Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

i printed out Paul's instructions on the Scratch X + Zymol system for cleaning and shining up my '75 4001.

would i use the same treatment on the black pickguard to get rid of the swirls?

Zymol's a wax. Scratch-X, applied by hand, would be the ticket to get the swirls out of the guard.

However, acrylic is quite soft, and what you may have are more than swirls--typical wear scratches would be common on a bass that's 30+ years old. Best way to shine this guard up would be to take it to a plastic fabrication shop and have them buff it on a wheel.

good call Paul, i think we have a wheel in our model shop (architecture student).

thanks -

"Even the Royal House of Hanover had the Wheel."

Hey Paul, how about using Novus Plastic Polish on the pickguard?

Novus #2, Joey? The pasty stuff that's the color of a burro's hind end?

Works fine on light scratches like pick marks. A bit light duty for anything heftier than that. For genuine wear and age scratches, you'll rub for a loooonnnnggg time to get it looking like new, if it's even possible to polish plastic that well without a wheel.

Thanks, I figured it would work well on the light scratches of pickguards, but I knew that you'd let us know if it had any ingredients that might be harmful to the CV finish.

Novus is relatively neutral, being water-based and having no chemically-active ingredients.

CV is pretty impervious to solvents like alcohol, water, paint thinner, and even lacquer and urethane thinners and acetone, in small doses, and once cured for a few months.

This and superior wear resistance are two main advantages that CV has over nitro finishes.

Thanks Paul. I always have a bottle of Novus #2 handy because one of my aquariums is acrylic.