Metal Glo Professional Polishing Paste: Review

For the last twenty to twenty-five years, I've been collecting video games. Largely, I'm a fan of Nintendo cartridge consoles and games, though I do delve in late model Sony Playstations and games as well. As a professional computer hardware technician, I come into contact with a variety of materials that may or may not work well together. Also, I get the opportunity to regularly observe how electrical equipment (PCBs, Chips, Cables and Wires, Connectors, etc) behave under stress, under normal conditions, and what could otherwise be described as anomalous situations. Some of what I do is recommended, some of it is not. Either way, this love of fiddlin' with things in these manners translates over to the world of video game collecting quite nicely -- especially regarding cartridge games.

Recently, I joined several forums and groups devoted to the maintenance, repair, restoration, and even the configuration (modding) of video games. I've noticed an ongoing debate about the best and most effective ways to clean your games. (From here on, we are talking about cartridge games.) Whether it's using an ink eraser, alcohol, dry erase markers, or polish, let's face it, there is gong to be something out there that will eventually defy you no matter what your methods may be. But we're not really worried at this point with the outliers. This article is meant to address the normal situations, or the 80% as some might say.

In this article, we are going to take a look at one particular product: Metal Glo Professional Polishing Paste. I first heard about this product as I started watching a thread about best way to remove corrosion from contacts. The usual suspects showed up with the bandwagon responses: Brasso and Flitz. So, what's a reasonable source to check out when there's some debate going on? I went to Youtube. Again, I found that Brasso and Flitz were recommended here and there, but I also found mentions of Metal Glo. "What is this 'Metal Glo' of which you speak?" I asked. Entertaining my own rhetoric, I answered by quickly finding it on eBay, and ordered me some. It was relatively inexpensive as it only cost me about six dollars off eBay with free shipping. The tube I bought (shown to the left here) is a 1.4 ounce delivery system that expels a fine gray paste. I was now ready to begin my observations. Materials used in this process are listed below for reference. Please try to resist your fanboy urges.

Materials

1. Pink Eraser - Bought it in a two pack at Wallgreens for a dollar and change. Keep in mind that the one I used is not an actual 'ink eraser', and is probably designed more for graphite pencils. I'm sure you may notice it in some of the pictures here. 
2. 1.4oz Tube of Metal Glo Professional Polishing Paste - That which we are reviewing. 
3. A Bottle of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol - This is your everyday rubbing alcohol that you'd find most everywhere that sells rubbing alcohol. The 30% difference is water. Water is generally bad for electronics as many of you understand, so it's important to make sure things are dry before we start using them after applying this stuff. You can get other concentrations of commercial Isopropyl Alcohol thus reducing the amount of water and less likely to leave a residue behind. These higher concentrations are preferred if you are serious about the maintenance and restoration of your games. But for the purpose of this review, it's not necessary.
4. Dry towel - I used a clean terry cloth towel. It's one that I use for things like this.
5. Cotton Swabs - The swabs I used in this process are the generic 'Equate' brand cotton swabs that you can find at any Wal-Mart. I've used foam swabs before, and I simply don't like them for you end up hitting the hard plastic shaft because the foam isn't often rigid enough to resist the pressure you may need to apply during the process (which isn't much in either case).
6. 7mm Dunlop "Tortex" Guitar Pick - It's just something I use because I don't have a sponger at the house. Plus, the nylon makes it a bit softer than the usual spongers you can find at craft stores. You will see why later in the article. It was green if you must know. 
7. Gamebit and Driver - Standard equipment for any cartridge game collector who dabbles in maintenance, repair, and restoration of games. You can find these on eBay and Amazon, respectively, for a variety of prices and makes. You are likely to see mine in the pictures somewhere.
8. Wing Commander (SNES) - This is a copy that I bought off of eBay. I bought for a couple reasons: 1.) It's not really a game that I'd care about screwing up if something went wrong, b.) It was cheap, and c.) When buying loose games from eBay for cheap from what would otherwise be obvious resellers and companies, you can be pretty sure that they will half-ass any attempt to clean, repair, or otherwise accurately characterize their second-hand products. In other words, I was pretty confident that I'd receive a copy that was at least slightly dirty, damaged in some way,  and/or corroded. A perfect specimen!
9. Medium Nylon Paint Brush - Used to clear loose debris from the work area and contacts.

The following pictures are ones that I took before I began any part of the process. My apologies if they aren't the best pictures, but I was using my phone at the time and Michelangelo was unavailable. As you can see, I received my eBay copy of Wing Commander. No alterations were made to the cartridge whether in regards to the outside or insides. This is exactly how it was received. To save space and time, I limited the number of pictures of the entire process to save time and space. I also seemed to struggle with lighting as the light source was directly above my head and my table. (What do you want? This is free for Pete's sake!)

