Restoration Service?

[AJFlutie]

Hey guys, so I saw this photo

And I’m like, yeah I want this. I want a Macintosh like this that can run MacPaint, MacDraw, MacWrite, Chess, and Tetris.

Reading up on buying vintage Macs, sounds like a nightmare if it’ll actually run properly which leads me to ask is there expert out there that takes Macintoshes and restores them for resale? I would be very interested … possibly a Macintosh Classic, restored inside and out (No Yellow), and came with the software mentioned. I’ve even seen some mods that have SD drives in it now with all software?

Anyways really interested in a modded restored Mac that can look like that photo above and hope someone offers this service.

 

[killvore]

Hello and welcome! That is a great setup and I can totally understand why this would spark the urge for something similar

I don't know of such a service, though such "fully restored" machines do show up. Maybe you can make a Want To Buy post eg. "WTB recapped compact mac in good condition"? There's also 68kmla which has a similar "WTB/WTS"-section. I definitely recommend getting one with an SD card, huge quality of life improvement! Some of then even have WiFi.

Make sure you say what area you are in, there was one just listed here in Norway but I suspect that might not be applicable due to shipping costs - and risks! CRTs are fragile

Also - although the Classic has a very nice and distinctive look, you might also consider the SE (not the SE/30) if you can stomach it. The SE has a PDS slot so you can fit an ethernet card if you want to get files on or off it easily, or allows you to mount an accelerator if 8MHz 68000 is just too pokey for your needs.

Good luck - and careful, this might be the start of a bigger collection

 

[AJFlutie]

Hello and welcome! That is a great setup and I can totally understand why this would spark the urge for something similar

I don't know of such a service, though such "fully restored" machines do show up. Maybe you can make a Want To Buy post eg. "WTB recapped compact mac in good condition"? There's also 68kmla which has a similar "WTB/WTS"-section. I definitely recommend getting one with an SD card, huge quality of life improvement! Some of then even have WiFi.

Make sure you say what area you are in, there was one just listed here in Norway but I suspect that might not be applicable due to shipping costs - and risks! CRTs are fragile

Also - although the Classic has a very nice and distinctive look, you might also consider the SE (not the SE/30) if you can stomach it. The SE has a PDS slot so you can fit an ethernet card if you want to get files on or off it easily, or allows you to mount an accelerator if 8MHz 68000 is just too pokey for your needs.

Good luck - and careful, this might be the start of a bigger collection

Thank you! I’m in SoCal.

I did a bit more research and definitely want the Blue SCSI and MacPack on really any of the machines except the SE model you mentioned lol. I am not a fan of the designed compared to the original 84 model.

I found one person who has a Mac restoration blog and reached out to him. Hoping to find one or a person who can do the things we have mentioned.

I’ll continue to look on eBay but maybe I can find one without the mods and find someone in SoCal I can pay who can restore and add the mods mentioned and recapped.

 

[Elemenoh]

IMO this isn't a common service because most people in your situation wouldn't want to pay for the amount of skilled labor to make it happen.

This is very napkin-mathy but gives you an idea of what's involved.

## Time Breakdown
- Initial triage: 30 minutes
- Replace electrolytic capacitors: 1.5 hours
- Troubleshoot and repair other circuit issues: 1.5 hours
- Ultrasonically clean boards: 30 minutes
- Service floppy drive: 1 hour
- Thoroughly clean all parts: 2 hours
- Install BlueSCSI with software: 30 minutes
- Test system: 30 minutes
- Retr0bright everything: 3 hours
- Packing and shipping: 15 minutes

So maybe 10-12 working hours total for a comprehensive (but straightforward) restoration. Skill obviously varies, but someone who really knows what they're doing should maybe be charging something like $100-150 an hour. So that's $1,000-1,500 in labor.


### Materials
- Capacitor kit: $45
- BlueSCSI components: $40
- Retr0bright materials: $25
- Cleaning supplies: $20
- Ultrasonic solution: $15
- Lubrication: $10
- Floppy drive parts: $15
- Heat shrink, solder, flux: $10
- Shipping materials: $20
- Miscellaneous components: $30

**Total materials cost: $230**

So that's something like $1,500 and doesn't include the cost of the machine or shipping. And this assumes you don't have some time-sink type of issue like a battery bombed logic board or difficult to troubleshoot circuit problem.

I'm curious what others think about this. My impression is that the people who have charged for repair, tend to under-charge and take on too much work. And IDK if anyone has tried to offer a full end-to-end restoration service. But if so, I'd love to hear their thoughts about it.

 

[killvore]

Haha looking at this breakdown it seems like the most likely opportunity would be a fellow enthusiast looking to trim down their collection Sometimes people realize they've taken in more than they can reasonable manage, and are usually happy to break even on parts if they feel it's going to someone who will appreciate it and won't just immediately try to flip it on eBay or something.

