppose it.. then 45 degrees to that so I can see all of the long scratches being removed. Eventually when you get to the high # grits.. it doesn't matter.. The low numbered grits (below 2000) is where I try to do this.

Then you can get to machine polishing with Novus or auto compounds.

Scared? I was the first time - practice on scrap material..
 
Ordered the Novus and the sand paper. Appreciate all the advice and tips so far, thanks!

Here's a close up of the "new-to-me" marquee where you can see the signature:

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And here's my first marquee. There's also some crap on the front of it but I will use Simple Green to get rid of the tape gunk.


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