Yellow to white, oh yeah :D

[MNKyDeth]

So I had my first ever attempt at whitening some yellow plastic this past day.

I had bought some super yellowed controllers with hopes to experiment and see if I could turn them white. I know from reading around there is retrobrite and all sort of methods to getting yellowed plastic white again. So I decided to try an inexpensive route to get the few super yellow controllers I have white again.

I bought a EXO Terra reptile UVB200 (PT2340) bulb and the cheapest hood I could find at my local pet store. I think the total cost was around $40.

I then picked out a box that could house whatever I wanted to whiten. If it was a Duo-R shell or controller or whatever I can fit them in my box. I then lined the box with tinfoil with the shiny side visible to me.

I cut off one of the flaps on one of the sides of the box. I mounted the lamp to my server rack facing down into the box on the side I cut the flap on.

I then bought "permanent coloring creme developer 40 volume" from my local hairstylist the last time I was getting my hair cut. The 32oz bottle cost me $10.

I then spread the 12% peroxide creme over the controller halves and set them in the bottom of the box. I read that the creme will evaporate so and read that putting some saran wrap over them will prevent that. So, I put saran wrap over the two halves making sure it was smooth as possible.

After about 12hrs I took the two halves out and washed them with water. I wanted to do a better time lapse but fell asleep at some point working on other stuff and woke up and it was done.

Here is the link to the pics.

https://postimg.cc/gallery/hhsee7p0/

Start


End



I think the total cost would come out to around $60 or less. But I now have all the stuff I need to whiten yellowed plastic and I still have a ton of the creme. I barely used any on the controller halves, I just put a little on my gloves and smeared it around then saran wrapped it.
 

[mickcris]

The back looks kind of splotchy or is that just shadows?  doesn't look too bad though.

I normally just put them in a deep clear glass pyrex dish and cover them with hydrogen peroxide liquid from the grocery store. i think its 3% but dont remember but its a pretty low concentration.  then just put a clear glass on top to hold the pieces under the surface and put it outside in the sun.  works without getting any splotchyness of the creme based methods where its hard to get a perfectly even coat.  you cant really do this with anything bigger than a controller though or you would need a fish tank and gallons of hydrogen peroxide.

[MNKyDeth]

Those are just shadows.

Shadows because the flash was used and the tinfoil reflected the light in strange ways most likely. Without the flash you can't really see the controller all that well at all.

Looking at the controller in normal light without the camera it looks perfectly even all the way around.
There is a very light hint of yellow at the seam, where the two halves fit together but even that isn't noticeable unless you are looking for it.

[mickcris]

cool.  i have seen pics before using the cream and plastic wrap method that made the color not turn out even.  But its really the most cost effective and probably easiest way to do larger things.

[xelement5x]

cool.  i have seen pics before using the cream and plastic wrap method that made the color not turn out even.  But its really the most cost effective and probably easiest way to do larger things.

This is the issue I ran into as well.  The splotchyness happened really bad on a SNES I tried so I went back to submersion since I think it gives more consistent results.  It's really not that bad if you're doing a number of things though, I used one 40 Volume clear liquid (64 oz) and 1 gallon of water and to make it more cost effective.

[Bernie]

Nicely done man!  All perty and stuff now.

[csgx1]

Based on the title, I clicked into this thread thinking it was some kind of racial preference topic.  

Anyways, looks like you got excellent results with your method.  I have a nasty yellow Duo-R pad similar to how yours was.  I might try 3% hydrogen peroxide like mickcris suggests since I have a few bottles already.

[DragonmasterDan]

I did a bit of retr0brighting a few years ago

After multiple treatments took a yellow famicom from this to this





And with one shell being ruined along the way took a brown Super Famicom from this to this

[Bernie]

Nice Dan!  That Fami really turned out nice!!


Sent from my iPhone using your mama

[crazydean]

Got a Dreamcast this weekend. The top is pretty yellow. Gonna have to do this sometime. The NES could use a cleanup, too.

[Necromancer]

Nicely done, monkey.  That thing was pretty gross looking before, but it's nice and clean after.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!