Re-glossing keys

[solarpanelasses]

I've been restoring an SCI Prophet 600 that some idiot decided to engrave and then paint the keys. I've tediously removed all the paint and sanded down all the keys. Needless to say the keys have now lost their glossy finish and almost feel porous.

I cannot for the life of me find anything about refinishing keys anywhere on the web. Has anyone done this or know of a great way to do it? I figured I will just have to spray poly them, but could it be as easy as just using a wax or a glaze and rebuff them to new? Please help! I don't want to have to buy a new set of keys!

[thealien666]

Maybe a polishing compound and a buffer, like the ones they use to polish car paint ? Don't know if it would work on plastic though...

[chromium]

^^^ that

I had polished the keybed on my four voice when I was restoring it, and it feels b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. I just did it by hand using some "3M Finesse-It II" that I had left over from another project, and I'm sure there are probably other compounds that would work equally well.






Also, since you've sanded your key tops you might want to start out by wet sanding them with increasingly fine grits of sandpaper and make the job of buffing them easier. Once you hit #1500-2000 grit, I'd expect the lustre to return. You'd probably want to use a sanding block and light touch to preserve the shape of the keys.

Might also check into finding replacement keytops or a parts unit, since this sounds like it could be a lot of work!

[solarpanelasses]

Awesome! thanks for the advice, ill definitely give the wet sand and that finesse-it a try, did you use a buffer at all for the compound or just a rag and some elbow grease?

[chromium]

Awesome! thanks for the advice, ill definitely give the wet sand and that finesse-it a try, did you use a buffer at all for the compound or just a rag and some elbow grease?

No prob- hope it works out for you! Sounds like a really tedious job. Its one of those bubble contact keyboards, right? I know you can buy new keytops for the Pratt Read stuff, but not sure about those.....

Anyway, I polished the keys on that unit above by hand with a rag, but keep in mind that it was in nice shape to begin with.... just had many years worth of hairline scratches that dulled the keys' appearance. Didn't take much to bring the shine out. In your case, I'd still try to let the wet sanding with progressively finer grits of sandpaper take care of the tough work and get the keys back to a point where they're smooth and shiny again... and then bring it home with the rubbing compound. This is the same approach one would use with auto/guitar refinishing, and IME many plastics will respond similarly. Here's a bass that I refinished not too long ago using that exact approach.. You can see how reflective the surface ended up in this pic (used an orbital buffer on this one, though)

[hand solo]

good golly Joe that bass is gorgeous! did you paint it with a compressor or rattle-can?

does it have a clearcoat as well? i have a guitar project and want to use a similar color..is that
ReRanch Lake Placid Blue by chance?

[chromium]

good golly Joe that bass is gorgeous! did you paint it with a compressor or rattle-can?

does it have a clearcoat as well? i have a guitar project and want to use a similar color..is that
ReRanch Lake Placid Blue by chance?

Thanks! That one was done using Reranch's Ocean Turquoise (a '65 Mercury color, also used on Fenders of that era). I wanted something that resembled an aged/yellowed Gibson Pelham Blue... and that came close enough for me. Reranch's Lake Placid Blue also looks great - it's just a bit darker than what I was going for here.

This project consumed:
(1) can of Bartley's wood paste (pore-filling for the mahogany)
(2) cans of Reranch Sand&Sealer
(2) cans of BIN primer
(1) can of Ocean Turquoise nitrocellulose lacquer. I sprayed four fairly dry coats in total.
(2) cans of nitrocellulose clear

...and a lot of patience!

[kaseijin]

I've polished keys with toothpaste, to decent results. They smell minty fresh, too!