bleaching for restoration - good or bad idea?

i have recently obtained a few vehicles (ones i used to have as a kid and ones i didn't) and am looking to restore them.

i believe i read somewhere on the net some people recommend peroxide to remove the yellowing that comes as part and parcel with old toys but also some that say that perhaps this actually weakens the plastic.

i am curious to know what other peoples opinions are of this before i start taking them apart to clean.

Plenty of vids on Youtube that might help although you restore at your own risk! :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFfzbvLH1Y

I used cooking oil to remove some sticker residue from a bubble recently and worked pretty well but again risky business when your doing it to expensive items!

i was considering bleaching my childhood at-st and restoring it to back former glory. i then came to my senses and left it yellow as thats how its always been from memory. i knew i would regret it if bleached it! it just seemed wrong.

but if you acquired some yellowed beater ships that have no meaning to you . have a dabble and go for it would be nice project becareful though ive heard some horror stories using certian bleaching agents. some fella bleached a imperial shuttle all was going well but the next day there was a puddle of white plastic :lol:

lets not talk about bleaching yellowed figures :roll: especially stormtroopers! all yellowed figure should be left as they are!

thanks for the feedback..this is my concern as initially they look great but i am dubious about doing it so perhaps i might just give them a bit of a wash and scrub with some mild detergent and then locate some replacement stickers if needed - some of the yellowing actually looks good on the ships as looks a bit like battle damage.

I fill a bowl with boiling water, a single drop of fairy liquid, and a scrubbing brush. Go slowly, don't get any stickers wet and you can really improve the look of vehicles and playsets just by cleaning them. For boxes, fold up a few squares of kitchen roll, dab it lightly in the hot soapy water and wipe the litho down, it removes all the surface grime and dust. I would never advise using bleach on any vintage SW.

You can watch my AT-ST restoration here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyENlo2P70E

It's pretty easy to do and you can get make a rough vehicle look really good.

Cheers

And here is the one I did on cleaning figures as I got asked about it so often.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkY2AeHQQIg

Cheers

thanks moosinthehoos - i watched your videos (and subscribed to your channel) and was impressed how well they came up - which kind of instigated my original question to see opinions of others as to whether it deteriorates the plastic over time or not. perhaps i will just give them a general clean first to see how they come up as they aren't' massively yellow like the AT ST you did in your video...

I only do the de-yellowing on figures and ships that are really past best. If it only has mild yellowing I leave them as is.
Some of the figures I have done have been so yellow you would never think they had been white in the first place.

Always test first on things you are not worried about ruining. That At-St I did was really rough, it looked much worse in the flesh.
It's now been 8 month since I did the restoration and it still looks the same, no deterioration. All my toys are in a room with no direct sunlight, almost no sun really.

The falcon I just restored I left as is. It had some yellowing that gave it character.

Cheers

http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy272/Threadwell20/100_2493_zpscf438631.jpg

I have know idea what he could have done to cause that. I use 6% Hydrogen peroxide which is pretty mild, you can use it as mouthwash. That looks more like heat damage to me to cause all the warping like that.

Hi!

My name is Eugene. I can concur that Hydrogen Peroxide does not weaken the Plastic. I have sold off some my Storm Troopers Recently and they were treated with the stuff! I have just treated a Biker Scout that has just Aged over the years. I give them a good two or three week soak to be thorough. Some guys use artificial UV Lighting but I just leave mine on the window sill or put them out in the sun in Natural UV. Does the job! However, there's a Chap on YouTube who soaked some AT-AT Drivers but he lost the Imperial Emblems! So don't soak figures with such Decals! My Drivers are Mint so I've never attempted it. You need a lot of Peroxide for Vehicles but it's pretty cheap!

Eugene

Eugene Russell Nash said:

My name is Eugene. I can concur that Hydrogen Peroxide does not weaken the Plastic. I have sold off some my Storm Troopers Recently and they were treated with the stuff!

Eugene

Click to expand...

welcome aboard eugene

...............i hope you disclosed the fact that you bleached them before you sold them :|

poncho said:

Eugene Russell Nash said:

My name is Eugene. I can concur that Hydrogen Peroxide does not weaken the Plastic. I have sold off some my Storm Troopers Recently and they were treated with the stuff!

