I dipped my two 512s the other day. Unfortunately, the combination of the retr0brite solution being too strong and me leaving them soaking for too long ended up bleaching them white. Needless to say, they’re ruined. A shame really. Guess I’ll be using them for parts. Lesson learned. Again. Just when I think I have this down to a science, I go and ruin something.
Here’s one of the ruined 512s next to my 128K. Pretty ashy looking. Ruined.
WIth those 2 machine now in the “not fit for display” pile, I’m going to need another 512K for my collection.
# Execute eBay purchase #3 >
# Please wait......
# Purchase Complete
And there we have it. Mac 512K #3.
This is the best 512K so far. A complete working unit with case and external 400K drive! And a few extras too.
It’s in very nice shape. I’m very happy that all 4 feet are still intact. (The case and the keyboard.) As you can see from the picture below, it’s pretty dirty, but no scratches, or chips. The yellowing is not too bad either.
The mouse and keyboard are both filthy.
Nice spacebar, huh? It’s weird how the spacebars on old computers always changes color differently that the rest.
Did I mention that I only paid $66 dollars for this Mac? To get a case and a 400K drive as part of the deal feels like I got the Mac for free. I’ve seen cases fetch as much as $100 on eBay. Not to mention the 400K drives. I’ve seen those go for $150.
It needs a spin in the washing machine, but otherwise it’s in pretty good shape.
I guess this is supposed to be on the bag? I don’t know if you put these on yourself or not. My other Apple case has the logo already attached.
The external drive needs some TLC. It starts to read a disk, but then spits it out. Luckily, the internal drive works like a charm.
1985! Nice.
A little corrosion on the battery terminal. Nothing leaked into the inside so I got lucky. Why people put computers into storage with the batteries in them I’ll never know.
It was a nice surprise to find an assortment of free cables in the case. Sweet! It even came with 2 keyboard cables!
It’s not that often that you get an original Apple power cord with such an old machine.
The seller also threw in these dust covers. They look pretty nasty from yellowing. I’m going to toss them in the peroxide and Oxy just for kicks to see it works on them too.
Since I finished restoring the 128K, I opted to throw the working 400K drive into the 128K so I can button it up and put it on display. Once I repair one of my other spare drives, I’ll put it in this machine.
The machine cleaned up pretty nice with some isopropyl alcohol, but a short retr0brite session is still in order. I’m not going to ruin it this time. No more UV bulbs for me! They’re too strong. I’m going to do what I did with the 128K and just leave it in the sun with a lighter concentration of Oxy and peroxide.
I dipped the keyboard and mouse along with the 128K peripherals. They started out pretty nasty, but cleaned up nice. One is a little lighter than the other, but they evened out well. Again, one looks lighter than the other due to the flash, but they are the same.
I still have to dip the main unit. That’ll happen soon. I just need a sunny day!
