A1200 ebay restoration

**StuKeith** · 12th October 2007, 17:59

So I won this A1200 and bits on ebay. went to collect them. I only wanted the monitor and was planing on selling the 1200.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWN:IT&ih=019

Didnt look to yellow in the pic. ~Upon getting it all home and looking at it, I relized how disgusting it was! the miggy was yellow and sticky, and smelt awfull. The mouse was not nice to touch and sticky too.

Trust me it was worse then that. like the mouse cable

So today I started the restore.

first off was to take it apart. this was a nice surprise.

3.5" HDD installed. with all the wireing. stripped all of this out and removed the mobo.

Gave the case a scrub with a scourer and some oxi clean/fairy and it didnt come up too bad.

Next up was the keyboard.

stripped this down to the bone.

Stuck the keys into the dishwasher and once done and dry put the kb back together.

So this done started on the case. this is what it looks like after a few coats of undercoat.

Now just need to paint and lacqure the top and sort the bottom out. then get a 2.5" cable and fit the 2.5" drive from an old knackered laptop and install.

Got plenty of pics and stuff and will do a guide once finished!

**Harrison** · 12th October 2007, 19:39

Very nice restoration project so far.

Once I had a similar experience. I purchased a Kickstart 1.2 based A500 from someone on ebay for £1.66 so I wasn't expecting perfect condition. But when it arrived it couldn't have been more yellow if you tried and it had a nice square of less faded plastic on the top right where an external floppy drive much have lived.

But I must say it worked perfectly well and was great to get hold of the very early model of A500 as they are slightly different. Keyboard isn't quite the same and the Commodore logo is a small C= instead of a full Commodore as seen on later models. Also the drive and power lights are different colours.

I gave the case a quick clean as it smelt of cigarettes and was quite sticky, but I've not tried to remove the yellowness of the case.

What are you painting the case with? Are you trying to make it look as it did originally? Or just nice?

**StuKeith** · 12th October 2007, 21:26

Trying to get it as nice as poss. Im using the primer you get in yellow tins from places like motorworld, and hardware stores, and acrylic spray.

bit of sanding between coats.

Ive also got the A1500 keyboard on the go as well.

**Stephen Coates** · 13th October 2007, 09:20

Looking good.

I never thought of painting them before.

It is a shame that things get yellow. I was looking at a photo of my PC from about 2001 and it is definately yellower now.

That monitor looks very yellow as well. I hope that is going to get a bit of cleaning as well. My 1438 was more yellowed than my PC, but no where near as much as that. Unfortunately the RGB connector was a bit dodgy.

On the subject of 1438s, are the stands on them normally very loose? Mine is, which isn't a problem for me, but if you don't want the monitor to move at all it could be. (It is loose enough to be able to tilt the monitor if you pull the RGB cable slightly).

**Harrison** · 14th October 2007, 06:14

The stand on my Microvitec one isn't that loose, although it is quite easy to move with one hand.

BTW, did you know that Microvitec still make the monitor in the form of the 1402?

http://www.microvitec.co.uk/products...can%201402.htm

**Stephen Coates** · 14th October 2007, 10:28

Originally Posted by Harrison

The stand on my Microvitec one isn't that loose, although it is quite easy to move with one hand.

BTW, did you know that Microvitec still make the monitor in the form of the 1402?

http://www.microvitec.co.uk/products...can%201402.htm

I seem to recall we realised that several years ago. I expect they are still very expensive.

Microvitec do say on their website that they can repair most of the monitors they have made since the early 80s, so we should be OK if our 1438s stop working. But repairs might be expensive as well.