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How to tell whether a drive has yellowed, or was like that new?

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First post, by Spiffles

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I've been putting together a Core2Duo PC aimed at serving as a hub for some more obscure storage media - I was able to find a 5.25'' floppy drive for it, but I've noticed it's considerably more yellow than the rest of the front panel:
komp.jpg

I've been thinking of applying cream hydrogen peroxide to it to see if I can whiten it up a bit, to closer match the rest of the front panel - but the thing is, how can I know whether there's even a point to doing that if the drive could have had this hue from the beginning? Maybe someone could help out a little bit? The model of the drive is PANASONIC JU-475-5.

Reply 1 of 3, by Jo22

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Hi there! 🙂

Your doubts make sense I think.

From what I remember, there were floppy drives
in light gray, grey, dark gray and black.
And sometimes, almost white.

This one seems slightly yellowed due to age.
The color on the lever seems to be the original color, I think.

That being said, it's otherwise in a good, clean condition, it seems.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 3 of 3, by Spiffles

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Ok guys, I've decided to take the front panel out of the goo today. Here are the effects:
kompbeforeandafter.jpg

The match still isn't perfect, but I gotta say it's close enough!

The method I used:

- Bought 18% peroxide in cream form - supposed to be used for hair bleaching
- Dumped it all into a bowl (where the bottom doesn't taper off much)
- Mixed in a wee bit of Vanish loundry gel - supposed it would work as a catalyst, since it said something about "oxygen action" on the box, and I heard similar products catalyzed the reaction
- Kept the front panel submerged in the goo for around a week
- ...
- PROFIT

Now I'm doing a 5.25'' to 3.5'' bezel I picked up on Ebay so I can install more 3,5'' drives - actually expecting that thing to whiten to a matching cream white. I need to use it for the 3,5'' floppy actually, because of the kind of cable I got - the two drives need to be close to each other if I'm to connect them with that cable, sadly 🙁 But that's how it goes.

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