I finally did it. I spent about 20 minutes and scraped the flaking blue coating off with my fingernail. It looked pretty bad at that point covered with a thin, hard and sticky residue which remained after the blue coating peeled off.
Next stop, the hardware store. I bought a can of Nevr-Dull for $5 which is cotton swabbing material soaked in a *polish* called "Magic Wadding Polish". It's advertised to clean metals including silver, gold, brass, copper, pewter, glass, steel, aluminum and chromium. Says it "removes rust and corrosion instantly".
The PocketFactory forum posts I referred to in my first leprosy post said Brasso works. Same kind of thing, so I figured Nevr-Dull would work even though I've heard that the case is made out of plastic - seems like it might be metal to me. And it worked. (I tried to avoid getting it on my skin and washed my hands after because I got some on my thumbs.) It immediately dissolved the residue and I was able to wipe it off. And it didn't damage the case in any way.
Now it looks like the photo above. It looks quite good anyway but has lost the fun blue color and rubbery texture. If I want to be fussy, I can spend a little more time removing the blue coating from the cracks to finish the job. The Zire feels like it could slip out of my hand now - oh well.
Onward and upwards! The latest thing now to spiff this baby up would be one of the gorgeous new Vaja Classic leather cases PalmOne has just introduced. Pricey but great-looking.
I like the two-toned models that go for $75. There are all sorts of color combinations. I think I would like the dark or lighter brown leather with black or dark green perhaps. Next time I'm in the mood for a $75 treat, I'll know where to go.
Except for one thing. There's competition for my Zire-targeted *treat* dollars right now because PalmOne has finally introduced a wifi SD card for the Zire 72 and Tungsten 3. Those are going for $130. If I thought I would keep this little machine for a long time, I could more easily justify either of these two purchases. For a gadget geek like me, this is a tough decision. The leather case offers beauty and tactile pleasure (not to mention protection) but the SD card offers a potent convenience: self-sufficient net access. These are the kinds of problems I like.