Anyone Here Tried Retr0Bright...

[Franko]

I just love this stuff! Whitened my one of my A600's using it :



The difference isn't amazing, but the A600 wasn't that badly yellowed afterall. I like my every retro gear good as new.

*humming - like a virgin, touched for the very first time* :lol:

It's brilliant isn't it...

I've been Retr0Brightning every thing in sight for weeks now from my old VIC20s, C64s & Amigas to (believe it or not) the heating radiators in my house, makes everything look like it's brand new and just came out the box...

[Franko]

@Franko - before I order this stuff what do you think of this? http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Lighting/Energy+Saving+CFL+Stick+Lamps/Low+Energy+Ultra+Violet+Lamp+11W+BC/d220/sd3283/p58036
want a fitment I can use.......and I'm going for that 12% ebay stuff.....I gotta brighten my A4000 case up so I can put it back on .....then I have a whole stack of retro to do!

The only reason I went for the 2 Pin G23 bulb was that it fitted the kind of desk lamps I use, if those ones fit yours then go for them...

Should say though that it's best to have two of them as if you place the lamp directly above the case the sides don't get done (discovered that though trial and error)...

Best to have 2 lamps placed so that the UV light hits all surfaces of the objects being done, otherwise you have to remember to turn them every couple of hours to get the UV light to affect each surface...

I did try at first reflecting the UV light with mirrors and tin foil but the results were poor...

PS:The 12% stuff works fine compared to the 18% stuff (only about an hour to an hour and a half soaking time difference)...

[Franko]

Thats great news for me, because the hairdresser shop's here dont/wont sell any peroxide over 12% to me :biglaugh:...

I know they only sell the 12% stuff to the public which is a bit daft when you can buy the stronger stuff on aBay...

(only wish it would work on the post above... )

[Franko]

OK, I tried the mixture. I see what you mean by using too much OxiClean :-(. The mouse I tried came out very nice after about six hours in the sun. The A3000 front looks better than it did, but it has a couple of white spots/streaks on the front. Will these go away if I try again? My keyboard is a little bit ugly. Can you pry all the keys off without breaking them or is it hard to do?
I just have to wait until the sun comes back (I do live in "New Scotland" Nova Scotia after all)
Thanks Len

I only had the white spots bother once on an A1200 "brown" keys (ie:function keys, return key etc...)...

It was down to a combination of using too much Oxi and it causing the mixture to lift away unevenly from the surface as it foamed up too much. It only happened to the keytops and not the sides of the keys, under close inspection with a microscope the keytops have a clear coating of some kind to protect the lettering and it seems that the white spots mainly occur where the mixture manages to get under this coating and is trapped there...

You can try again without the OXY this time and less time soaking to remove the white spots but the results can vary from making it better to making it worse, it's very hit & miss once you have these white spots...

Best results I've found are for every 100ml or about 2.7Fl oz of creme peroxide you should add just under half a level teaspoon of Oxi powder, stir vigorously until you get a smooth mixture, leave for 5 minutes to froth up them stir vigorously once more before applying...

Never had any bad results on any of the Amigas, Vic20s or C64s creme coloured plastics but you have to be a wee bit careful on the slightly darker/brown coloured plastics...

I pry off all the keys before coating them as it's easy enough to do (just remember not to loose any of the springs underneath)...

Also it's best to thoroughly clean anything your about to do beforehand to remove any oily fingerprint residue or just years of dirt & grime that you cant really see before coating. For this I use UPVC cleaner which removes all such dirt and grime first and produces the best results...

[Franko]

Uh-huh.....hmmm.....yes.....good Wait for the postman...and get some UV on the go!

Got my eBay peroxide in two days flat...

(Perhaps the postie's doing his hair... )

[Franko]

There was a rumour once that there was a Dentist somewhere in Scotland, but it was just a rumour...

(toothbrush sales aint very big here...

[Franko]

I just bought a bottle of 18% from a local supply store with no trouble. They don't even have any 12%. Now I need a nice yellow case....

Leave it in the sun for about 10 years... that should do the trick...

[Franko]

A bit of topic I know but...

Could some take a peek in Adz Coffee House Thread "Funny Pics" and see if that picture of the half chewed rat by ddniUK is gone yet... :nervous:

DON'T GO HERE IF YOUR EATING SOMETHING !!!

I threw up all over me keyboard this morning when I saw it and me squirrels have been traumatized...

[Franko]

Just thought I'd post a quick update on the old VIC 20 that I started this wee project on...

Before: when I had done the first test on half the case to see if it worked...


After: One brand new looking VIC 20...




Noticed an odd thing under the UV light, I didn't do the keyboard with RetroBright but under the UV light some of the keys are a lighter brown colour in comparison to the normal almost black colour that your eyes would see under normal light conditions, As can be seen from the picture below in comparison to the pics above... odd that...



