Hello friends. I didn't think this brain-fart of a project would be one of my most popular videos, or that I would still be responding to comments on it more than a year later. I appreciate all of you that discovered my channel through this video and hope you're finding my more recent content engaging. This was literally my first attempt at detailing anything and my primary content remains more on the electronics side of console repairs, rather than cosmetic restorations. Thank you for all the comments and suggestions, I hope to put them to use on a future restoration and improve on the results I achieved here. UA-cam is a quirky business. I probably put the least amount of effort into this project compared to my average repair which can sometimes take me a couple of weeks to wrap up and publish. I still scratch my head at how an hour of dicking around in the garage messing with scratches on a PS3 lid got this much attention 🤷♂ Nonetheless, thank you for dropping by and be sure to check out my more recent content if you're interested in console repair work. Cheers.
Never underestimate the appeal of watching someone else dick around in the garage to those without a garage in which to dick around. Congrats on the views and keep 'em coming!
I’m glad you haven’t found the comments overwhelmingly frustrating. I think the best way to explain to you why this video is performing the way it is, is that it’s like the equivalent to one of those in-app ads (while playing a mobile game) where the game seems so obvious to solve but the virtual player is making all the wrong moves. Those ads are effective because it causes people to want to play the game, just to show how easily they could have done it right. Your video is providing people that same excited reaction, where the answer seems so obvious, and so they rush to the comments section to explain what you should have done (or to “thumbs up” an agreeable comment). Meanwhile, you’re not an idiot, you never proclaimed to be a pro cosmetic restorer, and I’m sure you learned a better way to polish the plastic within weeks of posting the video (yet a year later you get fresh new eyeballs and enthusiastic comments about what you should’ve done). Again, I’m glad you take it all in stride. I especially appreciate the conflicted complication of having a popular video also appear to show your “incompetence”, and therefore worry that viewers won’t want to see what else you’ve done on your channel, to realize how talented you are. It’s like you want to bury this video, but can’t because it’s a helpful spiderweb for eyeballs, and a gateway for the percentage who give you the benefit of the doubt - who end up subscribing after watching your other videos. Maybe you’ve already done this (I’ve yet to check out your channel), but you ought to make a “comeback” follow up video, with nearly the exact same title, where you implement all the suggestions, and surpass expectations. The algorithm will work in your favor, because although your initial PS3 restoration video will still be the primary video that the algorithm delivers to new people, in short time your follow up video will show up next in their suggested video feed. Back to the enthusiastic audience (who can’t help but blurt out the obvious solutions in the comments section), they love seeing things done the right way even more than they love seeing things done the wrong way (so long as they get to see it being done the wrong way first). It’s cathartic to correct someone, and even more cathartic to see someone learn from their mistakes.
Actually, the dremel paste was the most effective. The trick is when you polish something - you almost never do it with only one compound. That red compound you've got is apparently pretty coarse. After using it you should use finer compounds, and step by step you will achieve mirror gloss result
@@aubry980the cutting compound is enough. Using less and working it in would give a near perfect finish. Watch car detailing clips where they work on glossy/piano black trim. Edit: I wasn't thinking. After using cutting compound you'd use a polish to protect, remove any reside and make it shine.
From a car detailing perspective, I'd use less of the products, it seemed a bit much on a small area like this. I think that way you'd have to do less passes to have the same great result as you had at the end.
@@BorderlineOCD When polishing a surface on a car, you always have to find the best combo to work with, as in pad and compound, and that needs a little testing. I think if this wheel and the Scratch Doctor is still not good enough, all you can do is find more stuff to try. Luckily compared to a car if you find a good one, it will basically work on every single ps3 of that type. I'd have used about 2 pea sized drops on each segment maximum, and that's still a bit much. :D It's also a good idea to prime the wool wheel with the product, so it doesn't start working dry. I have to add it was another great video!
Yes I was thinking the same because I already used the car scratches removal procedure to clean some other things, thin sand paper and car wax, works just great almost with everything
You may actually be able to use the dremel compound's microscratches to your advantage. The fact that it's introducing microscratches means it's more abrasive than the other compounds. A common technique for removing scratches is to buff them out in stages by buffing with finer and finer abrasives. Given that the dremel compound's microscratches are relatively easy to buff out, you may be able to use it to get rid of some of the really deep scratches and scuffs, then come back through with another polish and buff out the microscratches.
That's what i was thinking. The part that had dremel compound on it first looks much better. I would have used dremel compound, dr. scratch, and then the other one since it seemed to be the finest.
The microscratches you mention are actually a good thing! You are leveling off the surface area, you can even just use sandpaper, 1000 or so, on the glue & remove it. Then compound & polish for a perfect finish. Bigger wheel will give you much better results, but ya gotta work with what ya got!
yea, I was going to say I have seen many very high quality polishes start off like that. It is disappointing that he stopped without following it to conclusion. Sure not all polishes are equal, but some have very different approaches to their repair!
As a detailer, I will say using a 1000 grit sandpaper on this soft plastic is the WORSt idea. These are micro scratches. Medium/Fine cut polish with a 2-in DA polisher will make it look almost perfectly new.
From a car detailing perspective, here's some things I'd try. 1. Use a heavier cutting compound first to remove deep scratches. For really deep ones, you may need to start with some 1500 grit wet sanding. 2. Use less product. For a surface that size, I'd try one or two quarter-size dollops of product, and work it in a little longer. 3. Use a foam polishing pad. There's inexpensive ones that attach to your drill. They're much easier to use and will likely provide better results. 4. Do a final pass with a clean, wet foam pad. This will give the plastic a deeper black gloss. You can sew in the last part of your video when the light hits the plastic it makes it look a little milky or hazy, this step will get rid of that.
@@xandrelphane when you're done sanding and polishing, take a clean, soft foam pad, get it wet, put it on a drill or polisher and use just the wet pad to polish, I had great results doing this on piano black plastic on cars.
The Dremel compound is specifically polishing compound. Which means leveling all the scratches into one consistent matte finish. The Nu Finish And Plastix are both buffing compounds for removing very fine micro scratches and creating a mirror finish. So ideally you should polish first, then buff. You can actually see the top right corner is the shiniest at the end for that exact reason. Side note: You're using way too much product. You want to let the wheel do the work, not the product. You don't want the wheel to be saturated in product because you actually need heat for the best results.
