RF Shielding, what do you do with yours?

[MadMartigan]

My pleasure. Hope it helps bring a few back to life. 

[big F]

One of my clears was all yellow like that, it was an eBay purchase, so I thought it was a contender for paint.  When it arrived a soak in a warm bowl of fabric cleaner, bit of a scrub and a dry in the sun and as good as new.

I can only assume the yellowness was down to  dust accumulation mixed with a bit of tobacco tar and teenaged bedroom.

Has me wondering how many of my standard green/black consoles are actually dirty without looking that way.

usually when they arrive they get opened to pull the clock cap and a general check over then into the cupboard for another day.  When I bring them into service is the only real time they get a clean.

Phat 360’s are easy if they look dirty, then they are, often as dirty on the inside as out.

[sixspeed]

@MadMartigan I’ll order the concentrate spray and give it a try

[Bowlsnapper]

It is truly amazing what dish soap does to Xbox shell parts,,, I use a dish brush and a paintbrush and it gets everything.

[amak79]

On 6/21/2023 at 11:16 AM, Bowlsnapper said:

Heh, yeah. Just wanted to make it look new.

Lol, crispy. Nice.

Can you please show how the painted RF shield looks with the case opened? I have a Crystal Xbox with a rusted RF shield that needs to be painted, but I'm not sure which paint to use. I would like it to look as close as possible to the original.

[Bowlsnapper]

5 hours ago, amak79 said:

Can you please show how the painted RF shield looks with the case opened? I have a Crystal Xbox with a rusted RF shield that needs to be painted, but I'm not sure which paint to use. I would like it to look as close as possible to the original.

I don't have one on hand, but I use rust-oleum Metallic Finish. A little goes a long way. Too much and you risk ending up with rippling or a texture instead. Just enough to coat what you are masking and nothing more. With the casing over it, it should obscure any imperfections in the coating if you needed a bit extra to cover some bad corrosion. Sanding beforehand is always advised so you don't have to use extra to cover bumpy rust spots. Very shiny!

Also useful for internal lighting if used underneath the HDD shelf/mount and DVD-ROM drive.

[FrostyMaGee]

1 minute ago, Bowlsnapper said:

I don't have one on hand, but I use rust-oleum Metallic Finish. A little goes a long way. Too much and you risk ending up with rippling or a texture instead. Just enough to coat what you are masking and nothing more. With the casing over it, it should obscure any imperfections in the coating if you needed a bit extra to cover some bad corrosion. Sanding beforehand is always advised so you don't have to use extra to cover bumpy rust spots. Very shiny!

Also useful for internal lighting if used underneath the HDD shelf/mount and DVD-ROM drive.

I would imagine rustoleum works pretty well on it. I’ve never done anything but clean them. Still if you had your own mix that was like that with any color you’d be great I guess. Especially on clear cases for look but on others just for retention. 

[nikeymikey]

12 hours ago, amak79 said:

Can you please show how the painted RF shield looks with the case opened? I have a Crystal Xbox with a rusted RF shield that needs to be painted, but I'm not sure which paint to use. I would like it to look as close as possible to the original.

I've used Jenolite Directorust on Xbox RF Shields and for a few other consoles too. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08MB1BS1C/ref=twister_B08V1FS3FK?th=1

I still have the Canary Yellow example from the first post. I can crack it open and show you the inside later on

They also do a nice silver that does well as a straight up rust cover up job. 

 

[MadMartigan]

20 hours ago, amak79 said:

Can you please show how the painted RF shield looks with the case opened? I have a Crystal Xbox with a rusted RF shield that needs to be painted, but I'm not sure which paint to use. I would like it to look as close as possible to the original.

Be sure to wet-sand beforehand or apply a good primer coat for metal. 
 

https://imgur.com/a/lbqAUnO

[amak79]

10 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

I've used Jenolite Directorust on Xbox RF Shields and for a few other consoles too. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08MB1BS1C/ref=twister_B08V1FS3FK?th=1

I still have the Canary Yellow example from the first post. I can crack it open and show you the inside later on

They also do a nice silver that does well as a straight up rust cover up job. 

 

The Canary Yellow looks very nice, but I will go with silver or chrome to try and match the original. I think silver is too flat and chrome too shiny, but it's as close as I can get it.

There is a metal polishing/chroming place near me so I may bring it in to get a quote. I don't except it to be cheap.

2 hours ago, MadMartigan said:

Be sure to wet-sand beforehand or apply a good primer coat for metal. 
 

https://imgur.com/a/lbqAUnO

Thanks for the tip.

[MadMartigan]

29 minutes ago, amak79 said:

The Canary Yellow looks very nice, but I will go with silver or chrome to try and match the original. I think silver is too flat and chrome too shiny, but it's as close as I can get it.

There is a metal polishing/chroming place near me so I may bring it in to get a quote. I don't except it to be cheap.

If you’ve never used chrome or silver spray paint, be very careful not to overcoat it. Highly recommend doing very light coats at 12” or more away from the surface. You’ll regret it if not done slowly and several light coats. Otherwise it will most likely get the orange peel crackling and you’ll have to sand it down and start again. Silver and chrome are the worst 

[amak79]

I've used Rust-Oleum white and black metallic spray paint before. I did several light coats and it turned out very nice. I will be extra careful with silver/chrome.

[MadMartigan]

Act like you’ve never held a spray can in your life, and give a piece of scrap a good coat at a close distance. You will almost immediately see the bad results with that stuff. If you can’t tell, I had to learn the hard way. Sanding an Xbox down multiple times is a major pain so I’m just trying to save you the headache. I’ve had enough frustration for the both of us. 
 

