Retr0Bright: Does re-yellowing occur even in the absence of

[Corestore]

clear acrylic laquers are subject to fairly rapid "oxygen-attack" and are brittle, 2-K is far more flexible and will last a lot longer, I used to be an automotive refinisher and ALL paints have a certain amount of porousness.

Excellent! A professional paint guy! Hopefully you can give a pointer on something that affects several jobs I've had outstanding for a while.

Many computers, especially larger ones - DEC pdp and IBM mainframe systems - which have painted metal panels or skins have a paint finish that is NOT smooth; it's rough on a fine scale, like a textured or very fine-grained orange-peel finish.

How was that generally achieved? I'm presuming they were sprayed, was it a particular type of nozzle? A particular type of paint? Texturing material or filler added to the paint? Paint thinned to a specific viscosity? Something that's not too hard to recreate?

Any help would be appreciated, I have a bunch of old IBM mainframes with varying degrees of rust and denting, I want them to look new again

Thanks

Mike

[Corestore]

Thanks, some great thoughts there.

Here's a close-up of the kind of thing I mean:



The area shown is about 2cm square. That's the kind of texture I'm going to have to recreate. What do you reckon?

I'm in Welly, and I'd seriously consider getting a pro to do at least some of this stuff - or, perhaps best (given the sheer number of panels I'll ultimately be refinishing), work out a repeatably technique and teach it to me! I do have a large workshop compressor with a big reservoir which should be adequate for most paint jobs, with the right paint gun on the end of it?

Cheers

Mike

[SpidersWeb]

I have the same issue with my IBM PC and PC-XT cases, so am interested in this also.

[Gibsaw]

Would that mean once all the Bromide had degraded the case would now be flammable?

The case is pretty flammable anyway. The brominated plastic is flame retardant, not flame proof.

[Corestore]

Machinecoder, a few more pics for your professional opinion!

About the worst of the panels. Was originally smooth semi-gloss black:




A more typical panel, some rust spots and scratches, textured or 'spattered' blue:




Closeup of texture on blue panel, with scale:




What do you reckon? How would you restore that? Just FYI, the *average* size of the panels is probably about 1m x 1m (many smaller, many larger), and there are probably the equivalent of about 60-80 panels I would ultimately want to restore.

Thanks!

Mike

[Carcenomy]

Capri eh?

[Carcenomy]

That's badass

Sorry, I'll stop derailing now!

[Corestore]

Thanks a bunch machinecoder, that's given me a lot to ponder.

I'm sure I'll pop up some questions, but frankly I think I'm going to throw some panels in the car, along with my chequebook, and head for Christchurch! If a picture tells a thousand words, a demonstration tells a million

I do recall hearing a lot of Dire Warnings about 2K paint, and health effects; if I do get into that I'll treat it with appropriate respect.

Tergo & scraper to remove old paint?

Mike

[Corestore]

Thanks for that, one quickie. There are various Iwata 400 models, which would you suggest? The LVB?

Mike