Acrylic tank polishing service?

[hose91]

I have a 60" acrylic tank in my garage that has been on my project list. I got it for relatively cheap, and it needs some work which I was originally willing to do, but with summer approaching and some other external life factors, it seems like I may not be able to get to this one any time soon. I would, however, still like to set it up and use it. Therefore, I'm wondering if those members with connections in the tank manufacturing or plastics industry have any suggestions for a commercial establishment that could take the tank and apply some professional level polishing tools to it for a modest fee? PM's are fine if you'd rather not put company names in a post.

 

[Bob]

I dont know any companies off hand. But i can't imagine it being cheap. I've restored a 55 and 90 gallon acrylic. It's not hard it just takes forever. I think the hourly rate would probably add up quick.

 

[L190]

How bad is it? does it have deep scratches? if it doesn't, you could just polish it with a car headlight kit, it doesn't that that long if that is the case

 

[hose91]

Good questions. It's fairly rough, but I've not yet even cleaned it up with water and vinegar, so I don't actually know how bad. There are a couple of deep ones, but it's hard to say how they'd look when tank is filled. It will go in my garage fish "alcove" and not as a show tank, so I've got some wiggle room. We do have a headlight polishing kit, and I have the Novus 1-2-3 kit as well. I'll probably end up doing it myself, but was hopeful there was another easy option from a local tank or plastic manufacturer. Vicmacki makes a good point about costs, too.

 

[L190]

When I worked on a 100 gallon tank I received, it took me almost a month to get it show tank ready. The tank was in bad shape though, lots of sub-surface crazing. I went from 220 to 1500 grit using a palm sander and finish polishing with a headlight polishing kit using meguiars polishing compound.

 

[krislhull]

Look for a MicroMesh kit. They are acrylic polishing kits and work very well. It takes some time and effort to use, but the results are very much worth it. It is what I use in my day job as an aircraft mechanic to polish passenger windows on airliners, as well as polish out scratches on cockpit windscreens, which all have an inner acrylic layer.