Clear window plastic crazed/fogged


Hi Ken,

That I am aware of, but some others may have some suggestions. One suggestion I tell builders is not to use the clear plastic that manufacters have in the kits. It is too thick and usually is cloudy or scratched from the molding process. I set this aside and use velum or transparencies. They glue up nice and look more like window glass in any scale especially N and HO.
 
Ken - if the glue hasn't eaten into the plastic too badly you might be able to use one of those headlight lens restoration kits that you can get at any automotive parts store. They usually include all the sanding pads and compound that you might need.
 
Can you not just get some clear styrene and replace the windows? Or are these some sort of specific casting like a lens? I'd do that before spending anything on a headlight lens restoration kit. They aren't cheap!

BTW, on styrene window material, if you are using it in a place where the thickness doesn't matter, you can dip it in Future floor wax (now Pledge With the Future Shine) and let it dry. This will fill in any crazing and make it look really good. This technique is a favorite with aircraft modelers. They routinely dip canopy castings and let it dry. It's very forgiving stuff
 
In the future use canopy glue.
It will stay clear and you can also make small sections of glass with it.
 
Espeefan said:
BTW, on styrene window material, if you are using it in a place where the thickness doesn't matter, you can dip it in Future floor wax (now Pledge With the Future Shine) and let it dry. This will fill in any crazing and make it look really good. This technique is a favorite with aircraft modelers. They routinely dip canopy castings and let it dry. It's very forgiving stuff
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Additional note: Pledge with Future Finish is not a wax but a clear liquid acrylic finish that is compatible with many acrylic paints. I use it to thin craft paint for spraying. And I use it as a gloss coat in preparation for decals.
 
I use either canopy glue or Microscale "Krystal Kleer" for attaching windows. It also makes reasonable windows.
 
I had luck swabbing the clear plastic with 91% "rubbing" alcohol. This was where there was just the fogging and not an actual glob of glue evident.

It also worked for fingerprints.


lasm
 
Ken, I don't know how you misused your glue, but I have found if you use Super Glue(or any other name brand like Super or Crazy glue) and close up the building while it drys, it will fog/craze the acrylic windows. If you use Super glue to put together the 4 walls, make sure you leave the roof and the floor off so it can breathe until it thoroughly dries.

D.A.
 
Save yourself a lot of wasted time and replace them. Depending on the glue it has probably eaten into the plastic and will take a lot to polish out, if you can at all. It might be worth a try with the pledge as well. I have been using it for years to spruce up my fishing rods. Just wipe it on with a sponge and like magic it looks brand new again. Might work on the glass as well, or at the very least make it a lot less noticable.
 
rlundy90 said:
Save yourself a lot of wasted time and replace them.

It might be worth a try with the pledge as well. I have been using it for years to spruce up my fishing rods. Just wipe it on with a sponge and like magic it looks brand new again. Might work on the glass as well.
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I must admit I found some humor in this post, seriously. Is this, like, either rip them out or try your fishing rod suggestion, ignore what worked for everyone else?

Granted the alcohol will not work for all problems, but it saved me a lot of time ripping the windows out of my caboose.

Have fun and lighten up. logandsawman
 
I got a real bargain on a building at a train show, but some of the windows had the fogging from CA. When I got the building to my workbench, I found out that whomever had put the building together had used so much glue there was no way to remove the window glass from the frames without destroying the frames themselves. I used Nexus polish to slowly remove a good portion of the crazing from the glass. I still have more to do though... I'm thinking that I may either board up or brick in a window or two.

I forget which is which, but there are three grades of Nexus polish -- I'll call them coarse, medium and fine. The coarse was too abrasive, but the medium did the job without adding scratches. I'm not done yet -- short attention span -- but when I get most of the fogging cleared, I will change to the fine grade for the final polishing.

Time consuming -- but in doing this project, I'm picking up a new skill which may come in handy somewhere down the road. :)

Regards,
Tom Stockton
 
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