Usually best results are achieved by applying 3 levels of grit polishes, start with a rough like a metal polish to cut down the deep scratches even if it introduces micro scrathes, next would be soemthing like plastx which will deal with shallower scratches and the new micro scratches, and finally a fine product like a body wax such as turtle wax to finish and bring out the shine. Obviously change polishing wheel between grits…
Thanks for the advice, some great tips there. I was admittedly nervous seeing the results of the metal polish but it did mostly buff out, albeit with multiple passes and increased hand pressure. If you could choose your own grits, is there a particular sequence you would recommend for the initial stages? Would love to try this again on another unit and get even better results.
@@BorderlineOCD I haven't tried consoles but I had polished my fair share of vehicle headlights. I wet sanded by hand with 800, 1500 and then 2000 grit sandpaper, then machine polished with Griot's Garage Correcting Cream and then Perfecting Cream. Obviously you wouldn't have to use these exactly, but you have the best chance for a glossy finish on plastics by using multiple levels of grit/polish. BTW I watched this because I also repair/refurbish old game consoles. Thanks for posting this. I haven't tried it and now I want to on my PS3!
Yep he is right. You start low and work your way up with sandpaper (wet sanding preferred for plastic) then use a compound. This cuts down on elbow grease significantly. Also very important you want to sand in opposite directions. So sand vertical with 1000 then horizontal with 1200-1500 then back to vertical with 2000. FYI compound also comes in different grit. Now aside all of that you did a great job and for a console this old it looks great.
yep, its plastic so its the same as the headlight restorations I do. He actually could just bought the rustolium headlight restore kit for $14 and had everything he needed. I usually cut down to remove deep scratches, use 2 lesser grits for 2 stages of leveling, following but a rubbing compound then a polishing compound. Then like you said, something like a wax to bring out the shine would just make it really pop.
@@BorderlineOCD Hey!, I wanted to ask, I have an Asus Strix G17, and it has a minor dot scratch, made from a falling compass (the one used to make circles). The problem is, the metal is anodized black, so any idea how to remove the scratch?
A few tips to get better results next time. 1) use varying strength of compounds and work your way from high to small grit with each pass. This will ensure even deeper scratches are removed. 2) apply thin even layers of compound (you're putting way too much on there). Having too much compound actually makes the work harder. 3) ditch the Dremel and use a proper orbital buffer to randomize the orbits. Removes any possibility of retaining swirls in the finishes product but also ensure uniform removal of substrate. 4) use a super fine polish after the last pass for a mirror finish.
I personally have used the “scratch doctor” on my car. instructions say to let it rest, i dunno an hour. then buff. was the same applied to all the wax’s, or was it applied & immediately buffed? nonetheless, amazing tips for the aesthetics 👍🏼!
As a detailer hobbyist, try to use the foam polishing pad one after buffing with the cloth/cotton. Because the cloth/cotton pad could still leave some small scratch on the surface. Its good for buffing the deep scratches, but still leave some marks. Good video. I might try to do this to my PS3 too.
As much as I like to dunk on Gamestop, their problem is half-assing refurbs, and not the use of the dremel polish. In fact, that dremel polish is the a good first step to a proper polish. As the goal of a harsh compound like that is to remove the large and deep scratches. Then compounds with finer grits are used to remove finer scratches. With a final stage of wax or similar compound to give it the final mirror finish. What this guy did was essentially skipped the multistep polish route entirely and tried to do the whole job with a single compound. This is not how you properly polish anything, period. At least not efficiently.
@@piranhaplantX He also used a single compound across the entire surface right after sectioning it off to test three others. If this was just a demonstration it'd be one thing, but following through with an attempted finish restoration at that point didn't end well.
I think the combo of scratch doctor and dremmel 421compound. the 421 buffed the deep scratches then scratch dr cleaned up the 421 marks. That section looks awesome
That red polishing compound is usually step 1, followed up by the finer white compound. I haven't tried it on this specific type of plastic, but a headlight 'restorer' kit might be a good option. Otherwise, I might have tried wet sanding it with 1500 or 2000 then stepping up to 5000 before a final polish with a super fine cut compound. I would like to applaud the results you accomplished, at least a 100% better than the mess of scratches it was. I just thought of another way to 'restore' this particular console if you don't have the required amount of elbow grease: vinyl wrap. There are several brands that have finishes similar to the piano black Sony was obsessed with using during this era... Looking at you PSP, lol.
Awesome! I love how you go straight to the point! The way you sectioned off the surface and compared all 4 products in real time on the same object is what all UA-camrs need to take note of!
Holy wow man all that polish you poured on is absurd! I think people have told you though so I won't egg you on. It just hurt coming from a detailer to see that much polish on such a small surface area
I used the Meguiar's Plast-X on a Sega Genesis I sold to a friend of mine that was really scratched up. All I used was a micro fiber cloth a few tries. And the console looked way better and almost new. So this method I am sure would work even better with the buffing pads and a drill.
There's a video on line where a person polished a PS2 slim with the high gloss side. And though he did not show the compound he used, it came out 100% looking brand new. It was amazing the outcome. You did fine as well but he had 0 haze in bright light. I've found that if you moisten your pad, it thins down the compound even more, reducing the grit factor even further. 👍👍
NuFinish has been around for a long time. My dad used it on our car when I was a kid. It works well. If you polish first and then wax after it will come out even better. Plastx works well on oxidized clear plastic like headlights and taillight lenses but doesn’t really remove deep scratches.
I actually use car detailing stuff as well when trying to clean up scratches etc. Usually I, like CK47CD also mentioned, can get away with a lot less of the product for each of the polishing cycles… but what you ended up with looks markedly improved! Keep up the great videos!
Interesting experiment! Very well done. A dual action polisher would definitely improve the results by a huge margin and I've used Meguiar's PlastX and I can recommend it highly. I suspect NuFinish did better because you can clearly see there was more damage in the Meguiar's section than the NF section. All things being equal, I'd bet either product will do.
As a person with a scratch phobia, I never touch my tech without a microfiber rag, that said, my 60gb fat launch PS3 looks as new as it did when I purchased it. Thanks for the vid.
I like to use the "headlight scratch remover" kits. The ones that are in a kit that come with the cleaner, yellow remover and polisher, the "ceramic" ones work really really good especially with a drill.
