Retrobrighting Old Machines
At KansasFest, attendees bring their yellowed com-
puters to Javier Rivera. Rivera practices the art of
retrobrighting, a technique created by British chemist
Dave Stevenson in 2008. It was originally believed that
the yellow staining was permanent, but Stevenson read
that a museum in Germany had experienced some suc-
cess cleaning yellowed plastics with hydrogen peroxide.
He later discovered that he could speed up the process
with an oxygenated cleaner.
Older computers become discolored when the
flame retardant in the plastic reacts with light, especially
direct sunlight. Over time, it gives early Apple computers
a characteristic yellow patina. Rivera reverses the chem-
ical reaction, taking the plastic pieces out in the sun and
brushing them with his special mixture of salon-strength
peroxide, some arrowroot, and OxiClean laundry booster.
Within a couple of hours, the original white is restored.
Even when the temperature gets close to
100 degrees outside, Rivera spends a lot of time
outdoors at KansasFest, kneeling over pieces of
plastic and gently cleaning the carefully pulled apart
components. He even labors over individual keys from
keyboards. “My 18-year-old daughter calls me a nerd,”
said Rivera, a graphic designer from Miami. “She looks
at all my stuff and wants me to sell it all so I can buy
her a purse or shoes.”
Retrobrighting also works on other computers,
vintage action figures, and even Air Jordan basketball
shoes. It also apparently works on cement. Rivera often
leaves clean spots on the cement slab where he’s been
working all week.
You can read more about the history of retro-
brighting and get the recipe for the solution at http://
◄
(LEFT TOP) Javier Rivera takes the yellow out of vintage computers at
KansasFest. PHOTO: David Pierini/Cult of Mac; (LEFT BOTTOM) Sunlight
turns the plastic yellow, but the right solution can help yellowed plastic
turn white again. PHOTO: David Pierini/Cult of Mac
►
(RIGHT TOP) An Apple II before going to the KansasFest retrobright spa.
PHOTO: Stavros Karatsoridis; (RIGHT BOTTOM) And afterward: sparkly
clean! PHOTO: Stavros Karatsoridis
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