The “no sound “ issue on the RF modulator might be due to carrier frequency out of sync. One of those variable inductors may be broken or just out of adjustment. I remember having seen a very similar repair on a spectrum computer by a guy from England. To bad I can’t remember the name. Anyway he was using a spectrum analyser to see the various frequencies coming out of the RF modulator. So he dialled on those variable inductors until the sound carrier was back where it belonged.
I think Marina Hildebrand is correct. The Sony TV will be trying to lock on to signal and adjusting the carrier frequency but the frequency must be too far out. Love the videos.
I believe that would have been Mr "JoulesPerCoulomb", the most well-spoken ZX Speccy repairer on TH-cam. ;) And yep, the audio carrier is offset from the main video carrier (by about 6-8 MHz, I think?) Could just be some rust in a variable inductor that's throwing off the audio carrier freq a tad. Ideally, the ferrite slugs should be adjusted with a nonmetallic tool, but you can often use a jeweller's screwdriver if the slug turns freely, then keep removing the screwdriver in between tweaks. (since the metal screwdriver will probably also throw off the freq a bit.)
Yep, I agree that the audio carrier is just a bit too far off-freq for the TV's AFC to pick it up. I can't recall the exact video which had the audio carrier fault on, but it's a great channel, and worth checking out... th-cam.com/video/OAIhIPhYwYM/w-d-xo.html
I just realised something - the ferrite cores in the variable inductors are made of well, iron. I doubt the rust remover could had eaten the whole slug, but you never know. lol
This was a beautiful thing you've done. Is awesome to be reminded of this machine. Gettin misty, C64 was my first computer...so was pretty special to see this. And to hear Platoon again, wow! I hummed that (and many other C64 tunes) for decades later!
This C64C sure is a surviver. You can rightfully say that your machine did a ten year plus more survival training and survived even nasty ant attacks ;-)
Brilliant job. Well done mate! It is by far one of the best successful rescue/restoration missions recorded ever in my opinion. I love C64c and I filled with joy seeing one back to life.
i love fixing older pc's and turning them into cheap gaming rigs.a lot of 2nd and 3rd gen i7's can play games with little mods and with the 1050ti and a tfx psn i turned a dt dell into a gaming tower
As a 58 year old, this brings back many happy memories of my youth. The sounds and the graphics of the C64 have never left me. Thank you for a great video.
Amazing stuff. I also see you have a video that fixes the RF audio. I'm very impressed how this Commodore survived. I think this represents the C64 community. No matter what, we are still going strong. Thanks for sharing.
That's just spectacular. Honestly, I love the little wabi-sabi of having the different colored keys. So great to see these old machines given love, especially ones that have been left ignored for so long.
I am by no means a Commodore person, but i stumbled across this video and was completely compelled to watch both videos on this C64. I find it great to see any old computer that's a survivor regardless of brand. Maybe I'll even pick up a C64 someday if I come across one :)
It is amazing to see that the majority, if not all, of the traces are fine. The PCBs from Commodore really show quality and your video is a testament of that.
Thanks, great video! As a viewer I could feel your love to detail and passion for this project. Very inspiring. I'll also look more for findings like this. There's probably still a quite huge numbers of classic commodore computers out there, rotting and forgotten. Greetings from Germany! :-)
@@agypsycircle An interesting variation on this kind of old computer is 10 POKE(INT(RND*63000)), INT(RND*255) 20 GOTO 10 This shoves a random number in a random memory location. Various random things will appear on the screen and random noises may be heard. Eventually you may overwrite a sensitive system register or variable and the whole thing crashes in a variety of interesting ways. I used to crash computers on display in retail stores like this in the early days of home computing!
Nice! Amazing that this still works the way it does. That loader on Platoon was one of the first sid tunes i ever heard as I got the Hollywood pack C64C for my 15th birthday. It brought back fond memories of reading ZZAP 64 while I waited for it to load. Really enjoyed both parts of this series, watching you restore this classic computer.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Yeah the load times were a pain back then but I was kinda used to them. Although I was jealous of friends who had disk drives that could load the games a lot faster. The Ocean loaders had some of the best and most memorable music of them all on C64. i still listen to a lot of them and other SID tunes today as they bring back so many memories.
I picked a TV/VCR 13" from the rain over two days of that system. I felt so sorry for it and I had no CRT/TV I took it home and after 2 months indoors and many times changing side to rest on it worked! It did have game/video jacks and my C64c worked on RF and video in! Now I have a nice retro 100% system. That was fun!
