Date   : Wed, 01 Nov 2006 04:08:58 -0600
From   : julesrichardsonuk@... (Jules Richardson)
Subject: de-yellowing cases?

Charlie.Robson@... wrote:
> Hi all.
> 
> Has anyone thought about, attempted, suceeded/failed in de-yellowing a beeb
> case?
> 
> I'm guessing the answer is somewhere between 'age is a terrible thing' and
> 'how long is a piece of string'.
> 
> Is the yellowing an unavoidable part of the beeb aging process? Does it
> depend on environment? Or a bit in the middle?

I believe it's a chemical breakdown in the plastic itself as a result of UV 
exposure. In other words, nothing can be done to reverse it - the best you can 
hope for is to either find a case that's uniformly yellowed, or find one 
that's been kept in a cupboard all its life.

There do seem to have been different batches of cases over the years with 
different ageing properties - I'm not sure if anyone's ever looked into which 
ones are 'best'.

With smooth plastics it's possible to polish the surface a little, exposing 
some of the unaffected plastic beneath and thereby reducing the yellowed 
appearance, but with rough surfaces like the typical beeb case I don't think 
there's anything that can be done.

cheers

Jules