Headlight repair kits use 1000 - 4000 grit sandpaper plus polish to remove scratches. Treating that plastic shell just like a headlight should give great results. Just realize even a small scratch in plastic is "deep" and will require material to be removed in order to make it go away. This is not a quick process. Plan to devote some time. No prize for first place when cleaning up plastic. Awesome video!!!!!! Not bad for using a drill!!! Great job!!!!
Great work borderline OCD! I've done the same polishing technique to my PS4 and Xbox One (both with piano black plastics). I have experience with car detailing and paint correcting and was able to implement the same methods to achieve amazing results. I used 3 inch polishing pads (of various firmness levels) attached to a cordless drill, Meguiar's rubbing compound (to eliminate deep scratches), Meguiar's polishing compound (to eliminate light scratches) and a few micro fiber towels. Polishing pad spins quickly, arm movement is moderately slow, dril/polisher moves in a grid like pattern from left to right and top to bottom (with 50% overlap), liquid level is just enough to keep the surface moist but not overly wet. I repeated those steps until I got the desired look. Final step is a protectant that will further smoothen out the appearance of the remaining surface scratches. I tend to avoid this as it sometimes leaves behind an oily feeling.
In the past I was polishing a steering wheel trim, using like 4k grid sand paper, then 7k as well as some paste. It was a pretty much mirror like finish, looked astonishing. My PS3 fat doesn't look good too so you gave me an idea to try to do the same thing on it as I did on my steering wheel
This is great! Thanks for the video. I remember years ago during a cable tv installation an engineer put my pristine original 60GB console curved side down onto our wooden flooring... was purely unintentional but safe to say that console was definitely not pristine anymore :')
That's horrific. I always clear the way for installers and maintenance folks even if they are just working in the garage or under the sink so they don't knock stuff around and can work more comfortably. Not sure if you could have seen that coming though. I mean for god sakes man put the think down right side up...
Not perfect but I’d say it’s way better than it was. I say it was worth the effort. PlastX is what I use. Someone else said to use turtle wax as the final coat on top of that so I may try that as well. I wish these companies would stop using piano black. Fingerprint magnet and shows scratches too easily. Then it just looks gross to even touch it 😁. Good work!
Thank you for the video. I've been searching for a scratch remover, and your channel came up. I'll use this product to remove scratches on my Xbox Series S and the edge of my gaming monitor, not the glass. This helps.
Scratch doctor did a heck of a job, and Meguiar's compound didn't do too bad either. Out of those two, I'd go with whatever's cheapest and has the least dodgy chemicals in. The orange polishing compound sucks giant arse crack, just makes the plastic look foggy. If all you want to do is make plastic look foggy, just give it a rub over with some grey scotch pad... Good test fella.
I still own my day one PS3 60gb model. When I heard about the ylod my brother who is IT and repair gaming PCs and Macs I had him put better thermal paste on for me. It's still running today. I use to wax it for easy dust removal on the surface. And use my father air compressor in the garage to blow out the dust lol!
Thanks for the in depth product comparison tutorial video, I may end up buy one of these older models from a friend of mine and I like to keep my stuff looking nice and know how to take good care of the stuff I have so I definitely appreciate this
A single wipe with acetone, that dissolves the upper layer of plastic and fills in the cracks, might have done the job. It certainly does with headlights lenses.
There is a 3M product (I forget the name) but it's beige and it's a deep cut (step 1) and a fine cut (step 2) then you use something like the plastX or Scratch Dr. stuff to finish it off. It's commonly used for headlight restoration.
Thanks for the comparison. However, if you hold the drill at a fixed angle, it does not matter much if you move it in any direction, because the polishing head will affect the plastic mostly from one angle, that is the rotation of it. key is to change the angle of the drill at every pass, and not just back and forth but like +30 degrees every time to make a full rotation.
That Dremel compound definitely works nice, gives a nice smooth area to them go in and do final polishing... Always start with course, fine, then finer, then finest. Great video!!
Great job , I have PS3 I need to buff up 👍👍 I normally polish up aluminium on Kirby vacuums, but plastic is a big thing I need to do with my old consoles . Thanks for sharing 👍👍
Another tip with these products is to use a mini orbital sander with a pad as the constant abrasion in one direction will make it very difficult to remove the scratches
The reason you like Scratch Doctor results the most is because that bottom right quadrant was already cleaner than the other 3. The top right quadrant had some of the worst scratches, but that's the one that saw the most improvement at the end, so I guess the Dremel product DID work.
I’ve been detailing for years. The dremel one impressed me because it is a very aggressive compound. Ideally I’d go dremel > scratch doctor > finishing polish
I'm sure you have a fair idea of what you are doing. But if I was to offer some advice, it would be to realise that there are different grits in the compounds you use to do this. If it's heavily scratched like this was, you could try a lower grit polish first and then hit it with a finer one. A bit of car wax after that works wonders. If you want it really perfect you can start sanding it with 400 or 800 grit paper (depending on how deep the scratches are) it's important that at that stage you remove all the scratches you want to. You may not remove them all as some can be stubborn and beyond what your paper can do. After your first choice of paper just work your way up in twos untill you reach at least 2000 grit. Then buff with a compound greater than 2000 grit. And finally a fine grit polish followed by a coat of wax.
After using Novus polish a few years ago that’s all I use anymore for plastics. I’m sure it would work great on this project. As others have said I would have used a fine grit sand paper or a few more passes with the dremel polish on the super glue then polished it out.
This should be higher, people need to know about Novus! I’m a Star Wars cosplayer and it’s ALL we would ever use to buff scratches off Stormtrooper armor. NOVUS FTW!!!
From somone learning car body repair and painting, the correct way to do it is sand the whole thing until you level out all the scratches and make sure you end up with the highest grit you can like 3,000 or 2,000 then you would use a random orbit polisher which you can get a good one at harbor freight and then you're going to polish with McGuirer's polish . You start out with something like 100 compound and then end up with a higher grit and that's how they polish cars so basically you would also need a random orbit electric sander to stand out all the scratches I would start with maybe 800 or 600 grit, do not go too course otherwise you will ruin the project
Would be curious to see this wet sanded, starting with 1500 grit sandpaper, then moving up to 2000 then 3000, then trying polish again (just a whole lot less this time). I think that could get at least some of those deeper scratches out and while that may sound aggressive for plastic, it's what I have used and seen used on headlights. At any rate cool to see your process and have the algorithm recommend your channel 🙂
This is like the only video I can find on restoring gloss plastics on gaming consoles. I have a new 3DS XL with some scratches on the shell and am looking to figure out how to remove them. I’m hesitant to wet sand since I have no experience with such method. I tried buffing with toothpaste but it’s not aggressive enough, I’m waiting on some Polywatch Plastic next time to try
Well done 👍 & liked.. I have an old laptop back case to spray paint black which is originally black .. and it's a lil dusty.. For pre cleaning, should I wipe it down with isopropyl alcohol or just plain warm water with mild detergent before spraying paint.. what do you suggest? Also is a primer spray mandatory which I don't have at hand?