My friend gave me his 42 inch LG Plasma - it sat on his balcony, not really protected from the elements over the winter. A light dusting and it works perfectly. No burn in either. I just repaired a free 50 inch LED so I think I'll give the plasma to my dad.
Kinda like the multi-coloured key pattern on the keyboard. Looks neat. I also remember many different Ocean games having that stuttering when you scrolled left, instead of right. Nice video all around. Looks great on the outside, and did pretty good with the insides, given its original condition.
Very interesting project. This is quite the restoration you've done here. It's impressive how resilient some of this old hardware can be. You've got a new sub in me, I hope there are many more cool restoration/mod videos for me to watch on this channel.
It is a UK game written for the UK market. Ocean Software were based in Manchester, England - so it is a PAL game, so it may be related to any glitches in the game on an NTSC system, however, your VIC-II chip may not be 100% after being out in the wilderness for years.. it may be best to run a diag cartridge or keep testing with other games to test for more glitches..
The glitching is definitely due to it being a PAL region game played on an NTSC machine. When I was a kid I visited my family in Germany and my cousin made me of a copy of Platoon. When I got home and played it on my NTSC C64, I got the same glitching you got :). Also the music is sped up 20% due to 60hz vs 50
I just restored a Hayes 1200 smartmodem that was in a leaky shed. Muriatic acid is what i used to remove corrosion from the sircuit board, the aluminum case is anodized and cleaned up easily. With steel parts I have used muriatic acid to clean it or used electrolysis. As protection I like to zinc plate the parts to prevent rust. It is amazing that the Commodore was repairable despite being left outside to rot.
Excellent work restoring that poor machine :) First order of business for me when ever I get a board with unknown status is to remove the SID and VIC and test these in a known good machine and then I measure the voltages going to these chips on the unknown status board. This way I don't run the risk of frying good chips due to possible shorts or other over voltage situations. When I know the voltages are ok I put in the VIC only to test the machine and if it checks out ok then I put the SID in as well.. In fact, I do most of the work on the MoBos without the SID on the board because it sucks to kill a SID.. Don't ask me how I know :) Any how, I really like these videos so you just got another subscriber :)
Regardless to whether it lasts another twenty years or not... this Commodore 64 came back from the dead and thanks to your upload will be remembered for as long as there’s TH-cam. Good job, I enjoyed watching this 👍
Fantastic job! I'd love to try restoring old tech like this, problem is it's either harder to find one that nobody wants or hard to repair the hardest ones nobody wants - especially for a beginner. But I'm not giving up yet!
I would have been able to give you a complete keyboard from a commodore 64 that had a cracked motherboard that got stepped on by me when I was drunk trying to fix it. But the keyboard was good, all the IC chips we're good including the ones that I had to desolder from the board. I could have even supplied people with actual electronic components that I desoldered from the motherboard that was completely split down the middle. Would be nice to see that restored Commodore with a computer keyboard that was original. Bravo on your restoration dude Bravo.
I have tears in my eyes... this thing is what made me the man I am today. There is no way to express my admiration and respect for the people who engineered it, and the legends who wrote the games for it. It was the perfect balance point, so very much so that our civilization can be expressed in terms of it. Like, bc now means before commodore.
Really cool story. Nice to see how reliable the motherboard/keyboard are. Funny thing --I kept my own old C-64 which still works, but stopped using it back in 88 after the disk drive failed. I never did obtain another disk drive...just moved on to an Amiga & never looked back.:) Now I know that my C-64 probably still works...I just need a disk drive if I ever want to use it again. :)
It is not the best aproach for removing rust. Mine is not eighter. Though I removed a slightly bigger stain on my a500 rev.3 bottom case. I used dishwashing soap. The kind you use for doing dishes by hand. A lot of luke warm water, and some standard rubbing alcohol. Submerged it, and scrubbed, using a soft nylon sponge. For the hard parts, I used the hard side of the sponge. And for the extremely tricky parts, I had to gently scrape with a short kitchen knife that has a really stiff blade. Made shure I only scraped on the rust it self. The complete process took me some 4 hours of straight work. I managed to remove nearly 100 percent rust. I think 1 or 2 percent is left.
Ha! I have that exact same Harbor Freight screwdriver over at the work table where I've been taking apart and restoring C64s for the past several months. Outstanding work on this C64...it looks damn near good as new.
