Dealing with rust

[erehwon]

Several months ago I picked a set of two colecovision systems with the expansion mondules. There was also an atari 2600. I've been putting off fixing them since they have a lot of rust on the connectors. I haven't opened them yet, so I don't know what the condition of the game connector. I'm wondering if you guys have any advice on removing rust?

Here is a pic of the connector of one of the expansion modules.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/4746/1008373reduced.th.jpg (http://img512.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1008373reduced.jpg)

I'm wondering if I can get it to work with all that rust. By the way, how do you open colecovision and atari cart?

[MachineGex]

That is a lot of rust. I would be affraid once the rust is off, the connector piece would fall apart. The rust may be the only thing holding it together. Take a picture once you clean the rust off, I am curious to see what it turns out like. Good luck

[skaar]

That's a tragic amount of rust - do you live by the ocean or something? (or did you, rather)

I'd guess one of those chemical solutions would be better than scrubbing the rust off... I'm interested to hear what's suggested and see how it ends up looking when you're done.

[erehwon]

I live in the Midwest. I'm guessing the consoles were stored in a garage or barn for many years. Yea, I'm not very optimist about them. I should take some pictures when I open them up.

[ooXxXoo]

Taking apart a Colecovision is a bit tricky, careful, don't break it, there are a few plactic and metal tabs along the inside....For the rust, it seems that it is mostly around the inner expansion metal shielding, sand paper is your friend here....
....
....

[123►Genei-Jin]

I normally use a dremel with one of those brass wire wheel brushes at low speed to clean out the rust, it's really sad to see a system in such a bad shape.

[erehwon]

Taking apart a Colecovision is a bit tricky, careful, don't break it, there are a few plactic and metal tabs along the inside....For the rust, it seems that it is mostly around the inner expansion metal shielding, sand paper is your friend here....
....
....

Yea, it was the part of the metal shielding that was rusting. I used some steel wool and got most of it off. I think the connector is okay. I haven't examined the insides of the main consoles yet. I'm hoping they aren't as bad as that one piece.

I'm hoping I can get both systems and their expansions working. If I can, I'll keep one of the colecovision sets and sell the other. I also have test the atari that came with the set and an odyssey 2 that's been sitting up here for a year. I've gotten a little behind in dealing with my yard sale finds.

[erehwon]

I was peeking inside one of the colecovisions and notice more rust on the metal shielding inside. I couldn't do more than peek, since I couldn't get the system open. The system is a little harder to open than the expansion module.