What's new
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Classic Macintosh Restoration and Use - Beige Wonders!

myPinballs

Site Supporter
Joined
Nov 19, 2011
Messages
5,410
Location
Pudsey UK
Alias
Jim
Bought myself some knackered old power Macintosh computers to mess with this week. Beige Love! Ha ha

Wondering if anyone else out that has a soft spot for some old system 7.1 or 8.1 use.

I've got myself a crusty 7300/200 and a 7200/90 parts machine to restore. Going to setup back to what I used to have years back and maybe play a few old game on it, maelstrom, lemmings etc. Write a few letters ! ha ha ha

Some history, I used to have a collection of old Macs, before I met my wife and took on a child :) All good, but the room of Macs and cupboard of spares had to go to make room for a bunkbed and kids clothes and toys etc. Now, that was some 17 years ago now, and my step son is all grown up and living in London at university, finding old emacs and things left on the street to save :)

So, time to get back some beige wonders and see whats what, 17 years later :)

I've read recently that certain types of peroxide hair bleach are good for cleaning and restoring yellowed cases (for all sorts of 16 bit retro cases) so will be giving that a go to :)

Pics to follow when the 'crap' arrives


:) cheers all
 
  • Like
Reactions: JMP
Yes I was going to give the hydrogen peroxide thing a go, apparently you also need to leave it out in the sun or have uv while its is soaking.
Works well on clear plastics too, Might give it a go today as it’s nice and sunny.
 
I’m in - I’d love to get a working true Mac classic!

I used to use brasso on the beige. But avoid the lettering or the Apple logo.

But how classic are we talking? 128k/400k floppy - the true classic Mac? No numeric keypad?

Actually you’ve reminded me to see if the evening news have a copy of that photo of me!

Neil.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes I was going to give the hydrogen peroxide thing a go, apparently you also need to leave it out in the sun or have uv while its is soaking.
Works well on clear plastics too, Might give it a go today as it’s nice and sunny.

Yeah I was thinking today and tomorrow would be perfect to try this cleaning scenario. I'm having to wait though for the actual machines to turn up. Ordered some 'hair developer 40' though :)
 
I’m in - I’d love to get a working true Mac classic!

I used to use brasso on the beige. But avoid the lettering or the Apple logo.

But how classic are we talking? 128k/400k floppy - the true classic Mac? No numeric keypad?

Actually you’ve reminded me to see if the evening news have a copy of that photo of me!

Neil.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I was originally going to get a colour classic and upgrade with performa 575 boards etc, but then I remembered the trusty 7300/7600 series I used to have. great cases and very upgradable like the old pro Mac days, so I'm starting back at 'Power Mac' era. I think its a good place as you can run os 7.1 and 8.1 no bother, have plenty of upgrade options like vga cards and ram etc and can run upto os9.1 and even G3 processor cards if you want to.

I think I still will get a colour classic to though as they are just damn cool :)

Older all in ones are b/w screens :( which I think is little too far back nowadays.

As for keyboards, I like the apple keyboard 2

800px-Apple_Keyboard_II_Mitsumi.jpg
 
Last edited:
Have an old bottle with 17.5% H2O2, let’s see what happens.
 

Attachments

  • FFFA5E0C-67A0-44FA-9652-C56485B1421B.jpeg
    FFFA5E0C-67A0-44FA-9652-C56485B1421B.jpeg
    188.6 KB · Views: 32
There’s a few videos on YouTube of people restoring yellowed plastic Playstations and old keyboards, Gameboys etc Worth watching before you begin. I watch them in bed when I’m too awake to sleep :)
 
I've got a souped-up A1200 with HD from when I was a lad, 3 C64s, and SNES.

They are various states of yellowness, I think it suits them though. Especially the C64s :)
 
You should check out mister fpga.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Soaking since Friday, bit different but not perfect yet. Will leave it out there, might have to put some fresh h2o2 in there.
 

Attachments

  • F4CE5770-E0CC-4E00-9F8F-92E830187D33.jpeg
    F4CE5770-E0CC-4E00-9F8F-92E830187D33.jpeg
    175.1 KB · Views: 44
  • 66697DEA-DA2E-4F01-B10A-4FDB6202A118.jpeg
    66697DEA-DA2E-4F01-B10A-4FDB6202A118.jpeg
    188.6 KB · Views: 41
Interesting review on this process here :

I think i'll do the yellowed surround on my Sega Dinosaur King cab this weekend (Really decent weather due whihch will help in the Heat/UV perspective!) just using a plastic tub with a little water and a load of 12% (40%) Peroxide (5L en-route)....

Will take some pics and report back :)
 
Well my first power mac has arrived.

Case doesnt look too bad, but will be experimenting with the 40 volume stuff on this

IMG_7292.JPGIMG_7293.JPGIMG_7294.JPG


Internally its filthy and needs a good clean up.

IMG_7291.JPG

Plus i guess we'll be seeing whats on that hard drive!

Also, classic ebay sold as 'powering up ok' but when you get it the power supply is unplugged and looks like someone had a go at taking the case off it.

