How can I make my creative zen shiny again?

May 11, 2007 2:44 PM

My mp3 player (creative zen V) has gained a few scratches in daily use. What would be best to polish them out?

Since christmas, when i got it, my Mp3 player has been used quite a bit, only problem is that it is now covered in very fine scratches, which nobody else might notice, but it annoys me.

What would be the best way to get rid of said scratches, preferably cheaply.

posted by Iananan to technology (7 comments total)

For scratches on the face of a watch, a dab of toothpaste is abraisive enough to smooth out the scratch without damaging the surface. Don't know if it would on plastic, but it may be worth a try.
posted by SBMike at 3:30 PM on May 11, 2007

Remove the case, then use a cloth buffing wheel impregnated with White and/or Red jeweler's rouge? Takes the scratches out of CDs. (Note: Check out the links at the bottom of the page for detailed polishing directions.)

A set of buffing wheels will set you back @$10 and an assortment of buffing compounds is $9 or so. You can get the whole kit for $20. This assumes that you {have, can borrow} a drill or bench grinder, of course.
posted by Orb2069 at 3:39 PM on May 11, 2007

I have had good luck with brasso and a microfibre cloth. I've polished up cd's, scratched xbox discs, the metal side of my ipod and the plastic face of my cycling computer which got some rock chips when I went down one day. I've also used it at work to polish up acrylic when we didn't have any acrylic polishing paste.
posted by isopraxis at 4:10 PM on May 11, 2007

This is the bomb
posted by hortense at 4:12 PM on May 11, 2007

It seems the toothpaste has worked a small minty miracle. It's not done yet, but the scratches are slowly vanishing. thanks SBMike
posted by Iananan at 5:01 PM on May 11, 2007

Like ispraxis, I've also used brasso, but for my poor scratched up iPod and it worked fairly well. It didn't rid of any horrible deep scratches, but it made the small scratches appear less noticable.
posted by nakedsushi at 6:56 PM on May 11, 2007

If you've not already done this, invest in a silicone case. I've had a Creative Zen Micro since October 2005, and it's only picked up scratches in the last 6 months or so.
posted by saturnine at 10:11 AM on May 12, 2007