Cleaning plastic

laika

laika

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I have a couple of winch handle holders made from quite rigid but slightly bendy plastic. They're looking rather manky (grubby/yellowed/scratched) and I was going to replace them but realise that actually they're functionally better than any fancy cloth thing I would replace them with. After scrubbing with warm soapy water they're still looking manky. I intend trying to find what I did with the oxalic acid today and give that a go but any other suggestions? Preferably ones which don't involve trips to specialist builders merchants which are only open when I'm at work...
 
Thanks...it's bendier than uPVC. Might walk up to Halfords and check out traffic film remover. OTOH they could probably bear to have the top layer of plastic stripped so maybe will try the acetone
 
Just cleaned fenders. Spray on oven cleaner (Tesco), leave 15 minutes. Stiff Brush off. Polish with Peek polish (Tesco). If really keen then wax them. Worked well. Might work for the plastic.
 
Well team, after an exciting day of cleaning the results are in. Halfords didn't have any apparent "traffic film remover" so on to morrisons where I acquired a magic eraser sponge (apologies to Nigel for not using his affiliate link but I wanted it today).
Next to them at half price was cillit bang limescale remover. Hmm (thinks me): the packaging indicates that the demographic it's marketed at is people who probably don't overly stress about the environmental impact of their shopping. Must be some heinous $h1t in there so obviously I buy it. When I get it home I can sense my dolphin-friendly mike-golding-approved ecover cleaning products positively shudder as I place it next to them but, in conjunction with liberal application of elbow grease it works. The magic eraser works too but is better on harder plastic and I go on a bit of a spree around the cockpit removing various scuff marks. It's sort of like p1000...in a sponge. I like it. But cillit bang and non-stick scourer are mostly doing the business without disintegrating like the magic eraser does. Because I'm on a PBO mission I then try Oxalic acid. No noticeable effect over what the cillit bang has done. Last comes the acetone. Yes it works but it makes the plastic kinda sticky and transfers any colouration from the cloth I'm using. I go back over it again with a sponge full of cillit bang.

I didn't get all the discolouration off but the old winch pockets now look respectable enough to be put back.
 
I have just cleaned my fenders with cellulose thinners; it has removed years of crud that other cleaners failed to remove. Available from Halfords.
 
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