With a couple of aluminium Realforce housing options coming this year, I decided to hunt for a 86U to get that sweet WKL action.
I watched yahoo jp for a while and managed to win an 86U at a pretty good price, but when it arrived, I think I realised why...
Nasty grime and **** everywhere
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/vc3d5l3ox/IMG_20180508_164819.jpg)
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/ebkgwwydd/IMG_20180508_164832.jpg)
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/wr4xubk7l/IMG_20180508_165515.jpg)
Significant rust on the plate as well
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/78clhcio1/IMG_20180512_202814.jpg)
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/mv3uu66kh/IMG_20180512_202822.jpg)
And on top of that, Backspace, F12, and a few other keys were not registering, even after reseating the domes.
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/men8lj5n1/test.png)
Inspecting the PCB showed that there was some corrosion and white gunk present, possible from a spill from the previous owner
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/yvpavbtj5/DSC05579.jpg)
After cleaning it up with some isopropyl alcohol, two pads were shown to be completely corroded away
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/wr4xuc7cx/DSC05583c.jpg)
To get the through-hole pads and traces to connect to each other, I scraped away a small amount of the traces in either direction, and threading a small wire through to solder and complete the connection (thanks to everythat helped me in
this thread)
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/qq78x6kpt/DSC05597.jpg)
I was somewhat successful, but I still ended up having to jump one trace, as I found it too difficult to repair the missing pad
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/olmvw6be9/DSC05605c.jpg)
Next was the rusted plate.
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/tkaeaqpht/IMG_20180513_013951.jpg)
Sanding all the rust off was fairly time consuming because of how deep some of the rust pitting was in some spots
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/z9qmuhqcx/IMG_20180519_142003.jpg)
With the rust gone, I could give the plate a few coats of a silver that I hoped matched the original colour as close as possible
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/yk7ui4i3l/IMG_20180520_194509.jpg)
Looks more like a typical aluminium plate now, but still much much better
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/7mdxgeklt/IMG_20180520_194537.jpg)
The caps were cleaned, but then put away in favour of a JIS set and purple sliders (photo from donor board)
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/vjvlfkgtd/IMG_20180513_033238.jpg)
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/dh2iobxtd/IMG_20180508_171739.jpg)
All put back together
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/kqjht3kdd/DSC05612e.jpg)
And now because I only recently was able to get a blue topre stepped caps and brobot set, I switched over to a blank bubblegum pastel theme
![Kiss :-*](https://cdn.geekhack.org/Smileys/solosmileys/kiss.gif)
![](https://s22.postimg.cc/l3avz9029/DSC05775e.jpg)
Thanks for reading!
Next step is just simply waiting for my WKL norbaforce to grace me with its arrival
![Thumbs up! :thumb:](https://cdn.geekhack.org/Smileys/solosmileys/thumbsup.gif)