Golden Commodore C64 Brings The Bling To 8-Bit Computing

Sometimes, a hack is just a hack. And sometimes, a hack is nothing but a gold-plated Commodore C64.

Alright, it’s not gold-plated, it’s gilded. For the uninitiated, gilding is the process of gluing gold powder or gold leaf to an object. Gold is amazingly ductile – a tiny nugget 5mm in diameter can be hammered into a sheet of gold leaf that can cover about a half a square meter. It’s extremely thin and delicate and has to be handled very gingerly, and the gilder’s craft is therefore very meticulous. For more on gilding, see this post on signmaking with gold leaf.

[thefuturewas8bit], who runs a vintage Commodore web store, did a great job gilding a C64 case, just because. The attention to detail is fantastic – notice that even the edges of the keyboard cutouts are gilded and burnished. A nice finishing touch is swapping out the stock red power LED for a yellow one – red simply clashes too much. Lest you think there’s nothing to learn from a purely aesthetic hack, [thefuturewas8bit] shares a great tip for removing the metal badges from a plastic case – spray them with freeze-spray from the back to pop off the glue. No need to dig at them with a screwdriver and gouge or bend them. Nice trick.

Any hack can earn extra points for style, and we think that gold works well on the C64.  But if gold is a little too overstated for you, you can always try to score a colorful new injection-molded case for your vintage Commodore.

9 thoughts on “Golden Commodore C64 Brings The Bling To 8-Bit Computing

  1. Wow, that’s pretty cool. Not a “hack”, but who gives a damn, I come here for making stuff with a touch of nerdy on the side, and this ticks those boxes!

    Also, gold leaf is pretty dang cheap stuff, just need something to gild…

    1. A rusty C64, could be appropriate given it’s age. Evert piece of iron pyrite I pickup up ftom my rural rock road while getting in a dailywalk in has lost it’s glitter before I had a chance to give it to a youndter who hasn’t never seen it before

  2. Thinking of all the things you could have gold-plated instead (and be better off) boggles the mind.
    Even an amiga would have been better IMHO.
    But still though, he wanted a gold C64 and damn if he didn’t get it!

    Now someone should start a forum (or even a reddit) titled ‘thingsmoreworthyofgoldplating’ dot com

  3. cool idea… but ever thought spraying it with metal including color, then make it the chemical way golden?
    They sell even golden C64 parts on ebay that never have been golden…

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