Remove scratches from Rosen sun visor

B

bkspero

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Mar 5, 2012
Messages
582
Display Name
Display name:
bkspero
Has anyone successfully removed scratches from Rosen sunvisors? Had a passenger slide the canopy of my Tiger back too far and the visors got pressed between the bottom of the canopy and the top of the fuselage. Created a couple of shallow, wide scrapes on each visor.

Will one of the plastic restoration products designed for headlights remove the scratches without damaging the finish or tint?
 
For superficial scratches, any ACRYLIC scratch remover (generally available online or at auto parts, etc....) will work. For deeper stuff, Micromesh makes a more aggressive refinishing product.
 
flyingron said:
For superficial scratches, any ACRYLIC scratch remover (generally available online or at auto parts, etc....) will work. For deeper stuff, Micromesh makes a more aggressive refinishing product.
Click to expand...

Do you have experience with these products on Rosen visors? I am concerned that these products abrade and polish the surface, and while that is fine for treating uncoated plastic, it could cause a bigger problem if the Rosen visors have a surface coating (maybe to reduce glare, or for tinting, etc.). So I was hoping to find someone who had worked with Rosen visors and knew for certain.
 
bkspero said:
Do you have experience with these products on Rosen visors? I am concerned that these products abrade and polish the surface, and while that is fine for treating uncoated plastic, it could cause a bigger problem if the Rosen visors have a surface coating (maybe to reduce glare, or for tinting, etc.). So I was hoping to find someone who had worked with Rosen visors and knew for certain.
Click to expand...

Have you tried to contact Rosen?
 
Try some toothpaste first. Not gel toothpaste - good old fashioned toothpaste like Colgate or the original Crest. It's got a small amount of abrasives in it. Does wonders for the scratches on my cheapo reading glasses and my car's plastic headlight covers.
 
You can use Novus products plastic polishes- No 3, then, 2, then 1
 
JOhnH said:
Have you tried to contact Rosen?
Click to expand...

I did. As you might expect they told me that they recommend that users replace the visor panels in this event. At about $80/pair.
 
AcroBoy said:
You can use Novus products plastic polishes- No 3, then, 2, then 1
Click to expand...

Art VanDelay said:
Try some toothpaste first. Not gel toothpaste - good old fashioned toothpaste like Colgate or the original Crest. It's got a small amount of abrasives in it. Does wonders for the scratches on my cheapo reading glasses and my car's plastic headlight covers.
Click to expand...

Since the visors are still functional, I'd rather not risk making them worse while testing different treatments. I was hoping to find a method already used successfully on Rosen panels. Have you seen the Novus products used successfully to remove scratches from Rosen visors?
 
Art VanDelay said:
Try some toothpaste first. Not gel toothpaste - good old fashioned toothpaste like Colgate or the original Crest. It's got a small amount of abrasives in it. Does wonders for the scratches on my cheapo reading glasses and my car's plastic headlight covers.
Click to expand...

Another benefit is the nice minty smell......:rolleyes:
 
bkspero said:
I did. As you might expect they told me that they recommend that users replace the visor panels in this event. At about $80/pair.
Click to expand...
In that case, I'd use any of the suggestions mentioned above. It the don't work, well then you replace the visor panels.
 
I finally broke down and tried some things and it worked. First tried toothpaste and auto compound, but neither was aggressive enough to remove the gouges, and both left visible haze. I next tried wet sanding with 600 grit paper, and that removed the scratches but left the visors translucent. Good news was that the color seems to go all the way through.

So I tried a 3M headlight restoration kit that comes with various sanding disks, a drill attachment, a polishing pad, and polishing compound. Bypassed the coarsest grit (400) since the gouges had already been sanded out. That left 800 grit dry and 1200 grit wet sanding, followed by poloshing compound. Went quickly. Each level took about 20 minutes to do both sides of both visors. Ten minutes to wash them clean and clean the work area for the next step. About 2 hours for the whole job.
 
A windscreen restoration kit will do the job nicely.
 
Find a pilot with a polished airplane ... I'll bet he can get it out.

Correction: Find a pilot with a polished bird who polishes his own airplane and I'll bet he can get 'er done. :)
 
Send pictures with the light behind them, want to see how good that stuff is.
 
I missed some of the intervening messages but Rosen visor blades aren't coated at all. They're the raw acrylic material just as it comes from the manufacturer. When I ordered replacement blades (mine weren't scratched, but on the navion you have to make sure they're not sticking up before slamming the canopy closed), they still had the paper on them.
 
They are just colored plexiglass. Cut and marked up 1,000%. Probably make your own replacement blades if you contact a local or online plastics shop.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Send pictures with the light behind them, want to see how good that stuff is.
Click to expand...

Two before and two after. Sorry that the before photos aren't backlit. They were taken as a record of the way the hardware was assembled and not for show. You can see the many small and several large scratches on each one. Unfortunately the photos don't give a sense of the depth of the large scratches.

The after photos are representative of their current conditions.
 

