Remove yellowing from your retro consoles (gentler alternative to retr0bright)

Got an old video game console or vintage computer who's casing or accessories have seen better days and are now yellowed and discolored ?  Follow along and i'll show you how you can remove much of the yellowing and get a much better appearance from your retro consoles without harsh chemicals or expensive products like retr0bright.

Looks bad but we can help that -

For small projects such as this NES controller i am using for the write-up you can simply use regular 3% hydrogen peroxide that you can get at most any store.  This is ideal for small projects as you don't need to mess with any mixing or preparing any solutions. 

For the NES controller i used a small plastic food container and filled it with enough peroxide to cover the entire controller case in the liquid.  I also placed a small glass on top of the controller casing to keep it submerged under the peroxide, this did not seem to affect the outcome in anyway but i'm looking for a more elegant solution.

I also left the D-pad and buttons in with the peroxide hoping that it might help clean off the 25 years of sweat and grime that was encrusting them but it didn't seem to help at all and i found that simple dish soap and an old toothbrush works wonders on that. :)

Now that the bath has been prepped take your item out to a nice sunny location and wait for a couple of hours. 

While we're waiting on that, now is a good time to clean all the rubber controller connectors and the circuit board contacts.  For that i find a clean, dry cotton swab rubbed in a small circular pattern works well to remove the crud and corrosion off the contacts.

After about 6 hours i brought everything back inside and gave everything a good rinse with cool water and a once over with an old toothbrush to knock some of the dust and crud out of the inside.  After setting on a towel to dry i got a look at the result. 

Much better !!!   Here are pics for comparison before and after. 

Now, i have also done bigger parts in a tub such as the top of a NES toaster console and for that I bought a tub of "Oxy" laundry booster with the ingredients of sodium percabonate and sodium carbonate.  when mixed  with water this produces a peroxide solution and will net the same results as the above.   For the oxy booster i use it at twice the recommended dosage. 

I have had very good results using both of these methods and have not seen any "bleaching" or "spotting" that i have heard of from using harsh mixtures of higher than 3% peroxide or some of the other homebrew mixtures that are floating around on the net.  The methods i have outlined may take a bit longer due to the low concentrations of the active ingredients, this seems to be to be a worthwhile trade off for the extra time needed or to even repeat the process a couple of times over rather than cause damage during the restoration process.

Let me know if you need any more info or have comments in the comment section below.   Thanks !