Dreaming of a clear Christmas - get the yellow off my icicles

December 17, 2014 9:48 AM

My lovely clear plastic icicles have aged through the years and I need help returning them to their pristine wintry looks.

I have some nice clear plastic (acrylic I think) icicles that I hang on my porch roof edge every Christmas. Looks nice and wintery even if it's 70 outdoors. Through the years the plastic has yellowed to the point of looking like a smokers teeth.

Is there anyway to get the yellow off? The icicles are very textured so polishing them won't work.

Always enjoy the help folk receive here on AMF, thanks to everyone.

posted by leafwoman to Grab Bag (6 answers total)

If other tactics don't work or go poorly, you could just paint them white.
posted by XMLicious at 9:51 AM on December 17, 2014

But perhaps that stuff you use on head lights might work.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 9:53 AM on December 17, 2014

But perhaps that stuff you use on head lights might work.

You can often use whitening (i.e. non-gel) toothpaste for the same effect.
posted by jessamyn at 9:54 AM on December 17, 2014 [2 favorites]

Some ideas from EHow.
posted by bearwife at 9:54 AM on December 17, 2014

Cleaning and restoring yellowed plastic
posted by soelo at 9:55 AM on December 17, 2014 [3 favorites]

There's a tiny snip of discussion about using Retr0bright (discussed in soelo's link) on clear plastic here.
posted by kmennie at 11:59 AM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]