Commodore C16 Restoration – Part 4 - The Deep Clean

 

Hi all, I have just completed another part of the restoration of my C16. This time giving it a complete strip down, deep clean, rust removal and nickel plating using Electrolysis and Electroplating.

In this entry I will show you how to completely strip the C16 down (including the keyboard) and how I gave my one a complete makeover.

There is also a youTube clip showing the process from start to finish at the end of this entry.

 

Tools required:

Soldering Iron

Cutters

Pliers

De-Soldering Tool

Scalpel

Spudger

Steel Ruler

Power Supply

Car Battery

Toothbrush

Ultrasonic cleaner (optional)

 

 

Components and other bits required:

Cotton Buds

IPA Alcohol

Steel Wool

Paper Towel

Washing liquid

Ultrasonic Cleaning fluid

Double Sided Tape

Insulating Tape

 

In this entry I revisited the electrolysis and electroplating process I did during my Vic 20 restoration; more details about that process can be found on YouTube

https://youtu.be/pBAUCMORyYE

and in this blog

https://alleged-geek.blogspot.com/2021/08/commodore-vic-20-restoration-part-2.html

 

So, let’s get started!

 

Strip down the C16, removing the motherboard.

Then strip the components from the lid of the C16 starting with the keyboard.

Remove the 8 highlighted screws with a medium sized cross headed screwdriver.

Then remove the Power LED from the lid of the C16.

 

This is done by removing the circular retaining clip which holds the LED in place on the underside of the lid.

 

Below is a photo of its location.

I used a pair of pliers to grip the retaining clip and pull it free from the LED Bezel.

I thought it best to slide the retaining clip all the way along the wires to the PCB connector as losing this would mean that the LED would not be properly secured when refitting.

 Now let’s teardown the keyboard completely; starting with the keys. I find it best to have three different containers for storing the parts. The first one for the keys, the second for the springs and the third one for the key plungers… Yes we eat a LOT of ice cream here in Geek Mansion ;)

The Function keys were easy to remove and I managed them by hand; simply pulling up on the key until it came free, then storing the key in one tub and the spring in the second tub.

However, the remaining keys were very hard to free this way so I ended up carefully levering the keys off the plunger with a medium sized plastic spudger.

All of the keys have a spring with the exception of the Shift Lock key which is fitted to a spring loaded switch on the keyboard base. It is worth making a note of this before refitting the keyboard.

Carry on removing the keys until you get to the last one, the space bar. The space bar has a long metal supporting bar which is clipped on to the keyboard housing. Gently pry the key off from the back at an angle as shown in the photo below.

Here you will see two while sliders to the left and right ends of the key as well as the supporting bar.

 

As the clips holding the supporting bar look a wee bit fragile, gently pull the supporting bar clear from the clips on the keyboard housing then place the key and springs in their containers.

 

Now remove the two wires connecting the Shift Lock switch to the keyboard PCB. This is done by removing the insulating tape (which looks remarkably like selotape) then de-soldering the two wires.

I find that un-insulated wires such as the two wires here conduct heat a lot quicker than standard insulated wire so it is a good idea to melt the solder and use either a pair of pliers or tweezers to lift the wire free from the pins of the switch. This should prevent you from burning your fingers.

After that, remove the 23! Yes 23!! Small screws which fix the keyboard PCB to the housing. You will require a small cross headed screwdriver for this as they are really small. Then store the screws somewhere safe (I used my magnetic mat to hold the screws in position.

This keyboard PCB looks in pretty good shape for its age unlike the VIC 20 PCB where I witnessed trace rot for only the second time in my career.

After that, remove all the key plungers and store in another container. You should find that they simply fall out when you turn the housing over with the exception of the Shift Lock Switch which requires pushing out as shown below.

I then used my ultrasonic cleaner to clean the keys and springs. The cleaning solution I used for this purpose was from OCTOPUS which claims to be good for print heads, electrical components, metal items, small tools, glasses and jewellery.

