Did This RUSTED Apple Molar Mac G3 Survive?

[@floydiandroid]

As a product of the School District of Philadelphia, I remember some teachers having this monstrosity. Always loved how imposing it looked on a desk.

[@Mac84]

Hah! At least they certainly weighed down the desk!

[@onigvd77]

there is something about these machines that is rather appealing. I really like the idea of having the power of a G3, the built in screen like an iMac and the expansion possibilities as well from their desktop cousins. Seems like a great bridging machine to transfer from old to new devices.

[@Mac84]

I totally agree Grant, it's nice having it all in one system. Sure, the iBook is similar... but there isn't the same expandability and legacy I/O!

[@RetroReviewYT]

Warms my heart seeing these G3s being alive and well

[@10p6]

Interesting video. Apple should have done what I said Atari should have done with it's Mega / Mega STE / TT computers, and that was put the clock circuit and battery in a sealed compartment in the bottom of the keyboard. That way easy to access, and no real damage if it leaks.

[@MCKornbred]

19:02 I love how the warranty seal looks almost perfect as if it masters at this point 😂😂😂

[@FrankConforti]

Thanks!

[@tristanraine]

Action Retro brought me here! Anyway, this is the ugliest Apple computer I've seen, and I love it. Maybe you should get some googly eyes for it, give it some flair!

[@RandomBSOD]

Here too because of action retro 😅

[@KaddeMario]

Same here

[@BlueJayBonsai]

Same for me! Googly eyes needed for sure! 😂

[@Mac84]

Action Retro already put googly eyes on it, I may have to get... BIGGER eyes... 👀

[@michaelmarks1391]

For that much corrosion I think you're going to have to go with a wire brush in a drill or a dremel. You can follow that with rust converter spray primer and then some grey rustoleum paint to seal it up. You may want to consider something to pH neutralize the surface after you wire brush it but before you prime it.

[@BluesfireTV]

Personally I always sandblast rust and follow up with an aerosolized Zinc galvanization spray. Especially on thicker metals, since thinner ones tend to warp when sandblasted. I like the method cause I can be sure that all the rust is completely removed and apply a fresh layer of metal on top as opposed to paint. That way if it was being used as shielding it still can. It's also very fast, I can get the whole process done in less than 10 minutes generally

[@ryandary]

LOL I saw the slots on the sides and was like "Whaddaya need speaker rails for? There's some ALREADY ON THERE!"

[@mccrh7737]

Awesome video :) Nice seeing Apples best Mac get some love and restored :)

[@MCKornbred]

My fifth grade English teacher had one of those in her classroom. The design was pretty innovative for the time.

[@Ragnar8504]

This looks like the first foreshadowing of the B&W G3s and iMacs with those translucent bits! Off the top of my head this is a Rev. A logicboard, which only supported one IDE drive per channel. That's why the ZIP drive would have been SCSI. Later revisions supported two IDE drives per channel and had the CD/DVD and ZIP drives on one IDE cable, at least the desktop models.

[@korgied]

Evaporust then rust converter. Wire brushing before the Evaporust might help it work quicker. If you have an ultrasonic cleaner then you can put the Evaporust in there.

[@tivolover2003]

I love all vintage Macintosh and I collect too, never had one that bad!!

[@janquieldapper]

I really enjoy the crossover channels! Action retro is amazing... Mac84 is great too... All of you guys inspire-me to buy some Macs... At this time I'm working on my 2009 iMac with Xeon 2,8ghz with amazing 8 Threads and 16Gb of DDR3 and a Nvidia Quadro 3100m with 4Gb DDR5 memory! Great machine! Working perfectly!

[@FrankConforti]

I enjoy the enthusiasm of all of the retro apple/macs channels. Ashamed they can’t get more subscribers. Let’s support them (I do!)

[@FrankConforti]

One trick… get a small brass brush at Harbor Freight to carefully scrub off the corrosion. It doesn’t damage the solder mask if you are careful. If you don’t have access to a new/old mother board, brass brushes are your friend.

[@FrankConforti]

Mad Max(c) anyone?

[@darkwinter6028]

Or as we used to call them, “Wisdom Tooth Mac” - destined to be forcibly extracted from the product lineup! 😜

[@SilverX95]

for that rust use fine grit sand paper or a dremel with a wire wheel and some color matching spray paint after ya remove the rust. wash before and after before you paint.

[@CodeProfessor]

I am feeling quite at ease with your new intro.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

22:00 - When one soldier puts on the coat of his recently deceased compatriot.

