Friday, August 2, 2013

GPS Screen Repair

I stupidly left my Garmin HCx rolling around in my tail bag throughout my last 900 mile WV ride. When I unpacked I discovered that the screen was covered with scratches, most deep enough to feel with my fingernail (sorry, I forgot to take a pic). The scratches were bad enough to make the unit pretty much unusable. I figured I had nothing to lose so I tried to repair the screen using a technique I had used in the past to restore an acrylic fish tank.

What I did:

1. Sand out the scratches with 600 grit wet sand paper. This was the longest step as I found I also had to sand away some sort of anti-glare coating that is bonded to the screen even after the scratches were gone.

2. Sand in an alternating direction with 1000 grit.

3. Alternate directions again and sand with 1500 grit.

4. Buff the screen to a shine with PlastiX.

The results were surprisingly good. The screen looks like new even though this unit has seen a tough life.

After pic:


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