Hi Kev,
It seems that we were both working on polishing Beogram 4000 dustcovers prior to the Christmas holidays while using the same brand products. What a coincidence.
I too was caught up in all the holiday activities, so I missed your communication. Sorry about that.
I am interested to learn how the Micro-mesh belt worked out. From the sounds of it, this process was a whole lot less work than what I attempted.
I was using the Micro-Surface “Surface restoral kit,” beginning with their 2400 grit sandpaper and progressively moving to finer grits: 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, and ultimately 8000. I used a bit of dishwashing soap as a lubricant, which seemed to work well.
This is a tedious process.
I was recently gifted with a replacement Beogram 4000 dustcover as mine had nicks that are essentially beyond removal. (Possible, but would take forever.) Plus the dustcover on my 4000 did not have the B&O logos or Danish Crown, two tasteful items that are in place on my replacement cover and much appreciated.
With a cursory view, this replacement dustcover appeared in very good shape. However, it did have a few deeper scratches that required the patience of Job to remove. Literally hours were spent on two particular scratches.
The main problem, as you know is you really can’t tell how much progress you have made while you are working on the scratch. Only after the Plexiglas is completely dry can you ascertain what progress has or has not been made.
Plus, at least in my case, there were several times that I “felt” that I have been successful in removing these deeper scratches only to find out that I had been over optimistic once I reached a high level of surface condition.
I went back once, when I found I had missed a scratch, but two other times I just decided to allow a bit of “patina.”
The 8000 grit was very good, but I imagine that I might have done even better with 10,000 and 12,000 grit.
None the less my “secret weapon” was the Griot’s random orbital polisher. Well the polisher plus their polish and Best of Show wax. This Griot polisher is the best unit I have ever found (and I have been polishing high end cars for years) and it really took care of all those tiny….tiny scratches left during the overall wet-sanding process.
The main reason this project took so long is I had just as many scratches under the dustcover as I had on top, no doubt do to storage over the years. A dustcover taken directly off a turntable is highly unlikely to have any scratches under the cover, just on top and perhaps the outer sides.
Mine had an equal amount under the cover, which was a bit harder to wet-sand and infinitely more difficult using the orbital polisher. I brushed the sides several times by accident and each time created another scuff I had to remove. “Two steps forward and one step back…”
However, the end result was really very good and I am a perfectionist, like you.
Cheers,
Jeff