PowerBook 540c black coffee edition

[MacUp72]

Yesterday I decided to repaint my 540c, I thought it would be a nice idea to give it a fresh look..
Decided to also paint the keyboard, because its better for a matching overall look and matching german keyboard layout to begin with.
Finished 540c:








I also repainted the end caps of the batteries and put the original stickers back on.
I was at the edge of spraying the trackpad or not but it worked, but it's just a very thin layer of paint, it works afterwards without any problem.

The small dots of colours here and there ( Apple logos, light grey stickers and actual running display ) pop out even more from the matte black finish. ( I was aware of the original two-colour grey scheme but It didnt matter to me much here in this version).
Keyboard, of course I'll have to put decals or stickers on the keys.. I already have redesigned PowerBook fonts in Illustrator, so I'll do that in
a copy shop with a laser printer which can print also white ( maybe I'm doing another colour like light green?).
Last photo, comparison original 520 and 540.

process:

stripping the keyboard, cleaning of all parts.
wasn't sure about how to spray paint the keys from all sides but without moving them in the process, the fastest was double sided tape.





complete stripping of the 540c, also the display parts to its single components like the two little brightness/contrast levers, top LED, side panels, hinge caps, click/trackpad, top opening lever, back hinge, batteries..I also decided to paint the inner metal framework and SCSI cage..as always, it pays off to mask everything up well, the actual spraying act is done in 15 min. For most things I did I used Dupli Color spray paint, very fast drying, to the touch in 15 min, 24 hours complete. . After drying time of 5 hours, I reassambled it.
..so to sum it up, it is not perfect but I like it that way and it was fun.

 

[Forrest]

Nice. In your last picture, on the left side is that a hard drive with a translucent cover?

 

[Byrd]

A real blackbird! No that’s the OEM plastic shield over the bottom of a HD to stop it from shorting out on the metal bracket.

 

[MacUp72]

thanks guys..
just finished the 540 power adapter cecapping, it works, 16,5V on both pins.. it was quite a hassle ( at least for me) to get the board-through holes clean to install the new caps.

 

[MacUp72]

ok, did work on the now black keyboard..
ordered a print on decal and sprayed it with acrylic laquer but was not completly satisfying..
I mean the prints were good, but I did some little mistakes, the laquer is not my favorite one etc..but the matching black is ok..
I can use it..

making own keyboard stickers is not easy, in the process I had the idea of maybe just use real stickers but you still would need somebody print a complete custom layout, because online there are none with powerbook font ( obviously) and all Apple specific like opt command etc, just the normal modern ones for MBP/Pad etc.

..and if you like to go for the really personal/custom look, you could just order clear stickers and draw your own handscript with a fine laquer liner on it, also a nice idea..




the layout I recreated on a DIN A 5 paper

 

[Hopfenholz]

Fantastic work

Reminds me of when I did a PowerBook grey Quadra 700

 

[joshc]

Fantastic work

Reminds me of when I did a PowerBook grey Quadra 700

Got any photos of that?

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Wow! I absolutely love this. I’ve always wanted to try out a custom paint job if I ever find a PowerBook that was beat up with scratches and paint it with some brilliant color - like one of those sparkly paints like on a car. Think that would look incredible on one of these.

 

[croissantking]

A true labour of love here.

That ram card is ripe for soldering extra chips onto - I believe we chatted about that.

 

[Powerbook27364]

This looks amazing, great job painting it! Might do this to my 170 or one of my others but I'm not too confident in my painting abilities so I will have to practice before attempting it.

 

[Hopfenholz]

Found a pic of my grey Quadra 700

 

[joshc]

Found a pic of my grey Quadra 700

View attachment 58518

That looks smart!

 

[MacUp72]

slick! ..nice job.
I rhink it is generally a good idea to respray heavily yellowed machines, better that retrobrighting or soaking them in chemicals..

 

[jmacz]

slick! ..nice job.
I rhink it is generally a good idea to respray heavily yellowed machines, better that retrobrighting or soaking them in chemicals..

Agree. The reports of retrobriting causing brittleness always bothered me.

The black is pretty slick! Same with the gray Quadra! You can also spray a similar color to the Apple platinum like I did to my Quadra 700 and my Apple 13” monitor. Both had cosmetic damage which I repaired and then painted over.



I used water based decal paper to restore the Quadra 700 logo on the repainted case. That won’t work for your keyboard though. I tried vinyl, vinyl masking, mylar masking, laser cut stickers, stamps, nothing came out as well as the water based decal. Next up, gonna try dye sublimation. That looks promising.

 

[MacUp72]

Agree. The reports of retrobriting causing brittleness always bothered me.

The black is pretty slick! Same with the gray Quadra! You can also spray a similar color to the Apple platinum like I did to my Quadra 700 and my Apple 13” monitor. Both had cosmetic damage which I repaired and then painted over.

View attachment 58564

I used water based decal paper to restore the Quadra 700 logo on the repainted case. That won’t work for your keyboard though. I tried vinyl, vinyl masking, mylar masking, laser cut stickers, stamps, nothing came out as well as the water based decal. Next up, gonna try dye sublimation. That looks promising.

very nice..looks like new.
and yes, indeed the reprint is a special problem, and you have to redesign the exact typo, too.
You also have to find a good vintage white color match with your preferred spray manufacturer.
I knew decals since the early 2000s doing guitar effect pedals and this technique came to my mind first, the big advantage being very thin.
But of course overspraying them with acrylic laquer is crucial ( keyboards etc).
was considering UV hardened decals but they need to be aplied to a completly flat surface, and the Mac keys are concave.
did you find another better solution?

 

[jmacz]

This was what I was going to try next.

 

[MacUp72]

so today I made the last mod to my black coffee edition 540c, installed an extended 32MB RAM card and a little CPU boost with a new 20 MHZ oscillator.

CPU daughterboard out, RAM card out..new 20 Mhz quarz next to the old 16,6 Mhz oscillator.



old quarz desoldered, new in.




old 33 Mhz CPU, 12 MB RAM
new 40 Mhz, 36 MB RAM




doesnt make a HUGE CPU difference but my Indiana Jones fate of Atlantis is now running much better..

 

[croissantking]

Nice! OK, you’ve convinced me. I’m going to get a 20MHz Crystal!

 

[jmacz]

It's stable? And it was just a crystal change? Tempting

 

[MacUp72]

Nice! OK, you’ve convinced me. I’m going to get a 20MHz Crystal!

yes, do it ..desoldering is a bit fiddly but doable..

It's stable? And it was just a crystal change? Tempting

the game is running great, no probs there..
just the oscillator, like with the old Macs, except there's no space to solder in a socket, and this is a SMD.