Edit before even posting: I’m lazy and don’t want to correct that paragraph. It immediately hit me that I only sanded it down once. Had my buddy sandblast one coat off, which look ruined until that paint hit it.  

[Bowlsnapper]

1 hour ago, MadMartigan said:

Act like you’ve never held a spray can in your life, and give a piece of scrap a good coat at a close distance. You will almost immediately see the bad results with that stuff. If you can’t tell, I had to learn the hard way. Sanding an Xbox down multiple times is a major pain so I’m just trying to save you the headache. I’ve had enough frustration for the both of us. 
 

Edit before even posting: I’m lazy and don’t want to correct that paragraph. It immediately hit me that I only sanded it down once. Had my buddy sandblast one coat off, which look ruined until that paint hit it.  

Wait... WHICH stuff exactly?

[amak79]

I finally got my RF shield restored. I went with metal plating instead of painting. Below are some before and after photos. Unfortunately the before photos are with the case on but you can still see the difference.

Apparently the original finish was not metal plated, but some kind of metallic paint. When the RF shield was placed into the rust/paint removal solution the original finish came off instantly.

A couple things to note. Although the rust has been removed, the pitting of the metal remains visible. I was warned about this before hand. The inside corners on the bottom piece were very difficult to plate. A special anode had to be created for that area, but even with that there are spots where the metal plating coverage wasn't 100%.

I was originally going to use a rust removal solution (I didn’t want to sand it) and spray paint it, but the cost was only slightly less than metal plating.

Overall I’m very happy with the result. I’m considering having the RF shield from my 1.4 Xbox restored. It doesn’t have any rust but it's very tarnished, so the result should be even better.

Edited March 2 by amak79

[amak79]

 The Crystal Xbox fully assembled. I think it turned out really nice

[big F]

Not sure why you were told the original finish is not plating.  It certainly is. Every one of my extensive collection has a plated RF shield. Maybe yours was painted previously, although it doesn't look like it in the photos. I used to work for a company that did electroplating so have shall we say a bit of experience in it.  You can also solder the RF plating as I have done on a couple,  cant do that with paint.

That said the work looks good, considering it was less than perfect to start with it looks as good as factory if not a bit better.  The factory plating was never that consistent 

Edited March 2 by big F

[amak79]

45 minutes ago, big F said:

Not sure why you were told the original finish is not plating.  It certainly is. Every one of my extensive collection has a plated RF shield. Maybe yours was painted previously, although it doesn't look like it in the photos. I used to work for a company that did electroplating so have shall we say a bit of experience in it.  You can also solder the RF plating as I have done on a couple,  cant do that with paint.

I thought it was plated as well. It certainly wasn't painted since it was never opened before I purchased it. I guess they assumed it was since the original finish stripped away so easily.

[MadMartigan]

11 hours ago, amak79 said:

I finally got my RF shield restored. I went with metal plating instead of painting. Below are some before and after photos. Unfortunately the before photos are with the case on but you can still see the difference.

Apparently the original finish was not metal plated, but some kind of metallic paint. When the RF shield was placed into the rust/paint removal solution the original finish came off instantly.

A couple things to note. Although the rust has been removed, the pitting of the metal remains visible. I was warned about this before hand. The inside corners on the bottom piece were very difficult to plate. A special anode had to be created for that area, but even with that there are spots where the metal plating coverage wasn't 100%.

I was originally going to use a rust removal solution (I didn’t want to sand it) and spray paint it, but the cost was only slightly less than metal plating.

Overall I’m very happy with the result. I’m considering having the RF shield from my 1.4 Xbox restored. It doesn’t have any rust but it's very tarnished, so the result should be even better.

Where did you get the plating done? That looks amazing and I have quite a few older ones I was just going to throw into a sand blaster and then paint. Plating would be much more to my desire. 

[lopenator]

I have a shield that is very rusty. I need to do something like this. I'm trying to get a crystal Xbox but here in the states theyre freaking hundreds of $. I wish I was in uk

[MadMartigan]

I was actually just telling another user last week how easy it was to get crystals for cheap here in the US. You must have some patience and be willing to swap out the PSU for 100-120v, but still very easy if you’re willing to put in the effort. You also may need to fix a small issue, but that’s part of every OG Xbox these days. I highly recommend tweaking the filters on eBay and saving your search to inform you of new items added. Reach out if you need some more info. I don’t want to stray far from the topic at hand here. 

[big F]

2 hours ago, lopenator said:

I have a shield that is very rusty. I need to do something like this. I'm trying to get a crystal Xbox but here in the states theyre freaking hundreds of $. I wish I was in uk

They are going up in price in the UK now, as is the usual with retro items.  That said the clear green Xboxes are not so common in the UK.   Maybe we needo set up some kind of exchange system.

[big F]

The plating that Eleflex put on the RF shield is nothing more than plain old tin plating. The bare minimum required for keeping an RF ground shield looking nice, long enough to be out of warranty before any imperfections allow rust in.

Im sure that one would look lovely in an actual Chrome plate, but would be expensive due to the prep required and i5 being thin steel, which is much more effort to prep for the copper and or nickel plate , prior to the Chrome finish.

[amak79]

9 hours ago, MadMartigan said:

Where did you get the plating done?

A local metal plating business in Sydney, Australia.

[amak79]

I somehow overlooked that I had a before photo of inside the RF shield. It's quite a difference.