cleaning up smoker's teeth brown U.S. snes consoles?

[rjohnson]

Hello all...

i have a couple of snes decks that have that awful discoloration on them... you-all know what i mean? The brown smoker's teeth color in some areas (tops usually) and pretty pale gray on other areas...

How in Zeus name does one get that nice over-all Seattle winter pale gray color back again?

I have tried goo gone; bleach, and the Mr. clean pad... all to no avail...except for REALLY clean hands...

I am close to poppin the top's off of these babies and takin them to a chroming shop to have a few chromed snes-s sittin about.... anyone ever done that either?
:eek 2:

[Ed Oscuro]

check out the restoration forum, this is one of those "evergreen" (i.e. always reposted) topics.

Basically, sunlight has reacted with the plastic on your system. It's irreversible. Some plastic reacts and some won't because Nintendo often used cheap plastic for their consoles in their early years. This is common with computers up to the early '90s, as well.

[Sothy]

ya those things are gonna be that way unless you paint them.

Wasnt smoke.

[rjohnson]

check out the restoration forum, this is one of those "evergreen" (i.e. always reposted) topics.

Basically, sunlight has reacted with the plastic on your system. It's irreversible. Some plastic reacts and some won't because Nintendo often used cheap plastic for their consoles in their early years. This is common with computers up to the early '90s, as well.

I thought that might be the reason.... UV and cheap plastic...

Has anyone ever tried to have a snes or NES plastic case chromed?

i have so many of the darned thangs now... i thought it'd look kinda cool, esp if i add a few LEDs in it... DUB it put so to say...

[XYXZYZ]

I don't know if it's light... mine looked fine when I boxed it away many years ago. When I finally unearthed it, it was yellow. The effect happened in the darkness of a box.. however, for some reason I had a clear sticker with the word "UNIVERSAL" in red plastered onto it. When I pulled the sticker off, you could still see "UNIVERSAL" in the original grey color contrasting against the yellow. So, perhaps it was light? Wonky. O_O

[rbudrick]

This topic has beeen beaten to death, hell, and beyond. :)

Seriously, there's a LOT of threads on this. Look for SNES and YELLOW in the search.

With that said, I'm going to post anyway because I'm a jerk. :D

Basically, it has nothing to do with sunlight because plenty of people have never even had their SNES even ever see sunlight and it happened to them. Of course, logic may tell you that heat and radiation from the sun may speed this up, and this may be true, no real scientific tests have been done on SNESs, and most SNESs will discolor anyway. The discoloration is entirely due to an oxidization of the plastic...over time, the plastic changes color due to just being in the air, period. It's not quite the same process (in fact, pretty different) as iron rusting or silver tarnshing or copper getting green, but you get the idea. There's nothing you can do about it other than find a model without the oxidization to replace it...basically, find a model that has the opposite piece discolored. Say, if the top of your SNES is discolored, but the bottom is fine, find one that is opposite and switch the casings up.

And don't let anyone ever tell you it's from cigarette smoke, cause all the non-smokers know that's bull.

-Rob

[its_hey_ma]

Hello all...

i have a couple of snes decks that have that awful discoloration on them... you-all know what i mean? The brown smoker's teeth color in some areas (tops usually) and pretty pale gray on other areas...

How in Zeus name does one get that nice over-all Seattle winter pale gray color back again?

I have tried goo gone; bleach, and the Mr. clean pad... all to no avail...except for REALLY clean hands...

I am close to poppin the top's off of these babies and takin them to a chroming shop to have a few chromed snes-s sittin about.... anyone ever done that either?
:eek 2:

Mines never seen the sun either, but instead of the top discoloring on mine, the bottom half did. You can tell just by looking at it compared to the top of mine that the bottom is cheaper plastic.

[mgriff]

is it that all snes's are made of cheap plastic or was it after a certain year, I purchased an snes from someone last year that still that original grey and shows no signs of yellowing. Is it hit or miss on how much it will yellow?

[Jibbajaba]

Knowledge Base to the rescue.

http://www.digitpress.com/livefaq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=392790&id=189&artlang=en

Give that a shot. Not guaranteed to work. I would recommend that you take the power and reset switches off the machine first, since the bleach will oxidize the springs and make them rusty.

Chris

[rjohnson]

Y'all rock... thanks for the feedback.... now all have to do is get some tools. bleach and a big bucket.


Thanks!!

[anagrama]

Y'all rock... thanks for the feedback.... now all have to do is get some tools. bleach and a big bucket.


Previous attempts on yellowed SNES's didn't come to much, I believe. It works a treat on other systems though.

[rbudrick]

Previous attempts on yellowed SNES's didn't come to much, I believe. It works a treat on other systems though.

Yep. Different kind of plastic. The yellowing of an SNES goes all the way through the plastic...doesn't just happen to the immediate surface like on the PCE. It doesn't work to clean an SNES.

-Rob

[rjohnson]

Thanks Bud(s).... I'll just let it yellow and age like a nice scotch in an oak barrel...

Do y'all think it is possible to strip one apart and have it fully chromed.... maybe through a few wicked graphic stickers over that?

I always thought that would look Really cool...

[Xexyz]

I'm not really familiar with the chroming process. I know a magnetic charge is involved with the liquid chrome adhesion process but doesn't it also require heat? Wouldn't plastic melt in a chroming process?

[fishsandwich]

I'm thinking about trying to take mine apart and paint it. Shouldn't be too hard. Maybe. Who knows? Spray can of primer, spray can of paint. Maybe red or purple? Perhaps black?

We'll see.

:D


UGLY...

http://img19.photobucket.com/albums/v57/noxiousCaitSith/SNES_black.jpg

[rjohnson]

Maybe i'll try that chrome paint instead... But i always thought that there were items on a lot of cars that were chromed that are plastic...

