Best way to clean white binnacle

[Matty]

What's the best way to clean up the white binnacles. Ive got the plastic type but it has discoloured where it goes through the dash panel, its gone a kind of brown colour.

Repainting it is an option, but it would be nice to be able to clean it up instead.

Any ideas lads?

Cheers
Matt

[66S]

Hi Matt,
You will find that only part of the discolouration will come off. The staining seems to go right in to the plastic. Vinyl paint would work well, if you chose that path.

Regards
Al

[Matty]

Ah ok, do you know what colour is the closest match to the original, as its kind of an off white?

[mk1]

If the staining is only surface, toothpaste will bring it off, but as Al says they usually stain rioght through the plastic.

[Toby]

dishwasher, it really works well!

[Matty]

Ive managed to get it from this:



to this:



I used 400grit, then 800, 1200 with soapy water, then tried some T cut on it, but its no where near as glossy as it originally was. Whats the best way of getting the shine back? 2000grit then polish with some fancy plastic polish?

[minitravellerman]

I tried in vain to get rid of the discolouration in the binnacle of my '62 Mini Minor. I used all sorts of cleaning agents without any luck. So in the end armed with a rattle tin of grey plastic primer and Old English White it came up like new. Perhaps not the exact shade of white but close enough of me.

[Matty]

I did the same, I tried tooth paste (white extra whitening!), bleach, some other cleaning agents (not sure what it was but it tingled on the fingers) Im trying my best to not spray it to keep original, but may end up spraying if I can't polish it up. Were they laquered from new?

[Tim]

I've never done a binnacle, but we polish acrylic and polycarbonate with brasso at work.

Tim