Reversing UV Damage on ABS Plastic

Like so many others, I have been in love with Star Wars since I first saw the movies as a child. I also have a lifelong love for costuming. These loves finally came together in the mid 2000's when I first met some members of the 501st Legion at a convention (for those not in the know, the 501st is an international charity costuming club, specializing in the bad guy characters from a galaxy far far away). In 2009 I joined the ranks of the legion as TK-5246.

I am a Stormtrooper; clean, white, endlessly intimidating, or at least I was. Last year, after not trooping for a few months due to real life keeping me too busy, I pulled my armor from it's bin to discovery a trooper's worst nightmare. My helmet was yellow... How am I supposed to strike fear in the hearts of rebels if my bucket is a color that is synonamous with cowardess. After asking my fellow troopers I discovered that it is a fairly common occurrence, I had three options. I could paint my armor white, attempt to wet sand the top layers of plastic off, or convert it to a sand trooper. None of these were appealing. If you paint your armor once, you can plan on repainting it after every few troops, paint does not adhere well to ABS. Sanding is a lot of pain staking work, with no guarantees that I wouldn't ruin my armor. And if I wanted to be a Sand Trooper I would move to Tattoine.

While on the internet looking for ways of dealing with this cruel twist of fate I discovered Retr0bright. It's an open source formula of ingredients available at your local grocery store developed by vintage computer collectors. It supposedly reverses the process of UV discoloration in ABS. I thought surely there would be hundreds of threads about this on the 501st forums but alas, there were none. Some people mentioned it as a possibility, but it seemed most everyone stuck with the tried and true methods I spoke of earlier. After much debate with myself, I decided I had nothing to lose. I got my materials and tried it. The results are like magic, read on to see how I went about it.

Step 1: What You Will Need

• Rubber gloves
• Paint brush
• Some sort of blender (I used a stick blender)
• Retr0bright (ingredients and formula in the next step)
• UV light source (mine was a CFL reptile light available at most pet stores)
• Miscellaneous measuring spoons and mixing vessels
• Yellowed ABS, in this case a Stormtrooper helmet.

You will not want to skip the rubber gloves. As you can see in the photos, I did not wear them. I ended up bleaching the tips of my fingers before I put some on. High concentration hydrogen peroxide can be nasty stuff and can lead to fairly severe chemical burns.

Step 2: Ingredients for and Making the Retr0bright

• 1- 16 oz bottle of 40 volume hydrogen peroxide (available at hair salon supply stores)
• 2 heaping tablespoons of xantham gum (I got mine at Walmart)
• 1 level teaspoon of glycerin (available at most pharmacies)
• 1/4 teaspoon of Oxyclean or similar laundry booster

Combine the peroxide and xantham gum in a blender, or in my case a ceramic container for use with a stick blender. Mix for 5 seconds on high. Add the glycerin and blend for another 5 seconds. Let this mixture rest for a minute to hydrate the ingredients and then mix again for 5 more seconds. When you are ready to get started add the Oxyclean and blend again. What you are left with is a gel that can be painted on to your surface.

I will say that this makes enough Retr0bright that I could probably have done 5 helmets, so you may want to scale down the recipe.

Step 3: Application

I applied the Retr0bright with a paintbrush, making sure to get a fairly even coat over the entire surface. It should not affect any paint or the vinyl decals, so I painted right over them. I then placed the helmet under my UV light. You can also do this outside on a sunny day. However, you want to be careful that your helmet doesn't get too hot in the sun or it will damage the plastic. I decided to play it safe and use a reptile light, it also gave me the ability to leave my helmet unattended without worrying about something happening to it (like a dog thinking it looks fun to play with).

I left it under the light for about 12 hours, rotating it every couple of hours.

After retrieving my helmet from it's basking spot it needed to be cleaned up. The Retr0bright dries on and can be a little difficult to remove. Scrubbing for a couple seconds, a small area at a time with a little diluted dish soap and a toothbrush then wiping it off with a paper towel did the trick. I probably could have put it in the bath tub or sink and hit it with a sprayer to make things easier, but I have a wireless mic and fans installed in the helmet that I did not want to remove.

Step 4: Science and Retr0bright Info

The yellowing of ABS when exposed to Ultraviolet light is the result of a flame retardant added to the plastic during the manufacturing process. The most common of which is tetrabromobisphenol –A, or TBBP-A. When exposed to UV light the TBBP-A degrades allowing Bromine to become a free radical. The bromine forms a bond with readily available oxygen and causes the yellow color.

By irradiating the ABS with UV light in the presence of more hydrogen atoms, in the form of hydrogen peroxide, we break the bonds between the oxygen and bromine and allow the bromine to bond with the hydrogen, thus reversing the discoloration.

