[Coco] Unpacked my CoCo Stuff

[Roger Merchberger]

Rumor has it that coco at yourdvd.net may have mentioned these words:
>true, i once saw a jet black coco 2 - it looked awesome! it had yellowed
>severely and the owner sprayed it black. looked good... r

1) Depending on the type of regular paint, you might not *want* to use 
regular paint. However, there's paints (dyes, I think) you can pick up at 
auto parts stores which are designed to bond with plastic - and if done 
right, these work very well. When I redid a (crappy) PC keyboard in a nice 
brick red for testing purposes, it was too cold where I did it, and it 
didn't *quite* bond perfectly in one spot - otherwise it was very nice 
looking. Think many *very thin* coats in a warm environment and make sure 
each coat cures thoroughly, and they work very well and it's quite durable. 
Very small scratches don't affect the finish from what I know, it "soaks 
into" the plastic just a little, from what I understand.

Also, if you have a buddy that owns an auto body paint shop (like I do) 
drop by with a sixer & ask them for advice (like I did ;-) - with all of 
the cars having plastic bumpers & whatnot, my friend says that they have 
special coatings & paints designed for plastic - if bug juice won't peel it 
off, I doubt you'd have to worry about fingernail scratches like you might 
with some paints.

For yellowing, I've never tried one of those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, but 
it might be worth it - what it can do with coffee/tea stains on porcelain 
is pretty wild, maybe it'll help?

2) WRT care & feeding of old computers, yellowing, cleaning, etc... there's 
been many threads over on the classiccmp list that I'm a member of, and the 
archives can be found here:

http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/

It's searchable, expect a lot of hits.

For the OP's situation, a gentle cleaning with isopropyl alcohol (try to 
find the 90+% stuff, usually find that at a drugstore like Walgreens, 
Rite-Aid, CVS, etc. here in the USA) and a toothbrush (if necessary), then 
rinse with deionized water & let dry for at least a few days - or you _can_ 
speed drying if you're *very* gentle by putting the non-plastic parts to be 
dried in an oven that can be set to around 120 degrees F. If you're oven 
won't go that low, don't try it... try to be as gentle as possible. Make 
sure things are *completely* dry before reassembly. If in doubt, wait 
another day.

You can clean things in a dishwasher - I've heard of several people being 
successful cleaning beverage residues out of keyboards that way. Top rack 
only, no soap, do *not* run the drying cycle, and if the dishwasher has a 
built-in water heater, don't use that either. Again, let dry several days 
before plugging or powering. In the immortal words of Alton Brown: "Your 
patience will be rewarded."

HTH,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | Anarchy doesn't scale well. -- Me
zmerch at 30below.com.         |
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers