Model F Upgrades and Repairs

[Wizzard]

Greetings, Deskthority!

I picked up a box of old keyboards at an estate sale, and among them was a handful of Model M and Model F keyboards.

I am in IT, and consider myself a mechanical enthusiast, but I know these can be expensive devices, and are worth my time to refurbish *properly*.

The Model F / AT I will be cleaning up and re-connectorizing myself, for PS/2. No questions here, unless some folks can recommend mods.

The Model F / Bigfoots - I think I want to replace the PCB on these, with the xwhatsit controller. Any recommendations?

Lastly, one Bigfoot is in shambles - The case has big divots and a crack, and it's missing a bunch of keycaps. The steel and electronics are pristine, though. I was thinking of doing it over in black, to cover everything up and install black / dark grey keycaps in addition to the xwhatsit controller... or do I do my best to refresh it as-is, or do I put it all in another stock case?

[Weezer]

pics?

[Wizzard]

Pics attached here. My bad!
The bottom pic is the lot, less the 2 I am working one - One F/AT and one F/Bigfoot.
Bottom middle of the first pic, you can see the beat up case - This is AFTER cleaning. The hairline crack is at the top right, and the divot at the right bottom is hard to miss, it's deep into the plastic.

[Weezer]

Neat!

The divot looks like a paint chip.

shouldn't be too hard to set up with an xwhatsit

Was the barrelplate painted gray when you got it?

[Wizzard]

Weezer - No, that's me. The paint is THICK, I assumed this was a weird gouge.

Both plates were heavily corroded with mouse filth, and the Bigfoot also had a thick coat of automotive repair detritus. Cleaned, cleaned again, sanded down to remove the rust and given a coat of self-etching primer. The Bigfoot got a coat of black on top, it looks very nice in my opinion.