[@jmorahz]

I could not sleep peacefully knowing that there is a PC this dirty and that it passed through my hands...

[@minty_Joe]

At the very tail end, insert an audio caption, "Watch as we observe the white board guy, I mean Sean of Action Retro, in the wild..."

[@madmax2069]

I've always liked the look of the Beige G3 AIO. I have two of these, only paid $5 for both (I still have them), although they're not in as good as shape when I originally got them (all thanks to one of my mother's friends putting them into a partially collapsed garage, luckily none was water damaged). The one I used as my main machine I maxed the Ram out (system and Vram) found a G3 from a B&W G3, a PCI R7000 that was connected to a secondary monitor, and found a wings personality card to put in it, a 120GB HDD, and a Pioneer DVD burner. This machine was my first time using a zip drive. "Relatives" bought a lot of 20 of these from a local school, they wanted me to check all of them out because they couldn't turn them on........ They was trying to turn the system on from the switch on the back. As soon as I got there I plugged the keyboard on, made sure the switch on back was on, and pressed the power button on the keyboard. There was some software you could download to adjust the screens geometry, but I don't know if it's still available or not, it might be hard to find now, at one point in time I did have it and adjusted the screen for my Beige G3 AIO.

[@jamesdecross1035]

Once you clean the rust, the auto repair shops can sell you a 'rust-converter' (Jenolite or similar) which will neutralise the corrosion converting it into a phosphate coating.

[@superstar64]

Still looks better than my 8600. That machine looks like it came out of a flood, but somehow it actually still runs.

[@macretro_techvintage]

I juste discovered your channel. So great ! :) I'm french, and I'm dreaming of this Molar Mac !

[@orionfl79]

Goodness what was Apple thinking? If I were still a kid just the face on the front of that thing would give me nightmares! lol

[@micaelsilva]

I feel really relieved that I removed the battery from my G3 15 years ago, even before know what they are capable of

[@joshuasundheimer4218]

How does one come across even a single molar Mac in their lifetime, let alone two of them!!!! I know you can't see my facial expression, but 'm scowling with jealousy at the screen right now!!! HAHAHH

[@Rolatnor]

These are rare and cool

[@Subgunman]

Yes it would be recommended that you get onto that motherboard and clean up that battery corrosion. Hopefully someone has a service manual on that logic board to ID those bad caps by the battery. Use caution in cleaning around those caps, some of the traces could be on their last leg. My daughter has one of the newer Blueberry G3’s and it’s issue is screen underscan that I see on you G3 as well. I have been told the issue is in the power supply for the CRT. Bad electrolytic caps are alway a source of concern on these Hi voltage power supplies. I have also notice the Blueberry is running a lot hotter than before so it’s time to carefully recap the power supply to the CRT. Keep a close watch on the temperature on that machine, invest in an IR thermometer, it will help in some diagnostics.

[@Mac84]

Yep, I’ve rescued worse boards, and thankfully I have a working board I can read the values from.

[@hiredgun7186]

rust removal, vinegar, wire wheel on a dremel , water , and patience

[@jayofthenorth3364]

i remember the stick out paper holder on the side of the “molar” mac. I remember being in 3rd grade writing a word document on sandra day o’connor in elementary school, i remember using the document holder it was cheap feeling lol.

[@Mac84]

Hah! That’s great, thanks for sharing.

[@travosk8668]

I love the shape of this one so much.

[@Mac84]

It is a very unique system, I do love the silly thing.

[@ericwood3709]

I did wonder about that weird connector on the personality card. I have one complete beige G3 tower and a couple of spare boards with personality cards. They have not held up terribly well, though. I've not had a great time keeping that system in good working order. I think I even had an IDE channel go out on one.

[@jdmcs]

If it looks like a huge tooth, walks like you're carrying a heavy computer, and sounds like a duck, then you forgot to set the system alert sound to Wild Eep.

[@Mac84]

I did set it later on! ...EEP!

[@PROSTO4Tabal]

It would be great to see power mac g3 tower review

[@VicTheVicar]

Great video! Looking forward to follow this project! Especially your harddrive upgrade adventures. I recently got a Power Mac G3 Desktop and the StarTech IDE to SATA adapter (from my iMac G3) wont work in it because the IDE-bus on the Power Mac isn't fast enough (the adapter needs at least 33 Mb/s)

[@Mac84]

Yeah, I will probably go the BlueSCSI route. These early Macs with IDE are very picky!

