Scratches/scuffs in dark plastic - how to best recover

  • Nominations will close March 25th. If you'd like to join the board and influence how TinkerDifferent runs in the next year, put your name in now!
  • Hey Guest, MARCHintosh 2026 is upon us. Check out community projects, join GlobalTalk, and have fun!

ScutBoy

Administrator
Staff member
Founder
Sep 2, 2021
359
343
63
Northfield, MN USA
The last couple of weeks have been "SGI Recovery" time. I've been working on a Octane, Indigos, and and Indy.

My question comes up since all of these have a dark plastic for their cases - blue in the case of the Indigos and green for the Octane. On these dark plastics, scratches and scuffs are light colored, as the surface of the plastic is abraded/deformed.

What is the best way to minimize the discoloration of these? It seems perhaps a combination of light abrasion and maybe some heat would do the trick, but that could also make the overall scuff more obvious since there's texture to the plastic. I'm curious if careful use of a light abrasive like toothpaste or very light Magic Eraser might do the trick. Likewise, are there any "conditioners" that might at least tone down the scratch?

Willing to experiment on an Indigo case that's very much the worse for wear if anyone has ideas to share!