Has anyone here tried to whiten a Famicom?

[satoshi_matrix]

Has anyone here tried to whiten the HVC-001 Famicom by any method but painting it? I've heard fixes involving soaking it in various solutions and leaving it out in the sun all day work to whiten the SNES and other systems. Does this work with the Famicom? What about the stickers on the Famicom? Do these fixes ruin them?

Just curious as to what luck you guys might have had with this.

[ericj]

There's already a thread about this: http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=1691.0

[Xious]

I'll try some Lesley's on one and see what happens. Whitening the decals is pretty tough, and pure bleach will eventually yellow even worse than the original plastic. You can use a buffing wheel and plastic compund to clean it off as well, but nothing will ever make it like-new.

The decals often yellow as well, but if you don't care about removing them, you can buff the sh** out of it with a buffing wheel and white or red plastic compound. This will clean off the oxidized plastic, but it takes practice. You can try soaking the decals in a solution of bleach and water (30& bleach) and see what happens, but it may damage the print as well.

SEM paint is the best for this: It's an automotive plastics paint that is designed to chemically bond to the hard plastic of automotive interiors and bumper/trim, so it works wonders on video game consoles. The finish will be fairly nice as well, unlike model paints, and you can have it colour matched to order (airbrush) or buy the closest colour in cans. It bonds so well that it takes a sharp knife and hard pressure to even scratch it once you apply it to a plastic item.

After buffing or painting, I suggest using a polishing wheel and beeswax to add a layer of polish to the system, which will also protect it from further oxidation in the future.

-Xious

[L___E___T]

Best bet is to whiten everything, then buy replacement decals from TEA4TWO, or in fact pay them to do it in the first place (affording).

[shoggoth80]

Peroxide might give some level of success. I have used the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser things to clean off older computer equipment, and it works pretty well. I don't mind a little aging on some of my stuff, just because there is often not much to be done about it without a lot of work, and it adds "patina" of sorts. The Magic Eraser worked really well on an older Atari Monitor and Disk Drive. Couldn't do much about the keys on the keyboard portion though. Still, couldn't complain.

[i heart yuna]

there is a recipe for mixture you make out of stuff from any grocery store / salon wholesaler that is supposed 100% effective in whitening old plastic. I can't remember for the life of me what it's called, but some googling should get you there.

FYI, most yellowed plastic is caused by the chemicals in the plastic and not smoke or dirt, so trying to scrub them clean is a waste of time. The yellowing also causes the plastic to become extremely brittle, which is why so many yellowed Famicoms and SNESs are chipped also.

A lot of the time the molds of a console where poured from two different batches of plastic. Sometimes there would be a bad batch, which is why so many Super Nintendos have a yellow top half and a normal bottom, or vice-versa.

[arfink]

I have done plastic whitening, though not to the famicom. The mixture for doing it is generally known as Retr0Brite or something like that. I wrote this basic tutorial:

http://www.chipcoalition.com/remove-yellowing-from-old-plastics-t474.html

Some considerations- things which should not get wet should be removed, as well as all metal bits. Actual decals are usually not damaged in my experience, but the Famicom has stickers, not decals. The stickers are not paper, so they might hold up to liquid and they might not. The front badge of the Famicom is printed metal or a metallic badge AFAIK, and should be removed or masked before treatment. Same with the metallic badges on the controller faces. Also, the rubber feet should be removed too.
Post Merge: October 04, 2010, 05:29:11 pm
Also, please please please don't use paint or bleach. Paint flakes and looks bad after a while, and bleach actually will degrade the plastic.

[i heart yuna]

I have done plastic whitening, though not to the famicom. The mixture for doing it is generally known as Retr0Brite or something like that. I wrote this basic tutorial:

http://www.chipcoalition.com/remove-yellowing-from-old-plastics-t474.html

Some considerations- things which should not get wet should be removed, as well as all metal bits. Actual decals are usually not damaged in my experience, but the Famicom has stickers, not decals. The stickers are not paper, so they might hold up to liquid and they might not. The front badge of the Famicom is printed metal or a metallic badge AFAIK, and should be removed or masked before treatment. Same with the metallic badges on the controller faces. Also, the rubber feet should be removed too.
Post Merge: October 04, 2010, 05:29:11 pm
Also, please please please don't use paint or bleach. Paint flakes and looks bad after a while, and bleach actually will degrade the plastic.

