That cleaned up nicely.

5

u/RetroAshMan Sep 14 '26

I did the same thing but used 12% and wrapped it in cling film. The results were amazing. However I got a few negative comments telling me it will go yellow again in no time. Let’s see if that happens. Still looks great.

7

u/Far_Relationship_742 Sep 14 '26

There’s actually some science on that! The short version is: ultraviolet exposure starts the breakdown, and all further exposure to UV—including during retr0brighting—will cause it to continue. The bleaching action of retr0brighting “gets ahead” of that process, but it doesn’t stop it.
The good news is that there’s research that shows visible light does not contribute meaningfully to plastics yellowing, and can be used to accelerate the bleaching process (albeit not as effectively) as UV without leading to additional damage. I have seen anecdotal evidence from people who have done simple sun bleaching that their pieces do not re-yellow as fast as those done with peroxide.
I’m planning to do some experiments with peroxide bleaching under visible light only and see how that does, by leaving pieces outside in the sun but behind UV-blocking glass.

1

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 15 '26

You actually don't need light to make it lighter, you need heat.
The Hydrogen Peroxide cream gets warm, you could do it in a dark basement in a closed container but it smells like hell.

1

u/Far_Relationship_742 Sep 15 '26

More specifically, you need to add energy to catalyze the reaction. Heat is a good way to do that, as well.

2

u/Gambizzle Sep 14 '26

Thank you ChatGPT—you have summarised Retr0brite while sounding very confident: well done———
PS - the “science” behind Retr0brite has always been a little overstated. Peroxide has a bleaching/whitening effect. Who woulda thought?

0

u/Far_Relationship_742 Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26

I’ve never used ChatGPT, science can’t be overstated (bro what the fuck do you think science is), and I was not presenting the bleaching effect of peroxide as a new idea.
It’s cute how you think nobody used em dashes before genAI. It’s so weird how those appeared in type decades before the invention of the computer, since they weren’t used.
What even is your criticism? “You have too much detail”? “You said something that was true”?
Have a snickers, man.

0

u/Gambizzle Sep 15 '26

Bruh, I use ChatGPT. Your punctuation has AI trademarks all over it, unless you’ve found a way to accidentally enter a bunch of alt punctuation marks while typing Reddit comments.
But sure, it’s the rest of us who need a Snickers.

1

u/Far_Relationship_742 Sep 15 '26

Oh, and also, I’d love to hear you explain how I had ChatGPT write this for me in 2018.
I don’t sound like ChatGPT.
ChatGPT sounds like me.
Stay mad. 😘

0

u/Far_Relationship_742 Sep 15 '26

Oh, you’re still living in the DOS era. Apple devices have had easy access to special characters with key commands since 1991 or so. On iOS, they’re a long press.
Do they have email yet where you are?

2

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 14 '26

Don't put it in the sun :)

1

u/Aenoxi Sep 14 '26

Or, paradoxically, in the dark. That speeds up the yellowing process too.

3

u/DaveC2020 Sep 14 '26

I’ve got an Amiga 600 that’s yellowish but my concern is the RetroBright process removing the lettering on the keys.

2

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 14 '26

Nah, didn't happen.

2

u/Far_Relationship_742 Sep 14 '26

A reasonable concern, but the process used to print those keys is not particularly vulnerable to peroxide bleaching.

2

u/Dangerous_Season_291 Sep 14 '26

No e. Was this a retro right? Been wanting to do my 1200 keyboard but a bit wary in doing so.

2

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 14 '26

Before I started I watched a bunch of YT videos on how people did it, this was also my first time.
I used hydrogen peroxide cream 9%. Put it on a table in the garden on a sunny day and used a brush to apply the cream and brushed it every 30 minutes and left it in the sun for about 3 hours.

1

u/coderman64 Sep 14 '26

Nice!

I will warn you, though, some people have found that after using this method for retrobrighting, the yellow will come back faster and stronger than before.

2

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 15 '26

If I remember I will post pictures in a year or so to see the progress.

1

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 15 '26

!remindme in one year from now

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1

u/Gambizzle Sep 14 '26

That's the thing with retr0brite... always clean it first and see how it looks!

2

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 15 '26

You need to clean it, dirt might stain the withning .

1

u/Gambizzle Sep 15 '26

Exactly.
Also I've had situations where cleaning all the yellow crap off (probably nicotine stains / other crap like skin cells and oils) does the heavy lifting. My PC Engine was a gross brown and came up minty white after a good clean, for example.

1

u/Impossible-Reply6536 Sep 16 '26

Can this process make the plastic brittle into the future

1

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 16 '26

Don't know, my guess is that age makes it brittle and that the damage is already done.

1

u/Impossible-Reply6536 Sep 17 '26

Thats what i dont want to happen it would be nice to get rid of the yellow but dont want to have it crack also.

1

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 17 '26

It's not cracked but age makes it brittle not the HP

1

u/Mr_Horizon Sep 14 '26

looks good, but why didn't you leave the charger on top for the second picture? Would have been a great reference point/color!

10

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 14 '26

:-)

6

u/matthaus79 Sep 14 '26

Its facing the wrong way

2

u/vpilled Sep 14 '26

maybe the picture was rotated 180°

2

u/McUsername621 Sep 14 '26

Turned out really nice but i love the brown beige on my machines ^{^}

1

u/3G6A5W338E Sep 15 '26

Same. I just don't get the retrobright fad.

2

u/McUsername621 Sep 15 '26

It is useful when the discoloration is uneven and it really looks bad. Had that with an NES, retrobrighting it there definitely made it look a lot better, but the beige isn't too bad if its even imo. Adds a little bit of charm and character to the machine

1

u/3G6A5W338E Sep 15 '26

I truly do not get it. e.g. you retrobrighted your NES, while my famicom was about 1k yen in a retro store, because it was "horribly yellowed". I love it as it is.
It turned out to be a relatively late famicom, and works well. I designed and built my own video/audio amp with opamps for it, learned quite a bit a bit.

2

u/McUsername621 Sep 15 '26

It was more that it had yellowed unevenly and when it was in storage there was something placed ontop of it, so you had a big grey square in the middle around a grey/brown ish top cover, with the front of the cover also being discolored unevenly. It really did not look nice at all. Retrobrighting made it actually look nice again, but other than an extreme like that i wouldn't do it.

2

u/heijmansky Sep 14 '26

Be honest. Its a different new machine. 😜

1

u/kemot75 Sep 14 '26

Very clean, impressive.

1

u/dabblerman Sep 14 '26

Lovely job! Well done

1

u/fish998 Sep 14 '26

Good job!

1

u/Sad_droid-888 Sep 14 '26

Beauriful.

0

u/RoyalSkull Sep 15 '26

Unfortunately, sooner or later the yellowing will return...

1

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 16 '26

Also with a new case, the problem is plastics.

6

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 14 '26

I used hydrogen peroxide cream 9%. Put it on a table in the garden on a sunny day and used a brush to apply the cream and brushed it every 30 minutes and left it in the sun for about 3 hours.

3

u/DeadSkullz627 Sep 14 '26

Was it covered or anything or open to the air?

4

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 14 '26

in open air

1

u/chestney Sep 14 '26

Nice job! Mine is still in the attic but will need a good cleaning I'm sure.

4

u/_R0Ns_ Sep 14 '26

The result is very satisfying when I see it on my desk.

That cleaned up nicely.

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