Guide to Polishing Your Scratched Glossy Notebook

by Kevin O'Brien

If you purchased a notebook in the past couple of years, chances are pretty good that you were stuck with a glossy plastic finish whether you liked it or not. These notebooks look great when new, but they get full of fingerprints or worse, scratches. Just the act of sliding the notebook into a backpack can scratch some of these delicate surfaces, and from then on they look horrible. All hope is not lost though, as you can lessen or completely remove the scratches with a bit of elbow grease and some plastic polish. This guide covers all the basics and hopefully shows you how to get your notebook looking great again.

No brand is immune from this problem, with most manufactures offering at least one notebook with a glossy plastic exterior. Below is a small list outlining some popular laptops that have glossy finishes:

<blockquote> Lenovo: IdeaPad Y series, SL series
Toshiba: Satellite and new Qosmio series
Dell: New Vostros, M1730
HP: Almost the entire consumer lineup</blockquote>

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Not all scratches will disappear; this guide isn't about making a notebook look as if the wrapper just came off. That would be almost impossible without a great deal of work and running the risk of creating permanent damage. We hope that if you follow this guide your outcome will be a notebook in better condition than before you started. However, any application of polishing liquids will likely expose your notebook to abrassive compounds that could, in theory, cause additional damage to the finish. Proceed at your own risk.

Materials Needed

• One scratched notebook
• Polish (Novus 3 Step Plastic Polish, Meguiars Scratch-X)
• Clean soft cloth (one for each step)
• Patience

I chose Novus plastic cleaner for this guide since I had good luck with this polish in the past. You probably won't find it at your local autoparts store, but it can be easily and cheaply purchased online. I went to McMaster-Carr for this purchase, where it cost $17 plus shipping. The Meguiar's Scratch-X came from my local Advanced Auto store for $8, but it can be found online as well. The Scratch-X polish was added to the mix since it was a finer polish than the Novus cleaners and helped give the notebook a much smoother final look.

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Cleaning the notebook

Before you even touch the notebook with some of the fine rubbing compound to buff out scratches, you want the notebook to be clean enough to eat off of. You need to remove any leftover dust or fine grit that might re-scratch your notebook during the polishing process, which would make it look much worse than when you started. A damp cloth sprayed with the Novus Step 1 polish (just a cleaning spray) will work, or plain soap and water.

Polishing the notebook

Start off with the Novus #3 or Novus #2 depending on how bad the scratches are. If you have a very mild scuff that you can't feel with your fingernail, start with the #2 fine scratch remover. If it is deep enough to catch your fingernail, you will need to start with the #3 heavy scratch remover. Apply the polish to a clean cloth and gently rub the surface of the notebook. A circular motion or just up and down will work fine. Continue rubbing the polish onto the surface until it starts to dry and absorb into your cloth. When barely anything is left on the surface, wipe the dried polish bits off the notebook and inspect the surface.

Don't be alarmed if you see many fine scratches. If you started with the number 3 cleaner, it will leave a mild haze. The important thing are the original blemishes on the notebook, and if they have been removed or greatly lessened. Deep scratches will be impossible to completely remove unless you polish away a good deal of the plastic layer. I prefer to just smooth off the rough edges and let them blend into the notebook surface.

Move onto the finer polish once you find the original blemish to be acceptable. Apply it in the same manner, with a gentle motion and continue until the polish completely dries and absorbs into your cloth. Continue this step until the original polished area matches the surrounding notebook surface. It might take a few reapplications before all of the haze and fine scratches are gone. If you had deep scratches when you started, you will still see them, but they should be less noticeable and blended into the glossy finish.

Below is a quick example of a line of fine scratches being removed from the lid of a glossy Acer notebook. First picture is before, second is after the #3 polish, and last is after the fine polish.

Before (view large image)

After #3 polish (view large image)

After both #3 polish and fine polish (view large image)

Notice how the bulk of the scratches were removed, and you are left with the deeper marks. Once the highly scuffed area is polished the visibility of the scratches is greatly reduced. You are only left with deep blemishes that are only visible under close scrutiny. Each stage of the polishing took about 30-45 seconds and the entire process took roughly five minutes. Additional polishing effort (much greater time) might yield better results.

Results may vary

Depending on the exact glossy surface and the process used you might remove all marks or be left with some leftovers from an abusive past. While our example shows the process with regular &quot;by hand&quot; application, some of our more adventurous readers might experiment with power buffers or additional applications. This could yield much better results, but also runs the risk of wearing away more of the surface with the possibility of damaging the glossy notebook further.

 

kool guess i should treat my HP before i sell it .thanks for the info.

 

Thanks for the guide, Kevin! I should try this on my black Nintendo DS.

 

I've used the Novus 3 step solution a few times on acrylic for my Danger Den case. If you are patient with it and follow the procedures you can get some pretty amazing results.

