Retrobrite Technique

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toddvernon
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Retrobrite Technique

Post by toddvernon »

I recently had to retrobrite a PCjr parallel port sidecar I bought on eBay. Found this fairly new link pretty useful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZYbchvSUDY by the 8-bit Guy. Very interesting as it went into several techniques comparing them all.

The usual recipe is hydrogen peroxide + water + sunlight for 6 hours. But what I found interesting is he figured out perhaps the sunlight was not really needed but the heat was.

It's winter here in Colorado and not that warm so I used the Salon 40 hair cream technique he talks about (as Hydrogen Peroxide is unobtainable now with Corona Virus), coated the shell parts, wrapped in plastic wrap, and put under two heating pads on the kitchen counter overnight. The temp was about 120deg ( a little less than ideal) but in the morning the parts came out great!

Works great for small parts as you have to have the heat coverage and most ovens won't go low enough (130deg optimal).
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chuckphd53
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Re: Retrobrite Technique

Post by chuckphd53 »

Fabuloso cleaner :)
Boy youd think I own stock in this stuff, but it is great on plastics...

I really like the 8-Bit guy, he goes the extra mile to restore for sure,,
I certainly dont have his patience for cleaning but admire his tenacity and out of the box cleaning ideas...

I have been watching Adrian Digital Basement lately, he has a pretty good channel, mostly Comodore
but his approach to repairs is interesting...


chuck
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jasonrp7743
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Re: Retrobrite Technique

Post by jasonrp7743 »

I've heard you mention fabuloso before- does it remove yellow like retrobriting does? I've got an old Apple II GS that is yellow- but I'm nervous to retrobrite it!
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chuckphd53
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Re: Retrobrite Technique

Post by chuckphd53 »

Fabuloso is a cleaner degreaser, but i found it brings back the plastic back to original color,
I can test it and let you know.
“I never commit to memory anything that can easily be looked up in a book.” (AE)
jscrow
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Re: Retrobrite Technique

Post by jscrow »

I've learned quite a bit watching Adrian's channel. I admit I've been enjoying my C64 as much as my PCjrs lately :roll:

I'm going to setup an indoor retrobrite tub like Adrians and try it out on a yellowed Atari 800XL I have.
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chuckphd53
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Re: Retrobrite Technique

Post by chuckphd53 »

I tried the Fabuloso as promised and it did not seem to help the yellowing.....
but did clean it :) hahaha

I would be VERY interested in the retrobright experiment,
Before and After pics would be super...

I have never played with C-64, but was always drawn to them, as they seem like a really
nice simple platform. I now ALOT of BBS's were run on the C-64' back in the day....
“I never commit to memory anything that can easily be looked up in a book.” (AE)
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