Creative > How-To

How do you remove stress marks?

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playmofire:
Thanks for the replies, folks.

Sanding lightly has helped a bit and on another site there was mention of heating the plastic and then reshaping it gently.  I shall try this with a hair dryer.  (The side of the chassis has bowed out very slighty, though you need to look closely from above to see this.)

If necessary, I will look into painting part or all of the chassis. :(

Psyche:

--- Quote from: playmofire on January 04, 2006, 17:52:57 ---Thanks for the replies, folks.

Sanding lightly has helped a bit and on another site there was mention of heating the plastic and then reshaping it gently.  I shall try this with a hair dryer.  (The side of the chassis has bowed out very slighty, though you need to look closely from above to see this.)

If necessary, I will look into painting part or all of the chassis. :(

--- End quote ---

Heating and reshaping can help a lot depending on the sharp of the item and severity of the stess mark. I heat gun (used for many crafts) used at a distance is more effective than a blow dryer (and much faster.) But still, you can only do so much.

Painting may indeed help.

matchboxluc:
A stress mark is in fact many tiny cracks in the plastic concentrated in a small area. These cracks are dispersing the colour of the plastic and weaken it, making it look lighter. Heating it may fuse the cracks together again, thus bringing back the colour.

playmofire:
The hair dryer approach seems to have made a slight difference.

I'm loath to try too much heat in case I damage the bodywork itself.  (Removing and replacing the body was what caused the stress marks.)

I may try holding a hot soldering iron close to.

Little Jo:
I'm really curious about your results. (I hope it works)

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