Ok, this is the best I can do for a picture. The left side is foam buffed/polished with xtra cut, medium cut and polish from mequires
the right side is left alone
I don't know if I can describe it but do you feel like the left side is almost like stones in a river filled with dirty silt between them? It is hard to picture because the flash makes it look reflective on the left side but without the flash it just looks like the texture is more defined, even in low light. I would say the change is visible in low light but its not going to be possible for me to photograph.
To me the left side looks actually textured, the right side looks mossy/nasty/moldy/etc
I think this solves my problem actually, maybe mequires plastic-x polish would be better, but I don't have any of it
maybe I can say it looks like a dirty fish vs a healthy fish.. before I was just trying to clean this up with solvents, but I am thinking the texture is just some how ratty/rusty (as far as a plastic can rust)
or maybe I am trying to say that I thought polishing would not be a good option for this unit because I thought it would accentuate the bad parts, but to me it appears to overall make it look better. I never tried to polish a textured surface before
To my fingers the non treated side feels like really fine sand paper in comparison, since it has feet I don't think high grip was what HP had in mind 50 years ago, and that the surface after a polishing job looks more uniform and less spotty with what looked to be darker spots.