stained faceplate

[sumday]

as a sometime radio listener I had been on the lookout for a cheap as chips tuner and recently bagged a PIONEER TX6500 from a local charity shop for the princely sum of a fiver.
as said tuner was heavily smoke stained I had the ahem, bright idea of whipping off the heavy aluminium facia and subjecting it and the knobs to a "clean".
my mistake was to to use a bleach based foam cleaner which I must admit got rid of the brown gunk.
however, upon assembly I now notice the nice, clean front as a white haze across much of the surface.
have I screwed the pooch, or is this removeable without fetching the lettering off??

of course theres not much to lose cashwise but it has all the lamps in good order and looks the biz in a 70s retro, late night mode!!!

[Barry]

as a sometime radio listener I had been on the lookout for a cheap as chips tuner and recently bagged a PIONEER TX6500 from a local charity shop for the princely sum of a fiver.
as said tuner was heavily smoke stained I had the ahem, bright idea of whipping off the heavy aluminium facia and subjecting it and the knobs to a "clean".
my mistake was to to use a bleach based foam cleaner which I must admit got rid of the brown gunk.
however, upon assembly I now notice the nice, clean front as a white haze across much of the surface.
have I screwed the pooch, or is this removeable without fetching the lettering off??

of course theres not much to lose cashwise but it has all the lamps in good order and looks the biz in a 70s retro, late night mode!!!

Would it be possible for you to provide a photograph of the cleaned facia, as I'm not sure what you mean by a "white haze". Exactly what was the 'bleach based foam cleaner' you used? Does the facia have a textured surface or is it anodised aluminium?

You could try recleaning the fascia with hand soap and water.

[istari_knight]

I had a Marantz receiver once with white "hazey" fascia & knobs. I guessed someone had used a very strong cleaner on it which had damaged the clear lacquer coat on the aluminium... I used a buffer on a mini dremel to shine up the knobs but couldn't do the fascia without destroying the lettering :(

[jandl100]

Interesting thread - my recently acquired 'ornamental' (i.e. non-working :eyebrows:) Big Mutha Rotel RA-1412 amp has light but noticeable on close inspection nicotine stains on the faceplate that won't come off with the (Mr Muscle) cleaning I have so far tried.
It looks "OK" as-is, but it would be even nicer if it had a brighter and shinier faceplate.

Any suggestions for safely removing nicotine stains from faceplates? :)

[Kember]

This stuff has worked for me without incident on aluminium in the past - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blue-magic-all-purpose-cleaning-solution-500ml-bottle-makes-up-to-50ltrs-/371083623447?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item56664ebc17

As has an automotive clay bar and associated fluid.

And organic (!) whitening toothpaste (to avoid any nasty ammonia. )Do not use anything with ammonia in it as it tends to lift lettering.

The trick is to be gentle and repeat cleans rather than roll up sleeves and scrub furiously.

P

[The Barbarian]

Nigel
I did some 'Trio' KA2000a' Amplifier face plates a bit back with that cleaner where that blokes shouts on the advert :D However the faceplates were brushed aluminium with Engraved lettering, if the lettering was not i would not have used it. However i did get a bit of whitening. What i used was liquid wax polish, this got rid of the white, gave it a loverly sheen & also protected the brush effect from dirt..

[walpurgis]

If the lacquer itself has developed a matt 'bloom' to the surface, put a dab of automotive clear acrylic lacquer on a bit that won't show and see if that livens the appearance up. I've found that applying lacquer to dulled surfaces that are already lacquered, covers the haze and brings them up like new. But experiment first.

[sumday]

thanks chaps...i'll try the wax tip first.
the funny thing is I have cleaned a few aluminium faced pieces of kit in the past with foaming CIF type product to no ill effect.
I guess I didn't notice the cheaper stuff I was using contained bleach.

NIGE

[Barry]

Interesting thread - my recently acquired 'ornamental' (i.e. non-working :eyebrows:) Big Mutha Rotel RA-1412 amp has light but noticeable on close inspection nicotine stains on the faceplate that won't come off with the (Mr Muscle) cleaning I have so far tried.
It looks "OK" as-is, but it would be even nicer if it had a brighter and shinier faceplate.

Any suggestions for safely removing nicotine stains from faceplates? :)

Soap and water. I cleaned up a heavily smoke stained Quad FM2 tuner using nothing more than soap and water. See here (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?7659-On-the-cosmetic-refurbishment-of-used-classic-or-vintage-audio-equipment) for the results.