Man, I was hoping to find something like this. I was planning on getting a Final Fantasy PS4 but I could only find ones that were scratched to hell and back - this will be a huge help!
this has to be done in stages (not using the same compound multiple times), pad is too soft (use sponge cutting pad first), stay in the same spot for longer using more pressure and less compound, and only use polishing wheel at the end.
For something that scratched up you need to consider Novus 3-part, and perhaps 1500 then 2000grit trizac paper before the 3 part Novus. An economical solution is to use headlight restore products for vehicles.
I renovated an old uk dial telephone in black and started with 2000 grit wet/dry sanding working up to 6000 grit. Then I used an auto cutting compound followed by a wax polish. The final wax polish made a huge difference to the overall finish
Thank you so much for this polish restoration video Borderline OCD! Being new to this channel and video, this gave me more insight for properly removing the scratches off of my Playstation! Definetly got yourself another subsciber! Awesome video! 5 stars on YELP! Lol
Best product to use is meguiars ultimate compound you'll thank me, also less is more when it comes to doing this kinda work. For best and fast results will require sanding with 2000 to 3000 grit sandpapers then compound it and polish.
Those polishes are really designed more for automotive, but they are both good products. I think the rougher dremel compound followed up by scratch doc had the cleanest finish. Evened things out, then smoothed it out.
From another car detailer's perspective, this seems like it needs an aggressive polish followed by several less aggressive polishes. What I mean by that is the grit level (or cut) of each product. What you're trying to do is make big scratches turn into small scratches that are invisible to the eye. Start coarse and go fine. I'm fairly certain with the right polishes (I use Menzerna polishes in 3 stages, use whatever works for you), I could make this a mirror just by hand.
If you ever get your hands on a PSP with a scratched faceplate, I'd love to see you try and get it cleaned up! Apparently the 3rd party replacement ones don't compare to the originals.
I've watched so many videos about scratch remover. Either plastics or not, the best combo to remove scratches : Compound + Polishing as finisher (Most people use Meguiar's Products). I've removed some scratches with Meguiar Ultimate Compound + Meguiar Polishing, but somehow they don't work well on laptop's housing / case (maybe because of the polycarbonate /plastic base?)
I usually use ScratchX, instead of PlastX. That works fine, just shake the bottle before use, put a few drops on a piece of cotton and use that to polish the surface in a circular motion. Take a fresh piece of cotton and wipe it clean. Never did I ever use as much product as you applied.
I recently bought a Xbox 360 Phat from a thrift store. It had tons of scratches and they were pretty deep. For some reason, glass cleaner worked on most of them. I just sprayed glass cleaner, waited a few minutes, then wiped it off. It looks brand new now.
Hello friends. I didn't think this brain-fart of a project would be one of my most popular videos, or that I would still be responding to comments on it more than a year later. I appreciate all of you that discovered my channel through this video and hope you're finding my more recent content engaging. This was literally my first attempt at detailing anything and my primary content remains more on the electronics side of console repairs, rather than cosmetic restorations. Thank you for all the comments and suggestions, I hope to put them to use on a future restoration and improve on the results I achieved here. UA-cam is a quirky business. I probably put the least amount of effort into this project compared to my average repair which can sometimes take me a couple of weeks to wrap up and publish. I still scratch my head at how an hour of dicking around in the garage messing with scratches on a PS3 lid got this much attention 🤷♂ Nonetheless, thank you for dropping by and be sure to check out my more recent content if you're interested in console repair work. Cheers.
Never underestimate the appeal of watching someone else dick around in the garage to those without a garage in which to dick around. Congrats on the views and keep 'em coming!
best candid response from a creator 😂 love it
Problem lots of people have + guy offering relatively easy and effective solutions == success.
Keep up the good work!
I’m glad you haven’t found the comments overwhelmingly frustrating. I think the best way to explain to you why this video is performing the way it is, is that it’s like the equivalent to one of those in-app ads (while playing a mobile game) where the game seems so obvious to solve but the virtual player is making all the wrong moves. Those ads are effective because it causes people to want to play the game, just to show how easily they could have done it right. Your video is providing people that same excited reaction, where the answer seems so obvious, and so they rush to the comments section to explain what you should have done (or to “thumbs up” an agreeable comment). Meanwhile, you’re not an idiot, you never proclaimed to be a pro cosmetic restorer, and I’m sure you learned a better way to polish the plastic within weeks of posting the video (yet a year later you get fresh new eyeballs and enthusiastic comments about what you should’ve done). Again, I’m glad you take it all in stride. I especially appreciate the conflicted complication of having a popular video also appear to show your “incompetence”, and therefore worry that viewers won’t want to see what else you’ve done on your channel, to realize how talented you are. It’s like you want to bury this video, but can’t because it’s a helpful spiderweb for eyeballs, and a gateway for the percentage who give you the benefit of the doubt - who end up subscribing after watching your other videos. Maybe you’ve already done this (I’ve yet to check out your channel), but you ought to make a “comeback” follow up video, with nearly the exact same title, where you implement all the suggestions, and surpass expectations. The algorithm will work in your favor, because although your initial PS3 restoration video will still be the primary video that the algorithm delivers to new people, in short time your follow up video will show up next in their suggested video feed. Back to the enthusiastic audience (who can’t help but blurt out the obvious solutions in the comments section), they love seeing things done the right way even more than they love seeing things done the wrong way (so long as they get to see it being done the wrong way first). It’s cathartic to correct someone, and even more cathartic to see someone learn from their mistakes.
@@davidswanson5669no grammar or spelling mistakes... different breed.