Fantastic seeing you resurrect that old gal. Some people might ask why you put so much time into bringing her back, but those people didn't grow up in the 80s.
Hi, best stuff to remove thick crusted rust is oxalic acid, usually comes in a sort of powder form, you just mix some with hot water, soak in the part you want to clean, I used it a lot in the past, I used to mine quartz crystals and they at times come out of the ground with a very thick iron oxide on them. Oxalic acide is what I used to completely remove the crust. I've used it on other stuff and it works well and did not damage other material like plastic, glass and metals.
I'm just guessing??? On the RF modulator there might be an adjustment for video & a adjustment for sound. I believe the one for sound is not adjusted right anymore. Or its resistance has changed. But I don't know how an RF modulator works lol
I was just watching the C64 video where you cleaned it out and made it work, now to watch this. Was thinking ''he should restore it that would be awesome'' . Nice follow up brahh
That should be donated to a microcomputer museum. It's a totally unique C64 which stubbornly refused to die despite it's pitiful neglect. Great work. I even love the black keys, they make it stand out at a glance from any other C64 and make it instantly recognisable as the 'ant colony C64'. It wouldn't suprise me to hear that some C64 owners may end up customising their own machines to look like this one. I wouldn't replace them. Thanks for sharing.
I remember way back, that to own a commodore 64 was very very cool. Back to the present, I think that to bring one back from the dead as you have, is also very very cool!!!
Great restoration, this is the kind of thing i like to do but get very little appreciation for. Also, I've used evaporust in several applications. That stuff is very well made and works wonderfully. I think the plastic of the case itself may have been stained and held onto the color, also degraded and become more porous giving it a rough texture. Works well on other forms of oxidation also. (Copper and aluminum) however I cannot speak on long term side effects, or depth of corrosion, my uses were only minor surface application. The yellowing of the solder points is due to the chemicals in the solvent reacting with lead, a soft scrubbing with a soft bristle brush with a liquid/gel type flux may have helped with that.
I wouldn't have imagined a C64 in such a state could ever work again. Excellent work! It occurs to me that if you replace the remaining white numeric keys on the top row with the brown keys it will look relatively normal, I realize I am a bit late to the party... fashionably late.
@Adrian Black For the rust on the inner case you actually have to use Hydrochloric Acid (HCl). 20% should be sufficient, but 37% (the maximum concentration) is much better. Not sure how you can get it in the US, but it will not touch the plastic at all. Be careful about using it on other metal parts, you will have to rinse thoroughly with water afterwards if that happens. For cleaning the main board, if the HCl is used on some sort of swipe pad or brush to briefly swipe over the board, you could theoretically also clean that, however that will corrode the open conductors a bit, so it is a bit risky. Maybe with the board standing vertically, a brush, working from top to bottom, using the least concentrated acid possible, plus frequently rinsing the treated areas. If there are conducting lines nearly completely corroded, than thats a total no-go. This is only advisable if the conducting lines are more or less intact.
All of the machinists restoring old Iron machines use evaporust successfully, and you’re correct to use a plastic scouring pad, that’s what we use, (brown colored scotch bright sanding pad, then clean the evaporust off, then go to oils, like WD-40 to get the metal to its natural color, if not a little shinier in places, but it works on machine tools, I, don’t know about plastics.
13:25 The problem of the lack of sound seems to come from the RF module. It is likely that there is a hidden capacitor with leaks/rust under the variable inductor or near the variable inductor. I love your job ^_^ Best regards from Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Evergreen/Pine needles create a form of acid when wet. Sure that was more punch for the "soup" this C64 had to survive in over the years. Great Restoration!
I'm thinking the Commodore was Jedi Mind controlling you to resurrect it. After all that work, it is a special machine well worth keeping. Thank you for keeping the spirit of the Commodore 64 alive!
In the future I use millstone remover for rust and I’ve never had it affect plastic or rubber but it does need to be used in a ventilated area, you can get it at tractor supply
Wow, that's a night and day difference. I agree that it would have been cool to mount it in an acrylic case, but restoring it to original condition is also cool. And I like the random brown keys too -- it just adds to the character of this trooper.
