Custom QL Retrobrighting

[Chr$]

It's not something QLers usually have any issues with, due to the BB's being, well, black boxes. Horribly aged yellowing beige ABS plastic that has gone funky after years of UV exposure is normally something that enthusiasts of other computers have to deal with.

Not in this case though! This is my custom-cased QL that I bought a few months ago. Before now I was embarrassed to show pictures of it externally. This is how it came (sellers original pictures). It had been stashed away somewhere for 20+ years and was not only very yellowed, but was also very mucky inside and out. The previous owner was also a smoker (in fact it looked and smelled like his partner, kids and pets also smoked - no offence PO, if you ever see this, I'm still chuffed to own it!).

I'd previously done some retrobrighting on a ZX80 and some Amiga keys. So used the same method here. After a lot of scrubbing and then a rotating bath of H2O2 combined with 2x 30W UV LEDs for 2.5 days, these are similar shots of what it now looks like:

Result I reckon! (hopefully it stays that way).

[tofro]

Too bad it's still white

QLs absolutely need to be black!

Nah, very good result indeed, and I would like to see the smoking pets, if possible.

I would expect the white should stay white for some time. I retrobrighted some really yellow Atari parts some years ago and they still look like fresh from the H2O2.

Tobias

[Chr$]

Too bad it's still white

QLs absolutely need to be black!

Nah, very good result indeed, and I would like to see the smoking pets, if possible.

I would expect the white should stay white for some time. I retrobrighted some really yellow Atari parts some years ago and they still look like fresh from the H2O2.

Tobias

Thanks. I did actually think about spraying the whole thing black to simply cover the yellow, but that probably wouldn't have been the right thing to do as any future chips or scratches would look bad. I actually have the original receipt for the case from early 1990 (79,- DM I think). Even if it does tone over time, which seems to happen for certain things, I don't think it'll ever be as yellow as it was.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Do you have any photos of the insides.

[Chr$]

Hi,

Do you have any photos of the insides.

Not very good ones. This should give you an idea. It's basically a standard QL board on it's side, large MFM 20mb HDD and FD's in front on the board. Backplane attached to the exp port, which goes round the back where you can see the HDD interface card (which is attached to a standard PC ISA HDD card) and gold card. The ROM port has been changed to go straight up in relation to the board and on that is the XT keyboard interface. PSU obviously top right. It has Qimi and some other stuff going on. A bit of a tight fit but quite clever the way the original builder squeezed it all in and with a handle as he used to lug it to places for work.

[Cristian]

Too bad it's still white

[tcat]

Hi,

Cool. Just wondering what is that brighting formula, something women use to dye their hair, that is peroxyde based paste? Unfortunately my missus uses mahagon colours. Not useful for my ATARI ST machine.

Tomas

[Chr$]

Hi,

Cool. Just wondering what is that brighting formula, something women use to dye their hair, that is peroxyde based paste? Unfortunately my missus uses mahagon colours. Not useful for my ATARI ST machine.

Tomas

I've never used the paste. I buy 12% Hydrogen Peroxide in liquid form and mix that with about 50% tap water. Find a container big enough (transparent is best), tie spanners or something heavy to the item to weigh it down (or the formation of bubbles will cause it to float). For this item I used 2x 30w LED UV spotlights and had it on a rotating plinth thing. It works just as well outside in sunlight. In fact it's usually quicker on a nice day because the sun also warms up the solution nicely. When doing it outside I cover the container top in cling film to prevent loss from evaporation.

[tofro]

I tend to like the paste more than handling lots of liquid in big containers.

I apply the paste to the parts (with a brush, relatively thick) and wrap them in cling wrap, then expose them to the sun. If you want to avoid stripes or cloudy bleaching, you need to move and sort of "massage" the paste under the film every 15 minutes or so. Gives me the best results.

Best applied with a deckchair and a sunshade (you) next to the parts (in full sun) out in the garden. Add cold beer to your liking, the sun's hot these days.

(You might end up slightly pissed, but with perfectly white parts after an afternoon....)

Tobias

PS: Don't confuse the bottles!

[NormanDunbar]

(You might end up slightly pissed, but with perfectly white parts after an afternoon!)

If I, being a Jock, fell asleep or got pissed in the sun, I would have very red parts! Definitely not white.

Cheers,
Norm.