Bathroom RetrOBright test
Here is round one of RetrOBright application (see my last post).
I cleaned the bathroom fixtures and sanded them with 800 weight sand paper when I took them out in November. I wiped them down again today before putting RetrOBright on them.
I used Merlin’s recipe with 12% Hydrogen Peroxide (Sally Beauty), Xanthum Gum (food coop), Glycerin (drug store), and Oxyclean (drug store). It was in the high 50’s with partial sun today. I applied the goop with a paint brush and was able to coat all four and a second coat on the sink with one recipe. It seemed to dry out pretty quickly and I should have spread it more consistently, so I washed it off in the house tub after 4 hours. Be sure to wear gloves for application, moving them around, and cleanup!
I am anxious to do another coat. I think it’s going to work for the base, shower seat, and tub, but the sink is so stained I think I may need to paint it. Click on the picture and you can still see the stains – I don’t think the RetrOBright was meant to take those out. On the other hand, the tub had a circle stain on it and it appears to be gone. So we’ll have to see!
(You can see what the sink looked like when I got Rosie in the link on the right under Picture Shows – Bathroom cleanup – first picture.)
The picture brightness was messed with in PhotoShop (I did a terrible job taking them and they were taken in different places at different times), but I left the color alone.
Before RetrOBright, cleaning and sanding |
After RetrOBright X1 |
April 24th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
I put another coat of RetroBright on the fixtures. The pictures don’t show it well, but they are less streaky. The sink is still stained and needs to be painted. Unfortunately, the tub seat blew over in the wind and cracked where the seat meets the back. I need to do some fiberglass repair which probably means painting it after all. I’m still looking for a good place to paint the sink and tub seat or have them painted.
May 9th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
[…] when I cleaned the bathroom ABS plastic fixtures with Retrobright (see previous post) and left them out in the sun to catch the ultraviolet rays, the wind picked up. It blew the […]
April 3rd, 2012 at 6:05 pm
I would like to try this on our 1982 Airstream motor home bathroom. I do not want to remove the shower and sinks. Will it work using the retrobright in place? Will it stick to vertical walls? How to hose it off? Can the stuff go into the grey tank? Any suggestions? Thank you, paula
May 2nd, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Hi Paula, Sorry I didn’t respond sooner. It appears my email alerts are not working. If it’s not too late, here’s some answers (caveat: I’m not an expert). Wear gloves, this stuff burns your skin. Clean and rinse the fixtures really well before you apply it. I guess you could use it in place, but you will need to point an ultraviolet light at it to get the full effect. I did all my pieces outside in full sun. With the guar gum and glycerine, it makes it like a paste and it sticks really well to vertical surfaces. I know it’s safe on the plastic, so I don’t think it would hurt the gray tank itself, but I don’t know what it would to any valves or rubber connectors in-between. Feel free to email me if you have more questions.