Speedo Fogging from Armor All

[kate_rossiter]

My husband wiped the car with Armor All including the glass/plastic that covers the speedo. Now there is permanent foggy parts on the cover. Any solutions?

[Tegger]

kate [e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Rub and buff with Brasso, a metal polish you can buy at any grocery store.

The more you apply and rub and buff, the clearer the plastic will get.

Keep Brasso away from opaque plastics!!!

[micky]

Is the "fog" inside the case or outside? Sometimes dashboard instruments get fog on the inside, actual fog from actual humidity, but maybe it doesn't get noticed most of the time and you're noticing it this time because you paid attention. If the inside, I'd let it dry for a few days.

If the outside, does rubbing your finger over the cover make it appear different? If not, maybe it's really on the inside. If it does, I would wipe off the armor all with a slightly wet maybe soapy cotton rag, or whatever the armor all suggests using) and again I'd let it dry for a few days.

I would not use Brasso until I had tested it on a piece of similar plastic, and where you can get similar plastic I'm not sure. I have Brasso and similar products and my long ago admittedly vague recollection is that they scratch things up before they start to even out the scratches. Also, fog and scratches don't sound like the same thing to me.

What I would use for polishing plastic is denim. Like blue jeans are made out of. With nothing else. Worn denim** might give even a finer finish. Unfortunately, it's the car so you won't want to just sit there rubbing it for an hour while you watch tv, like you could if something small and portable needed polishing.

**Maybe some other cotton fabrics like canvas work too, but the one success I had with plastic was using an old piece of denim.

[Frank]

I've used tooth paste to polish a fogged/scratched plastic watch cover. Tooth paste contains fine abrasives that will not scratch glass but will polish plastics. You have to be careful with solvents around plastics.

[rbowman]

Meguiar's makes a range of products to restore clear plastic. #10 is probably want you need. #17 is more to remove light scratches. I've used both on motorcycle helmet visors.

They also have PlastX but I've never used it:

That one is designed for the plastic headlight covers but should work on any plastic. A good auto supply store should have the product line.

Don't let your husband loose with the ArmorAll again. If he has a motorcycle and you catch him putting it on the saddle he might be planning an ejection seat for you.

[trader_4]

Agree. There are a variety of products designed to polish plastic that gets clouded. I'd start with one that is not that aggressive. As you say, auto supply has them, places like Wmart too.

[micky]

Come to think of it, I was rubbing the plastic on the denim shorts I was wearing. It was a little round cheap car thermometer with a suction cup that had falled on the car floor and the clear front had gotten all scratched up by the stones etc. on the floor. Couldn't see through the scratches until I rubbed it on my shorts for 15 minutes. But there a hundreds of kinds of plastic in use.