This is awesome and very satisfying to watch! I wanted so badly to fix my old Commodore 128D which failed sometime late in the 90s (european model, plastic casing. I opened it out of curiosity as a dumb teenager, took a peak, closed it, and it didn't work.). It was stored in the attic (or least so i thought) under not so good conditions. I went looking for it through all the junk last christmas, but I couldn't find it:( I found the box, but no computer, and I have absolutely no recollection of ever getting rid of it! It actually made me really upset.
maybe there could be some FeO that got into the coil form in the modulator. It sounds like it's just off frequency. It might be possible to play with the tuning a bit, and possibly clean out the coil if it has any residual FeO. Iron and brass will detune a coil, and that's how they are made variable (using ferrite slugs or brass slugs).
My first three computers were Commodore. A VIC 20, then a C64 which died after a day. But my grandmother bought me a 128 to replace it! Used that until 1990 when I got my first PC, a 286 12Mhz.
I definitely got the vibes of the film 'Batteries Not Included' with these two videos. You don’t have any funny little aliens living on your roof do you? Hand Tools Rescue swears by Evaporust, but he’s working with 100 year old metal tools. A brilliant couple of videos, very well done indeed.
Citric acid powder mixed with wallpaper paste is good for rust removal on metal, maybe it works on plastic too? (Or maybe it would dissolve it, I'm hardly an expert.)
Really is the stuff of legends. Fantastic resto mate! I'd personally love to see sub logics flight simulator running on it. You know it's complete when it runs a flight simulator!
This was a nice restoration!! I have 2 of this model myself(eu version) with the cassette cartridge. Whats de difference between the round c64 and this one, is it just the manufacturer date or what??
I had a commodore 64 with a datassette unit i think it was called (a standard audio tape cassette with software on it). I learnt my first piece of code on it....The best part was it also had a white t-shirt in it...loved it when i was 5.....aaah those were the days
no computer ever wanted to live as badly as this commodore
And that's how the idea for Wall-E was born
Computer literally too angry to die
If this c64 could talk it would say, "Yeah, I have been in a coma for years, I have some scars, I have some artificial parts...but I am ALIVE again!"
I believe nobody computer or otherwise wanted to live as badly as this commodore
Number 5...is alive!
The “no sound “ issue on the RF modulator might be due to carrier frequency out of sync. One of those variable inductors may be broken or just out of adjustment. I remember having seen a very similar repair on a spectrum computer by a guy from England. To bad I can’t remember the name. Anyway he was using a spectrum analyser to see the various frequencies coming out of the RF modulator. So he dialled on those variable inductors until the sound carrier was back where it belonged.
I think Marina Hildebrand is correct. The Sony TV will be trying to lock on to signal and adjusting the carrier frequency but the frequency must be too far out. Love the videos.
I believe that would have been Mr "JoulesPerCoulomb", the most well-spoken ZX Speccy repairer on TH-cam. ;)
And yep, the audio carrier is offset from the main video carrier (by about 6-8 MHz, I think?)
Could just be some rust in a variable inductor that's throwing off the audio carrier freq a tad.
Ideally, the ferrite slugs should be adjusted with a nonmetallic tool, but you can often use a jeweller's screwdriver if the slug turns freely, then keep removing the screwdriver in between tweaks.
(since the metal screwdriver will probably also throw off the freq a bit.)
Yep, I agree that the audio carrier is just a bit too far off-freq for the TV's AFC to pick it up.
I can't recall the exact video which had the audio carrier fault on, but it's a great channel, and worth checking out...
th-cam.com/video/OAIhIPhYwYM/w-d-xo.html
I just realised something - the ferrite cores in the variable inductors are made of well, iron.
I doubt the rust remover could had eaten the whole slug, but you never know. lol
@ElectronAsh correct, that’s him. Digging through my memory I found the video: th-cam.com/video/GMKGIP5Yuqs/w-d-xo.html
At first I was bummed to see it in a non-clear case... but then I learned that's the original casing, wow! Looks so good. Nice save!
This was a beautiful thing you've done. Is awesome to be reminded of this machine. Gettin misty, C64 was my first computer...so was pretty special to see this. And to hear Platoon again, wow! I hummed that (and many other C64 tunes) for decades later!
This C64C sure is a surviver. You can rightfully say that your machine did a ten year plus more survival training and survived even nasty ant attacks ;-)
Maybe the ants just did a good job on repairing it .. yet they got it stolen when they just finished :D
That passion and desire to make such a dirty piece of vintage hardware working again deserves all the thumbs pointing up that it can get!
So does your comment
He didn’t need to repair the board at all though. Just clean it!
The color mix of those keys looks like art. I actually love it. It looks like it was meant to be that way.
