Rach L.

Here are my before/after pics of my Singer 185J. There is also the case cover with this, but figured nobody wanted to see that. It lost its beautiful original pistachio color anyway (you can see the original color inside of the case), now it's more of a lovely nicotine yellow. Thankfully the machine is still pretty. I'm super happy how well she cleaned up. I'm very excited to have this machine as part of my collection.

However....when I was cleaning the bottom part of the plastic case, there were some rubber bumpers that the machine sat on. Somehow, my knobby-headed self lost those bumpers. Should I not be able to find them, can anyone suggest a replacement? The machine fits in there on top of the plastic supports, but is a tad wobbly.

Rodney

That cleaned up really nicely! Great job! I don't own one yet, I do like them and their older siblings, the 99s.
The only way I know to get the case back to it's original color is a lot of work. I've restored the color on some older plastic items by wet sanding the oxidized layer off. Sand with about 200 grit wet/dry paper with a bucket of water handy to keep things wet, sand until you're down to the original color then start working through the grits say 200, 320, 400, 600, down until you get to 12 or 1500 grit then use a good buffing compound and wax it to bring the shine back. I haven't had much success with mechanical sanders on plastic. They go too fast for me and I melt the plastic so I do it all by hand. It's a LOT of work for something that size.
Rodney

pennycandy

She cleaned up nice! Not sure what the rubber feet look like but could it be either of these? http://shop.sew-classic.com/Rubber-M...s-feet_c12.htm

Rach L.

Rodney, I had no idea you could restore plastic color. I'm afraid to try it....yet incredibly tempted. Will it make the plastic too thin and compromise it's strength?

Pennycandy, it's not actually the feet. These little rubber thingys rest on top of the plastic supports inside the base. I'll see if I can upload a pic on where they were. I doubt I'll find any of these things anymore (hopefully the original ones pop up in my house and this will be a non issue) but I'm hoping that maybe someone has a clever way to fabricate some.

miriam

You might use some thing they use to restore plastic on cars on the plastic case or use some head light cleaner. I'm thinking Grant uses something else but the same bottle of stuff I've had a while hasn't run out yet... Some Dawn might go a long ways on the case.

The rubber supports are U shaped and are hard to find. Some times the little plastic ridges inside the case break off, too.

Rach L.

Miriam, I've never thought of headlight cleaner...great suggestion. I'll give dawn a try first though. I've already used goo gone and Clorox wipes. Although I'm sure the case is clean enough to eat off of, it's still ugly as sin, LOL. As for the rubber supports, yes, they were u-shaped. Dang, I wish I could find them! I wanted to use something in that case, even if it's a substitute, because you can see where the machine will grind and chip away at those plastic supports (I'm very happy you knew what the heck I was talking about). Thanks for the tips guys! I REALLY appreciate it!

Rach L.

Yay, I found the rubber supports! I had them in some paper towel after drying them, and they got thrown away by accident...GASP! However, the hubby looked through the bag I used when I was doing my cleanup and found them quickly. Whew....what a relief!

Now....on to work on that plastic.