Help - best way to remove Gumption abrasions from high gloss finish?

[JustGus]

Despite advising not to use Gumption on a mark our media cabinet, which has a white, high gloss "piano" finish, someone chose to ignore this and I'm left with the task of trying to repair it. You can easily see the abrasion in the light and I'm hoping there's a not too difficult way of doing this. If I just get the finest sandpaper available, attach it to an orbital sander, then get some sort of pad to buff it with, will that do the trick? If so, any recommendations on specific materials (sandpaper, buffing material, any sort of finish that may be required) would be hugely appreciated.
Cheers!

[Big Shed]

Stay away from normal "sandpaper" or wet and dry paper, all basically too coarse.

One product to consider is Micro Mesh which goes through grits 2400 - 8000 (most wet and dry stops at 1200 or 2400). The kit linked to also includes a polishing medium and pad etc.

Most penturners on this forum use this material to polish their pens that are made from polyester or acrylic resin.

You may need to give a final polish with a good auto polish (not an extra-cut type).

Or take it to a crash repairer and get them to buff it for you.

[Master Splinter]

Car buffing compound.

[JustGus]

Hi Big Shed and Master Splinter. Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. Here's hoping with a bit of elbow grease, I can get this thing back to its former glossiness!

[Bob38S]

Avoid any polish which contains any kind of silicone. Look specifically for " does NOT contain silicone".

Anything which which contains silicone will cause you no end of problems when you come to refinishing anything.

[surfdabbler]

You may need some sandpaper (wet-dry) to take out big scratches, but if they are just 'abrasion' type marks, then forget the sand paper. Even 2000 grit WD paper will leave abrasion marks on a mirror finish.

I second the recommendations to use car polish (not just a wax, but an actual fine polish). If you have a power sander, you can get a sheepskin pad to go over the business end, and use that for buffing, or just lots of elbow grease. Brasso actually doesn't make a bad first step polish after fine sandpaper, but doesn't quite get it to the mirror stage. One fine finishing polish I've had good luck with is Meguires Scratch X - it has a variable grade polish, so when it first comes out of the tube, it is a coarser polish, and the harder you work it, the more the particles break down into finer polish. It's a lot of work though.

However, if you project is small enough to pick up, the best solution I've found is a loose leaf calico buffing wheel on a grinder, with a really fine polishing compound on it. If your polishing from paper, you can stop at about 600 grit and move to the polish wheel, whereas car polishes want the finish done to about 1500 before breaking out the polish. The buffing wheel gets a pretty good finish on its own - very little work, and gets it right to the mirror stage, and can be followed with the Scratch-X if you really want to be picky, or you can go straight to a nice wax. If you can't pick up your item, you might even want to consider finding a portable solution to running a calico wheel, such as a drill-based wheel.

With any of the power tool solutions, just be careful and know when to stop. You don't want to burn through the finish. Take your time and work slowly toward the final result. Whatever you do, start in an inconspicuous place on the item, so that if anything bad happens, it won't be disastrous.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

In a pinch I've also made a cutting paste from very fine grade Talcum Powder...

...but this is something I'd recommend practice on a sacrificial piece with first!