The best way to clean a corroded and dirty PCB?

[winteralfs]

What is the best way to clean a dirty and corroded, rusted PCB with the switches still solderied on it? How can you make it look clean and black and fresh again without ruining it?

[Leslieann]

Is the plate rusted or is the pcb rusted? never heard of a pcb rusting.

If it's the PCB, the best use is alcohol (isopropyl is what you want I think), and scrub with a soft brush. Don't use water, it will sit and cause problems, alchol evaporatesfast (this is also how to deal with (water damage btw).

If it's the plate, you can sand between the switches, mask it then paint it, but you could also just skip the sanding and use a rust converting primer. Regardless a rusty plate isn't going to really do anything other than look bad when the caps are off.

The only way you will really get everything is to desolder all the switches which frankly isn't worth it if it still functions. My worry though is if the plate and pcb are this bad, what are the switch internals like.

[winteralfs]

Thanks for the great answer.  I appreciate the advice. The switch internals did not look dirty. I opened them up and brushed them out/vacuumed them, but there was little physical dirt/dust visible to the naked eye.  The PCB just looks ugly. I will attach a pic below.