Made a big mistake, Need advice......

[lukeaiston]

Hey Guys

I'm in the process of aging my Rolex Comex 1665 and i have ended up melting a portion of my plexi crystal

i have sanded it down with very fine sand paper but i have left a large area of scratches from sanding

i face the delema of either attempting to fix the crystal or replacing the crystal

i dont want to spend to much on my mistake, i dont not own any watch tools so please take that into consideration

Thanks for your help

Luke

[lanikai]

don't tell us you stuck the entire watch in extreme heat .. like the oven..???

if I were you I would replace the crystal with a Clarks T39 you can find them on the bay .. or just google Rolex T39 pexi crystal..

if the shape is distorted, chances are you've compromised the crystal.. I think it would be best to change it..

[spooky driver]

or did you use one of these?

[lukeaiston]

lol guys, i actually was aging the bezel with a small flame and i guess i held it there too long

i think im going to end up buying a new crystal and have it installed by a local watch smith

thanks again

[Nanuq]

Not so fast there, pardner.

Is the crystal distorted? Or is it just ugly? If it's distorted you'll never like it again so it's time to replace the crystal. It might be tricky to find a replacement crystal of the right diameter and wall thickness. Can you live with it if it's distorted? Think hard about that before continuing.

If it's just sanded, gouged and ugly, you've come to the right place.

I had a truly horrific gouge in a Tropic 39 Superdome once (approx the same crystal you've got) and found I could hold a knife on edge and scrape the blade sideways, peeling off layers of plastic until I removed the gouge completely. I worked outward shaping the dome with the blade to approximate the curved surface that I wanted (my scraping produced a nasty flat spot) then I used abrasive toothpaste to get my rough dome shaped back up, then I used SoftScrub (kitchen sink cleanser) to polish it up smooth as a baby's butt. It came out perfect.

[lukeaiston]

Thanks for the tips guys,

I decided to replace the crystal to a more gen-like T39

The original has cracked under stress also so its definitely time to replace it

however i have been looking at getting this crystal and a better insert before the incident, so it just gives me an excuse

The watch itself has come out great, much better than i expected, i will post pics once i have installed the new hardware

Thanks again guys

Luke

[maxman]

Not so fast there, pardner.

Is the crystal distorted? Or is it just ugly? If it's distorted you'll never like it again so it's time to replace the crystal. It might be tricky to find a replacement crystal of the right diameter and wall thickness. Can you live with it if it's distorted? Think hard about that before continuing.

If it's just sanded, gouged and ugly, you've come to the right place.

I had a truly horrific gouge in a Tropic 39 Superdome once (approx the same crystal you've got) and found I could hold a knife on edge and scrape the blade sideways, peeling off layers of plastic until I removed the gouge completely. I worked outward shaping the dome with the blade to approximate the curved surface that I wanted (my scraping produced a nasty flat spot) then I used abrasive toothpaste to get my rough dome shaped back up, then I used SoftScrub (kitchen sink cleanser) to polish it up smooth as a baby's butt. It came out perfect.

The knowledge here at RWG never ceases to amaze me