Yes! The keys are beautiful this way
Brilliant job. Well done mate! It is by far one of the best successful rescue/restoration missions recorded ever in my opinion. I love C64c and I filled with joy seeing one back to life.
I love seeing someone take trash and turn it to gold. I do the same thing on my channel. Keep it up!
Thats funny i gotta pan mine..
i love fixing older pc's and turning them into cheap gaming rigs.a lot of 2nd and 3rd gen i7's can play games with little mods and with the 1050ti and a tfx psn i turned a dt dell into a gaming tower
That is what I call a debugged computer!
It's sad that the best computer bug joke in all of humanity's history will be seen by so relatively few.
As a 58 year old, this brings back many happy memories of my youth. The sounds and the graphics of the C64 have never left me. Thank you for a great video.
This computer needs to have you demo Ant Attack on it.
Hopefully it won't trigger the computer's PTSD
Amazing stuff. I also see you have a video that fixes the RF audio. I'm very impressed how this Commodore survived. I think this represents the C64 community. No matter what, we are still going strong. Thanks for sharing.
That's just spectacular. Honestly, I love the little wabi-sabi of having the different colored keys. So great to see these old machines given love, especially ones that have been left ignored for so long.
I am by no means a Commodore person, but i stumbled across this video and was completely compelled to watch both videos on this C64. I find it great to see any old computer that's a survivor regardless of brand. Maybe I'll even pick up a C64 someday if I come across one :)
I like the clear case idea. That's amazing that this is still working so well and how you made it look.
Honest thanks for both parts of this incredible story, Adrian! There's so much to be enjoyed from this.
Wow! It is incredible that computer still works after enduring the elements outside for so many years. Great job on the restoration!
It is amazing to see that the majority, if not all, of the traces are fine. The PCBs from Commodore really show quality and your video is a testament of that.
Thanks, great video! As a viewer I could feel your love to detail and passion for this project. Very inspiring. I'll also look more for findings like this. There's probably still a quite huge numbers of classic commodore computers out there, rotting and forgotten.
Greetings from Germany! :-)
My mom used to program quick little games for me to play with a C64! Love how you resurrected this one!
What sort of games did she program.
10 PRINT "HELLO"
20 GOTO 10
Was that the kind of thing which kept you entertained?
Those were a few of them lol! She’d add her own twist tho, HELLO actually said I LOVE YOU!
@@agypsycircle An interesting variation on this kind of old computer is
10 POKE(INT(RND*63000)), INT(RND*255)
20 GOTO 10
This shoves a random number in a random memory location.
Various random things will appear on the screen and random noises may be heard. Eventually you may overwrite a sensitive system register or variable and the whole thing crashes in a variety of interesting ways.
I used to crash computers on display in retail stores like this in the early days of home computing!
Nice! Amazing that this still works the way it does. That loader on Platoon was one of the first sid tunes i ever heard as I got the Hollywood pack C64C for my 15th birthday. It brought back fond memories of reading ZZAP 64 while I waited for it to load. Really enjoyed both parts of this series, watching you restore this classic computer.
@@adriansdigitalbasement Yeah the load times were a pain back then but I was kinda used to them. Although I was jealous of friends who had disk drives that could load the games a lot faster. The Ocean loaders had some of the best and most memorable music of them all on C64. i still listen to a lot of them and other SID tunes today as they bring back so many memories.
That computer is over 30 years old!! I have a bread box C-64 and C128 and both work fine. When taken care of they will last forever!!!!! Great video
I picked a TV/VCR 13" from the rain over two days of that system. I felt so sorry for it and I had no CRT/TV I took it home and after 2 months indoors and many times changing side to rest on it worked! It did have game/video jacks and my C64c worked on RF and video in! Now I have a nice retro 100% system. That was fun!
My friend gave me his 42 inch LG Plasma - it sat on his balcony, not really protected from the elements over the winter.
A light dusting and it works perfectly. No burn in either.
I just repaired a free 50 inch LED so I think I'll give the plasma to my dad.
That is a great story! Thanks for the share!
Ah Commodore, where I started. Had a Vic 20, then a C-64. All the games, and the BBSes. So many memories.
Kinda like the multi-coloured key pattern on the keyboard. Looks neat. I also remember many different Ocean games having that stuttering when you scrolled left, instead of right.
Nice video all around. Looks great on the outside, and did pretty good with the insides, given its original condition.
