Cleaning Plastic Bath

[Bookworm]

My plastic bath is not shining like it used to. I know I must not use an abrasive cleaner but how can I restore it to its original shine?

[Pinot Grigio]

I was once recommended T-Cut for cars but have never actually tried it. Has anyone?

[John]

T-Cut is a fine abrasive. It may work but will leave a micro-scratched surface that's likely to hold dirt and stains. Using a car polish either afetr or instaed of T-Cut may work but the bath will be slippery so be carefull. I've used car polish on dulled UPVC windows before and it works well.

John

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Then the same would apply to car paint?

If the plastic is acrylic (Perspex) polishing it with a fine abrasive will be ok.

[The Medway Handyman]

Its more than lilely a build up of body fat. Get a good quality bathroom cleaner and a white scourer and use some elbow grease.

[John]

In my experience it does. I always follow T-Cut with polish for that reason. T-Cut leaves my car paint looking quite dull but that's on celulose which is quite soft. A good quality polish then brings up a shine. On black celulose, the only polish I can find that works is Johnsons Wax. B/Y hard work but looks lovely.

John

[Phil Anthropist]

According to

Clean your bath using only a soft cloth and warm soapy water. Rinse and wipe dry with a dry clean soft cloth. DO NOT use abrasive compounds, pads, cloths or creams as these will damage the surfaces.

A bit unrealistic! Do you live in a hard water area? If so, the matt finish could be limescale. Vinegar should remove that, or any bath cleaning spray which states on the label suitable for acrylic baths.

[The Natural Philosopher]

A very mild abrasive...T-cut - works.

But first of all try a good de-scaling..

[Andrew Gabriel]

Isn't that body fat too? ;-)

BTW, don't use any type of scourer on a plastic bath. A brush (washing up type) or cloth, used with a good bath cleaner, will shift that residue (mixture of fat, scum, and hard water).

[Pinot Grigio]

What I use is Flash Bathroom spray - spray on leave about 15 minutes and easily wipe/hose off. The bath has stayed shiny for about 10 years. Just be very careful with the fittings as it removes gold plate as well.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

My old Rover used to be black cellulose and compounding brought up a good shine - although I prefer Farecla to T-Cut. Obviously, a good wax can improve that shine, but I certainly wouldn't have called it dull.

[The Medway Handyman]

Micro fibre cloths work really well.

[John]

Perhaps dull is an overstatement but I could easily see how far I'd got when waxing a panel. The extra shine was quite noticable. The finish looked OK after T-Cut but the improvement after waxing was worth it. Hopefully that's what the O/P wants. He may decide to stop with the T-Cut finish if he goes that route though.

John

[Lobster]

Brasso is pretty good if it's really bad (though it *is* abrasive, of course)

David

[mike]

"Pinot Grigio" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I swear by Flash for most things (windows, floors) and I just tried a bit on my mucky bath, and it was pretty good.

But I think it needed a bit extra for hard water deposits, so bathroom cleaner might be the thing.

Had a bit of trouble with the coal dust though.

Aussie joke: How do you get an Englishman out of the bath?

Put some water in.

mike

[Grumpy owd man]

Fill it with hot water. Tip in half a box of Bio Washing Powder [NOT liquid], agitate the muck with a soft nail brush. Leave over night. Rinse. Job done