Whether in our garages, on our sim rigs, in our offices, or in our living rooms, there is a good chance that every one of us owns a flat screen TV or monitor of some sort. And if you have ever invited a small child into your home, that TV is guaranteed to have at least one big scratch on its screen.
The TVs here at StudioVRM HQ are no exceptions to that rule, as every single screen and laptop in the Studio has been scratched or gouged at some point. And yet, the only way you can see the scratches on our TVs is to shine a bright light directly at the screen and look from a very specific angle.
What's our secret? Here it is:
This is a TurtleWax clear coat repair pen. You can find it at some auto parts stores for about $8, or as part of the TurtleWax T-234KT Scratch Repair Kit for about $13 US from Amazon. While the whole kit is admittedly pretty average for fixing scratches in car paint, the clearcoat pen that comes in it produces one of the most durable, optically clear finishes of any liquid clear coat repair kit.
The method listed below was inspired by a YouTube creator by the name of Bob Does it All. Check out his original version of the fix here.
What does this work on?
This fix will permanently repair medium to deep scratches on TVs, computer screens, and laptop screens with a gloss-finish screen. It will also help reduce the visibility of scratches on matte-finish screens, but will not work as well as on a glossy screen.
Based on our testing, this fix works better on plastic screens than glass screens. Unfortunately, this method will not fully repair scratches on tinted screens.
How to Fix Scratches on Your TV or Monitor - The Step-By-Step
Here's what you need:
One TurtleWax scratch repair pen
A brand-new razor blade
A small roll of masking tape
A Magic Eraser or similar Melamine cleaning sponge
A handful of alcohol screen cleaning wipes, or a bottle of 70% isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free (preferably microfiber) cloth
And here is the step-by-step guide, demonstrated on this scratched touch screen of a Lenovo X1:
1. Use the alcohol screen cleaning wipes to remove any dust and dirt from the entire screen. Focus on the area of the scratch, and if possible, try to get some of the alcohol inside the scratch to remove any plastic or glass dust that may be trapped inside. The better you can clean the scratches, the better the end result will be.
2. Shake up the Scratch Repair pen and wipe the tip of the pen with one of the alcohol pads. This will remove any "crust" on the tip of the pen so that you won't end up embedding any of it on your TV screen.
3. Lightly press the pen against the screen and squeeze the body to let out the scratch repair liquid. Use a generous amount, and don't worry if it drips or spills over the sides of the scratch.
4. Let the liquid dry for 3-4 hours.
5. Cut some small strips of masking tape and wrap the corners of your razor blade as seen below. This will keep the corners of the razor from putting any new scratches on your screen.
6. Scrape the razor blade at an angle to the scratch to remove any excess clear coat repair liquid. Try not to scrape perpendicular to the scratch, or you may end up removing some of the repair material from the scratch that you are trying to fill.
7. Soak the Magic Eraser in water and gently rub it against the area surrounding the scratch to remove any excess clear coat material. The excess clear should flake off easily.
8. Wipe the screen again and inspect the scratch. If it is still visible, repeat steps 3-7. In our experience, shallower scratches took only one pass, while deeper scratches took 2 to 3 applications to fix.
And that's it. Even with the contrast turned up on our camera, the scratches on our laptop screen are much less noticeable than before. With the laptop turned on, these scratches are completely invisible:
The results were even better when we used this method to fix the ballpoint pen gouges on our Sony Bravia TV. Even when we turned the contrast up and held a finger up to the screen to get the camera to focus on the scratch, we couldn't get the repaired scratches to show up on camera:
We hope this trick serves you as well as it has us.
See you at the track.
Disclosure Section:
All products shown here were purchased out of Roger's own pocket, at full price.
StudioVRM is an Amazon Associate, which means that we get a small amount of referral income if you buy a product using any Amazon links above.
StudioVRM and Roger Maeda are not affiliated with TurtleWax. While the USTCC series that we race in is sponsored by TurtleWax, the products in this review were purchased from retail sources at full price.
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