retr0bright results on super neo 29 bezel

The bezel and marquee shroud spent about 20 hrs under 2 blacklights. The best results came within the first 8 hrs. An additional 12 didn't seem to do much if anything. the bezel is no longer yellow, but an off white. I'm not sure further treatment would do much else to reach that bleach white I'm shooting for. Plus the plastic didn't treat evenly so I have darker streaks, giving it a somewhat cultured marble look. For my own sanity, and to match the cab, I'm just going to paint it with some krylon fusion plastic paint. Was a neat expirement that does yield promising results.

Before (cab on left):


After:

Could you post a pic from a little father back so we could see the whole thing? I'm amazed this worked at all, and it seems to have HUGE potential for less yellowed cabs. Very cool.

This would be a cool thread for anyone that does the experiment to post pics.

How about laying out the formula? I don't want to search or read blogs or wiki shit. Post it here how to put the mix together.

I have an SNES I'm willing to dip in the shit.

http://www.retr0bright.wikispaces.com
refer to "how to make" and "using"

Full bezel after treatment:


Painted:


Installed:


Should have just painted it to begin with. Alot cheaper and less time consuming than cobbling together all the ingredients for the retr0bright solution. This krylon fusion stuff is awesome. No sanding or priming required, just spray directly on clean plastic. Dries to the touch in 15 mins.

Wow, looks much better. Gonna hit that control panel too?

How many times did you treat it and how much time in the sun to get it that way? Looks like it helped some, but it certainly does not look as if it can compete with the white of a decent paint job. Thanks for the feedback, I think items like NeoC's SNES could definitely benefit from this treatment, I just wonder if it takes ten treatments to get the original color back?

I heard that Krylon Fusion is still rather difficult to work with...

Maybe the treatment helped prepare the surface?

norton9478 said:

I heard that Krylon Fusion is still rather difficult to work with...

Maybe the treatment helped prepare the surface?

Click to expand...

Really? It bonded perfectly. They tell you to clean the surface with an ammonia based cleaner first. I had some spray 9 laying around so I used that, then rinsed with water again and wiped down with a clean rag.

how many coats did you use?

every time i tried to apply more than one it would just destroy what was there.

not sonic said:

how many coats did you use?

every time i tried to apply more than one it would just destroy what was there.

Click to expand...

2 maybe? I put an initial layer down. waited about a minute or so for it to get tacky and put another layer on top.

Did you reapply the Retr0Brite solution whenever it dried? Also, what recepie did you wind up using, there seem to be several kinds of paste you could make. I must admit, I have not done this on a candy cab, but on my Tandy and an Apple IIe it seemed to work extremely well. In those situations the peices are smaller so you can apply more of the paste and keep it wet easier, not to mention that paint would be a bad idea since it's always in contact with your hands.

EDIT: noticed that you mentioned the mottled marble look- that can either be caused by too much or uneven UV intensity, or it can be caused by stresses in the plastic which then become visible after the treatment. The stresses change the density of the plastic, making even whitening difficult.

Also with parts this big you need to be lit evenly, which is why sunlight works well if you live in a sunny place. I agree with you, for now it looks like Krylon does better for bezels.

EDIT: another thought- I have never seen a brand new Neo Candy cab, but isn't the bezel supposed to match the CP, and both of those are supposed to be a slightly different color from the rest of the cabinet?