deskthority

So some kind individual managed to pull the space bar off my XT F. Am I right in assuming there's no way to re-attach is short of disassembling everything and trying to get it all back together again? If so, this might just turn into another restoration post.

Yes, that mile-long space bar has an equally long "under-carriage" piece that sandwiches the plate between the two.

You will have to peel the plates apart in order to get the pieces stacked properly back inside.

Ok, thank you for that. Off to eBay I go to get some bits. I’ve already removed and cleaned the keys and vacuumed the dust and hair out. I’ll be back to post photos and share the adventure.

Would you rather I share as I go or wait and post everything at once?

First question. Should I do something about the rusty spots on the back plate? Should I leave them, clean them, touch up or repaint entirely?

Disassembling the whole keyboard is the classic way, but it's not for the faint of heart because then the spacebar keycap will compress its switch plate and give you trouble to close things again (though I wrote an article back in the day how to work around that with some fishing wire).

Meanwhile some other people have come along and tried to find ways to reattach the spacebar keycap without any disassembly. The first one drilled some holes in the plastic bits of the keyboard so that the stabilizer could be pulled out of the way with a bit of wire when you insert the keycap. Others have tried with hooks, I believe.

The newest method involves filing off small parts of the spacebar keycap so that you have enough wiggle room to hook the stabilizer from the top. I have never tried it, but it sounds like it could work.

Honestly, I have found that the best method is to just detach the plates and hold the space bar flipper in place with a flathead screwdriver while I close the plates. This is usually enough to get it to stay in place while you clamp the plates shut.

Top plate stripped and resprayed. Not a perfect job but as good as I’m going to manage. I’m happy considering it is going to be under the keys anyway.

So the adventure is done. I had some fun with this one. Once the paint fully hardened I cut the foam by hand with a scalpel and an 11mm circle punch. Then I started reassembling everything. Only had to disassemble it once because the spacebar came away again because the peg had sheared off. Can you spot the new hot-glue peg? All done, nice and clean and as original as possible. You wouldn’t know I’d been inside. Please excuse the mess on my workstation. I need to tidy up.