C64 repaint - 2nd Chapter

Well, sometimes we simply _have to_ experiment and try out new things. There's an infamous saying in my hometown: "Once in a lifetime you have to try everything you can. Except folk-dancing."
So, here it is, I'm almost finished with repainting a C64. Yes, I know, this is not the first time I'm repainting a C64 but this is the first time I'm doing it right. At least I tend to think I'm doing it in the right way.

The case was yellow. Very. Yellow.
Keys were dirty. Very. Dirty.
There was no sunshine for a long time, I have no balcony or garden area where I live.
This made me to do it, even if some might say I'm vandalising the good ol' sixtyfour.
Whatever. Once in a lifetime you have to try it. It's still not dancing. Folk-dancing.

First question: what color shall I use?
How about the signature Commodore blue-red? -ish. It's hard to find matching colors, especially by looking at some pictures on the internet. They can be misleading, however, maybe accurate as well. So I gave a try (still not dancing) to Plastikote Satin Navy Blue and Satin Wine Red.

Well, they are definitely not similar to Commie's blue-red but these were the better-looking colors.

Dismount C64, clean it with warm and soapy water. Let it dry out properly. Start painting.
Stop.
We need a place where it's possible to use the spray paint without damaging walls/furniture/lung/etc...
Ok, whatever, I went down to the front of the building and painted the C64 with people staring at me. I became kinda famous because at the second round I've been asked what the hell I'm doing and somebody even made a selfie with me in the background, spraying.

Anyway, sprayed the case on the street but let it dry inside the flat. Not 100% satisfying but worked well, I just had to keep in mind to open the windows from time to time, to get rid of the smell of the paint.

Yaaay, this spray paint is awesome. Not just because the color is pretty but the paint gets even on the plastic. Push the button, spray it, move your hand from left-to-right, repeat. It's done.

1 day was more than enough to let the first layer dry out.

Nope, I have nothing to do with football, nothing to do with Barcelona. It just happened to be similar to their colors. I'm especially proud of the red-blue crossing on the top cover. It's smooooooth.

After a week of leaving it dry out - it wasn't gluey anymore - I started to assemble it.

And in the meantime SIDfx arrived! Why not make this C64 even more special by mounting the SIDfx inside this machine?

Great. It fits. FYI: you should use 6mm drills for the jack connector and switches.

Almost done. The keyboard looked pretty off whit the usual white-yellow-ish keys. I even tried with black-brown keys but it still looked ridiculously off. I'm still waiting for the new C64 keycap set, probably they never going to arrive... so I didn't want to order another set.

Brilliant idea, let's use the (pretty a lot) remaining of the red-blue spray paint. Similar way, similar method, similar technique.

Add a layer of matte paint and that's it. Looks better and brighter in real, this picture can't give back the proper look of it.
I still need to find a solution to the keys, or I just simply have to learn to type blind. Oh, and a nice LED that fits this color-scheme.


I'm going to post about the SIDfx next time, will write about my experience after a deeper test.
See ya' there.



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Today's music: SIDRIP Alliance - 2nd Reality (remix)

C64 repaint

After a few weeks of silence - pun intended, the previous posts were about music - I'm back with a completely different topic of renovating retro computers.

I've posted a few pictures about a C64 C months ago in this post: C64 C - I'm blue, I'm blue!
Since then I made progress with renovating the scratched case and decided to try out something new: repaint and make it unique.

Started with a warm bubble bath - no, not me, I washed the plastic case in a warm, soapy bubble bath then let it dry out. Some very fine sandpaper helped to soften the scratches, tho it wasn't enough to completely remove them. Well, my patience was over as well, so I went online to check available spray paints.

Went with a very simple grey colored spray can, he only criteria was to be able to paint plastic with it. The whole C64 case was a wreck already so I had nothing to lose - I thought.

Bubble bath followed the sandpapering session, had to clean it before painting. Then, two layers of spray painting has been applied, including 2 days of drying between the 2 layers.

After the second layer of grey paint I left it on the balcony, fortunately there was no rain, only calm wind that helped with drying.

Grey base. Well, looks better than the original, scratchy surface but it's still not enough. What to do, what to do..? Add colors! And add some well-known game characters.

It seemed to be a great idea but wasn't easy to realize it. It's not easy to draw without any talent... Anyway, I had to try it.

And failed. So I repainted the whole thing with grey again.

And then asked my wife if she wants to help me with drawing and she did offer her help! I'm a lucky man.

We chose a few classic games like Bruce Lee, Pacman, Space Invaders, Inter Karate and printed the characters on an A4 paper (thanks to Poison for helping with setting up the proper size).

It took a few hours to properly draw and fill the characters but I think it worth the effort.
They looked really cool but overall, it was just a few black characters on a grey plastic so we decided to fill 'em up with some colors.

Looks a bit abstract, right? Yeah, it's not _that_ great as I had it in my vision but it's still looking good and what's important: it's unique and it's the first one. The next one will be better, because I won't stop here. You've been warned.



