any tips on polishing canopies? (Lexan)

Don’t reduce the Lexan thickness, fill in the inperfections. Lexan is one tough product to work with. Apply a thin coat of Armor All for automotive dashboads which will fill in the cracks and leave the surface gloss and clear with no scratches, streaks, etc. Would only take a few minutes to do one canopy. Only drawback I’ve found is that is does attract dust over time and needs to be redone every few months.

Just make sure you cover the whole screen and not concentrate on a small area or you will get a fisheye effect.

Whole range of Micro-Mesh products here, including for power tools.

http://www.sylmasta.com/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Micro_Mesh_Abrasives_1.html

Agree with MM
http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/micro-mesh-scratch-remover-kit-small.html?utm_source=google_shopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=none&adpos=1o4&creative=53001792262&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CLm9moXngMYCFUslgQodVTsAVA

Also for maintaining Plex, recommend:
http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/plexus-plastic-cleaner-13-oz.html

Wow, how did you manage to polish out that ruddy great hole, Bill T/WV903? It’s amazing what some of the old RAF hands can achieve:-)

Seriously though, decent canopies are hard to find though the modern ones seem much more durable and light-fast. I have an old Meteor canopy which has turned a pale shade of brown. You can still see through it ok but the tint is quite obvious to the external observer. My pertinent question is: is this brown tint just a thin layer on the outside which can be polished out – or does it go all the way through the thickness of the plastic?

Anon.

Just to say I think Micromesh is the best I’ve come across: you can also get it in polishing kits rather than having to fork out for the larger rolls – the former being less expensive. But as with many things in life, you get what you pay for.

Wot they said…micromesh is great but expensive, Brasso is excellent, also don’t rule out good old fashioned toothpaste!

TT

I can’t add anything to the discussion, other than there being some videos on Youtube showing
people restoring car headlamp lenses.

You want micro mesh, it is various grades of sandpaper that you use until you end up with a fine grade, I then use Tcut to finish, and a decent car wax to fill any slight marks.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Polishing-MicroMesh-Finishing-Flexible-Sandpaper/dp/B003RTABUK

Do NOT do circular motions, do straight sanding and then the next one do 90 Degrees to the last one.

This is the aircraft set and gives you the how to

http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/aircraft_kits.htm

It won’t restore deep crazing btw.

http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/literature.htm

As for the RAF polish “greygate” you will have died and your kids will have retired before you get anywhere with that stuff.

You can use toothpaste, it is a fine abrasive.

Dealing with this. Static aircraft. Canopy is dirty and has many scratches. One spot seems to have melted a bit.
I’m thinking sanding and polishing? Would like to get it as good as possible.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]238105[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]238106[/ATTACH]

This worked for me on some old motorcycle Perspex parts: http://www.transair.co.uk/sp+Aircraft-Cleaning-Care-Scratch-Off-Polishing-Kit+2908

Canopy polishes and polishing.

Here’s some canopy polishes in progress and somewhat worse condition canopies. Last one is of course :- Extreme !!!!. Terry P’s Venom one and a Hunter Canopy being attacked shown. The RAF Used to use GREYGATE Plastic polish,(don’t know if they still do). This is to DTD 770A std. made by Greygate Chemicals, Leicester. This polish is a softer version than Brasso. Scratches I take out using a small half round file to get to bottom of scratch, then smooth edges. Use sandpaper next in finer grades, then after a session using :- SCOTCH-BRITE you start on the BRASSO. A long tedious process, helped if you use a slowed down rotary electric sander /buffing cloth soaked in Brasso /GreyGate, etc. and eventually it comes out superbly polished. Terry P’s Venom canopy had quite a lot of these scratches, but all came out OK in end. So your eventual finish depends on how bad your canopy is x the square of how many multi polishing sessions your brain and general demeanour can stand. A can or 5 of that well known Kentish Beverage consumed during sessions helps. 😉

How did you guys get on with your canopy restorations ?

Bill T.

Caravan spares shops carry specific products for this work. I’ve used them and they work well. Very fine fiber glass cutting compounds can be used on polycarbonate and acrylic with excellent results – don’t know about Lexan.

Hi Fouga,
Presume you mean for Flying Aircraft ? There are proprietary approved cleaners /polishers available that need basically a heck of a lot of polishing work, but do bring up the surfaces brilliantly. If you have scratches, these can also be filed ,scraped then polished out, BUT you have to work within the Aircraft Servicing manual’s tolerances and once completed an inspector will be checking for any sighting distortions from inside C/pit, before job is signed off.

For Non Flying Canopies,
Same amount of polishing ( Brasso works well ) and you’ve more scope for remedial work on scratches, grooving even crazing, but no inspectors to worry about. Graham Sparkes did a really good job on his crazed Sea Hawk canopy and I spent a lot of time on Terry P’s Venom canopy, which came out pretty good, that had a lot of bad scratches in it and the whole exercise took me about 80 man hours, which was B********* hard going but it looked great when done. Unfortunately, it collected another bad scratch in transit somewhere and I’ve been in hiding ever since–lol !!! :D:very_drunk:

I’m sure I took pics, at the time of the progress as we went, will post em back in here when I find em. So let forumites in here know what canopy in particular you have in mind and how bad it is, cos static display canopies are always :- Baaaaaad !!!!! and owners can always find excuses to put off for as long as possible—-;)

lol !!!!! Bill T.