how to restore the shine?

[JohnLori]

What can be used to polish up the counter tops and dining table to restore the original lustre of solid surface? What exactly are they made of--brand of solid surface or ??? I don't mean some kind of surface polish or wax. I'm thinking something like rubbing compound that will really polish the actual surface, not just put a coat of gloss on it.

We turned the dining table, attaching it to the aft wall of the slideout. This enables us to leave the extension leaf in the table. It's just the two of us and we can sit side-by-side with this arrangement. The leaf, having been used much less, is very shiny and new looking. I'd like to have the entire table, and the countertops, look as good!

[Dale777]

JohnLori,

The counter top is Karadon. See this link for the manufacturer:
Luxury Solid Surface Manufacturer Karadon Collection

See this link for a previous topic on this subject:
2002 kitchen counter top

You can use a polishing compound to shine it. In the Karadon technical data they point out that you can use an abrasive cleaner to remove cigarette burns from it. I've actually repaired the broken stove top cover on my previous 2001 Alpine Coach, then polished it with successively finer grit wet sandpaper - as stated in the Karadon fabrication manual. Afterwards, it looked great. The repaired break was not visible, unless you knew what to look for.

See this link for the Fabrication Manual:
http://www.karadon.com/PDF/Fabrication_Manual.pdf

[Jim Stewart]

I used Scotch Brite pads on one of those Palm Sanders to do our Kitchen. It does leave a lot of dust though. The Scotch bright is like a fine grit paper and takes the shiney and dull portions and makes them all the same. It does take a bit of time and the point on the Palm Sander gets into the corners and along the counter to backsplash junction.

[EngineerMike]

I would guess that most shine problems are fairly close in relative size of imperfections (tiny scratches) in the surface that a random orbital polisher and liquid polishing compound (jeweler's rouge or polishing clay) would do the trick.

The Karadon fabrication manual states that initial finishing (this is from as-factory-prepared state) should start w/220 grit on a random orbital sander for a "matte" finish, with progressively finer grit treatments down to 9 micron or 1000 grit for a gloss look, followed by 3M - Marine High Gloss Gel Coat compound (#06025), then 3M - Perfect It III (#05936).

My guess is you can start w/the 1000 on any uneven looking stuff, then do the polish.

[JohnLori]

Thanks for the suggestions. We'll add this to our 'to do list' between trips to the beach.