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Today's music: BRUCE LEE (1984) - LukHash REMIX (performed by Kung Foo Panda)

Super Nintendo - From Yellow to Reborn

Sooooo, it took around 2 weeks to clean a SNES and it could have been shorter if we had sunny days... instead of natural UV light I had to use a UV light bulb which is not that efficient. Other than this the procedure was kinda the same as with the C64. Basically this is the short version of the SNES Story.

Longer version:
I was happy when I received the special screwdrivers and finally was able to dismount the SNES.
Everything started with a dirty-dusty, yellowed machine:

As I already mentioned in a previous post, it was fairly easy to clean the cartridge slot with earbuds and compressed air, so the SNES was in a good working condition but the plastic was, well, just look at the photo...

Disassembly is easy if you have the right tools:

However, I still don't understand why it was necessary to use 2 different type of screws (check previous post).

Surprisingly, the interior wasn't that dusty as I expected. A slight push of the compressed air bottle and a soft brush touch did the job well.

And then... no sunshine for days... what a sad week was that. I mounted the UV light to the slot, moved my bed from the bedroom to the kitchen and put the cardboard box into the bedroom.

For a few days only.
Then a bit more...

Cardboard box and aluminium foil interior, it helps to reflect the UV light to EVERYWHERE.

Switch on the UV light:

And we wait.

Still wait.

Even more...

After 6-7 days I was fed up with this procedure and cleaned the plastic parts from the cream, using a lot of warm temperature water in the bathtub.
Result:

After reassembly:

And... what is that..? Oh, no, again...

A leftover screw...
I have no idea where it belongs. Really. There were no empty slots, no holes, nothing. All I can think of this screw belongs to another device. Hopefully.

But at least the SNES works fine, I played with many games since I cleaned it.

Conclusion:

• SNES disassembling is easy
• UV light bulb s*cks. Should use natural UV light or a lot more powerful bulb.
• Clean the plastic after 2 days and re-apply the cream again to achieve more even whitening
• SNES parts are a bit harder to reassemble, it has more parts and it's a bit more complicated inside than a C64
•  SNES is fun. SNES is a robust machine.
• Aluminium foil is great, it reflects the UV light and spreads it everywhere.

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Today's slightly annoying music: Pac-Man DX soundtrack
 

C64 datassette

The first candidate for destroying completely cleaning and making it as new was a Commodore Datassette (C2N). It came with a C64 version C but it is compatible with C64/C128/VIC-20/PET.

Disassembling is easy, 4 screws should be unscrewed on the bottom of the device, then the mechanics and electronic part can be removed together.

As I mentioned it in my previous post I forgot to take photos of this procedure, I was too excited to dismount and clean it.

After I removed the electronic parts, the device spit a big amount of dust out from itself... well, this must have been in the attic for 10+ years... Anyway, dust can be removed easily, use some compressed air or a soft brush. Outside, of course. Otherwise your other half won't be happy.

(don't forget to keep the screws in a safe place, where you can find it easily later)


Next step was to think about the plastic parts. They were not only yellow, but YELLOW!!!!1!!1
- the parts need a lot of H2O2 (aka. hydrogen-peroxide)
- and a lot of UV light
- something that prevents the H2O2 to dry out on the sun

I cleaned the plastic with warm soapy water and let it dry completely. This makes sense as the dirt of thousands of years might block the H2O2 and it's more effective if I use it on clean plastic.

Take a cardboard box, cover it with cellophane. Add a lot of cream to the parts, smooth it with a sponge. Then cover the parts with more cellophane. Bring the parts to the balcony and put them on the top of the cardboard box. Similar to this:

Note #1: yellowed parts are barely visible but visible enough to realize they were quite YELLOW.
Note #2: yes, that's an Amiga mouse, later I'll write a dedicated article about it.

Let them have a sunbath for 2 days. I was lucky because those days were sunny enough to achieve a great result.

In the meantime I checked the electronics, cleaned the tape head with nail polish remover, checked the rubber bands - replaced the counter rubber because it was loose.


This picture was taken right after removing the cellophane and cleaning the parts with hot water after 2 days on the balcony:

Let it dry a bit. Then use some nail polish remover - poured into a paper towel - to clean the marks and give it a shiny bright surface. Be careful with the polish remover! It can remove the writing, use it on the white parts only!

Last step was to assemble it together and test it with inserting a cassette and loading a game. Everything went well, the C2N works and loads the games as it should. Basically, it's a reborn datassette as good as new.

Isn't it a beauty, is it?

Conclusion:
- need a lot of H2O2 cream, even more than you think it's enough
- 12% cream H2O2 is perfect for the job (see previous post)
- cover everything with the cream
- 2 days with 3-4 hours of  not-so-direct sunlight can make miracle
- change the position of the parts from time-to-time, whitening will be more consistent
- nail polish remover is a strong stuff, don't inhale it
- nail polish remover is a strong stuff, use it only on the plastic
- really, it will remove the writings if you aren't careful enough


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Today's music: Unreal Tournament soundtrack