one of the salesguys here tried to clean a 4G 20 gigger Clickwheel iPod to prepare it for resale…
but he tried cleaning it with Goof Off (active ingredients are Xylene and Methyl Carbitol, essentially printing press deglazing solvent), he put some Goof Off on a paper towel, and rested the iPod plastic-side down (i’m sure it’s ABS plastic) on the paper towel, leaving it there for a couple of minutes
the face of the iPod is now completely gobbed up , there’s a layer of…stuff on the plastic, it looked like residue from a paper towel, but it feels plasticky, i think it’s the topmost layer of case plastic, i tried using citrus cleaner to remove it, tried even scraping away at it with a knife blade, it’s not budging
are there any cleaners that can remove the crud, or is this iPod destined for the parts bin
no, he didn’t read the cautions on the goof off, which clearly state;
“Always pretest on inconspicuous area first, may damage plastics, vinyls, fiberglass and oxidized metals”
I’ve seen a website where they used rubbing compound (as in, the kind used on cars to give a factory shine) on an iPod nano to remove scratches and such. My understanding was that it just removed the very topmost layer of the plastic, so that might work for you.
Novus plastic polish works wonders on scuffs and nicks, but this is beyond something that can be polished, I fear. There’s scuffs, and then there’s dissolved.
As even sven says, there’s someone out there that will buy an iPod so ugly it’s theft-proof if it still works.
The plastic has been distorted. It’s a goner, aesthetically at least.
I actually have experience with this sort of situation. I used acetone to remove a sticker from the back of my graphing calculator. I was left with the same sort of sticky, partially-dissolved mess. In my case, the stickiness disappeared as the solvent evaporated, but the back of my calculator is kinda lumpy and ugly. It doesn’t affect the calculator’s performance, and it’s on the back where it isn’t too noticeable anyway, but the condition is most definitely permanent.
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