                                                                            Figure 1.0

                                                                          Figure 1.1

                                                                            Figure 1.2


In Figure 1.0, you should be able to see our copy of Wing Commander that bears a relatively decent looking cartridge but with one major flaw: there's a sticker over the label. This is always annoying because removal of the sticker risks damage to the label. If you don't know what you're doing, you are certain to mar the label and create and otherwise under-gratifying result. This is why I use the guitar pick. The nylon is softer than the hard plastic of the cartridge and therefore can't scratch the plastic of said cartridge. Secondly, as I stated before, I don't have a sponger at the house presently. Thirdly and finally, the contour of the guitar pick is such that it allows me to get up under the edge of the sticker relatively easy without applying too much pressure while also allowing me to focus all my force and energy on a single point to maximize my output and minimize my input pressure. Translation? It lessens the risk of tearing the label. I should probably note here that removal of the sticker took a bit of time and patience, and you must never angle the guitar pick too acutely towards the cartridge itself. Never rush this sort of thing or you are setting yourself up for failure at which point you have nobody to blame but yourself when the label tears. Oh, and there's a rental sticker on the edge, too, which I removed with the same technique. You will be able to see the final pictures below.

Figures 1.1 and Figure 1.2 each show the PCB contacts before cleaning was attempted. As you can see from the pictures, there's some pretty normal corrosion on the contacts and they are kind of dingy on the whole. We begin with our eraser, applying some pressure and scrubbing the contacts from top to bottom and side to side. We are careful to not miss any parts, and we do this for several minutes. This took care of a bit of the dinginess, but overall, didn't do much for the appearance of the contacts. I was careful to follow the techniques of using the eraser that was suggested not only on videos on YouTube, but from testimonials visiting collector forums and sites. The preferred method seems to be holding the eraser on-end with one of the points downward, and moving across the gaps between the contacts. I used the paintbrush to clear the loose particles of dirty eraser from the contacts. The eraser didn't seem to help much, but I think it may have been because I didn't use an actual  'ink eraser'. We'll test that at some other time, perhaps.

Once our futile attempts at using the eraser were concluded, I went to cleaning the contacts with the Isopropyl Alcohol and cotton swabs. I shook off the excess alcohol from the swabs as not to let it drip on the PCB or outside of the area that contained the contacts. I took several minutes to scrub the shiny gold-plated copper with little results. The corrosion just simply wasn't going anywhere, and the contacts really just looked kind of the same. There was a definite color change from the top of the contacts and the bottom of the contacts where corrosion had set in. In fact, you can pretty much use Figure 1.1 and Figure 1.2 as examples minus the dinginess. There was no gloss or shiny new appearance whatsoever. It looked used. It was time to go with our polishing agent, Metal Glo.

To open the Metal Glo polishing paste, you have to punch through the thin metal covering in the neck of the tube whereby you are instantly slapped in the face with a petroleum smell. After clearing the obstruction, I took a single cotton swab and dabbed it into the top of the tube to get a little on the end. I spread it relatively evenly across the contacts from one end to the other and got a decent layer on there and went to applying pressure across the contacts. The swab quickly became black with corrosion, and I found I had to spin the swab to find a clean spot with which to scrub the contacts. I turned the swab over and scrubbed some more, while remaining careful not to let the paste to actually dry as noted in the directions on the paste's tube. I then took the terry cloth and wiped it clean. The initial application yielded pretty good results, but not perfect, so I applied another round using the same technique. Each time, it got a little bit brighter. I was careful to hit all the surface area of the contacts. As the paste turned darker with application and showed signs that it might be thinning out and drying on the contacts, I wiped it off. I think I did a total of five applications. (I'm diligent; What?) I repeated this process for the other side. The following picture is the result after using the Metal Glo polish. Both sides of the contacts were identical in the results.

                                                                            Figure 2.0


Figure 2.0 shows that there was significant corrosion removal from the contacts. I understand this isn't the best picture to show exactly how well it cleaned, but I tried to get both shadow and light to let you see the difference and reflection. The darkness you might think you see is entirely due to shadowing, reflection, or poor picture quality; the contacts were polished to a shine. If you are one who wants their contacts to look like they just came out of the box, you aren't likely to achieve those results with this, but you can get pretty darn close. If you want some numbers thrown out there, let's say you'd get a 90% of "like new" shine from using Metal Glo for simple, everyday cases of corrosion like what was used in this review.

Once you are happy with the way it looks, it's time to test the game. No suspense here: the game played fine. I want to take the moment here, however, to mention that Metal Glo is a protective paste as well as a polish. This means that it is likely to leave a bit of residue somewhere if you want to count thing on the microscopic or molecular levels. But if you are the kind of person that doesn't really care, then have fun with it. If you do care about such things, then this may not be the thing for you. Personally, I don't have doubles of any games, and I wouldn't be getting rid of the games in my personal collection anyways. Therefore, I'm good with that minor bit of knowledge that something like a protective agent was left behind while continuing to allow the contacts to perform their function.

Oh, and I almost forgot:

Enjoy. (The spot on the label is the dimple where the cart dips in normally.)

Until next time...

Invino Veritas
8/5/14
EOF