Actually, the dremel paste was the most effective. The trick is when you polish something - you almost never do it with only one compound. That red compound you've got is apparently pretty coarse. After using it you should use finer compounds, and step by step you will achieve mirror gloss result
got to the comments only to write that the dremel pastewas probably a good intermediate step
Exactly like when sharpening a dull knife we use corse stone first and finer stone later
Should have tried it on the middle left and worked his way up, in terms of grit. Either way it's not a bad job. Just far too much product used.
so what would you consider using after the paste?
@@aubry980the cutting compound is enough. Using less and working it in would give a near perfect finish.
Watch car detailing clips where they work on glossy/piano black trim.
Edit: I wasn't thinking. After using cutting compound you'd use a polish to protect, remove any reside and make it shine.
From a car detailing perspective, I'd use less of the products, it seemed a bit much on a small area like this. I think that way you'd have to do less passes to have the same great result as you had at the end.
Yeah lol I could tell when it started clumping up the polishing wheel. I do think I was a little heavy handed towards the end there.
@@BorderlineOCD When polishing a surface on a car, you always have to find the best combo to work with, as in pad and compound, and that needs a little testing. I think if this wheel and the Scratch Doctor is still not good enough, all you can do is find more stuff to try. Luckily compared to a car if you find a good one, it will basically work on every single ps3 of that type. I'd have used about 2 pea sized drops on each segment maximum, and that's still a bit much. :D It's also a good idea to prime the wool wheel with the product, so it doesn't start working dry. I have to add it was another great video!
Yes I was thinking the same because I already used the car scratches removal procedure to clean some other things, thin sand paper and car wax, works just great almost with everything
you can use this method for cleaning cd disks
What is the best you can remove scratches and smudges from a xbox 360 slim glossy plastic as someone who is a car detailer ?
You may actually be able to use the dremel compound's microscratches to your advantage. The fact that it's introducing microscratches means it's more abrasive than the other compounds. A common technique for removing scratches is to buff them out in stages by buffing with finer and finer abrasives. Given that the dremel compound's microscratches are relatively easy to buff out, you may be able to use it to get rid of some of the really deep scratches and scuffs, then come back through with another polish and buff out the microscratches.
Not t?
@@Dragon-Slay3r yes. T.
I was looking for someone else to point this out as soon as I watched the video- I felt that the dremel compound area looked better than the rest.
That's what i was thinking. The part that had dremel compound on it first looks much better. I would have used dremel compound, dr. scratch, and then the other one since it seemed to be the finest.
What he said. xD Looked like the compound will work getting rid of the glue or whatever that is.
The Ps3 "fat" for me was the best design styled Ps system. Nice work on the restore.
The microscratches you mention are actually a good thing! You are leveling off the surface area, you can even just use sandpaper, 1000 or so, on the glue & remove it. Then compound & polish for a perfect finish. Bigger wheel will give you much better results, but ya gotta work with what ya got!
yea, I was going to say I have seen many very high quality polishes start off like that. It is disappointing that he stopped without following it to conclusion. Sure not all polishes are equal, but some have very different approaches to their repair!
I liked matt finish it produced
@@alexandermatthews145 punctuation
@@CD-vb9fi Kind of a gamble on a rare variant of PS3
As a detailer, I will say using a 1000 grit sandpaper on this soft plastic is the WORSt idea. These are micro scratches. Medium/Fine cut polish with a 2-in DA polisher will make it look almost perfectly new.
From a car detailing perspective, here's some things I'd try.
1. Use a heavier cutting compound first to remove deep scratches. For really deep ones, you may need to start with some 1500 grit wet sanding.
2. Use less product. For a surface that size, I'd try one or two quarter-size dollops of product, and work it in a little longer.
3. Use a foam polishing pad. There's inexpensive ones that attach to your drill. They're much easier to use and will likely provide better results.
4. Do a final pass with a clean, wet foam pad. This will give the plastic a deeper black gloss. You can sew in the last part of your video when the light hits the plastic it makes it look a little milky or hazy, this step will get rid of that.
Can u elaborate number 4? Im sorry for asking..i didnt understand what u meant by 'Do a final pass'
@@xandrelphane when you're done sanding and polishing, take a clean, soft foam pad, get it wet, put it on a drill or polisher and use just the wet pad to polish, I had great results doing this on piano black plastic on cars.
@@MrFastFox666 Thanks for ur elaboration..really appreciate it 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Is there any way to buff out scratches on a hockey helmet?
@@kenshiroFNS Same procedure as above. And also use fine sandpaper first to get rid of the deep scratches and work from there.
The Dremel compound is specifically polishing compound. Which means leveling all the scratches into one consistent matte finish.
The Nu Finish And Plastix are both buffing compounds for removing very fine micro scratches and creating a mirror finish.
So ideally you should polish first, then buff. You can actually see the top right corner is the shiniest at the end for that exact reason.
Side note: You're using way too much product. You want to let the wheel do the work, not the product. You don't want the wheel to be saturated in product because you actually need heat for the best results.
Usually best results are achieved by applying 3 levels of grit polishes, start with a rough like a metal polish to cut down the deep scratches even if it introduces micro scrathes, next would be soemthing like plastx which will deal with shallower scratches and the new micro scratches, and finally a fine product like a body wax such as turtle wax to finish and bring out the shine. Obviously change polishing wheel between grits…
Thanks for the advice, some great tips there. I was admittedly nervous seeing the results of the metal polish but it did mostly buff out, albeit with multiple passes and increased hand pressure. If you could choose your own grits, is there a particular sequence you would recommend for the initial stages? Would love to try this again on another unit and get even better results.
@@BorderlineOCD I haven't tried consoles but I had polished my fair share of vehicle headlights. I wet sanded by hand with 800, 1500 and then 2000 grit sandpaper, then machine polished with Griot's Garage Correcting Cream and then Perfecting Cream. Obviously you wouldn't have to use these exactly, but you have the best chance for a glossy finish on plastics by using multiple levels of grit/polish. BTW I watched this because I also repair/refurbish old game consoles. Thanks for posting this. I haven't tried it and now I want to on my PS3!
Yep he is right. You start low and work your way up with sandpaper (wet sanding preferred for plastic) then use a compound. This cuts down on elbow grease significantly. Also very important you want to sand in opposite directions. So sand vertical with 1000 then horizontal with 1200-1500 then back to vertical with 2000. FYI compound also comes in different grit. Now aside all of that you did a great job and for a console this old it looks great.
yep, its plastic so its the same as the headlight restorations I do. He actually could just bought the rustolium headlight restore kit for $14 and had everything he needed. I usually cut down to remove deep scratches, use 2 lesser grits for 2 stages of leveling, following but a rubbing compound then a polishing compound. Then like you said, something like a wax to bring out the shine would just make it really pop.