[@iiiiiifggffggffgfgfg]

I remember seeing, maybe only once ever, this at my high school. We had a number of labs of iMacs. It was in Canada though so at least these things were also sold in Canada.

[@XodiumLabs]

This is a duplicate comment for Steve, but I figure I'd post it here so it can be seen publicly just in case anyone comes looking for advice, etc. For the rustbucket G3 minitower project I actually bought some Loctite Naval Jelly (it was cheap and I needed to keep it cheap) and it seemed to do a decent job neutralizing the rust, though it smells horrible. Definitely use it in a ventilated area. After which I followed it up with some rust preventative gray primer, and it held up pretty good until I ended up finding a minitower chassis in far better condition and transferred everything over to that instead. Not sure how well it'd have done without the rust preventative but I figured I didn't want to have to go back and do this again for a long while, so yeah. Some of the worst rust spots I had to take off with a dremel but that wasn't terribly difficult. Having a rotary tool really helps.

[@Mac84]

Thanks!!

[@MSmith-Photography]

A cursed Mac is a cursed Mac. I blame Action Retro. 🤣

[@Mac84]

He touched it, he must have cursed it!!

[@MSmith-Photography]

@@Mac84 Exactly. 🤣

[@Antony-w3l]

Love your video's... Keep them coming... :-)...

[@GarthBeagle]

Cool! Look forward to you finishing getting it fixed/cleaned up

[@Mac84]

Thanks! I hope the rust doesn't advance too quickly... EEP!

[@MrFixiit]

Rust remedy (Rust convertor) , Fine Wire wool , Esso Elbow greese. :D

[@erichkohl9317]

This thing is a freak of nature 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣, not that that's a bad thing lol. Never knew it existed.

[@TheRodolfonas]

I remember this computer in the middle school a great fink on this computer is the sound

[@arbayer2]

What I find especially fascinating about the Molar Mac is its janky, threshold fusion of iPlastics and beige Platinum design language on the case. Seems like a (relative) powerhouse platform for upgrades, too, especially with the tray design, but it's the most bizarre thing to see a mid-90s Power Mac from the front and then stand up and look around the sides and realize it was basically advertising the iMac future. (I also like the somewhat subtlety of the Power Mac 9660 with its side door latch and internal plastics.) "Here's the old on this particular panel! It's seated next to the future on this seam!" The contours are really strange and I have to imagine the idea of a tooth, or maybe, shoulders? Tooth might have been intentional I guess if they were leaning towards identity with the medical/dental market. Also, those massive translucent Apple logos mirrored on both sides? The weird, crosshair style of the front I/O? What's up with that craziness? It's rough to see a substantial chassis derusting operation in the wings for that poor lad, but it's great that it's not damaged further and that the swapped logic board seems to do great. Find him (and his brother) a sturdy desk :O

[@muttBunch]

That is pretty cool, considering the philly school district is across from the building I work at on Broad Street.

[@ianpolpo]

My go to method for removing rust on battery bombed Mac chassis is to dunk them in Evapo-rust overnight. They come out looking like normal steel again, with some putting where the rust once was.

[@FrankConforti]

If you are into retro computers you should invest in a five gallon of Evaporust. Amazing product.

[@YearsOfLeadPoisoning]

It's amazing to think they were able to salvage this from the Titanic

[@Mac84]

It's a shame all the dozens of Molar Macs that are still stuck down there...

[@arudanel5542]

It might well be what actually sank the boat, these suckers weigh a ton.

[@YearsOfLeadPoisoning]

@@Mac84 Some say it was a Molar Mac that they actually hit

[@dave4shmups]

Great video! Would it be safe to use that C.L.R. (Calcium, Lime, Rust) stuff on any part of this Mac to help get the rust off?

[@tomaszmarcinkowski8242]

Use some white vinegar on this rust - on the board itself as well!

[@soknightsam]

Reminds me of the window ac unit in The Brave Little Toaster

[@Aeduo]

These things being used in 2002-2003 isn't a surprise to me. The school I was in ~2002-2003 still had some of those small Macintosh LCs around. It was quite poorly funded.

[@stevenjlovelace]

Wild *EEP!* is certainly the best response to the state of that motherboard.

[@Mac84]

That poor, poor EEP'in board...

[@VeryWarmBear1]

Navel jelly rust remover should work on the frame that and the CD case. Tarn-X will clean the connectors and IC legs it doesn't remove any metal like the Naval jelly will.

