A9M0106 Cleaning + Retr0brite

[Johnnya101]

Got this nasty looking A9M0106 with my haul of stuff. Sticker stains all over the front, very nasty blotchy yellowing, grimy, just all around disgusting.

Took it all apart, clean and lubed the sticky drive, and whitened it. Looks like new now . Now it doesnt match my yellowed Plus though... The results speak for themselves. Very happy with how this one turned out. I was originally soaking it overnight in a very diluted hydrogen peroxide and water mix, but it just didnt touch the yellowing. Switched to Sallys 40 volume cream, put the drive in a ziplock bag (DONT brush it on, just put it in a bag if you are planning on doing this. Brush = streaks), and soaked it, moved it around every half hour. NO STREAKING at ALL!

It doesnt look very yellow in this picture. It was. Imagine a banana, now tint it a few shades darker... Yeah...

 

[superjer2000]

AWESOME WORK!!  This is timely as I bought some yellowed Macs and monitors that I would like to retrobrite. A few questions:

1)  You said no brushing but just to put the parts in the bag with the developer. How much cream did you use?  Was it fully submerged or just covered?

2) You say to "soak it". Is that in the sun, or in warm water?  There is a lot of recent discussion indicating that heat may be as important as UV light in the process and some guys are using sous vide circulators.

3) In a prior thread, you painted on the cream onto an SE30 and then put it in the sun. It looked like that was on a cold day (snow on the ground). I guess temperature didn't make a difference for you?  If you were doing it again, how would you retrobrite the SE30?  Have you found any zip loc bags big enough for a compact Mac?

i bought two bottles of 40 volume developer and am just debating buying a sous vide circulator or a UV light. 

 

[Johnnya101]

Sorry it took so long for a reply, didn't see it until now!

I out the part in a ziplock or resealable bag. This is very important that you use a bag that is sealed so that the cream does not dry out! If it dries out (like by brushing it straight on) it leaves freaking. You can use brushing, but you have to work it around every 10 minutes, and spray water on it. Not worth the hassle in my opinion.

So for this drive, I simply put the drive parts in a bag, and poured a good thick layer enough to cover the top part of the cover. I closed the bag and swooshed everything around and it was enough to leave a good thick layer on all sides. What I did was actually put the top and bottom together and taped the inside holes so that cream isn't wasted on the inside.

Heat definitely makes a difference. It took two days to get the drive back to the white color. The first day, I just left the bag under a reptile UV lamp. This brought out the nasty, dirty yellow look, leaving behind a heavy and more even beigey yellow. The next day was very sunny and about 50 degrees (f) out, I simply left the bag out on the porch in direct sunlight. The process itself seems to generate quite a lot of heat. For my SE/30, it took a bit longer to do because it was cold out. Wait until it's warm out to do this. For my next compact retrobrite, I'll probably look for one of those huge turkey zip lock bag type things and do a shell in it. Again, really not worth the risk to try brushing it on. I've ruined a classic ii case that ways, and my SE/30 has some minor streaking on the top (luckily I'm getting a clear case so it won't be an issue).

 

[superjer2000]

@Johnnya101  thanks!  for your next compact Mac shell done in a turkey bag, how many bottles of cream developer do you think you'll need?

 

[Johnnya101]

A half bottle of the biggest one? Cover the inside paint with something so it doesn't get ruined. At most maybe one bottle.

Would be best and most efficient if you simply put both half together and blocked the CRT hole with cardboard and the vents and ports, etc with tape. Saves cream.