Polishing plastic hoods
Hi Nick,
Here's my routine:
STEP 1
If there are any scratches more than surface deep (normally there are!), first you have to sand the hood with black wet and dry glasspaper.
Its worth testing a small area where it wont show first before doing the whole hood! Even better, try on a beaten up old hood first.
Start with a medium grade and go finer as the scratches disappear. To start with, the hood will go matt, but with finer glasspaper the sheen will begin to show.
Its best to use water while you do this. It cleans the particles away so avoiding small scratches. I do the finest polishing using very fine wet and dry glasspaper under a running tap.
NB: If the hood is very deeply scratched, it may not be possible to remove them altogether as you will thin/weaken the hood too much if you removing too much plastic.
I have a Ranger (U4002) which had very deep grooves along both sides after years of someone Hoovering along next to a radiator. The bottom edge of radiators causes a lot of damage to cleaners! I sanded as much as I dared but the grooves still show. Doesnt look too bad though because they are exactly the same both sides!
A word of caution - Using glasspaper on the Bakelite hoods doesnt usually work (Hoover models 875/160/262/612) - I dont recommend sanding Bakelite since you very rarely get a good enough shine and may end up with a matt surface. Its better using a soft cloth and Armorall Protectant alone.
STEP 2
Finish the surface to a really good shine. To do this I use a mixture of Autosol (in a tube from Halfords and other car shops - its a metal/chrome polish) and WD40 or Armorall Protectant (also from Halfords - its normally used to give a shine to tyres and rubber/plastic parts for cars)
(Armorall is also great for flex, furniture guards and rubber handles)
Keep on rubbing the Autosol on with a soft cloth with a squeeze or 2 of WD40/Armorall until the desired shine is achieved!
Hope that helps. Let us know how it goes!
Best wishes, Jonathan