[@emmabentley7945]

You heard it here first folkes " The Butt Cheek Mac " love it lol

[@stevencarlson5422]

I have a g3 board that was that bad, cleaned it up and fixed the power reg board and it booted fine after that, sadly I cant fix the battery part because of the damage, but other than that it works great

[@reedreinfeld3737]

This just took me back to high school lol

[@wrightsublette1701]

Steve, I've got a few of these in storage. Great systems, especially when you have the video personality card. :) When John from Retromaccast and I used to have time for home LAN mulit player HALO, we would use these for the systems to connect to the network.

[@Mac84]

Nice! Although did you mean Marathon? Halo won't run on anything below an 867MHz G4.

[@wrightsublette1701]

@@Mac84 We used the A/V daughter cards to import the video feed into the All in ones, as a monitor. John and I are both quite fond of marathon, so that would have been played as well. Come on down to the coast, it would be fun to host you :)

[@Mac84]

Thanks for clarifying! That sounds like a lot of fun. If I ever make it down there I’ll let you know, feel free to drop me an email (Mac84tv ATA gMäîł.cöm)

[@TheRetroMess]

I wonder... Can you put a beige G3 motherboard in an ATX case? Have there been projects for this? I'm mainly thinking of all that brittle plastic and just getting the Macintosh working.

[@Mac84]

The beige G3 logic boards actually have a jumper that let you use a standard ATX power supply too. However, the PCI slots and ports will likely not line up on a standard ATX case.

[@nathen4021]

The plastics can use some retrobrighting.

[@jacktheripper6716]

Often people use rust remover sprays or converters which are on amazon

[@nicholasdill6630]

Looks like that Molar’s got a cavity

[@hardline2a]

I’ve only ever seen one of these in person

[@peporgan]

Hey Steve, nice video! What do you use to remove rust on logic boards and old internal metal casing on these?

[@Mac84]

I haven't tried this yet, but there are a lot of good comments here. So I'll have to try some of them!

[@JessicaFEREM]

the front of this mac looks like it's a fractal face, like you can almost see 2 faces, but the mouths of the 2 top faces are the eyes of the big face. this thing is just so weird

[@andrewdunbar828]

+Acid ⊧ +Rust. At least the warranty seal wasn't broken.

[@JarrydHall]

36:00 Ah, it looks like you didn’t switch UT from Software Rendering. :)

[@waterup380]

what year did this come out again for school in the USA

[@Mac84]

It was released in the Spring of 1998, I believe April.

[@waterup380]

@@Mac84 oh that is good to know. Thanks

[@s8wc3]

I'm guessing the ROM on the original AIO board tells Mac OS to enable the software monitor geometry controls, so if the other board proves unfixable swapping the ROM SIMM will make everything work as normal on the new board.

[@Mac84]

That’s a great catch! I’ll see if swapping the ROM does the trick. Thanks 👍

[@draggonhedd]

We had these when i went to elementary school in Lancaster, And I miss them dearly. I hope one day I can find one. Anyone wanna trade a PowerCenter pro for one? Evap-o-Rust is great, safe, and nontoxic for removing rust. After that, treat with phosphoric acid or other rust converter to convert it to black oxide. For the rust on the plastic, just vinegar and a scrub brush oughta do it.

[@kidkool27]

Quick call out on UT99, it stayed in Software Rendering instead of going to OpenGL on your second boot

[@Mac84]

Thanks, I didn’t notice that while filming. I’ll be sure to poke around with this more. Especially since the driver package I installed was 4.2 and I think it wanted 4.3.X

[@TheDemocrab]

You're meant to take these to a dentist for repairs, just FYI.

[@arudanel5542]

Personally I would use a dollar store wire brush and some WD40 on that surface rust, usually works for me. Keep it away from the plastic though, I'm not sure if that would do anything to it.

[@thedopplereffect00]

Your realize that you were running Unreal in the software renderer right? If you want to do that you need to go down to 320x240. Does it have a 3D accelerator in it you could utilize instead? I assume that was the ATI error you saw the first time

[@Mac84]

I mentioned this in a prior comment, but I will be reinstalling the OS and drivers and giving this another proper go.

[@maniatore2006]

Okay that is cheap, instat to repair the board , just replace it, that can do everyone. even my grandad :D

[@samuelbarringer715]

The battery acid when the battery exploded probably caused the rust on the computer.

