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The Amiga 500+ from bright yellow to white again....almost

11/7/2015

15 Comments

 
By Gemma ~@Juicygamereviews
Amiga 500+ case whitening
My newly restored Amiga 500+ setup. Look at how yellow the power box is compared to the Amiga (after treatment)
It's been a long problem for us gamers that causes a lot of upset when buying video game consoles. I'm talking about consoles yellowing. That filthy, mustard looking appearance of the shells of the Super Nintendo, Amiga and many more. The horrendous colour change is caused by too much exposure to UV light which conflicts with the chemical, Bromine (makes the plastic fire retardant) thus causing the yellowing. 

There are numerous ways to reverse or lessen the chemical reaction, therefore, restoring the plastic cases back towards their original colour. I recently did this with my Amiga 500+. I purchased it and got a pretty good deal but the downside was the plastic case, keys, mouse and power box were a solid eight out of ten on the severity scale for yellowing. I'm going to tell you my procedure which worked wonders for me...
how to de-yellow an amiga
My Amiga 500+ before the treatment. It looked worse in person
Amiga 500+ de-yellowing case
Amiga 500+ without the top case
I stripped the top Amiga case off and popped every key off afterwards. Fortunately I didn't need to treat the underside as the plastic had not yellowed. I used 12% Hydrogen Peroxide cream as my sole treatment for this de-yellowing process. I'd highly recommend this but please be careful as it burns your skin if it comes in to contact. I wore gloves to be safe. 

I coated the top case in the Hydrogen Peroxide cream using a small paint brush. I applied a decent amount ensuring every ounce of the case was covered. Once fully coated I wrapped the Amiga case in cling film (saran wrap) and left it in the sun (you can also use a UV lamp) for thirty six hours. You must use cling film to avoid the Hydrogen Peroxide evaporating. Repeat the same procedure with the Amiga keys. When disamsembling the Amiga keyboard make sure you collect the springs underneath the keys as they are very delicate. I washed all of the springs in warm soapy water.
Amiga 500+ yellowing
The Amiga 500+ top case after one application of Hydrogen Peroxide
I repeated the whole procedure the day after but rather than apply a second coat over the first, I washed the keys and case down in warm soapy water before starting again. 

After thirty six hours I washed the Amiga 500+ and keys and started to reassemble. The results are unbelievable! Whereas the Amiga was an eight out of ten for yellowing prior to the treatment; after the treatment I'd say it's a two out of ten now. My next project will be to de-yellow my Super Famicom!
Amiga 500 + de-yellowing
Amiga 500+ Look at the difference in the keys
If you have any questions about this then please leave a comment. Check out my other consoles on the Video Game Collection page. I'll be doing a full pick ups video for the Amiga bundle on my Youtube channel very soon. For now, check out more pictures of the procedure in the slideshow below as well as my epic Amiga 500 Bundle pick ups.
Thegebs24 youtube channel
15 Comments
Luis
11/7/2015 13:37:48

Awesome tutorial!

Reply
Juicy Game Reviews
11/7/2015 13:39:06

Thanks Luis. Do you have any yellowed consoles you'd treat?

Reply
Keith
18/7/2015 05:02:26

Good tut Gebs, I felt myself reel from the screen when I saw that much under the keyboard. TBH I've seen worse but, you did a great job restoring a great machine to its former glory. Well done!

Reply
Juicy Game Reviews
18/7/2015 08:23:04

Thanks Keith. Very kind words. I really enjoyed the project. My Famicom is next :D

Reply
Neil Dyson link
24/7/2015 15:27:44

I have virtually the same creme peroxide my hairdresser picked it up for me for a fiver ;)

Reply
Juicy Game Reviews
29/7/2015 13:42:30

YAY to the hairdressers :)

Reply
Steve link
10/8/2015 05:34:22

I'm thinking of doing this with my Atari STe. Is it safe to do the keys as well? I was thinking they'd come out clean but blank lol
Thanks, a great article :)
Steve

Reply
Juicy Game Reviews
17/8/2015 03:35:21

Let me know how you get on Steve.
Thanks for reading :)

Reply
Johan W
11/10/2015 12:23:09

I have a very yellow A500 that I want to try to look as new but I think I need to wait when it is more sunny as I live in Sweden.
The question I have how you did with all the keys when you applied the cream. Did you do one by one or you did it in some other way?

Johan W

Reply
Juicy Game Reviews
26/10/2015 12:45:54

Hi Johan. I coated each key individually then lay them on cling film. I had to be careful to lay another piece of cling film across the top before moving the keys outside in to the sun :)
Thanks, Gemma.

Reply
John L
26/10/2015 11:17:29

So you say you applied it again. So two 36 hour sessions in the sun? How did you make sure all sides were exposed to the UV light? Did you find a particular angle works best to get all the sides evenly exposed? Thanks.

Reply
Juicy Game Reviews
26/10/2015 12:44:23

The total time was 36 outside in the sun and in that time I applied two coats. I had to continue to move the shell around in order to ctach the sun so no particular angle worked best. The cling film maintains the coatings so the contained heat works pretty well evern if its not in direct sunlight. Thanks, Gemma.

Reply
Paul
1/12/2015 13:34:43

Hi...
Did you mix the cream peroxide with something else, or did you use it as it came in that bottle?
Does it have to be 12% 40 vol, and what does that mean anyway?

Regards Paul

Reply
Juicy Game Reviews
1/12/2015 16:43:12

Hi Paul,

I used it straight out of the bottle. 12% is recommended as opposed to the mainstream 2% stuff you can buy in supermarkets. This means it is stronger and will do a better job when attacking the Bromine (yellow stains).

Thanks, Gemma

Reply
Standa
3/12/2019 13:42:57

Hello.
Can this be applied to the PlayStation console? Is the same application time of 36 hours?
Thanks, Stan.

Reply



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