I encourage you to check out the Retr0bright wiki and learn more about the folks who came up with this. It is people like this, who figure these things out and make them available open source that keep maker communities like ours thriving.

Step 5: Results

The results were better that I could have expected. It looks like a new helmet again and I am excited to go back to proudly serving the Emperor.

Thanks everyone for reading, and I hope this helps some of my fellow Troopers keep the galaxy safe.

With unquestioned loyalty,

TK-5246

Comments

[ThetaCreative]

I might try this with my old, yellowing lego bricks.

[Crz26]

Thanks a lot! I was kind of desperate beacsue my black series stormtrooper helmet was becoming "yello" but now its waaay better. As it is stated in the comments you cant penetrate all the way dow to remove the yellow color but it looks a lot better. Thanks and may the force be with you!

[Kessa33]

Typo correction: "need to sit it".... that should have said "need to fix it"!
Sorry

[Kessa33]

Thanks for sharing! My armour is nearly 10 years old and sadly got to the stage where I need to sit it.

I'm curious about one point I hope you can help with; I've read the comments about needing to repeat the process at some point in time... but what I'm curious about is whether performing this process actually speeds up yellowing occurring in future?

For example:
It took years for my the original untouched abs to yellow.... (Its mainly affected the "high points" such as top of the lid, bridges, top of the chest plate, top of the shoulder bells etc)
.. whilst fixing those it makes sense for me to treat the whole armour at the same time to ensure it's a consistent colour/seamless blend.

However I'm concerned that doing so could actually speed up the discolouration of those (currently less affected) areas in future.

How long have you found your newly cleaned abs lasts before the same level of yellowing reoccurs? I saw 1 comment above say he's now having to repeat the process every month which seems to tie in with my concern.

I'd love to know what other people have found.

Thanks!
TK2262

[menuhin]

Nice guide.

Perhaps this is a better explanation of what is going on for Retr0bright:

https://www.quora.com/What-is-happening-in-terms-of-a-chemical-process-when-hydrogen-peroxide-is-used-to-restore-discoloured-Lego

[chrisdojo]

What type of light bulb brand or wattage did you use for reptile UV light? please

[monsterlego]

My lego collection actually suffers from this, this is really hepful

[monsterlego]

My lego collection actually suffers from this, this is really hepful

[ThomRaven]

Thanks for posting this. It's extremely helpful!

[TK-1214]

Although this seems to be a pretty good way to get my armour white again, it won't save my trooper from decaying ;-) I'm trooping now since 1999 in the 501st, and after all this time the ABS has become old, crackly and brittle. So I'm wondering how long it will last...

[Crafted298]

Did you buy or make your armor?

[RickO4]

Will try this at once! Thanks.

TK 1552

[JohnH116]

So I'm going to assume I'm not alone among the grateful troopers that have read through the comments and said "acrylic lacquer!?!?!?" when they read mfilos comment below. ☺ not that it's a bad idea, but it is rather permanent and I'm thinking if any yellowing does happen again your screwed. Now I say this in total paranoia and it may be a moot point, but has anyone had luck with alternatives? Such as Anovos plastic Protectant or something similar? I'm about to plunge into what has become a repetitive process for me. Since my second treatment, my armor seems to be yellowing within a month. It's crazy. Anyone else hitting this frustration? Anyways. Routine for now to get ready for troop shenanigans. ? ? And Thank you for a great instructable. At least it's breathing new life into an old kit.

[TexBC]

Lovelikeatruck,

Your posting is the most in depth version I've seen on the internet, and I've been to the retr0bright site, too. Nice job!

How well does this work on different colors of plastic? I have an old Japanese toy made by Gakken called the Mospeada 1/8 Ride Armor. The chest and crotch areas of the rider, and the side of the bike have yellowed. I rarely removed it from the box, but the box has two windows exposing those two areas I mentioned. Most of the toy is an aqua-marine/turquoise color. So I am wondering what would happen if this stuff was applied to it. I wish the box had a gate fold!

This is a toy I've had almost 30 years and I desperately would like to return it to its original condition. It is pretty much mint, except for the discoloring.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi!

[GRitter]

This is a great instructable and all, but what do you use to clean the blood of the honorable rebel soldiers from your hands?

[jelte1234]

I believe hydrogen peroxide works great for that too!!

[Stasz]

TB-60609 reporting in.

I've just begun researching a solution for my slightly yellowing Scout bucket, and was thrilled to come across your instructable.

I'm trying this out tomorrow. Thanks for sharing!

[lschwartz]

Other objects definitely subject to sunlight and yellowing is model sailboats and airplanes!

[Androxilogin]

Hmm.. I'm thinking about trying this on an old Super Nintendo console. Very interesting, thanks!

[chouser4]

Great instructable. Thanks for sharing