Hey everyone, Figured this would be the best place to get some advice and help on our recently acquired and original Boby Cart at a garage sale for $20! We've been pining for one forever and somehow this weekend it fell into our laps. It still could use some love though. Mostly we're wondering the best way to get rid of some of the leftover paint/ink residue that the previous owner (obviously an artist) left behind. We know about Novus 1 & 2 and so far it's doing an ok job with some of the scratches but the other residue still is giving us problems. We're cautious to use things like "Goo Gone" but have considered it followed up by Novus. Any ideas? Also, we're unsure if the ABS plastic was coated or not. We'd like to know how much stronger is Novus 3 and if it's safe for the Boby. We opted to not pick it up since it had a warning about "coated plastics." Some of the scratches though seem too tough for Novus 2 and aren't disappearing like we hoped. Thanks again!
Um, experience...
... not a lot. Thoughts, a couple.
There are all kinds of solvents that will remove oil paint, acrylic paint, marker or pen marks as well as other art materials. But why not embrace the signs of use on your Boby? It was used for it's intended purpose, why not accept that and cherish the history your piece has?
If you want one that's shiny and perfect, maybe you should think about selling the one you found and putting that money towards a new one?
It's just my opinion, but perhaps the one you found has more soul than one in pristine condition. It may have helped facilitate some modern art masterpiece.
I'd love it and use it as it is.
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A vintage furniture place near me used to get their old kartell componobilli abs cabinets resprayed at an auto finishing shop, see link, but any heavy scratches will have to get filled, perhaps some polyster auto filler might work...BUT the finish never looked quite right to me, I was assured it was robust but wasn't confident of that.
Unless its in a truly awful state I'd just give it a good clean and accept it.
Paint? Mineral turps and that other other stuff, penetrol? Novus does sound good, just did some quick reading, yuck, no wonder Marc Newson refuses to go near it.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4925502_paint-abs-plastic.html
Novus 3
You should be fine using novus 3 on your boby. The plastic on a boby is not coated. Just plain ABS plastic. I would recommend using a buffer with the correct pad for novus 2 and 3 as the glossy finish in the plastic will stay more uniform. I would not recommend going over the whole thing with novus 3. I would use it only in the places you need it as the grit in the substance is quite abrasive. Also, There are many great products at automotive stores that you can use as most cars have ABS parts on them. Like was stated before test on the bottom or on another piece of abs (I have some old faded componibili tray tops that i use). Don't expect your piece to come out showroom perfect as it is probably 30 or more years old. Enjoy the heritage of the piece.
ABS
...or Acrylonitrile,Butadien,Styrene is a fine material,especially the one used by Kartell but it is very sensitive to solvents, so i would not try to remove the stains with any solvent. Plastics, with very few exceptions (PET a.o.) absorbes the volatile components of markers and the likes, so the colours might affect the plastic wall beyond the surface. The nice thing with A.B.S. is that it can be polished back to it's original state. Some of the suitable polishing agent have been mentioned already but anything that polishes acrylic will do (Acrylonitrile is the main component of A.B.S.)P.M.M.A, Polymethylmetacrylate is not the same but behaves in a similar way. The only thing to watch out for is too much friction, so hand polishing is safer. Waterproof sandpaper (200) is a good start if you want to take off major color marks,afterwards you can go back to finer grades before polishing. If you are handy with a razor blade as a scraping tool, that will work well to. But stay away from solvents! Good luck!
...haha...had a few in my...
...haha...had a few in my time but the one that stood out was picked up at an auction for a meaningless amount of $70.
The best condition I had seen, white (& I mean white), clean and a bargain price to boot
Upon leaving the auction room I asked my wife to carry it out, for obvious reasons...to me! But obviously not to her. Wheeling it out, unbeknowns to me, what do you think happened??? Yep, the bottom broke when she hit an uneven pathway.........aahhhhh!
No relevance to the OP but it made me laugh now...but then I could have ....... her. lol
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