Eugene

Click to expand...

welcome aboard eugene

...............i hope you disclosed the fact that you bleached them before you sold them :|

Click to expand...

I was thinking exactly the same thing :lol: :?

I would leave them to yellow in peace I don't do any restoration, if you want better quality items spend more ,

The falcon isn't clean in the movies

I've done the retrobrite thang on a few old beat up figures. I couldn't get it to work until I stumbled upon this stuff:

http://www.boots.com/en/Jerome-Russell-B-Blonde-Cream-Peroxide-for-Medium-to-Dark-Brown-Hair-75ml_1110807/?cm_mmc=pla-_-google-_-PLAs-_-Boots+Shopping+-+Category+-+Toiletries

This does the trick, you don't need to mix anything, just apply, wrap in cling film and leave in the sun for a few hours.

Not everyone is a fan of this process as I guess you wouldn't want to buy anything you thought was pristine and mint, but had in fact just been bleached. I don't touch my boxed vehicles, but I have a load of old ships that I'm slowly working through cleaning up for display. So far an x-wing and tie have been restored to brilliant white using this BBlond cream method.

The Mrs parents have got a 150 year old grandfather clock but it looks ****. The case is all old and aged, you can't see the numbers on the dial and it runs off weights and a pendulum and not the mains. It looks like it's about 150 years old.

I was thinking of using a scourer and some sandpaper to clean up the outside. I have some brown fence paint that will make it look as good as new and we are going to use a marker to redraw the numbers back on the face. I'm then going to install a Quartz movement as I can't be bothered to keep winding it up.

I recon it will look miles better. What do you think?

For years museums have been cleaning and restoring masterpieces so we can see them as close as possible to what they were like when first painted. This can actually make them look a bit cheap as the colours are so vibrant they don't look old anymore...

So that's another way of looking at it I suppose.

The thing is with your grandfather clock analogy is that you have no memory of what that clock looked like when it was new, to you it's always been old. With antiques like that a large part of the charm is the age. Some collectors view Star Wars toys in the same way but others don't. I certainly remember getting new toys and ripping them open, brand new. That's why there is this culture of restoring, cleaning and sometimes bleaching, to get them back to how they were when we first got them. Similarly, that's why people pay more money for toys in better condition - isn't it?

I'm aware there is a paradox lurking here around something being high valued and MIB to restoring something to that condition... :wink:

Hi!

Yeah that information was disclosed! I wouldn't sell anything without being clear and honest! They were a part of my Collection that just naturally yellowed over time. They were not played with and had perfectly stiff limbs! And I had Surplus. Besides I think that the Hydrogen Peroxide Bleaching is a Gentle non-invasive process. It's no different to washing off some dirt from one of your kids toys. It's a handy tool in preserving certain Figures in my Collection. I like to keep my Imperial Troops as white as when I bought them when I was a kid. That's what always got me as a kid seeing All those Imperial Troopers, Storm, Snow Troopers and Biker Scouts- that they were all Amazingly White! I would see my Cousins or other Kids- their Imperials had Yellowed within Weeks of being opened and played with! Even at a Young Age I was Determined that that was never going to Happen to mine! Over the Years I've Endeavoured to Keep Everything in Mint Condition! The technique has even worked on a Twin Pod Cloud Car Pilot! I'm definitely on the other Branch of the Tree in terms of the Hydrogen Peroxide Process!

Eugene

I know this is an old topic but I wanted to share some of my experiences and knowledge on the peroxide treatment. First of the peroxide treatment does give a chemical reaction in the plastic, destroying the double bonds that have formed over time which make for the yellowing effect of the flame retardant in the plastic. As far as I understand it very unlikely that this will damage the plastic. But it will NOT stop the yellowing effect. So if the toys are stored in a way that they are exposed to UV, heat, moist, the yellowing will return. It does however reverse the yellowing has already occured. One thing to watch out for though is red paint and red plastics. Some of the red paint used on action figures and vehicles will turn orange or yellow when treated with hydrogen peroxide. Also some of the red plastics will fade. for example the arms on admiral ackbar will turn orange and some of the pink paint used on faces turns yellow.