[@OlivierCaron]

"Only released in the United States to education markets" that is actually incorrect, we had them in my college in Québec (Canada), so I guess the release was limited to North America.

[@Mac84]

Yeah - Sorry, I meant North America.

[@csudsuindustries]

You forgot STEVE JOBS WOW with the sales pitch on the G3 AIO particles, that is where the real money is.

[@Mac84]

L@@K, STEVE JOBS! 😂

[@csudsuindustries]

@@Mac84 Now yous got it.

[@retrogame9050]

I HAVE AN IMAC G3 GRAPE FROM 1999 IT TURNS ON BUT IT DOESN'T START THE SYSTEM IS STUCK ON THE INITIAL SCREEN I DON'T HAVE THE SYSTEM INSTALLATION CD WHAT SHOULD I DO?

[@samuelbarringer715]

Some phosphoric acid. Wear some goggles and gloves while handling phosphoric acid and separate the computer components to not damage the computer components.

[@protox07]

I like your videos

[@Anaerin]

Chances are UT would run better if it wasn't in software rendering (Which is what is switched to the first time when it complained about the wrong ATI drivers)

[@Mac84]

Yep! I mentioned this in a prior comment, but I will be reinstalling the OS and drivers and giving this another proper go.

[@techman2471]

Get a small jug of Evapo-Rust at Harbor Freight( or similar. Extract all the stell. and dunk the rusty molar into it for a few hours.

[@jamesdecross1035]

Q: What is a 'personality card"? Is it a multi-media (sound and vision) connector?

[@Mac84]

I'll be doing a more in-depth history video about this machine, but in short the personality card was an I/O card that gave the Mac sound capabilities. You could pay for a standard definition video I/O card, or even a video card that supported DVD playback card. The audio one was the cheapest option, so most people just kept that. The Power Mac G3 Desktop and MiniTower use similar cards, except the All-in-one model has a special port added to the cards to output video to the CRT.

[@dennisud]

Can this type of G3 handle old system 7.5 games like Duke Nukem?

[@Mac84]

The beige Power Mac G3s can only go as low as Mac OS 8. But it should run "most" System 7 or 7.5 titles

[@dennisud]

@@Mac84 Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, if after I get an M1 MacBook Air, I'll put my $$$ aside for a G3!

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Reported this video for violence and gore.

[@Mac84]

I'll put a content warning banner on the follow-up video :P

[@minty_Joe]

@@Mac84 Once you see, you can't unsee. 🤣

[@Bedfford]

a little of SilentHil's OtherWorld are inside of this machine

[@CACressida]

Sand blast the rust.

[@rager-69]

That's more than corrosion from a leaky battery. Water got in there.

[@Mac84]

Yep, like I said, probably didn't help that this thing was outside. Although it's odd there is no rust anywhere else...

[@JessicaFEREM]

the top of the molar mac looks like someone's back, like torso back. you can see where the shoulder blades would be near the front and where the curve to the butt begins. just awful. this looks like a fake apple product but totally real.

[@ViveGT]

✨screwdriver✨

[@theprofessor8517]

One word - gloves.

[@HardDriveGuruOfficial]

Am I the only one who wants to know what that Gumball program is?

[@atari2600b]

You should really center your voice during camera talk, even if you forget to get the mic audio & have to pull from the camera.

[@Mac84]

I'm working on getting a better lapel mic, but I'm working with what I got.

[@atari2600b]

@@Mac84 you can do it from within the editor. I got used to it as you cold cut to new angles but at the beginning I was sure my left speaker had died again (I'm dealing with Shakey cables). Standard practice is to center speech on intros & outros, it's hard to explain it's a whole subconscious level...audio engineerey...toimey woimey....thing.

[@Mac84]

The microphone I use is a mono one. So I'm not entirely sure what more centering I could do. 🤔 Either way I'm looking at other mic options, but nothing I can acquire just yet. The issue with the opening shots (and a few others) was that the furnace was on. When I reduced the background noise my voice sounded a bit thin, but it was either that or freeze my toes off, hah.

[@atari2600b]

It was shifting left & right too, I honestly assumed it was the camera mic

[@minty_Joe]

@@atari2600b Audio engineering is an art within itself.

[@themacintoshnerd]

“like new condition”

[@jackmacdonald714]

Hey i know the person you bought it from lol.

[@PROSTO4Tabal]

You remove 100% rust by sand blasting then primer

[@atari2600b]

Vinegar, wire brush

[@atari2600b]

I used pickle juice once