Community Forums

imob · 02-02-2017, 11:45 AM

I just discovered a process called RetroBrite that will de-yellow plastics. I have now seen it done on many 1980's computer cases. Has anyone tried this process on RV plastics?

Our 2000 Winne has some aged plastic, not the least of which is the shower. For some reason the shower has really gone yellow/brown. I have replaced some of the aged things like lights for brushed nickel but others still remain as well as the ceiling vents. (yellow against the white carpet is really noticeable).

The guy in this video shows using Sally Beauty salon care creme 40. I was wondering if anyone else has done this and if you had any tips?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU7vXMezW_I

AZGypsie · 02-02-2017, 01:31 PM

Interesting!

imob · 02-02-2017, 06:14 PM

Ok so I got so excited about this I went out and got the stuff from Sally Beauty. I already had black lights I had bought years ago from Spencer's Gifts for one of the kids 18th birthday party. This size bottle is $5. Sally also carries it in gallons. I decided to start with one of the interior lights I changed out. In these before pics you can see how yellow it is compared to the interior white light reflector.

imob · 02-03-2017, 12:29 PM

Update picture: This is after about 16 hours of the 36 or so that I plan to let it cook. As you can see it has already gotten significantly lighter in color

imob · 02-21-2017, 01:29 PM

I have an update on this. After playing with the process some more I found that the black lights did not give off enough UV to do the process effectively. However what I found that works great was your average Halogen Work Lights. The halogen stick bulbs put out a huge amount of UV and the tempered glass is UV coated so that you do not get a sun burn from it. Removing the glass from the work light allows the UV to pass which is the catalyst to the hydrogen peroxide. This also takes the process from 36 hours down to about 4. The following pictures are from my RV shower after 4 hours of halogen work light exposure. Also note with this process there is no scrubbing, no scraping, really no work.

** Footnote I am also changing from a brush application to a small paint roller and instead of using cling wrap using thin painters plastic. The cling wrap on a larger scale becomes much to unruly to work with.