Paste toothpaste for polishing.

[ewetwo]

I had a Toyota that the headlights were getting foggy and read some where that you could use good old tooth paste to get rid of the fog. It worked great and lasted 2 years. I came across a plastic windshield for a kit that had some scuff marks on it. You know that tooth paste did wonders. Just thought I'd through this out there. Not the gel type. The paste type.

[SfanGoch]

Toothpastes, in general, contain abrasives, even gel types. You can use toothpaste to remove minor scuffing on clear and opaque plastic. It'll even work on paint.

[Muncie]

Careful - test first. Different brands of toothpaste have different abrasives.  Some are fine, some are not.  Some toothpastes have a coarse abrasive and will "fog" plastic with a lot of fine scratches.  I tired that trick in my youger days and ended up getting a plastic polish to take out the toothpaste scratches.

[stitchdup]

avoid the arm and hammer baking soda paste, well all the baking soda pastes as they will ruin your day

[Richard Bartrop]

I've used tooth paste to polish up both paint and bare plastic.  Pearl Drops worKs especially well

[StevenGuthmiller]

I used to use tooth paste as polish occasionally, but Novus polish takes any guess work out of it.

 

 

Steve

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Muncie said:

Careful - test first. Different brands of toothpaste have different abrasives.  Some are fine, some are not.  Some toothpastes have a coarse abrasive and will "fog" plastic with a lot of fine scratches.  I tired that trick in my youger days and ended up getting a plastic polish to take out the toothpaste scratches.

Agree completely. These days I use only Wright's Silver Cream silver polish for plastic AND paint and couldn't be happier. 

[El Roberto]

As a added benefit your models won't get cavities. 

[vamach1]

I use Novus or the Tamiya polishing compound but if it works why not.  Not sure I would trust it on paint though.

[Richard Bartrop]

I never had a problem using on Humbrol paint, provided you let the paint cure.  As far as reacting with paint,  we are talking about something that was intended to be put in your mouth, so chemically, it's probably the most benign thing you could put on a model.

[Greg Wann]

6 hours ago, ewetwo said:

I had a Toyota that the headlights were getting foggy and read some where that you could use good old tooth paste to get rid of the fog. It worked great and lasted 2 years. I came across a plastic windshield for a kit that had some scuff marks on it. You know that tooth paste did wonders. Just thought I'd through this out there. Not the gel type. The paste type.

When I was young my older brothers had a motorcycle.  It got wrecked and the bubble shield on the helmet got some good scratches.  I was elected to help rub out the scratches with toothpaste.  It took quite awhile but it did work.

[Bugatti Fan]

Used it on clear plastic parts many times. If you have deeper scratches, best rub them out with fine wet n dry used set to get out the scratches. While part will look cloudy but the toothpaste will polish it out. Have tried T cut as we!l.

[espo]

Meguiar's has a product called Plastx clear plastic cleaner and polish. This will also work on your 1:1 cars and trucks. I first used it years ago on the smoked plexiglass windshield on a ski boat I had back when headlights were made of glass instead of plastic on the 1:1's.  

[sfhess]

Flex-I-File 4-way polishing stick.

[DukeE]

You can claim your kits are mint in the box too! The colored gels are fine, the sparkle mixed in or the  big blue flecks I'd stay away. I second the vote for PlastX an Snake's silver cream. 

[ewetwo]

I had a tube of Crest paste and was just playing around with a scrap piece of plastic. One day I'll learn that " This is nothing new here in the forum". The forum has been here a lot longer than I have been. Think twice I guess. :-)

 

[stitchdup]

5 minutes ago, ewetwo said:

I had a tube of Crest paste and was just playing around with a scrap piece of plastic. One day I'll learn that " This is nothing new here in the forum". The forum has been here a lot longer than I have been. Think twice I guess. ?

 

it will still be new to some of us mate, and tips like these are always handy to know

[Can-Con]

I haven't used toothpaste since my local shop started bringing in Tamiya compound over 30 years ago.  I'd never go back to it. 

Like 8-tracks and cassette answering machines, it's had it's day.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Can-Con

[Greg Wann]

https://www.bare-metal.com/model-building-molding-specialty-items.html

This is still THE best polish for kit glass AND polishing paint jobs.  It's cheap and works pretty quickly on scuffed clear parts.  I spent a lot of money on different brands, for me this is it.  They have a decent price on their KLEEN KLAY too.

Edited October 12, 2019 by Greg Wann