Cleaning Plastic Dash

[CTsalt12]

Hey Yall,

Anybody know a good way to clean the hardened plastic aquasport dashes?  Link to picture of the style dash I'm talking about is below.  Mine is all crusty, chalky, oxidized, faded etc.  I tried brushes / scrubbing etc but this just makes it worse, the harder I scrub the more roughed up and worse it looks.  I'd like it to be smooth and clean looking as you might imagine.  






https://www.google.com/search?q=aquaspo ... B800%3B600

[redemn93]

i dont think those are the factory pieces.  if i remember right, the factory stuff is grey and they arent plastic.  are you sure its plastic?  is like a thin starboard?  if it is plastic, remove it, sand till all the rough chalky stuff is gone and either paint it or go over with high grit and try to polish it if its something that can be polished.

[Capt. Bob]

Most likely it's acrylic plastic. Super smooth out of the mold (not at all unlike gel coat on your hull) but with time the surface develops pits. Mother Nature and the Sun are merciless over time and you will be hard pressed to get any kind of smoothness back. You certainly didn't help it but you tried. You could try sanding with ever increasing fineness of sandpaper but even then, acrylic doesn't act like gel coat. Painting might help some :|  but still......

Your best bet for a good looking dash is to replace the old with new.

Good luck.

Edit: You're right Red, they may just be starboard.
The Gallery shows an 87 and it is indeed grey plus when you look close, there are no cracked corners. Unheard of on just about any Aqua dash that old.

[wingtime]

The dash on my 87 170 is a grey plastic or even mica of some kind...  Aquasport is engraved into it revealing a darker layer underneath.  It it not starboard nor acrylic.  My bet is some type of two layer plastic used for engraving.