Attachments

  • Before 1.jpg
    Before 1.jpg
    3.2 MB · Views: 61
  • Before 2.jpg
    Before 2.jpg
    3 MB · Views: 53
  • After 1.jpg
    After 1.jpg
    2.9 MB · Views: 57
  • After 2.jpg
    After 2.jpg
    2.8 MB · Views: 55
There are spray on anti-glare coats for acrylic that you could get too if you find glare a problem after polishing :)
 
And if you're not amazed, you're out less than $5.

But it might take 2 or 3 applications, buffings...
 
bkspero said:
I did. As you might expect they told me that they recommend that users replace the visor panels in this event. At about $80/pair.
Click to expand...

As someone else pointed out the Rosen blades are just plain old neutral colored acrylic (plexiglas). I ordered replacements a few years back. If you want to make your own it just takes something that will cut them to the shape you want (a woodworking bandsaw or scrollsaw will be fine) and a drill to make the holes. You can use your old blades as a template. Rosen even told me how to cut the blades (not that I learned anything) since I was fitting the 310 model into my Navion.

The value in the Rosen is the articulated arm and the STC paperwork they provide (not that I have understood why installing these visors rises to the level of a major modification, I just did mine with a log book entry.
 
You can order colored acrylic sheets on amazon. cut, drill, bolt, pop rivet. Done
 
There may be others that want to try the 3M "headlight restoration" kit, (I got from Amazon) so even though this is an old thread, I can add detail since I just tried it.... I learned a few things. This system works, but it will make you think you ruined them first. "Deep Scratches" on headlights are not deep scratches on Rosen Sun Visors. You can skip all the really abrasive levels (my kit had 500, 800 in it.) The key for almost all the scratches is the final polishing compound. I had a few scratches deeper than that but it took very little to buff those out. Clean them first as the kit says and then use the 3000 pad (this is the one that you add water.) Once you buff just those areas, it will turn translucent and you will think you ruined them..! Just make sure that the milky white left does not show the "deep" scratches. Then start with the rubbing compound. Put it on the polishing pad and and the sun visor and keep buffing at 90 degrees to the glass. It is hard to see progress as it is still covered in rubbing compound. Wipe with a dry , soft cloth ( not paper towel.) It will take several iterations and you have to do both sides (make sure you know which side the scratch is on.) Don't look at them through the light, you want to see them at an angle where the scratches will appear.
When you are done, they really do look virtually new. Thanks to bkspero and others for pointing me the right direction. Hope this helps.
 
Just did my Rosen visors this week. Along with all six windows in the cockpit inside and out. Used Novus #2 according to the directions and a lot of elbow grease. Came out beautifully. I may follow it up with Novus #3 tomorrow just to be obsessive.
 
You can also just order new blades from Rosen. I've got them in the Navion and I shut the canopy on them. They're great people to deal with. Really, they're just pieces of plexiglass (acrylic).
 
After my saga back in 2014 I found another option that some might want to consider (if you have access to, or know someone who has access to a laser cutter). As mentioned by others, Rosen panels seem to be ca. 1/8 inch thick (more like 0.120) dark tinted acrylic sheet (such as: https://www.estreetplastics.com/grey-smoked-transparent-plexiglass-acrylic-sheets-s/273.htm).

It cuts very well with a laser cutter. There's some work up front to measure and draw a blueprint of the visor in a CAD program (such as freeware LibreCad), but once that is done it takes only a handful of minutes to cut enough visors to last a lifetime. All the holes in place. No chips or rough edges to smooth. And if you're fortunate enough to live more than one lifetime, it is only a few minutes more work to make enough for a 2nd lifetime:).
 
As long as this thread started years back, thought I’d add on.

I haven’t looked into it much, but how does one tighten the Rosen visors? I tried simple Allen head tools to no effect. I just feel they swing to easily, can even swing up to touch the window if not careful.

I guess I could contact Rosen, just asking.
 
bkspero said:
Do you have experience with these products on Rosen visors? I am concerned that these products abrade and polish the surface, and while that is fine for treating uncoated plastic, it could cause a bigger problem if the Rosen visors have a surface coating (maybe to reduce glare, or for tinting, etc.). So I was hoping to find someone who had worked with Rosen visors and knew for certain.
Click to expand...
The Rosen visors have no "coating" on them. They're plain old plexiglass that still have the manufacturer's paper on it when they're shipped.
 
sourdough44 said:
As long as this thread started years back, thought I’d add on.

I haven’t looked into it much, but how does one tighten the Rosen visors? I tried simple Allen head tools to no effect. I just feel they swing to easily, can even swing up to touch the window if not careful.

I guess I could contact Rosen, just asking.
Click to expand...
The Allen head screws do tighten the movements. It took a little more force (torque) to turn them than I expected. Try again just a little harder.
 
I’ll look into it again, just a quick try last time. Thanks.


Edit to say, it worked. A little more effort on the Allen head screws & the tension is perfect.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top