ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
I know, this is a question that has probably already been answered but I haven't found any clear information on the net yet. So, could anybody tell me what material the lid of the Beogram 4000 is made from? Seems like it's virtually impossible to polish to good results.
Rgds,
Kai
Oh yes it can be polished!
I got mine like new. I use Brasso and another finer abrasive cream (French product) and then car paint polish.
It took me four hours but it is like new.
Jacques
I went to a professional shop today and they told me stay away from polishing the lid. They mentioned that it was not made of acrylic or plexiglass but of PVC which is very hard to polish. Any further experiences with that?
The Beogram 4000-series lids are acrylic and easily worth polishing.
Vinyl records, cassettes, open reel, valve amplifiers and film photography.
Should this be done by hand or would it be ok to use a polishing machine? I'm confused. How come that a professional gives me such wrong information then? Maybe I should find another "expert" or try it myself...
Kai:
Find a good long movie to watch to keep you entertained while you polish by hand:
http://www.novuspolish.com/
Heavy scratch remover first to take out the deeper scratches, and then finer scratch remover. Finally finish with the acrylic polish.
Take the cover off and put something under the dust cover to support it while polishing. What you don't want to do is put the dust cover on a table and use lots of elbow grease.
The pressure would cause the dust cover to flex and possibly crack. Place a thick book or towel right up against the bottom of the plastic as you work with it.
Many of us have done it successfully. Go ahead! You have nothing to lose. Any close-up pictures?
Polishing most plastics, be it a pen (I make pens on a woodworking lathe) or a Beogram lid is of course possible and the 'professional shop' you mention should be ashamed of themselves. What are they a 'shop' of, car bodywork? If they can't tell the difference between acrylic and PVC then I don't think they can be called 'professional'.
Work methodically, cleanly and patiently. Work from most coarse to finest polish of choice as previously described on this forum and you will have a great result. Novus, as mentioned above is a great product.
Dave.
Dave Farr:Work methodically, cleanly and patiently. Work from most coarse to finest polish of choice as previously described on this forum and you will have a great result. Novus, as mentioned above is a great product.
...or the Micro-Mesh kit. I would never use a machine for this, as it is too easy to destroy a hard to get lid in seconds. Also, they will almost always be circular motion, which is a bad idea:
http://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/5938/54091.aspx#54091
--mika
Hi Mika,
absolutely, micromesh is also something I have used to great effect. The link you left seems to take me to the 'deleting my account' thread!
Pens on a lathe is great but I would not suggest any machine for polishing Beogram lids!
Dave Farr:The link you left seems to take me to the 'deleting my account' thread!
I have no idea where that came from into my copy-paste buffer - fixed now
Thanks for all the replies. So do it yourself seems to work best when refurbishing the lid. Let's see when I can find the time (and nerves) to do it.
In my experience, polishing the lid of a 4000 type deck is not as easy as this lot are making it sound.
I have used everything that has been described here with little or no success! Just how "as new" appearance was achieved in 4 hours with a bit of Novus and Brasso astounds me. I don't believe that even the full length version of War and Peace would be long enough!
I also sent a lid away to a so called professional who made a complete ar5e of the job. (The cover is available if anybody wants it?)
If it was a Beogram 6500 lid or similar then I could believe it, as I have polished many of them myself. The 4000 series are a different ball game altogether.
I do have a flap wheel and polishing wax (normally used to polish brass) which has given me the most success! I managed to remove a real gouge using this method and the overall result was most acceptable although not in the same league as the best.
Regards Graham
It's made of acrylic.
I have Buffed with Meguiars Plast-X Headlight restoration polish, then California Gold car wax, and it looks like a mirror.
Requires numerous applications of each, buffed slowly and leisurely, again and again.
No quick solutions here.
You must have arms like Popeye, Menahem! Takes lots of patience doing this excercise.
Brengen & Ophalen
Leslie: You must have arms like Popeye, Menahem! Takes lots of patience doing this excercise.
Only 4 hours according to a previous poster!!!
No, I use a Bosch variable-speed rotary sander, with a velcro backing. For me, it's the best tool for this job.
And yes, I wet-sand with it, very carefully and patiently - 1000, 3000, and 5000 grit.
Then a wool buffer pad. and a sponge buffer pad at the end.
Yes, a few hours, but not in one day!
I have an electric tool as well, but I'd never use it. How would you polish a Beocord 5000 lid that way? Or a Beogram 8000 lid? They are very thin!
That said, manual operation leads to success every time.
The "thin" is not relevant.
The "how" is.
Being a variable-speed unit, set it at low speed, to mimic the motion of your hand.
Support the Lid from underneath on a correctly-sized platform, with a rubber or cloth backing, so that the weight of the tool also becomes irrelevant.
And, I have not found another tool which I would trust, other than this precision Bosch unit - GEX150AC - I bought it specifically for these jobs, after looking at everything else on the market.