[rescue] Restoring yellowed computer cases...

[Lucyen Gabbard]

There may actually be another solution that is even less desirable.  On some
higher dollar european cars (let's say Volvos from the late 80's and early
90's), all of the dash boards would be made of black vinyl (or some other
crazy skinned foam material) and then *painted* with a special vinyl paint.
Although I have never tried it, I would imagine that a paint that sticks
well to vinyl would also stick well to plastic, if the plastic were cleaned
first.

On the bad side, it will probably take shiny plastic and turn it into matte
plastic, but we're outside my realm of expertise there.

If you are planning on dying the plastic, wouldn't you have to bleach (or
something) the plastic first to get the original pigment out?  What about
adding a flourecent dye like laundry detergents?

-Mr. Lucyen Gabbard                                           --
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-----Original Message-----
From: rescue-bounces at sunhelp.org [mailto:rescue-bounces at sunhelp.org] On
Behalf Of Ahmed Ewing
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 16:47
To: The Rescue List
Subject: [rescue] Restoring yellowed computer cases...

I'm aware that the common yellowing that occurs on gray/beige computer
equipment cases as old as many of ours is due to UV exposure over time, and
thus is not "washable". Painting is also not an option either if you want to
maintain the original feel/texture of the surface (unless of course the
original case was painted).

However, has anyone ever tried using something like vinyl/plastic dye to
correct this? Instead of covering the surface, I'm told it actually seeps in
and recolors the plastic through and through, maintaining all physical
characteristics of the surface. Granted the case would have to be plastic
and not metal for this to work, and there might not be a wide selection of
specific color shades... but it seems like it would be worth a try.

Thoughts? Experiences? Fits of laughter? :-)

-A
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