Thinkpads Forum

Hello everyone,

This isn’t my final ThinkPad desk setup yet — it’s still a work in progress — but I’m gradually getting everything ready. In the meantime, I’d like to share a simple and effective trick I recently discovered to restore shiny or worn plastic surfaces on palmrests and keyboards back to their original matte finish, without much effort.

All you’ll need is a standard dishwashing sponge — ideally the type with two layers: a soft foam side and a more abrasive, thread-like side. The key here is to use the rough, abrasive layer for the job. And if you don’t happen to have one handy, you might borrow a piece from your household supply (with appropriate permission, of course!). Avoid force, more time and more random movements with the sponge will result into more matte and homogenous surface of you ThinkPad's plastics. And better if you use a wet cloth to make the plastics layer wet right before you apply the sponge movements. Good luck!

Oh - and meet my ThinkPads below - T23, T30 and R51e!

Before:


After:

Nice! It may be hard for me to judge because of small difference in angle/lighting, but the biggest difference I see are in the keyboard keys, especially on the T30.

Thanks. Yes, keyboards provide biggest difference because the plastic surface has more smoother relief than the palmrests which have more ragged structure - palmrests need more time. Good thing is that the sponge doesn't impact white paint on the keys, at least I can't find any harm on them.

Sick! My favorite chassis design is the R5x and the R51e has to be one of the most stable of the R5x series.
Shame that it can't support a SXGA+ or UXGA display though.

Maybe the motherboard from T43/p with ATI graphics could be used in R51e to drive the UXGA screen? I am not seeking this upgrade currently and I love how R51e runs quietly and how cool the entire system is even under some load (I have maxed the config out - P-M 780 2.26GHz, 2GB RAM and Samsung HM160HC). Need to say that batteries in R51e and T30 still hold around 1 hour of charge which is impressive for a 20+ years old laptops.

Well a regular R5x (non-e) with ATI gpus can support UXGA, but the good thing about the R51e is that it doesn't have any southbridge or GPU issues like its contemporaries.

Also, have you rebuilt the T30 battery? 1 hour of charge on such an old battery truly is impressive.

lukee wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 23, 2026 4:44 am

Thanks. Yes, keyboards provide biggest difference because the plastic surface has more smoother relief than the palmrests which have more ragged structure - palmrests need more time. Good thing is that the sponge doesn't impact white paint on the keys, at least I can't find any harm on them.

agree with you, can not see big difference between before and after. They are all in good conditions.