Note: I appreciate that not everyone has access to an ultrasonic cleaner so a simple scrub with soapy water and a toothbrush works just as well (it just takes a bit longer)

 

Place the keys in the Ultrasonic basket; unfortunately the Space Bar was too long to fit in the basket of my cleaner (but it did fit in the cleaner diagonally without the basket so I cleaned it separately)

Then set the timer to  from anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes (I opted for 7 minutes) A thing to note is that the solution will heat up naturally when using an ultrasonic cleaner. If the solution gets too warm this could warp and twist the keys out of shape.

 

The following pictures show that the temperature of the solution rose from 16°C to 24°C in as little as 7 minutes.

Place the spacebar in the ultrasonic cleaner without the basket and give it a clean for 7 minutes, whilst it is cleaning wipe the excess fluid off the keys with some paper towel to avoid any ‘watermarks’ as the solution dries naturally.

Once the space Bar has been cleaned, place the springs into the basket and clean them in the ultrasonic cleaner for 7 minutes. I managed to dry all the keys with paper towel by the time the springs were cleaned. After the springs have been cleaned dry them off with some paper towel and leave all the keys and springs to dry out completely before refitting the keyboard (I left them to dry out overnight)

 

With the keyboard, keys and springs set aside, give the PCB a clean with some 99.9% IPA and a toothbrush to remove all the old (and new) flux residue.

This tends to leave the PCB feeling a bit sticky so I tend to go over the PCB with some fresh IPA and a cotton bud which usually cleans the PCB up pretty well.

The problem when using a cotton bud on the solder side of the PCB is that the cotton bud gets caught on the component legs and it leaves cotton fibres between the legs of components. I find that using a clean dry toothbrush and scrubbing gently usually removes all the cotton fluff from the PCB.

After the solder side has been cleaned, go over the component side with some IPA and a cotton bud.

 Set aside the PCB and leave it to dry out completely (in this case I left it overnight as I did with the keys and springs)

 

I decided to remove the serial number label before cleaning the case of the C16. As you can see from the picture below, the label has 2 folded up corners. My plan was to remove the label and reapply it using double sided tape.

Great care has to be taken when removing the label as they are easily torn. I find that spraying the label with IPA (it really is wonderful stuff) will allow you to peel the label off if you are patient enough to let the IPA soak into the paper backing of the label.

Then start peeling the label off; peel slowly and when the paper behind the label looks dry add more IPA.

Do this until the label is completely free from the case.

Then clean the paper backing on the case with your fingernail.

And a cotton bud.

Then give the bottom of the C16 a wee clean with some IPA and paper towel.

For the next part, I am going to revisit a technique I did when restoring my VIC 20. For some reason the modulator lids and RF shields of all my restored Commodores to date all suffer from rust.

 

I have heard that you can simply stop the rust from getting worse by immersing the parts in vinegar but they would still look ugly and I wanted my C16 to look like new. So I opted to remove the rust using electrolysis.

 

My Vic 20 post about this process goes into greater detail but I will explain the basics here anyway.

 

You will need the following equipment/ingredients

 

Baking Soda or Salt

Water

Plastic Tub

Something to secure the Iron anode

An Iron Anode (I used an old screwdriver)

Car Battery

Cables with croc clips (to fit the battery and attach to the Anode and rusted part)

Wire Wool (I used a soap filled pad)

You may want to use gloves as well as it is quite a dirty process.

Below is the wiring Diagram.

I added about 3 tablespoons worth of salt to the small tub.

And about 10 tablespoons worth of salt to the larger tub.

Add water and dissolve the salt completely.

Then wire up the circuit as shown in the diagram earlier and plug the positive and negative connectors into the car battery.

You should see it reacting almost instantly.

If it doesn’t react instantly, try adding more salt to the solution (unplug the battery before adding and dissolving the extra salt)

 

And whilst Electrolysis is doing its magic, give the C16 case, bezel and keyboard housing a clean with some soapy water and a toothbrush.

After cleaning, rinse each part thoroughly with some fresh water and dry off with some paper towel. I left the parts to dry out completely overnight along with my keys, springs and motherboard.

 

This process took over an hour and by that time the electrolysis had done its magic. I removed the parts from the containers and gave the modulator lid and RF Shield a good scrub with some wire wool.

