Restoration - Commodore 64 came up a treat.
Discussion
I thought I'd post a thread on how I cleaned up the Commodore 64 I bought recently.
This is how it looked when I first got it a week ago. Discoloured and grubby with a couple of cigarette burns. The wires were loose in the plug so it made a rather scary zzap sound when I plugged it in! It was sold as working on ebay, but it must have been very intermittent. The top of the plug was damaged anyway, so I put a new one on and was greeted by that familiar blue screen.
You can see the colour of the SD2IDC (SD card adapter) which is made from a recycled C64 case so should be correct to the original colour. The inside of the case was quite similar in colour to my SD2IDC. The yellowing/browning of the case was quite inconsistent, with various light and dark areas and odd streaks where it was lighter where the plastic is thicker underneath.
Yuk! All those keys had to come off.
There were a couple of burns like this on the front, though this was the larger of the two.
I sanded off the deformed areas using an emery board.
Because it changed the finish on those areas, I had to do the entire front panel. I used different grades of Micromesh sheets to remove the scratches and get to a matt finish similar to the original. You don't want to use too fine a grade or it will become shiny. I think 3600 or 3200 was the finest I went to. The photo shows it after being sanded using 1500.
Soaking in Vanish Oxi Gold. Warm (not hot) water, 6 scoops of Oxi and a UV light. Not sure if the UV blacklight actually did anything, but it is supposed to help activate the reaction. I left it soaking for three days and changed the solution daily. The discolouration over the years is caused by the bromine fire retardant in the plastic. The hydrogen peroxide in the Vanish bonds with the bromine and frees it (or something like that anyway).
I did the keys in a small cup. One day for the not so yellow ones and three days for the more severely discoloured ones. There was an improvement, but not as dramatic as the case. Two keys suffered very minor damage to the painted symbols on the front, so must be gentle with them during the process. Was forced to eat out since I couldn't do any washing up.
Whist it got a lot lighter the plastic looked dry and patchy. I gave it a good scrub with a shoe brush to get all the powder out the textured plastic on top and the nooks and crannies, but it still looked dry and patchy, like sun damaged garden furniture. Whilst it was better than it had been, it didn't look good.
There was nothing for it, but to grab a pot of Vaseline and start rubbing it into the plastic using cotton wool. I learnt a bit about plastics when I was an avid reader and contributor to the fountain pen thread a couple of years ago.
You can see how much better one side looks after a quick wipe over, but I left it smothered in Vaseline all day to "feed" the plastic, then rubbed it in/off with more cotton wool. This made a massive difference.
I did the sides and tops of the keys, but not the front as I was worried it would strip the paint off. The letters on top of the keys are made from a layer of white plastic underneath the brown, so they will never wear off but suffer from discolouration like the case. The Vaseline should do no damage to the plastic. The symbols on the front are white paint.
Someone called Burt has written their name on the bottom in security ink. That's effective stuff, I couldn't get it off!
And here we are much improved!
This is how it looked when I first got it a week ago. Discoloured and grubby with a couple of cigarette burns. The wires were loose in the plug so it made a rather scary zzap sound when I plugged it in! It was sold as working on ebay, but it must have been very intermittent. The top of the plug was damaged anyway, so I put a new one on and was greeted by that familiar blue screen.
You can see the colour of the SD2IDC (SD card adapter) which is made from a recycled C64 case so should be correct to the original colour. The inside of the case was quite similar in colour to my SD2IDC. The yellowing/browning of the case was quite inconsistent, with various light and dark areas and odd streaks where it was lighter where the plastic is thicker underneath.
Yuk! All those keys had to come off.
There were a couple of burns like this on the front, though this was the larger of the two.
I sanded off the deformed areas using an emery board.
Because it changed the finish on those areas, I had to do the entire front panel. I used different grades of Micromesh sheets to remove the scratches and get to a matt finish similar to the original. You don't want to use too fine a grade or it will become shiny. I think 3600 or 3200 was the finest I went to. The photo shows it after being sanded using 1500.
Soaking in Vanish Oxi Gold. Warm (not hot) water, 6 scoops of Oxi and a UV light. Not sure if the UV blacklight actually did anything, but it is supposed to help activate the reaction. I left it soaking for three days and changed the solution daily. The discolouration over the years is caused by the bromine fire retardant in the plastic. The hydrogen peroxide in the Vanish bonds with the bromine and frees it (or something like that anyway).
I did the keys in a small cup. One day for the not so yellow ones and three days for the more severely discoloured ones. There was an improvement, but not as dramatic as the case. Two keys suffered very minor damage to the painted symbols on the front, so must be gentle with them during the process. Was forced to eat out since I couldn't do any washing up.
Whist it got a lot lighter the plastic looked dry and patchy. I gave it a good scrub with a shoe brush to get all the powder out the textured plastic on top and the nooks and crannies, but it still looked dry and patchy, like sun damaged garden furniture. Whilst it was better than it had been, it didn't look good.
There was nothing for it, but to grab a pot of Vaseline and start rubbing it into the plastic using cotton wool. I learnt a bit about plastics when I was an avid reader and contributor to the fountain pen thread a couple of years ago.
You can see how much better one side looks after a quick wipe over, but I left it smothered in Vaseline all day to "feed" the plastic, then rubbed it in/off with more cotton wool. This made a massive difference.
I did the sides and tops of the keys, but not the front as I was worried it would strip the paint off. The letters on top of the keys are made from a layer of white plastic underneath the brown, so they will never wear off but suffer from discolouration like the case. The Vaseline should do no damage to the plastic. The symbols on the front are white paint.
Someone called Burt has written their name on the bottom in security ink. That's effective stuff, I couldn't get it off!
And here we are much improved!
Edited by AlexC1981 on Monday 25th March 17:06
Edited by AlexC1981 on Monday 25th March 17:10
Is Vanish better than hydrogen peroxide (hair bleach) for getting rid of the discolouration?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZYbchvSUDY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZYbchvSUDY
Mr Pointy said:
Is Vanish better than hydrogen peroxide (hair bleach) for getting rid of the discolouration?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZYbchvSUDY
I saw a few photos where people had botched the method of using creams. If some areas are not as well covered or dry out then you get an inconsistent finish. I have also seen pictures where the plastic had bloomed, possibly because the solution was too strong.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZYbchvSUDY
I thought a water based solution in weak hydrogen peroxide (Vanish) would be the safest method. A few people advocate mixing Vanish in a solution of hydrogen peroxide to get a quicker result. I was in no rush and I already had Vanish in the cupboard, so I thought I'd just give that a go to see what happened. This is the first time I've done this so there was probably some luck involved.
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