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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Mar 26, 2023 3:10 pm

Today it was my RAMLink's turn to get a facelift.

My RAMLink came to me with two holes in its original label/sticker. Here they are covered up with white label stickers, but they're there.

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Note the "Reset" and "Swap 8" buttons. Those stickers are covering up large holes in the original label (see next photo).


Following in the footsteps of my CMD FD-2000, which I prettied up yesterday, I had also purchased a new replacement label for my RAMlink from Corei64.

I have to admit that the really large label made me extremely nervous I wasn't going to align the new one properly. After what I knew would be a really long cleaning process, the prospect of failure hung over me like a dark cloud. But this had been bugging me for a long time and I figured if I really screwed up I could always order another label. So I went for it.

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First I had to remove all of the hardware and isolate the top shell.

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The original labels are a textured vinyl that contain their coloring below the top plastic layer. As a result, when you remove the labels a lot of the original color stays behind with the strong sticky glue adhesive on the metal case.

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It takes a certain amount of bravery to do this, you know?

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The least fun part of the job by a long shot. And it takes several passes. At one point I left a thick sludge of Goo Gone gel to soak on the top of the case while I ate lunch. It was a good idea, because afterwards the remaining sticky film didn't last long.

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So naked.


Moment of truth. Stand up, hover directly over it, align the bottom right hole perfectly then make sure the cartridge slots are straight and...!
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Boom!

Very pleased with how this turned out. Looks so good! Proud of myself for not chickening out.

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Note: the color of blue in this photo is not true to life. The actual replacement label's color is a 100% perfect match to the original. The photo above makes it look brighter than it really is due to the lighting/camera used.


I can understand how the two buttons popped through previously since the buttons literally push upwards against the label to create tactile bubbly buttons. It's no wonder those things failed especially after the original label became hardened and brittle over time.

See also: FD-2000 Mild Restoration





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