[rescue] Restoring yellowed computer cases...

[Ahmed Ewing]

On 4/11/07, Lucyen Gabbard <lucyen at uark.edu> wrote:
> There may actually be another solution that is even less desirable.  On some
> higher dollar european cars (let's say Volvos from the late 80's and early
> 90's), all of the dash boards would be made of black vinyl (or some other
> crazy skinned foam material) and then *painted* with a special vinyl paint.
> Although I have never tried it, I would imagine that a paint that sticks
> well to vinyl would also stick well to plastic, if the plastic were cleaned
> first.

Yes, there is vinyl paint which is made to stick to plastics. Or you
can use a special primer to provide the proper surface for most any
paint to stick. Vinyl dye doesn't need primer though, as the color
actually penetrates the plastic instead of sitting on the surface.

> On the bad side, it will probably take shiny plastic and turn it into matte
> plastic, but we're outside my realm of expertise there.

Yes, this is what I was referring to in my original post concerning
losing the original look/feel of the surface when painting. Painted
surfaces often have a texture if you look up close--this could be lost
with a coat of paint.

> If you are planning on dying the plastic, wouldn't you have to bleach (or
> something) the plastic first to get the original pigment out?  What about
> adding a flourecent dye like laundry detergents?

My understanding is that if you are making a drastic dark-to-light
color change, such as black to yellow, it is advised to take the time
and dye white first so that the result isn't a mix of the base and
applied colors. However, within our narrow context of a retouch from
yellowed gray/beige to original gray/beige, I don't see this as being
much of a factor.

-A