Rubbing out surface scrathes...

*Scratches... The title was a typo

Is there anyway to remove or mask light surface scratches on the plastic of a laptop? I have quite a few littering my silver exterior on my Acer Aspire 5500 and they are starting to bother me.

Perhaps some kind of laptop cut and polish?

I dont want to cover with stickers.

 

Car wax? lol I have no idea...

 

Hi, I work in an auto body shop and I never heard of polish for plastic before Plastic can be repair with heat and then repaint the area where it's scratch. If you don't mind paying then you can contact the auto body shop nearest you. I'm thinking about painting my laptop soon. I've done for my cell phone (V3) before with car paint and it looked awsome.

 

What you may try doing (if you don't mind it) is taking like a scotch pad and just creating an even texture on your lid. Scratches will be much harder to see then, but you'll lose the gloss and nice looking finish. Depends on whether the plastic on your laptop is painted, or it's actual colored plastic. If it's colored plastic, my technique will work pretty well. If it's not, it'll look like crap.

 

Thanks but I think ill just live with them... Heat guns and Steel wool are have given me a glimpse of my future regret if I try and mess with the scratches.

 

It'd take quiet the buffing wheel to get the scratches out, and it would still take the color off if it was painted. I've thought about painting my laptop and uisng bondo for filling in any spaces that I didn't like. but I'm just plain old to lazy to paint it. lol

 

Here's what you do: go to your local automotive accessories store and get SCRATCH-X. It's made to clear your automotive paint from minuscule scratches from washing. Make sure you read the label on the back before of course for specific warnings involving plastics.

 

Howdy,

I sell antiques and collectibles and now a days there are a lot of collectibles from the 50s forward that are plastic of some sort or another. Many of these pieces needs some TLC to return them to there former glory. So, I use a plastic refinishing system from Novus. It works great and is not expensive.

Here is their site if you want to look: http://www.novuspolish.com/

Sure, it is just another form of car finish stuff but it's kinda setup so even a doofus like myself can get good results. I just buy mine on eBay a couple times a year for like $10 for the three steps. Some ACE Hardware stores might carry it also.

Be cautious if your lappy has a magnesium alloy back plate on the display as that might not polish as well...probably will not polish at all really. If you are unsure, heat up a pin and stick it into an out of the way spot. If it melts and goes it then it's some form of plastic if it doesn't well, then it's something else.

BTW, it can remove paint from painted surfaces so again be cautious...

Hope ya get it all shiny and new looking again!!!

 

If the surface is painted then don?t use any polishing chemicals because it will rub away the silver paint and leave you with black spot which will look much worse than few scratches.
If the plastic itself is silver colored then polishing will remove scratches , but it will make the polished surface very smooth giving it a shiny look, therefore if the area in question has a mat finish (which is the most likely case) then again yoiu are out of luck. Only other option is to paint it over matching the color.

 

I dont know what my surface is made out off....I have an Asus A7J and there is a mild scratch where the touchpad is. It looks silver and feels metal-ish. But it also can be plastic or whatever alloy you guys are talking about...Can anyone confirm?

 

no way! for your razr!?! dang...now that's some cell modding right there. i'm thinking about doing some sort of mod to either my laptop or cell...black jewels aren't doing it right now except for my nickname on my cell but other than that, what would you prefer starting out with at modding little plastic things like this???