Introduction: De-Yellowing an Original Game Boy "Retr0brite"

This is a simple instructable for turning your old Game Boy to its original color.

This will work on pretty much all old plastics, ie. old Macs, SNES, NES consoles, etc.

This is an alternative to using retr0brite, which can be expensive and hard to find.

For opening the game boy, see

https://www.instructables.com/id/Restoring-a-Ninte...


Items Needed:

Gloves - we will be using ahigh content of hydrogen peroxide, which can cause chemical burns. Safety 1st!

Plastic bag - saran/platic wrap works as well

Soft bristle brush

Salon Care 40- about $20 for a 32oz bottle. Smaller bottles are cheaper. I do this in bulk, so it was worth it to buy the big one. 32oz is enough for about 75 Game Boys. If you are planning on restoring only a few systems or less, get a 4oz bottle.

Sunlight


The salon care 40 has a very high content of hydrogen peroxide, which is the active ingredient in most retrobrighting products.

There have been several versions of this instructable posted using different products; this is simply the one with the fewest ingredients (ie simplest) that still works.


Step 1: Restoration

Clean the shell using warm water and soap. This is important- if the shell is not uniformly clean, the brightening process will be pretty uneven.

Glove up!

Prepare your workstation (I use a single sheet of paper that I just toss after).

Fill up about 1 bottle cap's worth of the Salon Care 40, and pour it over the surface of the Game Boy.

Brush the chemical so that there is a thin, even coating over the entire surface.

Place in plastic bag, and leave outside in direct sunlight for several hours. You can do this under a UV lamp as well if you have one and it is faster, but sunlight works just as well. If the daylight is shifting, rotate the bag so it gets even sunlight to all sides. Seeing bubbling under the bag is perfectly normal- just a part of the chemical reaction taking place.

When you take off the gloves, wash your hands. Just good practice in case any peroxide got in.

Presto, Change-O!

It's pretty cool if you check it every so often and see the change taking place.

When it gets back to the original color, rinse with water.

I was unable to get great pics to highlight the differences, but the color difference is dramatic. You can tell by comparing the shell color to the color of the inlay where the plastic screen goes on. After using the Salon Care 40, the color matches the original. Look at the difference between the first and last pictures.

Good luck!

Before and After Contest 2017

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Before and After Contest 2017