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rpiguy9907

Posted Fri Feb 01, 2019 1:57 pm

I recently picked up a shed-found an early Commodore 128 (10/85 manufacture date). It is filthy inside and out, and also has a heavily modded motherboard.

Somehow or another, it still works! See the pictures, I am stunned.

I plan to restore this machine - here is the kicker, I bought a LumaFix 128 and a 64K Video Ram expansion and planned to install after restoration, but this very early C128 has almost no vertical bars, and the previous owner already soldered in sockets and installed 64K video memory directly on the board. Womp Womp.

More than likely this machine will be painted as it looks stained in addition to the normal yellowing.
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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Feb 01, 2019 2:40 pm

Wow! That is incredible that it still works.

And yet, I acquired a similar 128 in a haul/donation last year.

I lovingly called the 128 the Desert Storm edition, as it was so brown and dirty it looked to have been found somewhere in the desert. Possibly by Indiana Jones himself.
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And guess what - it works, too!

I gave the computer to dddaaannn who lives locally here in Seattle and is also a member of the SEA-CCC. He was looking for a "project from hell" and I delivered. Hah!

Relevant side-note:
I was watching a video today of the 8-Bit Guy's where he went through a long scientific experiment of various retr0brighting methods on an even nastier VIC-20. He compared the following:
  • hydrogen peroxide/saran/light
  • hydrogen peroxide + heat (a suggestion by a chemist)
  • vinyl and fabric dye
  • engine cleaner (!)
  • engine degreaser (!!)
  • “usual” treatment of salon creme solution/saran/light
  • sodium bicarbonate
  • and an ozone generator - something I was not familiar with at all, but found very intriguing.
His initial results were interesting.
Screen Shot 2019-02-01 at 8.51.48 AM.png
Anyway, this test allowed him to produce a matrix of sorts in terms of difficulty and time spent (+ success rates).
Screen Shot 2019-02-01 at 8.52.22 AM.png
Had he used the Ozone machine for 2X the time, it may have produced the same results as the peroxide / salon solutions.

Video is interesting to watch and may give you some ideas. He actually made a series of restoration videos the topic is such a popular one.

Worth noting that, for all of these methods, it doesn't seem to be a permanent cure. This is 100% anecdotal, but I've heard the plastic will revert back to its yellow states again over time.

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rpiguy9907

Posted Fri Feb 01, 2019 6:46 pm

intric8 wrote:Wow! That is incredible that it still works.

...Video is interesting to watch and may give you some ideas. He actually made a series of restoration videos the topic is such a popular one.

Worth noting that, for all of these methods, it doesn't seem to be a permanent cure. This is 100% anecdotal, but I've heard the plastic will revert back to its yellow states again over time.
Hey that is a very interesting video. Coincidentally I have done the Peroxide + Heat method before (the most effective on his list) but it is really only practical for small pieces.

I probably will do that method for the keys.

I have had good luck painting computers, I recently painted and sold a spare c64C on eBay that I painted blue.
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McTrinsic

Posted Sat Feb 02, 2019 12:02 am

Seeing these pics I am impressed. Actually I feel challenged to get my C64 finally up and running ...

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Mr.Toast
Roseville, CA

Posted Sat Feb 02, 2019 9:14 am

That's an awesome find and should be a fun project to restore! And that teal C64 is a very very nice job as well.

In a few months, I plan to clean up one of these A500s found in the Abyss and try to use a poly dye that I've seen another user get some good mileage out of. My understanding is it different than a vinyl dye and should work well with ABS plastics. I'll likely need to retrobrite first, then dye as the one I am thinking of using is pretty yellow.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C1 ... AJ53&psc=1

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Dynamic_Computing

Posted Sat Feb 02, 2019 12:04 pm

Wow. I would be scared to touch that keyboard without rubber gloves on! Yuck!
I can honestly say that my C128 has become my favorite Retro computer - it gets the most use out of all of them.
I have been blessed in that all of my retro machine are fairly clean, and only my personal A500 would need retro- brighting - but that is moot since it is going to go in the new A1500 case anyway.
If you need to bounce any ideas off of me about the C128, let me know!

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rpiguy9907

Posted Sat Feb 02, 2019 5:38 pm

Mr.Toast wrote:That's an awesome find and should be a fun project to restore! And that teal C64 is a very very nice job as well.

In a few months, I plan to clean up one of these A500s found in the Abyss and try to use a poly dye that I've seen another user get some good mileage out of. My understanding is it different than a vinyl dye and should work well with ABS plastics. I'll likely need to retrobrite first, then dye as the one I am thinking of using is pretty yellow.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C1 ... AJ53&psc=1
Be careful if you dye the key caps. I tried that same blue dye on a set of Commodore key caps and the pad printing used for the characters made crazy halos around the keys. Ruined them.

Should be fine for the case, I’ve never dared dye an object that big I can’t wait to see how it turns out!





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