 

[Yoda]

I can't see it being likely that a professional restorer would be affordable to most, but it is certainly not all that uncommon to find an enthusiast selling off a restored (or repaired) system for more moderate prices.

As much as I wanted a 'good' Classic or Classic II, which had been restored by its prior owner, it just wasn't a realistic proposition, so I searched eBay for one which was in good physical condition - this being the aspect I would personally find hardest to repair - and when I found one in what was described as a 'mostly working' condition, for the sensible (then) price of about $75, I bought it.

After that, I sent the logic and analog boards to Amiga of Rochester to check, clean and recap, and spent another $55 on a SCSI2SD replacement for the hard drive, and about $30 on RAM to upgrade it to the 10Gb maximum.

The result is a Classic II in excellent condition, which runs perfectly, and has 2Gb of storage, all for a total of less than $400. Yes, I had to take it apart and reassemble it myself, but Thomas (at Amiga of Rochester) emailed me clear and concise instructions, and his service was fast and very fairly priced.

A Mac Plus is likely a bit harder to disassemble because it's more solidly built, but they are surprisingly robust and reliable, so likely to need fairly minimal work. This could possibly make it a practical proposition to follow a similar path of buying a system in generally good physical condition, free from PRAM battery corrosion or damage, and leave you doing the screwdriver work while passing the electronics to the experts, such as Thomas (whom I very much recommend).

And, you'd get the added pleasure of a system you yourself have helped restore, even though it needed little in the way of difficult skills.

 

[djc6]

This guy does what you are looking for, he's located in Chicago. I would email him saying what you are looking for:

Bonus Life Computers. Vintage Computer Service, Restoration and Sales.

Bonus Life Computers. Vintage Computer Service, Restoration and Sales. Atari, Commodore, Texas Instruments, Apple, TRS-80, Next, S-100, Altair, IMSAI and Amiga classic and vintage computers.

bonuslifecomputers.com

 

[djc6]

There are also various facebook for sale groups, I saw this post just today but its local pickup only in Minneapolis.

I've acquired three SE/30s off of facebook marketplace within <1 hour drive of my house.

 

[Elemenoh]

This guy does what you are looking for, he's located in Chicago. I would email him saying what you are looking for:

Bonus Life Computers. Vintage Computer Service, Restoration and Sales.

Bonus Life Computers. Vintage Computer Service, Restoration and Sales. Atari, Commodore, Texas Instruments, Apple, TRS-80, Next, S-100, Altair, IMSAI and Amiga classic and vintage computers.

bonuslifecomputers.com

Those seem like very generous terms for the client. $60/hr seems to me like this person is undervaluing their work but very curious what others think.

 

[AJFlutie]

Thank you for all the responses. Sounds like paying someone to restore one would be a pretty penny. I found one Macintosh Plus on eBay that has bluescsi sd card installed. I wanted to see what your thoughts were and if this is a good one to get. I messaged the seller, he doesn’t have all the software I want. Is it as simple as getting a floppy disk and pulling the software from Mac Repository and copying the floppy disk to the sd card on the Mac plus?

Apple Macintosh Mac Plus Internal BlueSCSI Recapped Keyboard and Mouse | eBay

The BlueSCSI module has been mounted on the floppy drive housing as pictured. This Plus has an adapter that fits onto the top of the SCSI chip on the logic board. The adapter includes a 50 pin SCSI cable which plugs into the BlueSCSI.

www.ebay.com

let me know what you think. Thank you so much!

 

[djc6]

Is it as simple as getting a floppy disk and pulling the software from Mac Repository and copying the floppy disk to the sd card on the Mac plus?

There are other methods, like using this utility to copy files from the sd card onto the hard drive image itself:

Toolbox - BlueSCSI v2 Documentation

BlueSCSI v2 Documentation.

bluescsi.com

I'm not sure what version of the bluescsi that is? I'm not a bluescsi expert. I"ve not seen one with that square cutout in the PCB. Maybe seller can tell you more.

 

[killvore]

I generally use SheepShaver to move files on (and off, though this is rare) my BlueSCSI hda image(s), since:

1. I can mount the hda image as a "hard drive" in SheepShaver directly, and

2. Sheepshaver lets you access files on the mac you are running it on (for me, my modern laptop).

This is a super powerful combination for me, since it lets me sit on my modern laptop and download stuff off of eg. Macintosh Garden, fire up Sheepshaver, and copy those files onto the hda image. When I'm done, I stick an SD card in the laptop and cooy the hda image across, then that SD card goes into my BlueSCSI in the retroputer. Works great!