How to remove nail polish from wiper lever

[ibutcher]

I recently bought a used 2001 XC70 and I'm sure it's previous owner was a women, the reason, I've found a couple of 'globs' of red nail polish on the windshield wiper stork/lever.  

If anyone has any ideas of how to safely remove the nail polish without daming the plastic stork/lever I'd appreciate it.  

While I'm at it I've found an ink spill in the drivers side door pocket - any ideas on this one too?

Thanks,

Ian.

[Raynald]

I don't know about removing hardened nail polish. Don't ever use nail polish remover !!! It would damage the plastic..

As for ink, hair spray is known to do a good job (depends on the type of ink I guess...). Personnaly, for small ball point ink marks on plastic, I've used toothpaste (the white stuff...) or baking soda.

My 2¢ ! http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[ibutcher]

Thanks Raynald.   I'll give the toothpaste a go.   My father was a research chemist for many years and he used to be great at these sort of problems.

[AWD*V70XC]

There are two ways I would do this, first one is easy and takes about ten minutes, but usually works on fresh polish. Raid your partners beauty kit and take one of those nail polish remover pads. Very effective in removing polish neatly and completely, it has lanolin & no acetone. They come in zip-lock bags of 20. Cost about $5. Send me a PM if you have problems finding them and I will give you web site details.

The other way is good old hard graft;

To remove the hardened nail polish I would use a brand new craftknife blade. As the polish is now hard and rounded on the edge you will have to get to it from the inside and loosen its grip. If you do this with great care you will not damage anything. The polish does not 'weld' itself to the plastic so there should be not lasting damage or pitting to the plastic. I would guestimate a half hour of working on each glob, not a five minute job for top results.

Carefully bring the blade down on the middle of the glob and crack it, then lever one side off and put the point of the blade into the middle of the other side. It should move without too much effort. Failing that, if you have a very steady hand you could 'carve/cut' them off with small wiping/scraping/rubbing actions, this way you will always be in full control of the blade and the most you would do is graze the plastic. The blade has to be held in a slicing angle almost gliding along the plastic.

It is also advisable to do this on a cold day when the polish is at it's weakest strenght, same sort of way you remove gum from material.

You can also use the replacement blade (like a stanley blade) to remove bits of tar/etc on your glass as well, spray window cleaner on the glass and then 'run' the blade at an angle (say 30-40 degrees) over the glass in a gliding manner and this will also dislodge any matter, when completed re-spray the glass and clean with a cloth. This also stops the wiper blades from developing 'chunks' out of the rubber, giving you a perfect, even clean.