Very interesting project. This is quite the restoration you've done here. It's impressive how resilient some of this old hardware can be. You've got a new sub in me, I hope there are many more cool restoration/mod videos for me to watch on this channel.
It is a UK game written for the UK market. Ocean Software were based in Manchester, England - so it is a PAL game, so it may be related to any glitches in the game on an NTSC system, however, your VIC-II chip may not be 100% after being out in the wilderness for years.. it may be best to run a diag cartridge or keep testing with other games to test for more glitches..
The game doesn't glitch on my C64.. I have just tested the game.
The glitching is definitely due to it being a PAL region game played on an NTSC machine.
When I was a kid I visited my family in Germany and my cousin made me of a copy of Platoon. When I got home and played it on my NTSC C64, I got the same glitching you got :). Also the music is sped up 20% due to 60hz vs 50
I just restored a Hayes 1200 smartmodem that was in a leaky shed. Muriatic acid is what i used to remove corrosion from the sircuit board, the aluminum case is anodized and cleaned up easily. With steel parts I have used muriatic acid to clean it or used electrolysis. As protection I like to zinc plate the parts to prevent rust. It is amazing that the Commodore was repairable despite being left outside to rot.
Somebody have to make a song named "The Legend of the Left for Dead Commodore 64C"
Excellent work restoring that poor machine :)
First order of business for me when ever I get a board with unknown status is to remove the SID and VIC and test these in a known good machine and then I measure the voltages going to these chips on the unknown status board. This way I don't run the risk of frying good chips due to possible shorts or other over voltage situations. When I know the voltages are ok I put in the VIC only to test the machine and if it checks out ok then I put the SID in as well.. In fact, I do most of the work on the MoBos without the SID on the board because it sucks to kill a SID.. Don't ask me how I know :)
Any how, I really like these videos so you just got another subscriber :)
Regardless to whether it lasts another twenty years or not... this Commodore 64 came back from the dead and thanks to your upload will be remembered for as long as there’s TH-cam. Good job, I enjoyed watching this 👍
Yes- until Google's server farms revert to nature and ants inherit the racks. It was a good run though.
Fantastic job! I'd love to try restoring old tech like this, problem is it's either harder to find one that nobody wants or hard to repair the hardest ones nobody wants - especially for a beginner. But I'm not giving up yet!
It was a great follow up video to watch. Please keep us updated on this project.
Only just found this video, incredible that this C64 wants to Live! Plus - That intro music is amazing!
That rust on bottom case looks really like a face, so beautiful xP
I left a comment on your last video saying you should do exactly this, this is awesome.
I would have been able to give you a complete keyboard from a commodore 64 that had a cracked motherboard that got stepped on by me when I was drunk trying to fix it. But the keyboard was good, all the IC chips we're good including the ones that I had to desolder from the board. I could have even supplied people with actual electronic components that I desoldered from the motherboard that was completely split down the middle.
Would be nice to see that restored Commodore with a computer keyboard that was original.
Bravo on your restoration dude Bravo.
I have tears in my eyes... this thing is what made me the man I am today. There is no way to express my admiration and respect for the people who engineered it, and the legends who wrote the games for it. It was the perfect balance point, so very much so that our civilization can be expressed in terms of it. Like, bc now means before commodore.
Oh man! That set up is killing me! I can't even tell you, how much I want your rig!
Really cool story. Nice to see how reliable the motherboard/keyboard are. Funny thing --I kept my own old C-64 which still works, but stopped using it back in 88 after the disk drive failed. I never did obtain another disk drive...just moved on to an Amiga & never looked back.:) Now I know that my C-64 probably still works...I just need a disk drive if I ever want to use it again. :)
Was great to see this 64 in action at PDX Commodore Computer Club 2/1/2019, (and meeting you of course Adrian). This little computer is quite a champ.
It is not the best aproach for removing rust. Mine is not eighter. Though I removed a slightly bigger stain on my a500 rev.3 bottom case. I used dishwashing soap. The kind you use for doing dishes by hand. A lot of luke warm water, and some standard rubbing alcohol. Submerged it, and scrubbed, using a soft nylon sponge. For the hard parts, I used the hard side of the sponge. And for the extremely tricky parts, I had to gently scrape with a short kitchen knife that has a really stiff blade. Made shure I only scraped on the rust it self. The complete process took me some 4 hours of straight work. I managed to remove nearly 100 percent rust. I think 1 or 2 percent is left.