[youtube]d4fAgiSSHJY[/youtube]

Just thought those different coloured keys were interesting...

[Franko]

@ Nicholas

I haven't made accurate measurements but for example to do a complete VIC 20 or A1200 case I do the following...

PS:Before doing anything I give everything a good clean first with the ScrewFIX UPVC Cleaner to remove all surface dust, oily fingerprint etc...

50ml of Creme Peroxide
Half a teaspoon of Vanish Oxi Powder
Mix thoroughly and leave to stand for 5 mins
after 5 Mins it should have frothed up a wee bit
Another quick & thorough mix
Then apply with a paintbrush

Then sit under the UV light for preferably 10 hours, no point in leaving it any longer than that as by this time the chemical reaction seems to have dissipated and for heavily yellowed items another fresh coating and 10 hour soak should do the trick...

Managed to get meself a job lot of 15 UV lights on eBay for 16 quid (£5 less than I paid for the single bulb I bought at first) now Scotlands got it's own permanent source of UV light, getting a nice tan from it...

Still find it amazing how well this stuff works and I reckon you'll be pretty amazed too when you see the results for yourself...

PS:Gloves are for cissies be a man and use bare hands like I do, just remember not to pick your nose or rub your eyes till you've washed them though...

[Franko]

Cheers mate.  I've given it a 30 minute blast in the dishwasher to get rid of dirt, dust and grime before applying the paste.

ps The gloves (along with a new toolbox and a combination lock) are the result of me being totally unable to walk into B&Q and only buy the one thing I went in for in the first place (Which was Lye in this case).

Anyone else suffer from this debilitating condition? :lol:

When I go to B&Q my sister follows me these days to prevent me picking up "Bargains" when I'd only gone in for a tap washer or bag of screws...

(got a habit of buying LED torches these days for some reason, last count I had somehow managed to buy 11 of em so far...

[Franko]

Just thought I'd post the pics of my old VIC 20's before and after the Retr0Bright treatment as I'll need to pack them away for now as I'm running out of space for doing my A1200's...

Unfortunately I only managed to take this one pic before I started of the first one I tried. This was the worst case of yellowing I had ever seen on anything... :eek:

This one was made in England and seems to be made from a different plastic from the German made ones below which are less prone to yellowing and the English one when done comes up almost white in comparison to the German ones that come up the more usual creme colour...

English made VIC 20 Before...


English made VIC 20 After...


German made VIC 20 Before...


German made VIC 20 After...


And here they all are together...


As you can see the English made one had the biggest difference to it after the Retr0Bright but the German ones also came up looking how they should, it just doesn't show up in the photos that well, but when you see them with your own peepers the difference is amazing...

Now for the rest of me miggies...

[Franko]

@ Nicholas

Surprised & sorry to hear that...

The only time I didn't get any results was when I first tried it without the "UV" black light. I'm only using 11W & 9W fluorescent energy saving bulbs and have had perfect results since doing so...

Only thing I would say if the room in which your doing it is on the cold side then the results are not so good and usually require another treatment (or more). Could be the bulb you're using is not a real "Balck light" and just one of those cheaper purple coated ones that give out the same light effect but doesn't actually give off UV rays...

this is the type I use.... it's an 11W energy saving type that fit in desk lamps you can buy from Argos (or it can use the 9W ones I bought on  eBay) ...



PS:If the stuff glows like in this pic then the bulb you're using is ok...



@ RMK305

I'll post some pics of my full collection after they're all Retr0Brighted, but there are plenty of folk here with far bigger & better collections than I have...

[Franko]

@ Nicholas

Yup looking at the first ones you bought they're just the purple coated type that only give off a filtered normal light... (it even says so in the listing)...

The second ones look like they should do the job just fine...

[Franko]

Franko,

That is absolutely amazing!  They look like they just rolled off the assembly line @ Commodore.

Do you use anything to protect them from going yellow again?  Is that possible?


Cheers!
-P

I do actually (forgot to mention that) I give them a good polish up with CAR WAX just make sure it's the kind that has UV protection in it and it should help to prevent UV (yellowing) damage from reoccurring again in future...

Still find it amazing myself just how well this stuff works it's like you say they look like they've just shipped out the factory...

[Franko]

You should set up a business cleaning these things since the UK postal service doesn't allow the strength of chemicals in retrobright to be shipped without notification.

With the amount of sun you're getting in Scotland atm I hope you aren't using that black lamp

The peroxide I bought from the hairdressing company had to be sent via a special courier service that has a licence to ship hazardous materials but the stuff I bought from ebay which was stronger was posted via royal mail... :confused:

The sun may be out but it's still too cold here for it to have any effect, so right now I've got five Black Lamps on doing one of my A1200 cases...

As for setting up a service to RetroBright things for others, no thanks it's a long slow process and takes up a lot of space just doing your own stuff, plus to be honest it pretty damn boring...