FYI, it is also a good way to get rid of foggy head lights. It doesn't fix them perfectly, but it does help a bit.

 

Next up:

How to polish and unyellow your fishtank volvo 240 plastic headlamps!

 

Wow, looks awesome. Thanks for that Kevin!

 

You might also try jeweler's polish.

A few years ago, I rented a flat, and going through the itinerary, I noticed that there was a scratch on one of the mirrors. I told the letting agency, and they sent someone round to take care of it. He used such a polish, and the scratch disappeared completely, with no additional scratches at all! It was almost miraculous!

 

10 char

 

Be aware before you use these products that what is happening when these scratches "disappear" is that you are effectively chiselling away at the top glossy layer and the plastic "bits" are filling in the scratch.

I would personally live with any scratches my notebook has. I acidentally dropped some keys on my glossy laptop leaving some deep dents. I polished with a cloth and whilst it's still visible, not as deep.

 

Good point and true. For something like a sheet of acrylic it doesn't really matter, but I agree that it is something to think about before doing it on something like a phone or laptop.

 

Hi Kevin,

Great Guide ... THANKS!

When I thought I had seen everything, here it comes "how to polish your laptop" ...

BTW, as we all have heard before ... "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" ... so with that in mind ...

there is another alternative why not use liquid version of "carnauba non-abrasive wax" and apply it to a new laptop lid and repeat it every other month ...

G!

 

Of course the best thing to do is if these dang manufacturers use matte finishes in the first place! Many times, they put a cloth in the box to wipe the finish off so why not make it matte in the beginning?

Sure it looks pretty but not for long, I just like to keep my electronics in as good condition as possible and so really dislike the glossy lids trend mainly in consumer notebooks.

 

especially if is a NICE SONY!

 

you could wet sand those deep ones down with progressive paper ending with 2000 grit and then buff accordingly unless they are all the way through the paint down to bare plastic.. also i like scratch out better than scratch x and its like 2$ instead of 7-8 for scratch and imo works better

 

I had an HP Pavilion dv9000t for about six months before I sold it to a friend last year. At least once a day, I had to spend several minutes removing the fingerprints and smudges from the glossy black exterior. Being a 17" behemoth, I rarely took it outside the house. Somehow, it still managed to get a few scuffs on the corners and I used high-quality car wax and a polishing cloth to buff most of them out.

I bought my sister an HP dv6000tse earlier this year (mostly white with flecks of silver). There are a few minor abrasions on the lid, but feeling around for them is the only way to detect them- they aren't visible on the white finish. Fingerprints aren't an issue either.

HP should offer more of these 'Special Edition' finishes as options across the board. In much the same way Dell offers a choice of colors and/or patterns on most models, HP could offer a few different options to customize the exterior. There's a reason I don't buy black (or any dark color) cars- they require a lot of effort to look their best.

Speaking of cars, one of the latest interior trim choices is very similar to the glossy black finish of HP and some other notebooks. I believe Ford calls it "Piano Black" and it replaces faux wood or faux metallic trim on the dash/console. Not surprisingly, it's nearly impossible to keep it clean for more than a day.

 

will this work on Apple MacBook?

 

*sigh* i have everything but a scratched notebook. ****!

nice guide. thanks

 

But is matte finish better? My ThinkPad T60 is scratched really badly and it looks terrible, and I don't think there's any guide to polishing a matte surface?

We also have a number of Z61t's with the titanium cover, and they're scratched even worse.

 

good guide Kevin.

Hope I never have reason to use it though!

72oo

 

would this work on the infinity display on my laptop? I accidentally scratched it at the center XD

 

no dont do this to the display itself. look for a product called displex. if that doesnt works there isnt much else you can do for the lcd, and that will only work if its a glossy display not matte

 

ok thanks, i guess i'll try that

 

There is small patch white spot stain look alike scratches on left side of palm rest (chrome finnish). Although it not visible but do annoy me.
any idea how to remove the stains. I just don't want to change entire chrome top cover (palm rest, touch pad)
can anyone advise me

 

id have to see a pic but imo that is prob the chrome color wearing away if you can see white. the chrome is just a coating over the plastic its not metal or anything ..

 

top cover (palm rest, touch pad etc) don't look like a plastic, it look like shinny glossy metal or stainless or titanium thing. i not sure what material.
there's a 8x3mm pixel white spot look like scratches, color is not wearing away. i don't have good camera to snap shot the stains.

those have seen compaq presario CQ45.

 

Has anyone tried the Novus products on an Acer TravelMate with the carbon fibre lid? I have an Acer TravelMate 8215WLMi and a work colleague recently scratched the lid when he moved my laptop while I was away from my desk.

 

unless its real carbon fiber if you try to polish it you may go right through