An old, plastic lunch box was looking its age. The outside showed the years of use through scratches and dirt. The inside was a mess with wax crayon debris everywhere. However, this Peanuts Lunch Box was a diamond in the rough. The color was great, the decal intact and the plastic is still mostly intact. This is a great candidate for some in-depth cleaning. After over and hour and a half, this lunch box is totally transformed and ready to be a Peanuts collection showcase.
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The Process
With any restoration project, you start with the least invasive procedure first. A little bit of dish soap and water took off a fair amount of the dirt from the outside of the lunch box. Inside, the wax crayon needed some more cleaning power. A little bit of Goo-Gone was just what I needed to remove the wax and some old tape residue that had dried on years before. I could have stopped here, but there was still a lot of outside damage I wanted to try and reduce.
Luckily, my cleaning arsenal includes products for restoring the finish on cars. First, I tried out a few products on the back, just to see what would work on removing dirt and scratches from the outside edges of the lunchbox. I found Wizard’s Turbo Cut worked well for this purpose. I would suggest only using this as a spot treatment for trouble areas as it can dull the shiny finish. Where I was working, the finish was already ruined, so it was about getting the color back and removing the dirt. I used fine sandpaper to smooth out the edges and reduce the fine scratches. Finally, I used Wizard’s Crystal Clear Plastic Cleaner and Polish to give it a final polish and help bring back the sheen. Again, all these products should only be used on problem areas, not the entire surface.
In person, you can’t tell how bad this lunch box was from a distance. On closer inspection, you will still see the remnants of the deepest scratches and a slightly duller sheen on the edges. Restoration won’t fix every little problem and it doesn’t need to. Overall, this Peanuts Lunch Box has a new life thanks to some tender loving care and will be enjoyed for years to come.
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