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Need some advice from the vintage computer community at large....

br44

br44

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2017
Messages
101
Location
United States
Hey everyone!
I'm looking for some advice. I recently picked up a new computer for my collection. It's an 8 bit personal computer from the 1980s that's rather uncommon. I don't want to say what it is quite yet, because I don't want it to bias the answers you all give. Suffice to say there is only ONE of these computers for sale on Ebay, with ZERO in the "completed auctions" section. And suffice to say it's rather pricey. It's not Apple 1 rare, but it's not common either.

Now my question is... this particular machine (and matching monitor) are rather yellowed. I know most people don't think twice about retrobrighting a C64 or Apple ][, because those computers are relatively common. Should I retrobright this machine, or leave it yellowed? After all, it's a rather uncommon machine. I wouldn't want to ruin the computer for display at a computer museum for example. Personally I'm of the opinion that I would like the computer to look the way it did in the 1980s when it was new. I also want to be respectful.

The other option could be just to disassemble it and clean it very deeply. It's got some cigarette tar left on it from decades past. That would certainly help the look, but it wouldn't undo the very obvious yellowing.

Thoughts?
 
daver2 said:
I would certainly clean up the cigarette tar and dirt on it myself.

Dave
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Oh yeah for sure, I just mentioned that as the other option. Just clean it with no retro bright... or clean it and retro bright it.
 
retrobrigting for me is routine and super easy.. I do it all the time and would like to think im pretty good at it. more important than retrobrighting is cleaning. A monitor for instance. I need yo remove the tube and all components to scrub the plastic or metal chassis. after its washed Retrobrighting is easy but not necessary. Washing on the other hand I feel is necessary.


With that said. I have only a few of the computers in my collection retrobrighted. All the machines i do regrobright are for other people or ones I sell. Ideally Id like to retrobright my machines.. but I dont typically retrobright machines i keep.I just own way too many.
 
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VERAULT said:
retrobrigting for me is routine and super easy.. I do it all the time and would like to think im pretty good at it. more important than retrobrighting is cleaning. A monitor for instance. I need yo remove the tube and all components to scrub the plastic or metal chassis. after its washed Retrobrighting is easy but not necessary. Washing on the other hand I feel is necessary.


With that said. I have only a few of the computers in my collection retrobrighted. All the machines i do regrobright are for other people or ones I sell. Ideally Id like to retrobright my machines.. but I dont typically retrobright machines i keep.I just own way too many.
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Do you suppose it detracts anything from the value or collectibility of the machine? I've retrobrighted machines I keep for myself, so I am also very experienced with it.
 
No, not even a little. I just cant justify the work if I am not selling it. And retrobrighting is temporary anyway.

When I do retrobright a machine. My god they sparkle and look great.. but again I have so many computers.. As long as they are clean.. I am happy.
 
If you don't like how the retrobrighting turns out, just put it out in the sun and the yellow will come back :poop:
 
I suppose it depends on how bad it is. An even light yellowing doesn't bother me, but ones where there are distinct lines across the case, or large variations in colour on different panels would tend to want to do something about it.
 
You do you. It's your machine. ;D

That being said, I usually clean up the dirt and remove any extraneous stickers, but unless it's something that is actually rare enough to be investment-grade, I don't worry about cosmetics beyond that unless something is physically broken or affects the physical integrity of the machine in some way. My stuff is all as yellow as cheese. I've never retrobrited anything and probably never will. It's not a "muh collector value" thing, it's just not something I'm interested in messing with, especially since it's not permanent.
 
I just want to add after reading my comment that I am not against retrobright at all. And some sytems NEED it. I had alot of apple equipment with various rust. Either RF shields or baseplates. They needed to be stripped of rust and repainted. And if I am going to that length It would be stupid not to retrobright.

Here are two examples of machines that NEEDED retrobright since so much other work was being done to them. They are an Apple IIgs and IIc

photos.app.goo.gl

Terrible IIgs case restoration

17 new items added to shared album
photos.app.goo.gl photos.app.goo.gl

photos.app.goo.gl

Filthy IIc Restoration

20 new items added to shared album
photos.app.goo.gl photos.app.goo.gl
 
I did retrobrighting for quite some time and heavily regret it these days (and completely stopped doing it). Everything I did retrobright has re-yellowed way worse than it would have had with no retrobrighting at all. Stuff that had only yellowing on some parts has re-yellowed everywhere, inside and outside. So clearly the result of the retrobrighting process. Let me know if you need examples, as it even affected systems I showed here a few years ago.

