Cleaning old plexiglass

[mixongw]

I have been toying with the idea of using Rain-X on my plexi windshield, but the bottle says not to use it on plastic. I did try some on a scrap piece of plexi with no negative effects. Maybe it softens the surface after multiple uses or some other bad stuff. Any experience with extended use?

[bonanzadave]

The product is NOVUS. 800-548-6872. Have been using #1,#2 & #3 for 20 years on new and used airplane windows. Would not recommend anything else except water. Acrylic is a petro by product and silicone and waxes will cause premature aging. Poly-carb is even worse. Pledge, Rain-x and other products will really bring out the shine and thats great for MCs. Plastic Airplane windows are big $$$ and the labor to put them in is over the top so we are very careful with what we put on them.

[retrex]

Another Product

I have recently tried the Novus plastic polishing products with excellent success. They have a heavy scratch and light scratch product. You should get both. I was truely amazed at how well they work. Give them a look.

[seancanfixit]

As a former employee of a plastics distributer, I can tell you this. Most fairings for bikes are made of a product called Polycarbonate (Lexan GE tm) with a Marguard coating. You can check for this on the stamped or sticker logo on your particular fairing. If it is one of these Marguard shields it will say somewhere on it MR-10 or a varied number based on the manufacturer. If it is not labeled like this it is quite likely to be acrylic. Either way here's how the plastic thing works. Both products are broken down by alcohol. This means almost every cleaning product like Windex, etc. I'm not sure about Pledge...check to see on the label if it contains alcohol. Windex and other similar cleaning agents will cause Acrylic or Polycarbonate to craze or spider-web over time...this is what you see when the sun glares on it. If your shield is Marguarded, only the surface finish will craze, so any abrasive product as the one suggested before will remove that surface finish and take the craze out of the plex. Only works once usually...unless you buff like crazy and polish the heck out of it. And it should not work on Plexiglass as far as I know. The best cleaner you can possibly buy (and I don't sell it so I'm not advertizing) is the 3 step Novus line of products....Novus 1 is a general cleaner safe for all plastic, Novus 2 is a light scuff remover for any visual damage hardly able to feel and Novus 3 is a heavy scratch remover..careful though it will distort the plex or polycarb. Hope this helps.


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1980 (81 model year) GS750EX -- in my shop for engine trouble

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