Cleaning my routed STTNG - howto restore the ships?

[roc-noc]

I recently picked up a STTNG from an operator. While it plays well and
seems to be in good shape, it was pretty dirty.

The playfield has cleaned up OK but the ships, cannons, and other ABS
plastic parts have a terrible yellowed look to them. I don't know if it
is UV burn or smoke damage from life in a bar.

I am looking for advice on how to restore them. I have tried, alcohol,
naptha, soap and water, and Novus 1 so far. Would a buffing wheel help
or should I give up and buy new parts?

Experienced advice is appreciated.

Thanks, Tom


--
roc-noc
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[seymour.shabow]

roc-noc wrote:
> I recently picked up a STTNG from an operator. While it plays well and
> seems to be in good shape, it was pretty dirty.
>
> The playfield has cleaned up OK but the ships, cannons, and other ABS
> plastic parts have a terrible yellowed look to them. I don't know if it
> is UV burn or smoke damage from life in a bar.
>
> I am looking for advice on how to restore them. I have tried, alcohol,
> naptha, soap and water, and Novus 1 so far. Would a buffing wheel help
> or should I give up and buy new parts?
>
> Experienced advice is appreciated.
>
> Thanks, Tom
>
>

No help on the cleaning but I notice that planetary ran the small
shuttle, so that one can be had new at least.

For the white ships you can spray paint it with fusion. (Although fusion
does come in other colors now as well)

[TheKorn]

roc-noc <t...@icd.com> wrote in news:roc-noc...@rrgparchive.com:

> I recently picked up a STTNG from an operator. While it plays well and
> seems to be in good shape, it was pretty dirty.
>
> The playfield has cleaned up OK but the ships, cannons, and other ABS
> plastic parts have a terrible yellowed look to them. I don't know if it
> is UV burn or smoke damage from life in a bar.
>
> I am looking for advice on how to restore them. I have tried, alcohol,
> naptha, soap and water, and Novus 1 so far. Would a buffing wheel help
> or should I give up and buy new parts?
>
> Experienced advice is appreciated.

Haven't tried it myself, but it sounds as though you need to mix up a batch of
Retr0bright:

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/


(I really should get around to trying this sometime!)

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[LouiSurfer]

I have that same "discoloration" on my STTNG that I've been cleaning.

It's like that "yellowing" that you see on old PC computer cases.


Check this site out:

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

[roc-noc]

Thanks for pointing me to http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

I didn't think of the chemistry of ABS but it all makes perfect sense
now.

I'll pick up some peroxide at the drug store tonight and give it a try.

Might try a new hair look as well. :)

[JC]

On Mar 9, 1:36 pm, roc-noc <t...@icd.com> wrote:
> Thanks for pointing me tohttp://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

retr0bright works well but the plastic does indeed need to be ABS.
also, follow the instructions carefully-if the plastic is colored and
develops white streaks/spots then it has "bloomed" and this is
irreversible. this results from improper ratios of chemicals.

[nwojedi]

let us know how it goes. Curious to see the results.


--
nwojedi

* C a p t a i n N e o *
Pinball Playfield restoration service at:
_www.Captainneo.com (\"http://www.captainneo.com\")__:D

[TheMickster]

Regarding the cannon covers, I have redesigned them for my ST:TNG
laser cannon mod kit, but I do just sell the enhanced, (better
detailed) cannon covers by themselves, (pair)…for 34.95 +, they look
wonderful, original factory color, and also come with the red domes
attached.

http://www.mickspinball.com/parts.html


Mick

[Ray Ayala]

Take some before and after pictures like the website. Post the results
when you're finished. I hope it works out! Maybe try the cannon covers
first as an experiment. If something should go wrong, you can easily
replace them.

Good luck,

Ray


--
Ray Ayala

[roc-noc]

Ray Ayala;1901995 Wrote:
> Take some before and after pictures like the website. Post the results
> when you're finished. I hope it works out! Maybe try the cannon covers
> first as an experiment. If something should go wrong, you can easily
> replace them.
>
> Good luck,
>
> Ray

This stuff is amazing!

I didn't really follow the instructions. I bought a quart of 3% H2O2 at
Walgreens for $1.99. I added about a teaspoon of OxyClean and stirred.
Put it in a used soft drink cup and dropped in one cannon cover.
Covered with a small dish. Did not use the sunlight or an UV light. It
sat for about 20 hours and was all covered with bubbles until I rinsed
it off. Here are the amazing results so far.

On the left is the cleaned cover. On the right is the other cover and
what it looked like yesterday.

I will give it another 24 hours of scrubbing bubbles and then move on to
the other ABS parts.

Tom

Filename:-----------> STTNG_cannons.jpg
Link to attached PIC: http://rgparchive.com/rgpforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=840


--
roc-noc

[Ray Ayala]

What a remarkable improvent! Looks like this may become the standard for
cleaning yellowed abs plastics. Has anyone else tried this? Very nice!


--
Ray Ayala

[seymour.shabow]

Ray Ayala wrote:
> What a remarkable improvent! Looks like this may become the standard for
> cleaning yellowed abs plastics. Has anyone else tried this? Very nice!
>
>

Those instructions have been around a while, I think the main impediment
to people just using them is laziness. I know I read about it before I
was even into cosmetics on pinball for restoring old yellowed computer
cases and it just seemed like too much work.

Casual clean is ok for me, or replace if not, when available. I happen
to like the dome mod for STTNG so I just bought a set of those way back
when, and the borg ships were available at the time so I bought one of
those as well.

Great results, though. Cleaned off all the whatever it is (is that
greenish tinge all from cigarette smoke??? Yuck.....) - looks great.