Make it shine, Cleaning up the white YZ Number Plates

Making those old Plastic Number Plates Shine

I got a little ahead of myself on doing the number plates, so had to take a picture of both the finished one (Top) and the one not touched yet.
(Use rubber exam or mechanics grade rubber gloves for this)
First clean it up with soapy dish liquid to get most the crud off. Next hit it with some simple green and scrub with some scotch bright vigorously, get into those nooks and crannies. For the crevices around the spot were the numbers go use a razor blade tip to carefully clean out the grime around the circumference. Be very careful using the razor blade tip as you don't want to cut into the plastic, just scrape. Now with the razor blade held at a ninety degree angle scrape the entire surface with light enough strokes to just shave fine shavings. Soapy water will aid in the process of the blade to glide if you wish. Remember, your not digging into the plastic, just shaving it. This gets rid of the "dead" plastic and helps to remove scratches.
Clean up with clean water, I use a spray bottle to do this and wipe down with a blue shop towel. Next use some Wesley's Bleach white and soak it good, allow to sit a minute or two and then scrub again with the scotch bright pads. Wash again with clean water. Now your ready for the next steps.





Here is where the fun really starts. Begin with 220 grit wet and dry automotive sand paper. All the grits of sand paper you will be using are wet and dry. Wet the plastic panel and paper and sand the whole panel, even the edges. Pay attention to the deeper scratches but don't concentrate to much on them, you want them to level with the rest of the surface and not groove them out. The surface should be dull looking all over and you will see sanding scratches on the surface, not to worry, you'll take care of this. Wash with clean water. Take the 400 grit wet/dry and go over the whole surface yet again. Wash off and move to 600 wet/dry, then 800 wet/dry but using the simple green as your wetting agent instead of water. Wash it and dry the panel off, the sanding scratches should all be almost gone now. If not hit it with the 800 some more keeping the sanding direction straight line as possible. Next up is to fine sand with 1000 grit wet/dry, making sure to keep surface and paper wet, check your progress. It should be a very smooth surface now with little if any sanding scratches left. Mind you it will be smooth and a tad shiny but not gloss shiny...yet. See picture below.  

Now that you are here you may want to get the good plastic shine back, or you might be happy with the look above. It's up to you. To get a nice new plastic shine on you need to use automotive polishing compound (I use Turtle wax polishing compound), this is what gets rid of the rest of the scratches and gives that deep luster shine. Read the directions on the container, you apply it with a foam pad rubbing it in a straight line back and forth direction, not swirl it in round like paste wax. Take a terry cloth or some sort of clean cotton cloth and buff it back and forth. It should be to a high glossy shine now when your finished. More than one application might be to your liking.
At this point I put on some Carnuba wax which will pull the high shine back down a notch and to give some protection. In direct sunlight without the wax the reflection will be pretty hard to look at.