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Removing glue residue and restoring plastic polish...

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:14 am
by Fragmare
I'm not sure if anyone here has already covered this, but I'd like to share this with everybody. Thanks to my gf (who's just as into TFs as i am) I ran across a way to not only remove unsightly superglue residue from TF figures but restore them to their original shine after you do it. What's more, it's DIRT CHEAP to do. All you need is a nail file and one of those 4-way nail buffers they sell at the drug store. Your grand total should be no more like $2!

The other night I was sitting around after using the superglue trick to re-tighten my vintage G1 Shockwave's antennae. Well, I got a little more glue on it that I would have liked and there was an ugly superglue smear on the side of his head. I had the thing taken apart and was sitting there with acetone and a q-tip rubbing like crazy and trying to pick the glue off with my thumbnail. My gf looks over and asks "what'cha doin?" and I explain I'm trying to get the glue off. She goes, "OH! I HAVE A FUN FOR THAT!" and she digs out this 4-way fingernail buffer. It's just a piece of styrofoam with 3 varying grains and polishing side. So i start working on Shockwave's head and sand off all the glue with the grittiest side. Then I switch to the next step down and so on until you use the 'buffing' side. I was amazed how great it looked and proceeded to use the 'polish' side and it was basically restored to it's full luster! You can't even tell there was ever any glue on there at all! :D

Re: Removing glue residue and restoring plastic polish...

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:39 am
by gavinfuzzy
Nice! Gonna try that on my desktop soon... :lol: i dripped loads of glue over the stand few years back while working on a gundam kit...

Now to go to a store ... hmmm ...

Re: Removing glue residue and restoring plastic polish...

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:40 pm
by MightyMagnus78
WTF is a 4-way fingernail buffer? I really want to try this technique, but I literally have no idea what your talking about.

Re: Removing glue residue and restoring plastic polish...

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:51 pm
by Fragmare
Lol i didn't either until she pulled it out and explained it to me. It's basically just an elongated cube of styrofoam with varying "grits" of filing tools on each long side. It's maybe 3" x 1". Here's a pic:

Image

Re: Removing glue residue and restoring plastic polish...

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:46 pm
by MightyMagnus78
Fragmare wrote:Lol i didn't either until she pulled it out and explained it to me. It's basically just an elongated cube of styrofoam with varying "grits" of filing tools on each long side. It's maybe 3" x 1". Here's a pic:

Image


Thanks mate, appreciate that. I looks like really fine sandpaper for your finger nails. :-?

I'll give it a try, do you know if it would work for removing scratches?

Re: Removing glue residue and restoring plastic polish...

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:26 pm
by Fragmare
MightyMagnus78 wrote:I'll give it a try, do you know if it would work for removing scratches?


I'm sure it would. I guess it all comes down to how deep the scratch is and how much plastic you're willing to sand away to get rid of it. The real magic is done with the buffing and polish sides anyway. The other sides are pretty much like using sandpaper or a nail file.