@@BorderlineOCD Hey!, I wanted to ask, I have an Asus Strix G17, and it has a minor dot scratch, made from a falling compass (the one used to make circles). The problem is, the metal is anodized black, so any idea how to remove the scratch?
A few tips to get better results next time.
1) use varying strength of compounds and work your way from high to small grit with each pass. This will ensure even deeper scratches are removed.
2) apply thin even layers of compound (you're putting way too much on there). Having too much compound actually makes the work harder.
3) ditch the Dremel and use a proper orbital buffer to randomize the orbits. Removes any possibility of retaining swirls in the finishes product but also ensure uniform removal of substrate.
4) use a super fine polish after the last pass for a mirror finish.
I personally have used the “scratch doctor” on my car. instructions say to let it rest, i dunno an hour. then buff.
was the same applied to all the wax’s, or was it applied & immediately buffed? nonetheless, amazing tips for the aesthetics 👍🏼!
As a detailer hobbyist, try to use the foam polishing pad one after buffing with the cloth/cotton. Because the cloth/cotton pad could still leave some small scratch on the surface. Its good for buffing the deep scratches, but still leave some marks. Good video. I might try to do this to my PS3 too.
Wow man I don’t think I have ever seen a PS3 with that shiny of a finish. You polished it to a mirror finish, it looks great!
buy a new one! You will see
Gamestop's console refurbishers: *Sees the Dremel No. 421 Compound leaving noticable scratch marks*
"I'll take your entire stock."
As much as I like to dunk on Gamestop, their problem is half-assing refurbs, and not the use of the dremel polish. In fact, that dremel polish is the a good first step to a proper polish. As the goal of a harsh compound like that is to remove the large and deep scratches. Then compounds with finer grits are used to remove finer scratches. With a final stage of wax or similar compound to give it the final mirror finish.
What this guy did was essentially skipped the multistep polish route entirely and tried to do the whole job with a single compound. This is not how you properly polish anything, period. At least not efficiently.
@@piranhaplantX He also used a single compound across the entire surface right after sectioning it off to test three others. If this was just a demonstration it'd be one thing, but following through with an attempted finish restoration at that point didn't end well.
Novus 1,2,3 works the best. It's the epitome of scratch removal/polishing in the acrylic industry.
I think the combo of scratch doctor and dremmel 421compound. the 421 buffed the deep scratches then scratch dr cleaned up the 421 marks. That section looks awesome
That red polishing compound is usually step 1, followed up by the finer white compound. I haven't tried it on this specific type of plastic, but a headlight 'restorer' kit might be a good option. Otherwise, I might have tried wet sanding it with 1500 or 2000 then stepping up to 5000 before a final polish with a super fine cut compound.
I would like to applaud the results you accomplished, at least a 100% better than the mess of scratches it was.
I just thought of another way to 'restore' this particular console if you don't have the required amount of elbow grease: vinyl wrap. There are several brands that have finishes similar to the piano black Sony was obsessed with using during this era... Looking at you PSP, lol.
I don’t even had a PS3 and I don’t watch restoration videos, but I’m here watching this at 3am
It looks amazing! I don't have this model of PS3 but I would love to try it on my Wii U, since it also has a lot of micro scratches like these.
I was just thinking this!!!!
X3
I have a PS3 test console that really could do with this treatment. Great video as always 👍
Thank you. Good luck with your PS3 treatment.
I'm going to have to try this too, my PS3 is pretty scratched up, I have the Novus kit I am going try, it's designed for plastic...
Awesome! I love how you go straight to the point! The way you sectioned off the surface and compared all 4 products in real time on the same object is what all UA-camrs need to take note of!
Maybe try a headlight restoration kit, sanding the surface and polishing it back up may remove more of those scratches.
I love (bro love) a man who takes a day off to clean his game console and put it on UA-cam. A man after my own heart.
Holy wow man all that polish you poured on is absurd! I think people have told you though so I won't egg you on. It just hurt coming from a detailer to see that much polish on such a small surface area
I used the Meguiar's Plast-X on a Sega Genesis I sold to a friend of mine that was really scratched up. All I used was a micro fiber cloth a few tries. And the console looked way better and almost new. So this method I am sure would work even better with the buffing pads and a drill.
There's a video on line where a person polished a PS2 slim with the high gloss side. And though he did not show the compound he used, it came out 100% looking brand new. It was amazing the outcome. You did fine as well but he had 0 haze in bright light. I've found that if you moisten your pad, it thins down the compound even more, reducing the grit factor even further. 👍👍
Do you have this video somwhere perhaps? :)
@@Losiu9 Type in, polishing the PS2 shell. The guy opens the unit and cleans the optics and interior then does the outer case. Good luck
NuFinish has been around for a long time. My dad used it on our car when I was a kid. It works well. If you polish first and then wax after it will come out even better. Plastx works well on oxidized clear plastic like headlights and taillight lenses but doesn’t really remove deep scratches.
I actually use car detailing stuff as well when trying to clean up scratches etc. Usually I, like CK47CD also mentioned, can get away with a lot less of the product for each of the polishing cycles… but what you ended up with looks markedly improved! Keep up the great videos!
Interesting experiment! Very well done. A dual action polisher would definitely improve the results by a huge margin and I've used Meguiar's PlastX and I can recommend it highly. I suspect NuFinish did better because you can clearly see there was more damage in the Meguiar's section than the NF section. All things being equal, I'd bet either product will do.
As a person with a scratch phobia, I never touch my tech without a microfiber rag, that said, my 60gb fat launch PS3 looks as new as it did when I purchased it. Thanks for the vid.
We are back!
I won't stop saying that when every new video launches.
Haha thanks for sharing your enthusiasm. I'm getting more fond of starting my videos that way.
I like to use the "headlight scratch remover" kits. The ones that are in a kit that come with the cleaner, yellow remover and polisher, the "ceramic" ones work really really good especially with a drill.
ceramic coatings have a life expectancy and require you to apply it again year after year. not a good choice.
