JunkyardDog

You can also get window cleaners made with alcohol instead of ammonia. When I clean my bike windshield, I first rinse the dust/sand off of it with distilled water in a sprayer, then spray Windex on it, clean it with a very soft bristle paint brush, then rinse it all off with distilled water. No need to dry, with distilled water, it will dry spot free. That avoids scratching it while drying it. Same thing with paint. Unlike the old '60s baked enamel, todays paint is incredibly soft, and very easily scratched.

And AZ has probably more UV than the rest of the world combined. It quickly destroys anything made of plastic or rubber, or any kind of paint. Most cars, bikes, and pretty much everything else here is pretty well baked after only 2-3 years if left outside. I once bought a 6-7 year old bike, it was in bad cosmetic shape due to the sun, but ran fine. But it didn't stop fine for very long. The UV had completely turned the plastic front master cylinder reservoir to dust. It just completely disintegrated. Jerry.

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twocoolgliders

Acrylic does not expand as much as I said in an earlier post, but for comparison, due to temperature, acrylic sheet expands 4 times greater than sheet aluminum and 8 times greater than plate glass. This can cause extreme internal stressed which can lead to cracks.

I have also heard that alcohol is bad for plastics. Yet, I sometimes use isopropal alcohol on my eyegalsses, and on plastic windshields.

When I was in the plastics industry, we got a contract to build acrylic watch displays for Casio. Our displays were in just about evey discount store in the country. In the factory, they used plan old windshield washer fluid, to clean any grease, or fingerprints off of the clear acrylic displays before packing. Windshield washer fluid is alcohol based.

I once bought some "heavy duty" glass cleaner. One ingredient in it listed "Acetone". This is very bad for plastics. It can be used as a solvent glue, and will certainly dull the surface.

So it seems that acrylic is pretty tolerant of many cleaners and polishes.

Bottom line, you can't go wrong with Pledge. If you are a "purist" then buy the more expensive, purpose-build cleaners and polishes specifically designed for acrylic. "Plexus" or "Novus" are popular ones. Novus is carried by H-D dealers. "Mother's" makes one as does "Maguires", both available in auto stores.

Cookie

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bev2

Try WAXX by Flitz...I'll say no more.

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bev2

I cut up my old t shirts to use as polishing cloths.

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