As we all know i love fixing stuff so this is the first job. It really is truly horrible inside

IMG_7281.JPGIMG_7282.JPG

After putting on some gloves and face mask! These things come in handy, and a basic clean with the trusty paintbrush, looks like this:

IMG_7287.JPGIMG_7288.JPGIMG_7289.JPG

Now to fix it, as the main fuse had blown internally and looks like the main input rectifier is shorted. 'Tested as powering up' hmmm yeah right. Will be cleaning all the case parts in the ultrasonic cleaner and getting a new fan to
 

Attachments

  • IMG_7284.JPG
    IMG_7284.JPG
    152.2 KB · Views: 9
Great read Jim,, I've had and still got old Macs :). I use them to communicate with my old EMU Emulator II sampler using Sound Designer program which is a great tool for storing, transferring and editing sound samples for the Emulator. To date I've had a Mac SE and Colour Classic (which I stupidly sold as the HD was too small), fortunately they didn't have the dreaded yellowing. Let me know how you get on with that, have read success stories with the peroxide trick but not done it myself.

I mainly use Powerbooks now running OS 7.1 or 7.5. Currently a 170, but also have a 165. Have used loads in the past including 150 & 180C. Problem is finding one still working with big enough hard drive to store samples (each one is 500K ). My 170 has a decent sized 2.5" SCSI HD. Have taken these things apart to upgrade and fix many times but fall short of any electronic repairs.
 
Last edited:
Great read Jim,, I've had and still got old Macs :). I use them to communicate with my old EMU Emulator II sampler using Sound Designer program which is a great tool for storing, transferring and editing sound samples for the Emulator. To date I've had a Mac SE and Colour Classic (which I stupidly sold as the HD was too small), fortunately they didn't have the dreaded yellowing. Let me know how you get on with that, have read success stories with the peroxide trick but not done it myself.

I mainly use Powerbooks now running OS 7.1 or 7.5. Currently a 170, but also have a 165. Have used loads in the past including 150 & 180C. Problem is finding one still working with big enough hard drive to store samples (each one is 500K ). My 170 has a decent sized 2.5" SCSI HD. Have taken these things apart to upgrade and fix many times but fall short of any electronic repairs.

Nice one John, I think there may be some compact flash card storage upgrades potentially. Something to look at when I get up and running :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: JMP
Update on the beige acquiring!

Power Mac number 2 turned up which the the main machine I'm going to be using/restoaring. Its a 7300/200 machine. :) Looks in a lot better shape then I was first expecting and the power supply is clean and working, so maybe the other psi doesn't need repairing after all. Machine number 1 was bought for spares so I have already harvested a few things from it, inc the speaker mount and Scsi hd.

fullsizeoutput_d9c.jpegfullsizeoutput_d9d.jpegfullsizeoutput_d9e.jpeg
 
Stripped the main machine down and given a good clean to everything with magic eraser. Let outside to dry yesterday. Before the big 'retrobriting' starts

IMG_7309.JPGIMG_7311.JPGIMG_7312.JPG
 
A week soaking in not so sunny Wales, not bad really.
Be interesting to see how much these case de yellow.
 

Attachments

  • 604FED68-A4BB-41DD-9CA6-A0DBC3FC1F78.jpeg
    604FED68-A4BB-41DD-9CA6-A0DBC3FC1F78.jpeg
    120.6 KB · Views: 23
Not sure if its me being optimistic but I think I cans results already (after about 3 hours so far). Things look less yellow, unless its just the brightness of the sun!!

Will report again in another 4/5 hours :)
 
Nice one John, I think there may be some compact flash card storage upgrades potentially. Something to look at when I get up and running :)

That would be excellent.... Good luck with it all, I'll be watching with interest. :)

Have looked at these desktop types previously but limited on desk space to use with the EII. Display and HD size options much better though. Interesting to see how many of these have dual serial ports.
 
As far as i can see, the only issue with using the cling film method is that it can produce some marks where the peroxide drys out (the cling film is there to slow the drying process and keep the moisture in supposedly).

have seen some good results with both cling film and submersion - will be good to see how they come out :)
 
Another thing i have in the pipeline is a graphics card upgrade. I've read that ATI radeon 7000 cards can be turned into mac version with a rom swap and a firmware update, so i'll be giving that a go to. I just got a nos 64mb one for £16 plus £3.50 shipping
 
Well, today’s results are pretty damn good to be honest. This process is genius. I’ve got a little bit of streaking if I’m being picky in a few areas that had lots of sun as I think some of the solution dried out abit quick. Was very a hot day

tomorrow I will redo a few areas for 4 hours. I think that’s the perfect window. Today I left them for 8 hours


659B99BE-EC67-4090-9D90-C47C13234E49.jpeg96076F37-587F-4985-B2C0-EFE419D6E85A.jpeg
 
Ok so after sone more experiments I’ve worked out this peroxide cream 12% 40 volume stuff is pretty aggressive and only needs about 2 hours (3 max) outside when wrapped with cling film. Doesn’t even need to be sunny. After too long that’s when you start to get blotching, staining and bleaching

learnt loads

also have success with a bowl of water mixed with the cream to restore keyboard keys. Takes longer as the mixture is weaker but easier for small parts and more controllable
 
Back
Top Bottom