RetroBrite! That's the stuff I was thinking of!

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

[NintendoKing]

@ i heart yuna - I have heard nothing but great things about RetroBrite. If I ever needed to remove awful yellowing, I would definitely buy "the ingredients to make" it.

[i heart yuna]

@ i heart yuna - I have heard nothing but great things about RetroBrite. If I ever needed to remove awful yellowing, I would definitely buy it.

you don't buy it, you make it;

1 pint (500ml) Hydrogen Peroxide, 10 to 15% strength (40 vol) (available from hairdressers' supplies, e.g. the 'Sally Beauty' franchise in the UK)
2 heaped tablespoonfuls of Xanthan Gum (available from health food shops or online)
1 level teaspoonful of Glycerine (available from pharmacies)
1/4 teaspoonful of "Oxy" laundry booster

there is also a stronger variant on the recipe which uses a higher concentration of the peroxide. It might be kind of hard to find, but my wife is a hairdresser so she just picked up some from the salon wholesaler for me.

you mix it all up and put oxy in right before you use it.  Thickly apply it with a paint brush. After that you leave it out in the sun for a day (or a UV lamp if you have one) just wash the gel off. depending on the condition of the plastic you may have to do it multiple times. last summer i used it to whiten a commodore 64 (the regular recipe) i had to do it twice but it looked brand new after the second time.

as i said before, it is supposed to be 100% effective, but i don't know if it's ever been tried on a famicom before. if my famicom wasn't so perfectly white i might try it.

[arfink]

Well, gimme a chance to actually have some free time and I'll try it on mine.

[Pemdawg]

Necrobump. My upcoming famicom as well as several of my NESes are gonne need this so I will man up and do the deed, then post pics.

[Frank_fjs]

I've recently done it. I used peroxide and powdered bleach.

Famicom came up nice and white but the decals, which were white, yellowed and I lost the red strip at the front and the expansion sticker.

This was just a cheap and disgustingly yellowed Famicom so I didn't care what happened, it looks better now anyhow even with the decal damage. I replaced the front red strip with some burgundy carbon fibre contact and it looks decent enough for now, but I do have a vectorised template of all the decals which I plan on using once I find a decent printing solution.

[Pemdawg]

I've recently done it. I used peroxide and powdered bleach.

Famicom came up nice and white but the decals, which were white, yellowed and I lost the red strip at the front and the expansion sticker.

This was just a cheap and disgustingly yellowed Famicom so I didn't care what happened, it looks better now anyhow even with the decal damage. I replaced the front red strip with some burgundy carbon fibre contact and it looks decent enough for now, but I do have a vectorised template of all the decals which I plan on using once I find a decent printing solution.

I'd love copies of your vector files. Can I get a zip?

[Rosser]

I used vinyl dye on mine the Retr0brite helped but not as much as I wanted it works much better on SFC /SNES's than famicom

but either way make sure you remove he front label it will get ruined like with my first famicom I ended ordering a new shell from senseiman just to get the label the retr0brighting/Peroxiding did a number on the gold.
 
its not difficult to remove just careful when you first try to pry up the corner as it can flake off and show the gold foil

use a thin hobby knife and go around the whole decal gentle like before trying to pull it up with your hands this will loosen the glue  its a foil label and will show bends and creases very easy   

The foil decal is decently tough I believe its like 4 or 5  layers a black plastic base with a gold foil overlayed with red then 2 clear overlays (the last layer of clear can be removed)

If you want I can post a picture of my old front label that went through retr0briting it removes all the gold its still readable just no shininess to the gold.

I removed the adhesive back of the label completely and used some of that 3m spray adhesive that they sell at automotive stores.