PotatoFi
Well-known member
Time to restore my Macintosh LCII! This one came from Craigslist. According to the previous owner, he'd never tried to power it on.
The case seemed okay, but there was a lot of tape and stuff on it.
You can tell where the monitor used to sit. I'd love to find a 12" RGB monitor for this, but I haven't had much luck. There are a couple of broken ones on eBay... maybe I should buy one and experiment with body filler?
This seems to be an "Apple" computer. But seriously, it's missing the expansion slot cover here. I would like to find an Ethernet card for it. Last time I checked, they were pretty inexpensive compared to a card for an SE or SE/30.
Someone wrote "no video" on the floppy drive. My guess is that the PRAM battery was flat. I can't remember whether it was missing the battery, or if I had already removed it. That's always the first thing I do when I receive a new machine. Because of the "no video" indication, I argued way down on price.
Someone stuffed some paper in the floppy drive to keep the dust out. Not a bad idea, but I'll be completely cleaning the drive, like I always do.
I started removing things. The board looks pretty good! Some light corrosion around the caps of course. I'll be replacing these for sure. I am happy to report that I managed to remove everything without breaking any of the plastic on the case!
To retrobrite the case, I need to remove the metal shielding. When I restored my Performa 476, I didn't do this, and it started to rust all over the place. I won't make that mistake again. To get the shield off, I need to cut away all of these little melted posts.
Cheap flush cutters make quick work of this.
Next, I snuck the shield up and out of the case. Lifting from the back if a good place to start, but there are a few posts and clips to watch out for. I doubt I'll have to do much to re-install the case.
Before retrobrite, I popped the logo out with a papercl- er... Apple Logo Removal Tool. While I have gotten away with retrobrite with the logo installed, I've had retrobrite that involved any kind of heat (like from the sun) bleach out certain colors. No need to take a chance.
There was a bit of a weird adhesive on the front of the Mac. I thought it was going to be a huge pain, but it just scraped away with my thumbnail. Note the color of the plastic underneath.
.
Next, it's outside for a scrub with dishwasher detergent and a toothbrush!
I did use a wet paper towel and baking soda on a few spots to remove back marks, but other than a bunch of scrubbing, there isn't much to talk about here. Here's the results, ready for retrobrite!
The case seemed okay, but there was a lot of tape and stuff on it.
You can tell where the monitor used to sit. I'd love to find a 12" RGB monitor for this, but I haven't had much luck. There are a couple of broken ones on eBay... maybe I should buy one and experiment with body filler?
This seems to be an "Apple" computer. But seriously, it's missing the expansion slot cover here. I would like to find an Ethernet card for it. Last time I checked, they were pretty inexpensive compared to a card for an SE or SE/30.
Someone wrote "no video" on the floppy drive. My guess is that the PRAM battery was flat. I can't remember whether it was missing the battery, or if I had already removed it. That's always the first thing I do when I receive a new machine. Because of the "no video" indication, I argued way down on price.
Someone stuffed some paper in the floppy drive to keep the dust out. Not a bad idea, but I'll be completely cleaning the drive, like I always do.
I started removing things. The board looks pretty good! Some light corrosion around the caps of course. I'll be replacing these for sure. I am happy to report that I managed to remove everything without breaking any of the plastic on the case!
To retrobrite the case, I need to remove the metal shielding. When I restored my Performa 476, I didn't do this, and it started to rust all over the place. I won't make that mistake again. To get the shield off, I need to cut away all of these little melted posts.
Cheap flush cutters make quick work of this.
Next, I snuck the shield up and out of the case. Lifting from the back if a good place to start, but there are a few posts and clips to watch out for. I doubt I'll have to do much to re-install the case.
Before retrobrite, I popped the logo out with a papercl- er... Apple Logo Removal Tool. While I have gotten away with retrobrite with the logo installed, I've had retrobrite that involved any kind of heat (like from the sun) bleach out certain colors. No need to take a chance.
There was a bit of a weird adhesive on the front of the Mac. I thought it was going to be a huge pain, but it just scraped away with my thumbnail. Note the color of the plastic underneath.
.
Next, it's outside for a scrub with dishwasher detergent and a toothbrush!
I did use a wet paper towel and baking soda on a few spots to remove back marks, but other than a bunch of scrubbing, there isn't much to talk about here. Here's the results, ready for retrobrite!
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