Apple IIc rescue and clean-up

During my drive home from work last week, I noticed a neighbor making his way across his driveway in the general direction of his trash bin.  It took a second for my brain to register that he was carrying an Apple IIc by the handle.  I slowed down to watch and as he opened the lid to the bin and lifted the IIc, I pulled over, hopped out and asked what he was doing.  He explained that his father had purchased the computer to help him write his papers during grad school back in the 80’s.  He’d long ago disposed of everything else but the computer itself and had run across it in the basement while cleaning up.

Before I could make an offer to save it from the trash, he asked if perhaps I wanted it.  “Seems a shame to just toss it.  It’s yours, if you want it.” I w0nder if he noticed my effort to hide my enthusiasm… Anyway, it’s mine now, and conveniently replaces this one:

(Bonus points if you know who that is.)  The IIc was filthy, but it passed the system diagnostic and a PEEK (64447) identified it as a ROM version 3.  Not as nifty as the version 4 it replaced, but still very nice!

With my wife out of town for a week or so, I have time to take care of a few retro-computing To-Do’s I wouldn’t normally, and this seemed like a nice project so here are some before and after shots of the clean up.  Enjoy!

As received.

Close up of the grime on the case.

Keyboard.

I don’t think I want to type on those keys…

Floppy drive door latch.

And the handle/stand.

Disassembled for cleaning.

Here are some comparison shots I took of the keyboard during cleaning.

I removed each of the keycaps and cleaned them individually.  I put a few back on for these pictures, to get a comparison of the before/after.  Quite a difference!

And here’s the result.  The entire process took about four hours.  This included disassembling the IIc, removing and cleaning the keycaps and the keyboard assembly, 5.25” disk drive assembly, motherboard, handle/stand, and case top and bottom.

Some cosmetic damage on the rainbow Apple logo.  Cleaned up nicely, though.

Close up of the Apple IIc logo.

Floppy drive.

Volume control and headphones jack.  This area required further cleaning.  For some reason, a lot of grime accumulated here over the years.

The handle/stand.

“The Apple IIc”

Upper half of the case.

Reassembling after cleaning.

Drive re-inserted.

Almost there…

Cleaned and reassembled.  All done!