Scratch On Screen

[corgansmuzzle]

i just got my etrex legend a week or so ago, and i already have a scratch on the screen. does anybody know anyway to get scratches out?

 

i probably should have just invested in the carrying case to begin with.... but whatever....

 

any help would be appreciated.

 

dan

[+mikeatnight]

DONT USE A DREMEL TOOL!!!!! I ruined mine that way. Cost $51 to get it replaced

[Team Sidewinder]

I have used Meguires scratch X to remove minor scratches from my gps. Meguires Medalion paint sealer will remove scratches with lots of elbow grease ( work ). These can be picked up at a auto parts outlet and I am sure there are other plastic scratch remedies out there. A screen protector from strong engineering. It has saved many scratches on my gps.

[+CompuCash]

tooth paste -

 

use your finger in a circular pattern -

 

Colgate works great - then some wax to polish it

 

or you can go buy a scratch remover polisher with the same stuff in it

 

do a search on the forum as there was a long good one a while back on this same subject -

 

cc\

[+Renegade Knight]

I have used Meguires scratch X to remove minor scratches from my gps. Meguires Medalion paint sealer will remove scratches with lots of elbow grease ( work ). These can be picked up at a auto parts outlet and I am sure there are other plastic scratch remedies out there. A screen protector from strong engineering. It has saved many scratches on my gps.

This would work fairly well. I've used Maguires for other things.

 

When you are done, you can also get screen protectors for your GPS. They work very well unless you drop your GPS straight onto a sharp rock that cuts throug the protector. Not that I've done that...

[FiddlinFool]

A word of caution based on my experience in the past few days:

 

I have a GPSmap60C that's only a few weeks old which picked up a couple of fairly bad scratches. As a builder of guitars, mandolins, fiddles, etc, I'm very accustomed to delicate polishing jobs removing scratches from very thin coats of lacquer, so I decided to try my hand at polishing out the scratches on the screen.

 

First, I got hold of a piece of similar polycarbonate material to practice on and made several scratches similar to those on my GPSr screen using an awl and some fine sandpaper. Using Maguires No. 4 Heavy Cut Cleaner, followed by No. 7, No. 10 and No. 50, I was easily able to return the plastic surface of my practice piece to as-new condition, so I started in on my GPSr.

 

I was able to remove all of the scuffing and nearly all of the two deep scratches using the same method, but I wound up with two bad side effects:

 

1) Polishing converted the deep, sharp-edged scratches to very shallow divots with rounded edges. Although the marks are substantially reduced, they are actually much more noticeable now that they've been "rounded out".

 

2) I now have a "halo" effect around the remnants of the scratches, caused, I think, by having reduced the thickness of the plastic plate by a few thousandths of an inch locally. This resulted in a diffraction effect that projects a circular halo shadow onto the actual screen beneath the cover plate. It's quite noticeable and distracting.

 

So, here are my recommendations:

 

If your screen is severely scratched, go to it, you can make dramatic improvements by polishing (by hand) and you've got little to lose.

 

If you have any fairly deep, sharp edged scratches, you may want to live with them as is rather than risk the problems I encountered. If you do try to polish them out, Make sure you polish THE ENTIRE SCREEN evenly. Don't focus your polishing work on the scratched area or you'll wind up with a locally thinned area that can cause a halo-like shadow.

 

I think I can improve my situtation quite a bit by polishing the entire screen, but it's going to take a lot of work to get the whole thing levelled out.

 

My two cents.

[FiddlinFool]

Also, Don't apply to much pressure while rubbing with your finger. It appears to me that the center of the screen can deflect enough to contact the display beneath.

 

Don't use any type of pile cloth for polishing, such as terrycloth towel material, as the polishing compound can build up between the piles and do more harm than good. T-shirt material works great, as do cotton balls. Only polish by hand, no motorized polishers, such as dremels.

[+Tahoe Skier5000]

I dont know... Ive done more damage to the screen of a GPS by trying to REMOVE scratches. Tried the ol' toothpaste method and the car polish method, nada. I think its pretty funny the extent some of you guys above go to just to remove a scratch.

 

If the scratch isnt that deep, just learn to live with it.

Edited July 15, 2005 by Tahoe Skier5000

[FiddlinFool]

Hmm, it may be funny to see the antics of we poor suckers trying to clean up our screens, but sounds like you used to be one of us if you had those experiences.

 

I did successfully get all the scratches out of my 60C, BTW, looks just like new. Took a lot of elbow grease though.

[+park2]

I got some scratches out of my 76CS but discovered I also removed what was probably an anti-glare coating. The screen is much shinier now and more fussy about being perpendicular to my eyes.

 

I kinda noticed that as I was sanding (1000 grit or something stupid like that) then polishing (with 2 grits of paste) that two seperate layers of stuff were coming off of the lens so I had to expand out my sanding so it was all taken off evenly.

 

In the future.. I'd live with the scratches unless they were *real* bad

[Team Sidewinder]

I got some scratches out of my 76CS but discovered I also removed what was probably an anti-glare coating. The screen is much shinier now and more fussy about being perpendicular to my eyes.

 

I kinda noticed that as I was sanding (1000 grit or something stupid like that) then polishing (with 2 grits of paste) that two seperate layers of stuff were coming off of the lens so I had to expand out my sanding so it was all taken off evenly.

 

In the future.. I'd live with the scratches unless they were *real* bad

EEK. That is a good thing to know. I always install a strong engineering screen saver when I get a new gps as it saves having to go through this proceedure.

[+2 CBR]

I've had good luck using Novus brand scratch remover on my eTrex Vista. The product comes in two formulas, number two for fine scratches and number three for heavy scratches. If using number three, it must be followed up with number two to remove the haze. FiddlinFool lists some good techniques for the scratch removal process

[SergZak]

Since there's some risk involved (as others have pointed out) with trying to polish out scratches, you could try installing a screen protector before trying the "polish out" method. The adhesive on the back of the screen protector will tend to fill in the scratch and make it much less noticable (it may even disappear completely). On top of that, your screen will now be protected from future scratches. The trick to getting a good appearance with a screen protector is to eliminate any air bubbles by working slowly from one side to the other, keeping one side lifted off the screen while slowly pressing down the side you are working from. Don't plunk it down all at once on the screen and expect the bubbles to squeeze out later...they won't, especially the ones in the middle.

[flir67]

I had a few scratches on my explorist 600, my friend recommended apple computer polish which is called "apple sauce" its made to get the scratches out of ipod screens. he did mine and turned out pretty good. look for it on ebay.

Edited July 18, 2005 by flir67