Ha! I have that exact same Harbor Freight screwdriver over at the work table where I've been taking apart and restoring C64s for the past several months. Outstanding work on this C64...it looks damn near good as new.
Fantastic seeing you resurrect that old gal. Some people might ask why you put so much time into bringing her back, but those people didn't grow up in the 80s.
You’ve done an awesome job! Takes so much patience to do what you do. Thanks for sharing!!
I congratulate you for this amazing job!.
I learned to code in one of these machines :).
Hi, best stuff to remove thick crusted rust is oxalic acid, usually comes in a sort of powder form, you just mix some with hot water, soak in the part you want to clean, I used it a lot in the past, I used to mine quartz crystals and they at times come out of the ground with a very thick iron oxide on them. Oxalic acide is what I used to completely remove the crust. I've used it on other stuff and it works well and did not damage other material like plastic, glass and metals.
I'm just guessing??? On the RF modulator there might be an adjustment for video & a adjustment for sound. I believe the one for sound is not adjusted right anymore. Or its resistance has changed. But I don't know how an RF modulator works lol
I was just watching the C64 video where you cleaned it out and made it work, now to watch this. Was thinking ''he should restore it that would be awesome'' . Nice follow up brahh
That should be donated to a microcomputer museum. It's a totally unique C64 which stubbornly refused to die despite it's pitiful neglect. Great work. I even love the black keys, they make it stand out at a glance from any other C64 and make it instantly recognisable as the 'ant colony C64'. It wouldn't suprise me to hear that some C64 owners may end up customising their own machines to look like this one. I wouldn't replace them. Thanks for sharing.
Great job! Is very rewarding to see a survivor C64C getting so much love to be in service again. Definitely inspiring... thanks ...
Above and beyond the call of duty. Wonderful work. Thanks for saving an awesome machine.
I remember way back, that to own a commodore 64 was very very cool. Back to the present, I think that to bring one back from the dead as you have, is also very very cool!!!
Great restoration, this is the kind of thing i like to do but get very little appreciation for.
Also, I've used evaporust in several applications. That stuff is very well made and works wonderfully.
I think the plastic of the case itself may have been stained and held onto the color, also degraded and become more porous giving it a rough texture.
Works well on other forms of oxidation also. (Copper and aluminum) however I cannot speak on long term side effects, or depth of corrosion, my uses were only minor surface application.
The yellowing of the solder points is due to the chemicals in the solvent reacting with lead, a soft scrubbing with a soft bristle brush with a liquid/gel type flux may have helped with that.
I really like the different colour keys. They are like battle scars :) absolutely love that this is still working!
Love those key colours..Nice to see another commodore brought to life.
This is just unbelievable! Very nice work!
I'm completly impressed by your work!
bless ya 4 crediting the composers and name the tunes 2!
Great choice to leave some motherboard "patina" as it preserves the unique history of this Commodore 64.
Love the music sounds awesome like almost every 80's doctor who episode or the bards tale
You put so much love into this project! Kudos
Nice job! It is heartening that these computers will be around long after I am gone.
I wouldn't have imagined a C64 in such a state could ever work again. Excellent work!
It occurs to me that if you replace the remaining white numeric keys on the top row with the brown keys it will look relatively normal, I realize I am a bit late to the party... fashionably late.
Good work Adrian, you've done that machine a great service. Im quite impressed with your efforts
Awesome job, the keyboard`s fine I think as this c64 has really been through the wars it's almost like tattoos or scars of its past, cool.
Nice Restoration for historical demonstrations. I remember those early systems frustrating me, they were so hard to work with.
@Adrian Black For the rust on the inner case you actually have to use Hydrochloric Acid (HCl). 20% should be sufficient, but 37% (the maximum concentration) is much better. Not sure how you can get it in the US, but it will not touch the plastic at all. Be careful about using it on other metal parts, you will have to rinse thoroughly with water afterwards if that happens.
For cleaning the main board, if the HCl is used on some sort of swipe pad or brush to briefly swipe over the board, you could theoretically also clean that, however that will corrode the open conductors a bit, so it is a bit risky. Maybe with the board standing vertically, a brush, working from top to bottom, using the least concentrated acid possible, plus frequently rinsing the treated areas. If there are conducting lines nearly completely corroded, than thats a total no-go. This is only advisable if the conducting lines are more or less intact.
War stories on C64 wounded but not dead!!!!!
