My chemistry is a bit rusty, but after some googling, it seems like Oxiclean is a source of TAED, which probably is the key to efficient bleaching of plastics at room temperature. Hydrogen peroxide alone won't do the trick in a reasonable time frame.

It might work without Oxiclean at higher temperatures, say 70 deg C or something like that, but I wouldn't want to expose ABS plastic to that, too close to where it begins to lose form stability.

I have used the peroxide cream on a couple items and although it did a great job of restoring the color, it was also blotchy in areas where some spots were brighter than others. You could visually see the blotchy spots when you picked it up as well. It wasnt really bad, but it wasnt uniform either.

I dont know if there is a better way to apply it, but poured out some of the cream onto the case (a Commodore VIC-20 was one of them) and, with gloves on, rubbed the cream all over the case top and sides. I then covered it with plastic wrap as best I could, trying to keep any creases in the plastic wrap to a minimum for a flat covering. Then set it in the sun for 10 hours. After that, took off the plastic wrap and cleaned off the cream.

If you watch the video for the 8-Bit Guy on Youtube where he uses the cream to restore a Roland unit, if you pause the video when he's showing the case after using the cream, you can see some of the blotchy spots I am talking about - (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUvICKyXnqU - go to 7:41). Its not horribly noticeable, but its there (or the three monitors I have viewed it on are all bad).

Overall, it works OK, but I imagine putting the case in a container and filling it with Peroxide to completely cover it would make it look way better.

I used premixed cream to restore the front of my old IBM Aptiva. I didnt use natural sunlight but instead used a UV Light, left it on for around 36 hours and it came out without any blotches etc.

I think the blotches are usually caused by the paste drying out while the item remains in the sun.

If you start seeing dry patches forming, you'd need to ideally wash the entire thing down with water before re-applying the stuff (I think the 'burned' off stuff remaining on the plastic has a detrimental effect)

I've successfully used only the salon 40 vol peroxide cream stuff on the following items
1. Old Beige AT Keyboard
2. Amiga 500 case and keys
3. Commodore Vic 20 case
4. Front of 486 beige case
5. Amiga 500 Power supply brick
6. White Microsoft mouse USB

The only thing I have done that has gone blotchy is my Aopen case from 2000 which will be getting thrown out
at some point. A few tips...

1. If You ever try non white or non beige keycaps, leave out for a maximum time of 3 hours then clean off thoroughly
apply again on another day if need be. The only reason to try here is that the writing on top of the keys may be yellowed.
2. Always cover the item with cling wrap to help avoid the cream drying out.
3. It's possible some plastics just won't benefit properly from this, which could be one reason why some go blotchy.

You don't need the oxyclean, that's just to clean the dirt and grim off of it. I started a thread about this topic, its in my sig.

I found that the premixed cream does in fact work, but it requires longer exposure (and preferably to natural sunlight, though UV lamps work too. I think the higher temp from sitting in the sun helps.)

Thanks guys. I also found a video by 8-Bit Guy that shows a side-by-side test of peroxide cream + oxiclean versus just peroxide cream. He noted no difference.

I had already watched his CM-300 video as well. It's actually a CM-64 that I'm thinking of treating.

Smack2k wrote:

I dont know if there is a better way to apply it, but poured out some of the cream onto the case (a Commodore VIC-20 was one of them) and, with gloves on, rubbed the cream all over the case top and sides. I then covered it with plastic wrap as best I could, trying to keep any creases in the plastic wrap to a minimum for a flat covering. Then set it in the sun for 10 hours. After that, took off the plastic wrap and cleaned off the cream.

From what I've read, your issue may have been due to leaving it out too long. I've heard that you want to leave it out for 2-3 hours max, and that you should wash it off and apply a second treatment if it needs more.

Also, some plastics are apparently more susceptible to blotching than others - especially the ones with some coloring in them?

Cool...maybe that was the issue...I was actually afraid 2-3 hours wouldnt be enough...

I will try another test on a couple other cases I have....