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Original color of keyboard lettering for the Atari 800?


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Can someone please tell me the original color of keyboard lettering for the Atari 800? I am considering retrobriting my old 800 (read the sticky) but something tells me it might not be needed for the keyboard. They don't really looked yellowed but sort of dark cream. Was that the original color? I thought I saw in that thread that this was pretty much normal, at leat for the 800XL?

 

 

I wiped them with rubbing alcohol to remove all of the grime but they still appear a bit dingy. Any advice of getting the sheen back? I assume they did not used to look so drab.

Edited by spinnaker15136
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I retro-brighted my 800 a few months ago, it looks great! But I did not retro-bright the keyboard, but, I did get it's shine back, and yes, letters are also like a dark cream, I think really intended to match the 800 cases original color. And the keyboard did originally have a sheen.

 

I did a complete write-up with pictures, tips and what-not-to-do's for the retro-brighting as well as what to use to get your keyboard nice and shiny again and protect the 800 case from UV light after the retro-bright. In the end, mine was a complete success! It is, of course the 800 in my Avatar to the left. I'm afraid you'll have to join the forum probably to see the thread/blog, but it's a nice forum, I'm one of the administrators. ;)

 

http://atari.boards.net/thread/3045/first-retro-bright-atari-800

 

But so you don't think I'm forcing you to join to get my tips, here is what I used to get the "sheen" back on my Atari 800 and 1200XL keyboards and my 800 case pictured below. A picture of my 800 today, 4 months after retro-bright and Wipe-New, and keyboard after only Wipe-New, and I have been using it pretty often too, so it's holding up so far...

post-149-0-99261500-1555127658_thumb.jpg

post-149-0-60470800-1555128117_thumb.jpg

Edited by Gunstar
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I retro-brighted my 800 a few months ago, it looks great! But I did not touch the keyboard, and yes, mine are also like a dark cream, I think really intended to match the 800 cases original color. And the keyboard did originally have a sheen.

 

I did a complete write-up with pictures, tips and what-not-to-do's for the retro-brighting as well as what to use to get your keyboard nice and shiny again and protect the 800 case from UV light after the retro-bright. In the end, mine was a complete success! It is, of course the 800 in my Avatar to the left. I'm afraid you'll have to join the forum probably to see the thread/blog, but it's a nice forum, I'm one of the administrators. ;)

 

http://atari.boards.net/thread/3045/first-retro-bright-atari-800

 

But so you don't think I'm forcing you to join to get my tips, here is what I used to get the "sheen" back on my Atari 800 and 1200XL keyboards and my 800 case pictured below. Pictures of my 800 today, 4 months after retro-bright and Wipe-New, and keyboard after only Wipe-New, and I have been using it pretty often too, so it's holding up so far...

 

 

Thanks. Not seeing the part where you got the keyboard shiny (lot of posts in that thread). What did you do?

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Thanks. Not seeing the part where you got the keyboard shiny (lot of posts in that thread). What did you do?

See Edit above...but that comes later in the thread over there

Edited by Gunstar
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OK thanks. I saw the recolor thing. Didn't realize you used it on the keyboard.

That's the easy way, and so far, it seems to be working well for me. The hard way is to get some buffing compound and a soft cloth and spend a lot of elbow grease and time buffing each key, or use a dremel with a buffing tip on low speed, but be careful, and make sure your hands are steady. I tried buffing with the dremel at first, and over all it did a pretty good job, but there were some places where my hand slipped and I actually caused scuffs that I was scared to try to buff out again. They disappeared after using Recolor Wipe-new.

Edited by Gunstar
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I retro brited my 800 a few weeks back. I did the keys separately by placing them on a plastic rack and painting and applying peroxide every 3 hours for 12 in total . Letter colouring on the key came out nice and light.

 

 

So the original color of the letters is fairly light? All you used was peroxide? What %? Di you expose to UV?

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So the original color of the letters is fairly light? All you used was peroxide? What %? Di you expose to UV?

Yeah, UV light box measures 100cm x 60 x 80cm. 20% volume using cream peroxide. Light strips are powered to be generally 20cm above sea level (or peroxide level in this case). Typically used for casings but can put antyhing needing the job done.

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Yeah, UV light box measures 100cm x 60 x 80cm. 20% volume using cream peroxide. Light strips are powered to be generally 20cm above sea level (or peroxide level in this case). Typically used for casings but can put antyhing needing the job done.

 

I thought I saw the creme peroxide mentioned in the yellowing thread. Where do you get it?

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