Safest Method for whitening yellowed macs

[laserspot1]

http://keelynet.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/cleaning-and-restoring-yellowed-plastic/


I never tried yet. I'm hestitant to still get spots or make the color too white.

 

[David Schmidt]

Here is the source of that information, the Retr0bright wiki:
http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/
It has the best first-hand information including things to watch out for.

There is no other method for de-yellowing.

 

[ZipZap]

What must this do to value. Its like cleaning an antique.

 

[David Schmidt]

That's hard to say. Done well, it certainly makes yellowed plastic more pleasing to the eye, and closer to its original state. Arguably, it's reversing a chemical reaction in the plastic, as opposed to adding something - like painting. On the other hand, it can/does fade things like keycap markings and other lettering on the plastic.

I suppose it's like any "restoration" of an antique - done expertly, it enhances the value. Done poorly, it does the opposite.

 

[Mayari]

I've tried this before to de-yellow a Japanese SNES console. It worked very well, although I used a slightly different method - OxiClean plus a weaker concentration of hydrogen peroxide than recommended (3% rather than 10%) while under 10+ hours of direct sunlight.

It'd be interesting to see something similar done with an old Mac!

 

[David Schmidt]

I used a slightly different method - OxiClean plus a weaker concentration of hydrogen peroxide than recommended (3% rather than 10%) while under 10+ hours of direct sunlight.

I am going to try that one of these days. I live in a fairly forested place, so direct sunlight is tough to come by - and hydrogen peroxide only comes in 3% solution around here, so that's what I'll be using too.

 

[MacTech68]

There's a little more on this here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/799679/

 

[moonislune]

White toothpaste always worked for me

 

[madmax_2069]

White toothpaste always worked for me

That actually acts as a very fine sandpaper, it will damage the plastic the first time you use that method.

 

[Ariii]

Will this work on Clamshell iBooks and iBook G4's?

 

[WardC]

I would be interested in learning about this -- many of the Macintosh Portables I see have the infamous "yellow spacebar" on the keyboard. These plastics used for the spacebar were apparently a different composition than the rest of the keys, and thus yellowed at a faster pace. Some of them have them, some of them don't -- it depends. But knowing how to restore/fix the problem would be a great thing to know!