All of the machinists restoring old Iron machines use evaporust successfully, and you’re correct to use a plastic scouring pad, that’s what we use, (brown colored scotch bright sanding pad, then clean the evaporust off, then go to oils, like WD-40 to get the metal to its natural color, if not a little shinier in places, but it works on machine tools, I, don’t know about plastics.
That cable you used from the phone to the datasets looks like the one that came with the NextThingCO chip computers.
13:25 The problem of the lack of sound seems to come from the RF module. It is likely that there is a hidden capacitor with leaks/rust under the variable inductor or near the variable inductor. I love your job ^_^ Best regards from Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Unbelievable!
Incredible job done, Sir! 💪🏾🙏🏽
This makes me so happy. This thing wanted to live so much.
Evergreen/Pine needles create a form of acid when wet. Sure that was more punch for the "soup" this C64 had to survive in over the years. Great Restoration!
I wonder if a cassette adapter (like one would use in a car) would work, just as well, on the Datasette?
Truly awesome seeing this great machine working again.
I'm thinking the Commodore was Jedi Mind controlling you to resurrect it. After all that work, it is a special machine well worth keeping. Thank you for keeping the spirit of the Commodore 64 alive!
Thumbs up! You are a true HERO, resurrecting this long time gone C=64 from death!
Wow C64c in s-video on crt monitor look perfectly nice!
nice! amazing work! was cool to see you get that old commy working again and looking good as well. :)
Awesome restoration dude, you’re very impressive at this.
In the future I use millstone remover for rust and I’ve never had it affect plastic or rubber but it does need to be used in a ventilated area, you can get it at tractor supply
Wow, that's a night and day difference. I agree that it would have been cool to mount it in an acrylic case, but restoring it to original condition is also cool. And I like the random brown keys too -- it just adds to the character of this trooper.
This is awesome and very satisfying to watch! I wanted so badly to fix my old Commodore 128D which failed sometime late in the 90s (european model, plastic casing. I opened it out of curiosity as a dumb teenager, took a peak, closed it, and it didn't work.). It was stored in the attic (or least so i thought) under not so good conditions. I went looking for it through all the junk last christmas, but I couldn't find it:( I found the box, but no computer, and I have absolutely no recollection of ever getting rid of it! It actually made me really upset.
Most likely suspects: Our parents, when we were out of town:(
maybe there could be some FeO that got into the coil form in the modulator. It sounds like it's just off frequency. It might be possible to play with the tuning a bit, and possibly clean out the coil if it has any residual FeO. Iron and brass will detune a coil, and that's how they are made variable (using ferrite slugs or brass slugs).
My first three computers were Commodore. A VIC 20, then a C64 which died after a day. But my grandmother bought me a 128 to replace it! Used that until 1990 when I got my first PC, a 286 12Mhz.
Oh, to listen to the beautiful SID chip... music to my ears!
You can use a plastic razor scraper to try to get rid of the rust on the case. Since it's plastic, it probably won't damage the case.
I definitely got the vibes of the film 'Batteries Not Included' with these two videos. You don’t have any funny little aliens living on your roof do you? Hand Tools Rescue swears by Evaporust, but he’s working with 100 year old metal tools. A brilliant couple of videos, very well done indeed.
Great video ! Love the C 64. So many great memories
Citric acid powder mixed with wallpaper paste is good for rust removal on metal, maybe it works on plastic too? (Or maybe it would dissolve it, I'm hardly an expert.)
Really is the stuff of legends. Fantastic resto mate! I'd personally love to see sub logics flight simulator running on it. You know it's complete when it runs a flight simulator!
Evaporust is made for getting that off of steel parts. It's not surprising that it didn't affect rust staining embedded in plastic.
There are SMD parts soldered inside the RF modulator. That surprised me quite a bit. I thought at this time all they had were through hole components?
@Adrian's Digital Basement Nice video. Can you post a link to the Commodore datasette mod you mentioned in the video? I couldn't find it.
This was a nice restoration!! I have 2 of this model myself(eu version) with the cassette cartridge. Whats de difference between the round c64 and this one, is it just the manufacturer date or what??
Thank you for your nice videos. Did you ever consider getting your hands on Amiga 500 machines ? Or maybe you did already ...
I had a commodore 64 with a datassette unit i think it was called (a standard audio tape cassette with software on it). I learnt my first piece of code on it....The best part was it also had a white t-shirt in it...loved it when i was 5.....aaah those were the days