Headlight repair kits use 1000 - 4000 grit sandpaper plus polish to remove scratches. Treating that plastic shell just like a headlight should give great results. Just realize even a small scratch in plastic is "deep" and will require material to be removed in order to make it go away. This is not a quick process. Plan to devote some time. No prize for first place when cleaning up plastic. Awesome video!!!!!! Not bad for using a drill!!! Great job!!!!
I have used Flitz polish for heavy scratches. Works great on clear plastics.
Im not sure but I notice that the best way is to polish first with dremel compound followed by the scratch doctor
Great work borderline OCD!
I've done the same polishing technique to my PS4 and Xbox One (both with piano black plastics). I have experience with car detailing and paint correcting and was able to implement the same methods to achieve amazing results. I used 3 inch polishing pads (of various firmness levels) attached to a cordless drill, Meguiar's rubbing compound (to eliminate deep scratches), Meguiar's polishing compound (to eliminate light scratches) and a few micro fiber towels. Polishing pad spins quickly, arm movement is moderately slow, dril/polisher moves in a grid like pattern from left to right and top to bottom (with 50% overlap), liquid level is just enough to keep the surface moist but not overly wet. I repeated those steps until I got the desired look. Final step is a protectant that will further smoothen out the appearance of the remaining surface scratches. I tend to avoid this as it sometimes leaves behind an oily feeling.
So that’s the face behind the camera!
Also, damn. The PS3 looks nice.
In the past I was polishing a steering wheel trim, using like 4k grid sand paper, then 7k as well as some paste. It was a pretty much mirror like finish, looked astonishing. My PS3 fat doesn't look good too so you gave me an idea to try to do the same thing on it as I did on my steering wheel
This is great! Thanks for the video. I remember years ago during a cable tv installation an engineer put my pristine original 60GB console curved side down onto our wooden flooring... was purely unintentional but safe to say that console was definitely not pristine anymore :')
That's horrific. I always clear the way for installers and maintenance folks even if they are just working in the garage or under the sink so they don't knock stuff around and can work more comfortably. Not sure if you could have seen that coming though. I mean for god sakes man put the think down right side up...
My stomach drops just reading this. Ugh... man. I know the installer didn't mean to be careless, but... awareness, dude! Have some! haha
Not perfect but I’d say it’s way better than it was. I say it was worth the effort. PlastX is what I use. Someone else said to use turtle wax as the final coat on top of that so I may try that as well. I wish these companies would stop using piano black. Fingerprint magnet and shows scratches too easily. Then it just looks gross to even touch it 😁. Good work!
Great video. Question, would this work on a pair of over ear headphones?
Thank you for the video. I've been searching for a scratch remover, and your channel came up. I'll use this product to remove scratches on my Xbox Series S and the edge of my gaming monitor, not the glass. This helps.
Scratch doctor did a heck of a job, and Meguiar's compound didn't do too bad either. Out of those two, I'd go with whatever's cheapest and has the least dodgy chemicals in. The orange polishing compound sucks giant arse crack, just makes the plastic look foggy. If all you want to do is make plastic look foggy, just give it a rub over with some grey scotch pad... Good test fella.
I still own my day one PS3 60gb model. When I heard about the ylod my brother who is IT and repair gaming PCs and Macs I had him put better thermal paste on for me. It's still running today. I use to wax it for easy dust removal on the surface. And use my father air compressor in the garage to blow out the dust lol!
This is excellent!
I'd love to see similar videos cleaning up non-glossy consoles, like Sega Genesis, or SNES, etc.
Actually....non-glossy items are much easier to restore.
@@leom9286 Easy to remove scratches from, maybe, but you'll never get the texture back.
I bet Meguiars headlight restorer kit would work pretty good for this application
Fun fact: The PS3 Backwards compatible models A01 all has a smoked transparent housing which is why this console is expensive and becoming rare.
The ps3 shot with the natural lighting looks so good!
Thanks for the in depth product comparison tutorial video, I may end up buy one of these older models from a friend of mine and I like to keep my stuff looking nice and know how to take good care of the stuff I have so I definitely appreciate this
A single wipe with acetone, that dissolves the upper layer of plastic and fills in the cracks, might have done the job. It certainly does with headlights lenses.
i would definitely do the whole thing with the dremel stuf to remove the bigger scratches and the glue, and then the scratch doctor to polish it.
There is a 3M product (I forget the name) but it's beige and it's a deep cut (step 1) and a fine cut (step 2) then you use something like the plastX or Scratch Dr. stuff to finish it off. It's commonly used for headlight restoration.
Thanks for the comparison. However, if you hold the drill at a fixed angle, it does not matter much if you move it in any direction, because the polishing head will affect the plastic mostly from one angle, that is the rotation of it. key is to change the angle of the drill at every pass, and not just back and forth but like +30 degrees every time to make a full rotation.
That Dremel compound definitely works nice, gives a nice smooth area to them go in and do final polishing... Always start with course, fine, then finer, then finest. Great video!!
Been waiting for this video for a while… nice done
Hope you enjoyed it!
Great job , I have PS3 I need to buff up 👍👍
I normally polish up aluminium on Kirby vacuums, but plastic is a big thing I need to do with my old consoles . Thanks for sharing 👍👍
Glad you enjoyed it.
Another tip with these products is to use a mini orbital sander with a pad as the constant abrasion in one direction will make it very difficult to remove the scratches
The reason you like Scratch Doctor results the most is because that bottom right quadrant was already cleaner than the other 3. The top right quadrant had some of the worst scratches, but that's the one that saw the most improvement at the end, so I guess the Dremel product DID work.
It's awesome when people actually show you how they test the products!
Interesting video, ps3 looks better than before
I’ve been detailing for years. The dremel one impressed me because it is a very aggressive compound. Ideally I’d go dremel > scratch doctor > finishing polish
You can use thinest sandpaper with water to sand the scratchs and then pollish with car wax 3 to 5 times
I'm sure you have a fair idea of what you are doing. But if I was to offer some advice, it would be to realise that there are different grits in the compounds you use to do this. If it's heavily scratched like this was, you could try a lower grit polish first and then hit it with a finer one. A bit of car wax after that works wonders. If you want it really perfect you can start sanding it with 400 or 800 grit paper (depending on how deep the scratches are) it's important that at that stage you remove all the scratches you want to. You may not remove them all as some can be stubborn and beyond what your paper can do. After your first choice of paper just work your way up in twos untill you reach at least 2000 grit. Then buff with a compound greater than 2000 grit. And finally a fine grit polish followed by a coat of wax.
