Restoring
Your Original Scotty Sink
Many thanks to Jennifer Stott for this tutorial and pictures!
The sink before it was touched - a couple of burn marks that the previous
owner had touched up with blue paint, and very discolored.
Initial sanding on the left, versus untouched on the right
I had no deep cracks and a couple of deep burn
marks. After a lot of trying to buff, polish, compound, etc., this is what
worked for me:
- The burn marks were deep, but didn't go through the sink. I used a small
Dremel tool and a stone tip to gently sand those down. After refinishing,
you can still see the marks, but they aren't very noticeable.
- Wet sand with 220
wet/dry sandpaper and and plenty of water until your color is returned
to the Scotty blue. It takes plenty of elbow grease and some areas are
hard to get to because of the awkward angles. Rinse your sand paper and
the sink with water frequently. You will see the fine blue (looks whitish)
being sanded off. I also used a paper towel to stuff my drain so most
of my sanding residue didn't go down my drain but rinsed with a lot of
water if any made it passed my block. (I would start with the side table
as that can be easily unscrewed to work on flat surface.)
- Follow with 320 grit and then 600 grit. (These two grits are to take
out the scratches you just put in with the 220 sand paper.) The wet sanding
paper can be found at NAPA auto parts or Home
Depot.
- Next buff
with polishing compound (like the one made for cars).
Turtle wax makes a great one.
- Finally
use a product called Gel-Gloss. I found this at Home
Depot by the sinks area. It is a Carnuba wax based product designed for
fiberglass and marble and even recommended for RVs. It resists stains
and puts a glossy sheen back on. The only problem I found with this product,
is that
you have to let it dry fully before using a soft cloth to buff it. It
takes a few hours to dry to a white film. I kept getting impatient,
trying to buff too soon, and then the shine is not as nice.
- If you did not sand enough with the 600 grit, you will see minor scratches.
Go back and resand with the 600 grit and regloss. I have used the since
since doing this and it resisted staining well.
- I did not do a fiberglass gel coat as I am happy with my current results.
There are still a few areas that can be sanded further (such as the corners
of the sinks) and I may go back and do that at some point but I am done
for now.
What didn't work- all my other less invasive approaches! Compound alone
will work if you have a few hundred hours to work on it. The more abrasive
red polishing compound stained and didn't work. The buffing tool (too large)
and the small buffing pad attached to the
end of a drill were useless too. I tried a few other polishing creams and
they didn't get me any further ahead. Wish I had tried the wet sanding first!
I of course started with a finer grit and only tried the 220 grit when I
was out of the 320 grit and 220 grit was all my husband had in
the garage. Wish I had started out with the 220 as it would have gone much
quicker.
Left side untouched, right side done!
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