Reconditioning scratched gauge cluster

[Garageaholic]

I was curious if anybody had tried to recondition/polish their guage cluster plastic glass in front of the needles? Mine is mildly scuffed and it just looks "old".

Is it worth a try to polish and then wax it? see how it shines?

I think i'm going to give it a try anyway and let you guys know how it turns out.

[Jand3rson]

I was curious if anybody had tried to recondition/polish their guage cluster plastic glass in front of the needles? Mine is mildly scuffed and it just looks "old".

Is it worth a try to polish and then wax it? see how it shines?

I think i'm going to give it a try anyway and let you guys know how it turns out.

Evan Lumbra (oh2fly) just polished the dickens out of the one that I just bought from him, I would contact him and see what he used, it looks new. One of the best plastic polishes you can get is called Plexus. It's expensive, but it's the shit. You might even try some light cutting compound on it (or a spare one) and see how that works.

[325iCabrio]

I know a member at Unofficial BMW had really good luck cleaning his up with Meguier's Plastic Cleaner. I haven't tried it, but he said it works wonders.

[Garageaholic]

Actually I just did it, I took the plastic shield off and polished both sides with regular turtlewax polisher and then a final shot with meguirs mirror glaze swirl remover to get the fine tuning. it looks PERFECT and feels great.

Took me 20 minutes.. Now to get the plastic shield to melt back onto the cluster itself.... heat gun?

[Jand3rson]

Actually I just did it, I took the plastic shield off and polished both sides with regular turtlewax polisher and then a final shot with meguirs mirror glaze swirl remover to get the fine tuning. it looks PERFECT and feels great.

Took me 20 minutes.. Now to get the plastic shield to melt back onto the cluster itself.... heat gun?

NO! It's just glued on there, it's not melted on. I didn't even glue mine last time I put it back in, it's not going anywhere. It's held in there quite snugly when you install it.

Glad you had good results with the polish!

[Garageaholic]

I actually like that idea much better. Thanks alot

[Jand3rson]

I actually like that idea much better. Thanks alot

Makes it much easier if you ever have to pull it back off again, too.

[AndrewBird]

Plexus is great stuff for small scratches and haze, but for deeper scratches, use this stuff:

http://www.novuspolish.com/

It's expensive (since it's a 3 part system) but it is the best by far.

[StereoInstaller1]

The Meguires shit is pretty good (nothing like Novus) and does a good job on scratched CD's too.

Luke

[bimmer2288]

Any pics of the final result??

[Garageaholic]

I mean, i could post pics up, but I dont think that they'd do it justice. In a picture, you won't really notice a before and after result, but in person, you can see and feel the difference. It's flawless now.

If you polish it right, you'll even eliminate any surface scratches that you can feel with a fingernail.