I'll ahve to look into this...

btw...that is ONE SUPER ugly sharpie marker colored Snes.... (it looks like marker all over it anyway...)

EeeeeW!

[Xexyz]

I meant electrical charge not magnetic. I just remember watching it on one of the episodes of American Hot Rod on the Discovery Channel. Either that or it was a crappy biker build off episode (I hate that series...).

Last I checked though, chromed grilles, emblems, trim, wheels, etc. on cars were all composed of metal.

EDIT:

http://www.westernchrome.net/index.php3?ShowPage=article

After reading this article, I'm positive chroming won't work on anything non-metalic. Electrolysis won't work with plastic, since it is a poor conductor.

[rjohnson]

Thanks again Xexyz, esp for the link...

Hmmmmmm..... NOW what to do?

I want to make these look REALLY cool.... but not over the top like the nintendo store's DS be-jewelled pimp-my-ride set up...

HEY... WHAT IF... we had a contest (i guess it could be one) Where we (those that have a CRAP load (i have over 10 minimum) have a "DECK out your SNES deck" contest?

8-)


Anyone up on that?

Tricked out SNES...after all it is considered by many to be the best system out there...

we could even add other systems... old skool though...

nothing from DC on....

Whatcha all think?

[googlefest1]

how about sanding off a thin layer

ive seen the yellowed snes' get scratched and the scratch is white ( i scratched one my self by accident)

[rbudrick]

ive seen the yellowed snes' get scratched and the scratch is white ( i scratched one my self by accident)

Interesting...I've seen them completely busted through and they were yellow all the way.

Anyway, I say someone makes a gold solution and electroplates their SNES with it. Yeah, dogg. Now that's big pimpin. Shiiiiii...

-Rob

[Eternal Champion]

You know, I don't know anyone hasn't made custom casings for systems; I think that could be pretty cool. Not just painting the original, but making a whole new one. Something like the SNES, there are so many out there, it's not like you'd be destroying an artifact or something. We do it with cars, so why not?

Oh, and I bought my SNES in late 1994 and it hasn't yellowed. I was lucky, I guess.

[rbudrick]

Well, Ben Heckendorn has made new cases for systems, but that's henerally for portables.

-Rob

[Ed Oscuro]

I don't know if it's light... mine looked fine when I boxed it away many years ago. When I finally unearthed it, it was yellow. The effect happened in the darkness of a box.. however, for some reason I had a clear sticker with the word "UNIVERSAL" in red plastered onto it. When I pulled the sticker off, you could still see "UNIVERSAL" in the original grey color contrasting against the yellow. So, perhaps it was light? Wonky. O_O
I'm pretty sure it's light. The majority of yellowed NES stories I've seen indicate that consoles left in the light yellow from the outside. Unless somebody can actually prove otherwise, I'd say that people are putting their NESes under UV light and just not remembering it.

That said, it's possible that some batches of plastic went bad all the way through, maybe for chemical reasons.

[googlefest1]

ive seen the yellowed snes' get scratched and the scratch is white ( i scratched one my self by accident)

Interesting...I've seen them completely busted through and they were yellow all the way.

Anyway, I say someone makes a gold solution and electroplates their SNES with it. Yeah, dogg. Now that's big pimpin. Shiiiiii...

-Rob

mine could not have been affected that much

[rbudrick]

I'm pretty sure it's light. The majority of yellowed NES stories I've seen indicate that consoles left in the light yellow from the outside. Unless somebody can actually prove otherwise, I'd say that people are putting their NESes under UV light and just not remembering it.

That said, it's possible that some batches of plastic went bad all the way through, maybe for chemical reasons

Well, we are talking about SNESs here, but that's beside the point. Some folks I know of have kept their SNES in a darkened room with no windows and they still went yellow. The "light" theory goes out the window for SNESs. Maybe for some plastics light accelerates the process, and maybe even with SNESs, but by large and far, the vast majority of yellowed SNESs are cause simply by oxidation.

Some people have even opened BRAND NEW SNESs...never been out of the box since the factory and the unit was yellow.

The light theory is out the window on this one.

-Rob

[Ed Oscuro]

Did those rooms have any ultraviolet sources (a blacklight would definitely be a source)? I'm not sure about flourescent lights (the tube kind), but those could be a factor. Anyway, yes, I'll admit I'm no expert on plastics, so we'll just keep trying to figure this out. I don't think anything is ruled out at this point, because of the different circumstances for yellowing (i.e. some consoles yellow all the way through, some yellow on the outside - like NESes, and some SNES/SFC cartridges tend to yellow on molded details).

[loporjai2003]

It's the type of plastic used that decays over time, light just speeds it up. Like comic book bags, used to be that
older softer plastic (PVC), store those away in a bin, they would turn yellow/green after a while.
Probably one of the supplier companies for SNES got cheap to save a few bucks and we see the result.

[MASTERWEEDO]

just paint it if it really bothers you

[rbudrick]

Did those rooms have any ultraviolet sources (a blacklight would definitely be a source)? I'm not sure about flourescent lights (the tube kind), but those could be a factor. Anyway, yes, I'll admit I'm no expert on plastics, so we'll just keep trying to figure this out. I don't think anything is ruled out at this point, because of the different circumstances for yellowing (i.e. some consoles yellow all the way through, some yellow on the outside - like NESes, and some SNES/SFC cartridges tend to yellow on molded details).

There's nothing really to figure out, Ed. To be honest, this really should hqave been continued in one of the many other more thorough threads on this, though I'm a bit guilty myself of dragging this one on.

-Rob