After using Novus polish a few years ago that’s all I use anymore for plastics. I’m sure it would work great on this project. As others have said I would have used a fine grit sand paper or a few more passes with the dremel polish on the super glue then polished it out.
This should be higher, people need to know about Novus! I’m a Star Wars cosplayer and it’s ALL we would ever use to buff scratches off Stormtrooper armor. NOVUS FTW!!!
I polished mine by hand because I was scared of overheating and fogging the plastic. I used Mother’s headlight restoration polish to similar results.
From somone learning car body repair and painting, the correct way to do it is sand the whole thing until you level out all the scratches and make sure you end up with the highest grit you can like 3,000 or 2,000 then you would use a random orbit polisher which you can get a good one at harbor freight and then you're going to polish with McGuirer's polish . You start out with something like 100 compound and then end up with a higher grit and that's how they polish cars so basically you would also need a random orbit electric sander to stand out all the scratches I would start with maybe 800 or 600 grit, do not go too course otherwise you will ruin the project
Was looking for this topic about a month ago and this is by far the best vid appreciate it
Playstation purposely used the original Spiderman movie font, seeing you use the Maguire polisher is such a funny coincidence.
Scratch doctor worked amazing there !!!
Would be curious to see this wet sanded, starting with 1500 grit sandpaper, then moving up to 2000 then 3000, then trying polish again (just a whole lot less this time). I think that could get at least some of those deeper scratches out and while that may sound aggressive for plastic, it's what I have used and seen used on headlights. At any rate cool to see your process and have the algorithm recommend your channel 🙂
This is like the only video I can find on restoring gloss plastics on gaming consoles. I have a new 3DS XL with some scratches on the shell and am looking to figure out how to remove them. I’m hesitant to wet sand since I have no experience with such method.
I tried buffing with toothpaste but it’s not aggressive enough, I’m waiting on some Polywatch Plastic next time to try
does Dr Scratch work for plastic transparent headlight? for removing yellowing and scratches?
Well done 👍 & liked.. I have an old laptop back case to spray paint black which is originally black .. and it's a lil dusty.. For pre cleaning, should I wipe it down with isopropyl alcohol or just plain warm water with mild detergent before spraying paint.. what do you suggest?
Also is a primer spray mandatory which I don't have at hand?
Still in the commercials.... so wait.. dont say it!!!... HE POLISHED IT.. RIGHT??? GENIUS!
Thanks for sharing this. Can we use this process to remove scratches from TV and monitor surfaces as well, or do you suggest something else for them?
This is such a calming commercial
Good test, wonder if this would work same on a Wii U which suffers from same glossy scratch issues.
Awesome video. It's always cool to be able to have a unit that you can test different products and techniques on for the rest of us to see.
Man, I was hoping to find something like this. I was planning on getting a Final Fantasy PS4 but I could only find ones that were scratched to hell and back - this will be a huge help!
I've found that the classic liquid Brasso works really well on acrylic and glossy plastic, even though it's meant as a metal polishing compound.
this has to be done in stages (not using the same compound multiple times), pad is too soft (use sponge cutting pad first), stay in the same spot for longer using more pressure and less compound, and only use polishing wheel at the end.
Wish me luck ima do this on my 3ds
I used turtle wax scratch remover with a five inch buffing disc I bought at harbor freight. Works great....on scratched discs too.
Looks good don't miss glossy electronics for this reason
For something that scratched up you need to consider Novus 3-part, and perhaps 1500 then 2000grit trizac paper before the 3 part Novus.
An economical solution is to use headlight restore products for vehicles.
I renovated an old uk dial telephone in black and started with 2000 grit wet/dry sanding working up to 6000 grit. Then I used an auto cutting compound followed by a wax polish. The final wax polish made a huge difference to the overall finish
Clean it, sand it, sand it, sand it, clear coat it. Perfection.
Thank you so much for this polish restoration video Borderline OCD! Being new to this channel and video, this gave me more insight for properly removing the scratches off of my Playstation! Definetly got yourself another subsciber! Awesome video! 5 stars on YELP! Lol
Best product to use is meguiars ultimate compound you'll thank me, also less is more when it comes to doing this kinda work. For best and fast results will require sanding with 2000 to 3000 grit sandpapers then compound it and polish.
Those polishes are really designed more for automotive, but they are both good products.
I think the rougher dremel compound followed up by scratch doc had the cleanest finish. Evened things out, then smoothed it out.
I'm definitely going to use Scratch Doctor on my PS3 now, thanks!
From another car detailer's perspective, this seems like it needs an aggressive polish followed by several less aggressive polishes. What I mean by that is the grit level (or cut) of each product. What you're trying to do is make big scratches turn into small scratches that are invisible to the eye.
Start coarse and go fine. I'm fairly certain with the right polishes (I use Menzerna polishes in 3 stages, use whatever works for you), I could make this a mirror just by hand.
Brasso is my favourite polish. It meant for metal but you can apply it by hand and its very good at removing scratches from plastic
I actually think the rough buff with the Dremel polish and then the nufinish would look great. Great video.
If you ever get your hands on a PSP with a scratched faceplate, I'd love to see you try and get it cleaned up! Apparently the 3rd party replacement ones don't compare to the originals.
I've watched so many videos about scratch remover. Either plastics or not, the best combo to remove scratches : Compound + Polishing as finisher (Most people use Meguiar's Products).
I've removed some scratches with Meguiar Ultimate Compound + Meguiar Polishing, but somehow they don't work well on laptop's housing / case (maybe because of the polycarbonate /plastic base?)
I use Plastx, thank you introducing the other Doctor Scratch product. I will try it out.
I usually use ScratchX, instead of PlastX. That works fine, just shake the bottle before use, put a few drops on a piece of cotton and use that to polish the surface in a circular motion. Take a fresh piece of cotton and wipe it clean. Never did I ever use as much product as you applied.
Good video, but is it not easier if you use a microfiber cloth with an antiscratch solution and do some circular movement?
I recently bought a Xbox 360 Phat from a thrift store. It had tons of scratches and they were pretty deep. For some reason, glass cleaner worked on most of them. I just sprayed glass cleaner, waited a few minutes, then wiped it off. It looks brand new now.
Great video! Will definitely be trying the Scratch Doctor out on some upcoming projects!