Now, I could have left it there but the parts would soon start rusting again so I had a couple of choices:

 

1 – I could use the vinegar technique to prevent the rust from starting or spreading.  

Or

 

2 – I could use electroplating to coat the metalwork with nickel.

 

Option 1 is quicker but from what I have read and seen, the vinegar does stop the rust from spreading but it will kind of ‘stain’ the metal a deeper colour where it had been rusting before.

 

So

 

I opted for the second choice as I already have some nickel acetone (stored away safely) which I made for my VIV 20 Restoration Project.

 

For details about how to make your own Nickel Acetone, have a look at the following entry in this blog.

Commodore VIC 20 - Restoration; Part 2, Video Modification, Electrolysis Rust Removal and Electroplating! (alleged-geek.blogspot.com)

The wiring diagram for the electroplating process can be found below.

Now, a wee word of warning goes out to anyone who wants to try this out… it is a smelly process which does not always go down well with others in the household. For example, the last time I tried this, Mrs Geek exploded her wrath upon me; I think the whole of the North East of Scotland heard her! The ground shook, the air turned blue and I ran for my life… she really wasn’t happy.

 

Fearing for my wellbeing this time round, I decided to close the kitchen door and open all the windows… before very quietly setting up the equipment.

 

All was going well until about 20 seconds into the process when all hell broke loose within Geek Mansion. Some of the names she called me were truly unflattering (but I resisted the urge to ask what some of the words meant this time ;)) I think the tamest word she used was IDIOT but there were loads of expletives before and after the IDIOT part. Needless to say, she wasn’t too happy with me again. For the sake of my viewers on youTube, I even removed the audio from that part of the clip!

 

Anyhoo! Back to the electroplating

 

Connect the positive wire from the power supply to the nickel anode.

I set the voltage on my new power supply to 4.5V, and set the current to a maximum of 3A.

Then I poured in the nickel acetone.

Then I connected the negative wire to the modulator lid, placed it in the solution next to the nickel anode.

Then turned the power supply on and gently wiggled the negative wire to shake off the bubbles being formed as part of the process from affecting the finish (if left on they can leave small circles on the metal)

Success, the modulator lid coated quite well in about 20 minutes

 

However, the motherboard PCB RF shield was a wee bit more problematic as the plating process only appeared to coat the small area beside the nickel anode as can be seen in the picture below.

So I decided to manually move the nickel anode slowly over the surface of the RF shield.

After about 40 minutes, I was happy with the result.

The finish isn’t perfect but it looks ok and more importantly it will not rust!

 

So all I had to do now was to reassemble the C16; starting with the keyboard.

 

The insulation which covered the Shift Lock switch on the PCB had left a dried out glue residue on the PCB so I gave that a clean with some IPA and a cotton bud.

Then I set about refitting the Key Plungers and Shift Lock switch; the photo below shows the location of the shift lock switch. It is a simple push fit and it clicks into place.

The more eagle eyed people out there will notice that I have fitted it with the solder pins facing the wrong way; the pins should be pointing towards the middle of the housing and not towards the outside of the housing… Something I would find out in a couple of minutes!

After the shift lock switch has been fitted, refit all the key plungers into the remaining sockets. Note that they can only go in one way.

Once done, refit the keyboard PCB.

 

This is where I realised my mistake about the Shift Lock switch!

So I refitted it as shown below.

Now refit the keyboard PCB; securing it with the 23! Small cross headed screws.

Once refitted, it is time to re-solder the two wires from the PCB to the Shift Lock switch. As I simply melted the wires off earlier, I decided to clear the solder from the wires using my de-soldering tool.

Then solder the 2 wires into position.

And finally insulate the whole switch wiring with a piece of insulation tape.

Now refit the keys; starting with the Spacebar as it is awkward if not impossible to fit it with the next row of keys fitted behind it.

The easiest way to fit this is to click the supporting bar into position as shown below.

Then remember to fit the spring.

Slip the supporting bar supports into the slots on the keyboard housing.

Then push down firmly to secure the space bar into position.

The remainder of the keys are relatively simple to fit; all you have to do is to fit the spring and push fit the keys into the correct position.

