FYI: Tip for polishing plastic
(SPG Edit)
If you're wondering why bother, that's a good question.
My other hobby is eyeglasses, and after a 5-year hiatus, I got a new prescription in Spring 2012 and started shopping. I like old-school eyewear with fixed hinges, and when I first needed glasses about ten years ago, I found the market virtually impenetrable. The was very little information available and, consequently, there were very few choices.
For this reason, I thought it might be a problem again, so I actually started looking at glasses about a year in advance, in 2011. As you might guess, though, things have changed dramtically. Tons of information and perhaps too many choices. (LOL)
I wound up with a total af seven new pairs of glasses, two of them darkly tinted, the rest untinted. More to the point, one of them is a metal combination frame, and the other six are acetate (aka, "plastic").
My favorite among the acetate frames was discontinued by the manufacturer at the end of 2012, and I wanted another for next time around, so I kept my eye out and recently found two of them on eBay. I bought one, and the transaction went smoothly, but the frame slipped out of its case, rattled around a bit during transit, and picked up a little 'box wear' (fine scratches). The second frame is from the same seller, so I could exchange it, but it's also a different color I don't like. I could send it back, of course, but I'd rather 'fix' the frame, especially since it's discontinued.
Enter Meguiar's ScratchX Fine Scratch & Swirl Remover.
Ordinarily used on automobiles, this stuff will polish plastic so it looks like a mirror.
HTH 
PS: I have an older tube of ScratchX, but I suppose "2.0" is even 'better'.
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Another
by JLF 
, Monday, May 06, 2013, 11:21 (4223 days ago) @ FOG
I had some plexiglass instrument lenses on my old Jeep that were so scratched and clouded that I had trouble reading the meters. Inspired, I brought out the Semi-Chrome, and no small amount of elbow grease later, they looked brand new.
Semi-Chrome
JB Weld
Berryman's B1
Don't leave home without them.:)
JLF
Simichrome is good
As is Flitz.
However, I tried both on a broken 'practice frame' made of mostly dark green acetate mixed with a few similar colors, and each left a visible pattern of very fine scratches.
I also tried Flitz on a shiny black plastic base part from TV set and got the same result.
Acetate is fairly soft, while the TV part was pretty hard, so I think the scratches probably show up better on dark work pieces.
ScratchX covered the scratch pattern on the practice eyeglass part, and I just recently used it on another frame, as noted above in my original post.
I have not tried it on the TV part.
On a related note, I think Flitz and Simichrome are more abrasive than they used to be, but that's just my impression. I don't have old and new to compare, so I can only rely on memory, and you know what they say about that: 'It's the first to go' 
HTH
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Simichrome is good
I have seen the inmates at a state prison polish out scratches in various eye glasses, sunglasses and other assorted objects with clear plastic lens or covers. They use a soft cloth, "T-Shirts" and plain old Colgate toothpaste. Of course they usually have lots of time to polish them clear. One other trick I picked up while working in a laboratory was to use a "rosebud" tip on oxygen/acytalene torch while rotating the piece on a turn table. They were making some windows from clear polycarbonate sheets about three inches thick, cut a foot or so in diameter, and had to be cut with a concave indentation on one side and the other side flat with proper optical qualities, they made about 20 of them. They were trying all kinds of polishing compounds and abrasives to get the finish and one guy in the shop told them to try heat. It worked very well. Just saying. ATB
Interesting
I've heard of flame-polishing glass, but not plastic (polycarbonate).
I guess it's true: 'You learn something new every day.'
Cool!
Um...Hot?
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Meguiar's is really good stuff...
by rob , Monday, May 06, 2013, 21:48 (4222 days ago) @ FOG
Not just for auto paint:)
So, I tried it on the shiny black plastic TV base part
I use a Sony TV as a monitor, and when I got it about two years ago, I scratched the hard plastic base almost as soon as I got it out of the package.
This bugged me, and if I remember right, I tried to 'fix' it with Flitz. That just made it worse.
By 'worse', I mean the Flitz left a pattern of visible scratches, so now there were a bunch of scratches instead of just one.
I hadn't used Simichrome for a while, so I ordered a tube and tried that with pretty much the same result.
Today, I cleaned the base with window cleaner and a soft cloth and took a picture of it, then hit it with some ScratchX.
My Canon PowerShot SD800IS was able to capture an image of the Flitz- and Simichrome-scratched base, but after polishing it with ScratchX, the camera was not able to focus on what's left.
I wouldn't say the surface is 'perfectly smooth' now, but it is much improved, and I only went over it once with the ScratchX.
On a related note, I don't think Flitz calls their product 'safe' for bluing anymore, and the last tube I had was abrasive enough that you could feel it on hard surfaces.
Simichrome seems to have taken a similar path, albeit a slightly less aggressive one. I still find it useful for cleaning things like glass candle holders, but I no longer use Flitz.
HTH
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I only use Flitz for...
by rob , Wednesday, May 08, 2013, 08:10 (4221 days ago) @ FOG
Sharpening serrated blades with a piece of impregnated cardboard and for rough rifle barrels to clean fouling on barrels that truly need a good breaking in. Gets the fouling out fast and helps the smoothing process along.
The first time I used Flitz was on a .45/70 Ruger #1
I picked it up at a gun show, and it had a bit of 'speckling' on the trigger guard.
I remembered seeing ads or something, so I got a tube of Flitz.
At that time (early 1990s), it was still advertised as safe for bluing.
Flitz took the rust right off and left the Ruger bluing intact.
I wouldn't try that with the 'new' Flitz.
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