Help cleaning a Panasonic Toughbook CF-W4 *PIC*

[Tasurinchi]

Hi Thinkpadders

I bought a Panasonic Toughbook CF-W4 and would like to clean it a bit from the outside. Usually I use a cleaning foam I bougth a while ago on the magnesium parts of my Thinkpads and it works really good, but seems that it has no effect on the (metal?) bezel of the Toughbook.

See the dark spots on the left and on the right of the bezel. Any ideas how to get rid of them (without getting a new palmrest, disassembling these beauties is a hell of a job).



Thanks in advance!

[RealBlackStuff]

Looks like you need a (body-)grease dissolver.
Check out your kitchen cleaning supplies.

[killer]

If you know what caused the marks then it might be easier to recommend an answer.

Let us know.

[RealBlackStuff]

I'd say they are from the sides of someone's (dirty/greasy) hands!

[Tasurinchi]

Thanks guys for the help!

I don't know the previous owner of the machine. Since the marks are on both sides of the palmrest where you usually will lay your hands on, I also think they're from the owner's (greasy) hands.

I think i will try some foam I have for cleaning barbecue grills

[ozzymud]

When zooming into the image, it looks like wear... the lines on the right appear nonexistent, as though the white has worn off. The mouse button definitely looks like a wear pattern.

That being said, one of the goo gone type products found in the home improvement section of walmart/kmart (any of the citrus based cleaners), Mr. Clean magic erasers, or simple alcohol. Just be sure to test any product you use on an inconspicuous part 1st.

I've had something simple as "armor all" take the chrome finish off of plastics in older cars.

[Tasurinchi]

the lines on the right appear nonexistent, as though the white has worn off

It's not worn off, the picture was taken with poor light and my camera is an old simple one , also due to the 50k limitation I could not upload a more detailed one. I'm sure the mouse button won't get better, but I hope the palmrest can be cleaned. I'll do a try tomorrow with my barbecue cleaning foam.

[ajkula66]

I don't believe that the barbecue cleaning foam is the way to go.

As much of PITA as it might be, alcohol worked well for ToughBooks that I had owned. Alogn with a *lot* of patience and elbow grease.

That being said, don't expect miracles. I suspect that the palmrest will have to be replaced at some point.

I've used Goo Gone and it was OK, but it's next to impossible to get these invisible dirt specs out of the alloy that Panasonic uses.

Good luck.

[Tasurinchi]

I don't believe that the barbecue cleaning foam is the way to go

You're right, unfortunately the post was too late for me

DISCLAIMER: Don't try this at home!!

I applied first the "grill foam" on both sides of the bezel where the grease was and rub it almost immediately with a cloth. No results. Then I applied more and left it for a couple of hours. Turned to be that the foam was pretty aggressive and left dark marks on the bezel with the exact shape of the applied grill foam, so I used a micro faser cloth and some of my "standard" cleaning foam until the mark got almost away, together with the original greasy stains. The left part of the bezel looks now much better...

Unfortunately, the stain on the right (see my picture above) is not actually on the bezel but on the optical drive cover. And it's not metal, but plastic. So when cleaning the dark mark from the "grill foam" using the same method as the left part of the bezel, the paint got peeled of...

So now left looks ok, right looks terrible... And I'm a little wiser about notebook cleaning methods...