# Polishing acrylic



## Lyle

I thought some people might be interested in this stuff, so here goes:

I bought all the materials from tapplastics.com. Purchased Saturday night, arrived Tuesday morning. I spent $29.10 including shipping for 3 8oz bottles and a pack of wipes. The bottles are stage 1, 2 and 3. Stage 1 is for polishing and general cleaning, Stage 2 is for light scratches and fogging, Stage 3 is for heavy scratches. Here they are:










Step 1: Wipe the surface with a clean cloth to remove any debris or dirt.

Step 2: Put a small amount of the Stage 2 compound on a clean cloth and apply in a circular motion. A little goes a long way, and you can tell when you need to apply more because the surface of the acrylic will be rough instead of smooth. This does a GREAT job.

Step 3: Apply a dab of the Stage 3 compound to a clean cloth and rub over deep scratches perpendicular to the scratch. I found that this worked REALLY well on some scratches and did a pretty decent job on others.

Step 4: Go back over areas that you used the Stage 3 on with Stage 2 to remove any scratches from the coarse compound.

Step 5: Apply the Stage 1 compound with the spray nozzle and wipe.

I was a little bit concerned that the small 8oz bottles would not be enough for my 180 gallon tank. I did not need to worry. I used approximately 1/3 of the stage 2 bottle and a negligible amount of the Stage 3. Tap sells the compounds in 1oz bottles as well and I think that would be plenty for anything under 55 gallons. I would say add another 1 oz bottle of Stage 2 for anything up to 100 gallons. The 180 gallon tank (6'x2'x2') took less than an hour to do the front and both sides inside and out.

Here are a couple of before and after pictures to demonstrate the job this stuff does. The first picture is after wiping away any dirt and debris. Much of what you see is simply water stains, but you can also see the fogging from lots of light scratches:










The second picture 2 minutes later after using the stage 2 compound:










I absolutely recommend this process if you are thinking about doing it. It made SUCH a big difference to the tank.

Any questions?


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## SMITZ71

Great post n find







..Another thread that should be pinned


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## Death in #'s

stuff works great


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## l2ob

can it be used inside of the tank? beacuse i got my acrylic tank from a guy who used to have it as a sw tank and the coral scratched it up prettty bad.


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## Lyle

> The 180 gallon tank (6'x2'x2') took less than an hour to do the front and both sides inside and out.


yup heh


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## P-Rex

great find Lyle









I remember you were asking about how to polish/remove acrylic a while back..
I too have an acylic aquarium that need to be polished I was just wating on your thread for someone to give an answer.. this is a great product from what i can see

btw same question as l2ob, is ok to use it inside the tank?


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## Lyle

Yeah absolutely...I am going to wipe it out with a wet cloth really well before filling it, but the compound doesn't even have an odor to it or anything...seems pretty harmless. The majority of the scratches etc are on the inside, I just did the outside to be sure.


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## Le Tautai

great info I was just going to look for a way to get rid of some scratches on the outside of my tank. thanks dude


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## xplosivelikec4

hahah i just bought an acrylic tank and was about to post a question on how to renew it... great post!!


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## rchan11

Thank you for sharing!


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## Speedy

Hey All,
Go to www.shat-r-proof.com for this product and where to find it.
Otherwise visit a local Speedy Glass and they will get it for you.


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## Lyle

Quick bump...I fixed the images (damn free image hosters)...


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## Dragonrider

Sold on E-bay a lot as well.


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## Uncle Rico

would you reccomend the buffing wheels for plexiglass that you put on drills?


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