Also, some plastics can be destroyed by retrobrighting. So doing that on a one-of-a-kind system would be silly. Leave the system as is.

These days, retrobrighting is mostly done before selling something to get more money out of it. In my museum, all systems on display are yellowed and I'm liking it. It shows their age and makes them more "real". For me, retrobrighting was in interesting trend but has lost its magic.
 
As I wrote, I have no issue showing examples.

Also, you are free to think different. That has no effect on my experience, however. And my experience was just bad.

And ask all the people who destroyed their SNES consoles by trying to make it look nice again. :ROFLMAO:
 
Timo W. said:
As I wrote, I have no issue showing examples.

Also, you are free to think different. That has no effect on my experience, however. And my experience was just bad.

And ask all the people who destroyed their SNES consoles by trying to make it look nice again. :ROFLMAO:
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Your right.. but these were people with ZERO tech skills and retrobrighted the system with all the innards in place which is just mind blowingly imbecillic.

Glad you brought up the SNES. Someone nearby was giving away a SNES and Oddysey 2 system for free. The SNES was broken and almost orange. Turns out someone spilled coca-cola in it. I repaired it and retrobrighted it and it has not yellowed at all since and its been several years. It looks perfect. Certainly much better than my original SNES I still own. But again, you need to take the plastics off of the electronics to retrobright them. When I see people retrobright a whole monitor which is NOT dissasembled, I want to smack them with a hose.
 
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I'm not talking about people not disassembling the system.

The SNES for example used different variants of plastics for the shell. One variant of the plastic will heavily marble or even *fall apart* when using the retrobrighting chemicals.

And you can find so many examples that it just does not last:

retrobright-01.jpg

(source: https://www.commodoreservice.com/retrobright_eng.htm)
 
I personally don't retrobright. Vintage computers are old and yellowing is a part of the aging process. I will definitely clean vintage computers as best I can and this might include taking things apart like keyboards that are difficult to clean when everything is in place but that's about it. It doesn't matter how rare or common it is. It won't surprise anyone if something is yellowed and doesn't come into play whether I will acquire something or not, especially if it is truly uncommon.
 
Timo W. said:
I'm not talking about people not disassembling the system.

The SNES for example used different variants of plastics for the shell. One variant of the plastic will heavily marble or even *fall apart* when using the retrobrighting chemicals.

And you can find so many examples that it just does not last:

retrobright-01.jpg

(source: https://www.commodoreservice.com/retrobright_eng.htm)
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Yeah I find that it really depends on the item in question whether it will re-yellow or not. I suspect it has to do with how yellow it was in the first place.

For example, I have retrobrighted a C64 that wasn't terrible to begin with. It's fine, no new signs of yellowing.

Then there was a SNES that was sort of medium yellowed. Not horrid, but not light either. I retrobrighted it and it came back maybe 5% of what it was. Infinitely better if you ask me.

Then I have some stuff that went super cheddar, like the face plate to an old pentium iii Gateway that I retrobrighted. Sure enough it went back to cheddar. Maybe not full 100% cheddar, but 70%.
 
Okay. BR44. You got your answers. Many people say do it, but completely disassemble it. Some say don't do it, it changes/degrades the plastic so next time it'll yellow much faster (a couple years.) Until some spray topcoat becomes available to seal and protect from reyellowing, i wouldn't do any real "museum quality" artifact yet.

So please tell us: what is the rare 1980s 8 bit find? You've got me very curious!
 
tejones777 said:
Okay. BR44. You got your answers. Many people say do it, but completely disassemble it. Some say don't do it, it changes/degrades the plastic so next time it'll yellow much faster (a couple years.) Until some spray topcoat becomes available to seal and protect from reyellowing, i wouldn't do any real "museum quality" artifact yet.

So please tell us: what is the rare 1980s 8 bit find? You've got me very curious!
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I found a Hewlett Packard 86b, complete with matching 12 inch monitor, Polaroid "contrast enhancement filter", rom tray, ram expansion card, and another card I think is used for connecting peripherals. There's a couple of the 86 version on ebay, but only one 86b. From what little information I've found, it seems that the 86b is the more desired computer. I think. Not sure.

I paid two dollars for the entire shebang. Suffice to say I was practically hopping up and down in joy when I drove out of that thrift store.
IMG_20221107_074943.jpgIMG_20221107_074957.jpgIMG_20221107_075025.jpgIMG_20221107_075047.jpgIMG_20221107_075105.jpgIMG_20221107_075130.jpg
This last picture is an example of the yellowing. It was hiding under that key overlay.
 
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