How to bleach yellow armor back to white, anyone?

[GuntahKela]

I've had my HIPS TK armor for, about 8 years, now. I've been turning a blind eye to the yellowing parts, although I keep the armor inside a tub, in my closet. No light. I only get the armor out for when trooping. The odd thing about the yellowing is that my chest piece seems fine, but the back place has been the most affected. Same goes for my back waist belt and most edges. Since I'm going to restore a lot of the pieces, I figured I'd restore the white, too.

 

Has anyone dealt with this issue, and can recommend one of the many solutions found on the web? I read something about dipping the parts in a bucket of bleach and water. Maybe, there is a product that does this?

 

Pic added. You can see the yellowing on the backplate compared to the shoulder straps, which are vac-formed off the same material:

 

[JoeR]

The guy that owned the original ROTJ helmet before me used Brasso to whiten the helmet, not sure about the effects but it certainly got rid of the yellow!

[ObiHahn[TK]]

I'd say: repaint it or get a new set of armor...

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

paint is your friend here!

 

bleach on plastic? no way!

[Monoman527911]

You mite want to try this stuff out..---------

I'm using it on an R2 cooler restoration and have had great success. Be carefull though..after the mix is ready add the oxy and apply with a rag in a light coat then set in the sun all day..may take multiple treatings but it works

Its used in restoring old computers..may want to try a test spot first just encase

 

 

-Steve

Edited December 9, 2020 by gmrhodes13
link not working, removed gmrhodes13 2020

[GuntahKela]

On 10/24/2010 at 6:48 AM, Monoman527911 said:

You mite want to try this stuff out..----------

I'm using it on an R2 cooler restoration and have had great success. Be carefull though..after the mix is ready add the oxy and apply with a rag in a light coat then set in the sun all day..may take multiple treatings but it works

Its used in restoring old computers..may want to try a test spot first just encase

 

 

-Steve

 

Ah-HA! I knew I've heard of something like this. I saw some forum posts on how people are restoring old transformers toys with these sorts of bleaches. Will try this thing and let you all know how it went. This is going to be my own Mythbuster episode.

Edited December 9, 2020 by gmrhodes13
link not working, removed gmrhodes13 2020

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

hydrogen peroxide?

oxy clean?

 

and several other chemicals mixed together in a blender to form a paste.

 

and it's a homebrew mixture?

 

ok... if you do this to your armor, it might work fine on a computer case,

or a transformers toy.

 

but on armor that you're going to flex and wear?

 

the mixture would have to be quite large to do on armor... imagine the quantity needed to make that paste!

 

also, armor is much thinner than a computer case.

 

photos of the results would be interesting to see...

[riveting]

I've had some good results using diluted bleech on yellowing but only on small areas, nothing the size of a full kit. whatever you use Good luck & keep us posted

[Monoman527911]

the paste goes a very long way..one batch can be stretched to do a lot of surface. I personaly used the other variant they list on the page but heres some proof..after one application to the r2 cooler

(the coolers are quite large and one batch was plenty)

 

 

its hard to see but it starts to pull the yellow out and takes a few time to really get all of it out..the white lines in the yellow is where the chimical started working..after your done just wipe the residue off and theres no negative effects

 

also the r2 legs are wayyyy thinner than any armor out there..so I wouldnt worry about that..

the "Tezza's Arrowroot Variant Recipe" is the one I used..make sure you microwave it until its a thick paste and let it cool before adding the oxy

[GuntahKela]

A New hope:

 

Last night, I was wet-sanding my armor calfs and shins. They had some stains lighter fuel wouldn't remove, plus one shin got some deep scrapes from a fall I took when I tripped on a parked bike. It took 2 bikers to scoop me off the ground.

 

 

I wet-sanded the scrapes and buffed and polished the shin back to glossy. I'm fortunate to have a HIPS armor that is very, very thick. About 1/8" I also did the same with the yellowish edges. All it took was a wet-sanding job to remove them. Then, I though: what if the yellow is ALSO sitting on top of the white in my back plate and belt, just like it was seating in the edges I just wet-sanded back to white?

 

 

So, I did a test. I wet-sanded a spot of the back plate. What do you know? White underneath!

 

So, what I have to do is wet-sand the WHOLE back plate and buff/polish it back to gloss. Because of the back's details, I'm going to dread wet-sanding around the gear part and the 2 rectangles. Hopefully, wire wool will help. I'm glad I figured this out. I DIDN'T really want to paint it. Paint scratches, chips, gets dirty, scrapes and only gets worst when more paint is thrown to hide the damages.

 

I'm taking pics of the process. I though I was just going to fix-up the armor for Halloween weekend, but I'm going all out to actually RESTORE it. I'm undoing all the rivets to have better wet-sanding/polishing reach on all pieces. I'm very positive about the results. I will blog about my process once I'm done. Will post quick updates here, of course.

[BlueGrot]

I'm buffing my suit back to white by 1200 grit and wet 1200.