However…

I made my second and found my third error when fitting the Function keys!

Here I chose the wrong plunger socket to fit the key on to the keyboard.

It looks ok until you try to fit the lid (which I will show you later ;)

Then I tried to fit the F2/F5 key and it took an agonising five minutes to figure out what was wrong!

The plunger must have moved out of position by 45° when I fitted the keyboard PCB! I only hoped that I wouldn’t have to remove all the keys to fix this error.

 

To fix it, I removed half of the small screws fixing the PCB to the housing.

The lever the PCB up to allow access so that you can correctly seat the plunger in the correct position.

Then fit the removes PCB screws again.

After that, refit the remaining Function keys.

I then noticed some heat sink compound on my mat and on the keyboard PCB and found that there was heatsink compound on the PCB wiring loom. This must have come from the heatsink compound that I found on the TED Chip at the start of this series of restorations.

 

I gave it a clean with some IPA and a paper towel.

Now refit the keyboard to the lid of the C16.

And it was here when I found out about the function keys being fitted incorrectly.

So I removed the keys then refitted them into the correct plunger socket on the key.

Now refit the 8 main Keyboard fixing screws.

And then refit the Power LED by pushing the LED into position until it clicks.

Then push on the retaining ring to secure the LED into position.

With the lid complete, I decided to refit the bottom half of the C16. Starting with the serial number label.

For this I used some wide double sided tape, a scalpel and a steel ruler.

Place the label on the sticky side of the tape and smooth out the label with your fingers. As the corners of the label were bent up originally, I paid particular attention to the corners when sticking the label on to the tape.

Then carefully cut away the unwanted double sided tape with a scalpel and a steel ruler.

After that you should have a label looking like this; time to fit it on to the base of the C16.

Then peel off the double sided tape backing and stick it into position; again I paid particular attention to the folded corners ensuring that they were pushed down firmly on to the base of the C16.

Now refit the main PCB to the newly cleaned and rust free RF shield.

Remember to fit the cardboard insulator on to the RF shield before fitting the motherboard.

The fit the motherboard and secure it using the 6 small metal clips found on the RF shield around the outside of the PCB.

Fit the bezel on between the PCB and RF shield in the correct position so that the gaps line up with the switches and sockets.

Then fit the 6 small self-tapping screws into the positions shown below, followed by the 2 machine type screws for the bezel also shown below.

Now refit the Power LED connector from the lid of the C16 to the PCB; ensure that the red wire points towards the middle of the PCB.

Then fit the keyboard connector; this can only fit in one way round due to a blocked socket on the connector.

Finally refit the three main fixing screws.

Now give the Commodore a polish; for this I used some non silicone wood silk with bees wax polish. I have heard that WD40 works quite well but I didn’t want an oily finish or a C16 which smells of WD40 (no matter how good it smells) 

I have also heard that Armorall (Dashboard polish for cars) is quite good but it is a wee bit more expensive than the £1.50 I paid for the furniture polish (have I told you that I am an Aberdonian?) 

For best results, spray the polish on to a microfiber duster and not directly on to the C16. Then polish the C16 ensuring that you manage to cover every nook and cranny of the computer.

And you should have a beautiful looking machine as shown in the picture below.

Now as I carried out a rather intrusive deep clean which involved cleaning the motherboard with IPA as well as a complete strip down of the keyboard, I wanted to test the system to make sure it still worked, so I hooked everything up and loaded Saboteur.

Another success!

 

Well this part of the restoration was quite eventful; I had a stinking cold which my apprentice geek kindly gifted me; there was another eruption at Geek Mansion where I was called some very bad names and I made three small errors when rebuilding the computer. But it was a whole lot of fun and I got the chance to do some chemistry and try out my 5A power supply for the first time at higher currents!

 

Below is my youTube clip of the process from start to finish.

I hope that you have found this entry useful; if you have any questions about the process, please frel free to leave a comment or email me directly at

 

Alleged_geek@aol.com

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this long entry!

 

Next up I am going to attempt to fit an internal SD2IEC unit into the computer without the need to drill holes for the switches and LED’s.