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Armor Cleaning and Polishing


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I've done a lot of studying about how to build my armor, but I was wondering about how to clean it. I've had it for a few months now and it needs a good washing. Any recommendations on how to go about it? I have an ABS plastic ATA suit of armor.

 

Also, I am planning to upgrade this to Centurion level and have made a lot of progress towards it, but as I wear it it of course shows its age and I would like to be able to polish it up to look shiny and new again. This I am not even sure where to start with.

 

If there is previous topic that I failed to locate please feel free to direct me to it instead of trying to re-explain everything to me.

 

Thank you.

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Eric has a good tutorial on using Novus to polish off the scuffs on your armor: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=19398&hl=novus&fromsearch=1

 

I've also heard magic eraser works well. Of course you can also opt to let your armor naturally weather a bit. Some prefer to have their armor look more like the suits used on screen, which were generally mistreated and pretty scuffed up, but it's your preference.

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I'm a fan of Maguiar's Ultimate Compound and a heck of a lot of ELBOW GREASE! Wash with mild dish soap and water to get the dirt/grit off, then polish that mofo. IMHO It's not shiny enough until the light reflections in it are sharp. It looks shiny with fuzzy edges but it's REALLY shiny when the edges of the light reflections are sharp.

 

I did strain my shoulder polishing a few months ago, still not healed... lol! My husband does call this my OCD hobby.

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I use T-cut (the white pigmented, not the clear stuff), works a treat for me.

 

Some of my armour parts were mismatched for colour, and after polishing a bunch of times they all look the same white.

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The one I have is white

Do you use white or clear?

I've not tried the clear.

Be good to know if both work... I'm sure clear is cheaper.

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I use T-cut too, seems fine as long as you don't cobstantly polish all the time. Excess use might damage the plastic I think.

 

I heard you can go blind if you do it too much.

From the glare, y'know?

 

 

In space, noone can hear you polish your helmet... emot-quagmire.gif

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Thank you for all your advice. I've been spending my spare time trying to clean up my suit. I used a Wet Ones wipe on the inside of my suit a little and it worked really well. Is it safe to do so? I don't think it will cause any harm but I figure it is better to ask now than keep using them and find out I've destroyed my suit.

 

I've thought about letting my armor wear and look beat up like the movies, but someone talked about 501st memebers being used in movies or commercials and that they had to have very clean shiny suits so I figured I'd try to make mine film worthy by sacrificing a little accuracy keeping it polished.

 

This question is a little off topic, but is it safe to use Goop to glue ABS armor? Someone in my local garrison said he liked it was better than E6000 but reading the warnings it said not to use it with polystyrene. I looked it up on the Internet and found one instance where someone said Goop melted his armor. I was hoping to get some guidance on this.

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It is entirely possible to melt your armour using E-6000, if you apply it foolishly.

If you want to give the Goop a try, just be sure to read the instructions. If it worked for your buddy, it must not always do Very Bad Things.

And let us know how you go, always good to have the low-down on another glue.

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So the Goop appears to be doing very well. I tested it out on scraps first and I don't see any detrimental affects to my armor anywhere. It is not completely dry yet but so far it appears to have a very good strong hold. I will warn as from what I've read and how it appears so far, Goop is very very permanent. I'll have to troop with my suit for a while to learn how well it really holds together. This particular part that I'm gluing has come unglued twice so far when using E-6000 so I'll see how the Goop holds up to the stresses that will be placed upon it.

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  • 5 years later...

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