Success! Fixing 'hazy' or 'oxidized' plastic caps

[Imomo]

I posted in the simple questions thread about a week ago after I done goofed up. Literally.

While cleaning some old gummy keycaps from a 1982 NEC APC-H25 I threw it in some warm soapy water with what I thought was 'goo gone', harmless, citrus based cleaner. Instead of goo gone, I had grabbed goof-off which is an acetone based paint remover. By the time I had realized what I had done, it was too late. The keys had been stripped by the cleaner, slightly melted, and after they dried, the dark black of some of the keys had turned to a hazy spotty grey while the grey keys turned almost white.

After panicking for a hot second thinking I ruined my incredible rummage sale find and not discovering any solutions besides 'put them in peanut butter' I decided to start looking at car forums and lo and behold, found many sources saying that simply using steel wool and then a heat gun afterwards should do the trick.

I scraped at one of my keys with my nail and discovered that the black plastic did appear to be simply coated in the white haze, and I took some super fine grit steel wool to my keys.

I haven't used a heat gun yet, and i'm not sure I need to, the steel wool itself has worked wonders!





you can still see some of the steel wool on the key, but no long or lasting deep scratches. A little haze on the textured front of the key tho...

and also

[chyros]

Sand blasting probably would work too - that's the advantage of doubleshot keycaps, they're the most durable of all keycaps .

[SBJ]

That's really handy and good to know!
I would've probably tried the soapy water too if I hadn't read here not to.

[NewbieOneKenobi]

My step dad's Model M spent 15 years or so behind his fridge, so you can guess what it looked like when I found it. Toothpaste and toothbrush did an amazing job — the thing looks new. I used a coupla shots' worth of Polish vodka and cleaning pads instead where this wasn't practical. (And the keyboard was intoxicated for a couple of days.)