That really sucks man, I feel your pain. I've been through the exact same thing with a Commodore 64 a few years back and it's just brutal when you're all set up and ready to go. Honestly, once that cap juice gets into the board fibers it's pretty much game over for those traces, they just turn to dust. You did the right thing trying to clean it quick but if the alcohol didn't stop the damage from spreading you're probably looking at a full retrace job at minimum. Might be less of a headache to just find a replacement motherboard or another 800XL on eBay and save yourself the hours of frustration. The retro scene is full of dead boards like this so don't beat yourself up over it too much.

Did you ever see that test where someone glued two blocks together and they held up a car? It's wild how strong glue can be when you do it right. But I'm with Fiona, kids are chaos agents and a little extra wood never hurts.

Take that scam a step further and there's folks now 3D printing fake patina and rust patterns to make scrap metal look like hundred year old anvils. They'll even grind fake pritchel holes and stamp brand names on with a die set they bought online. Best rule I've found is if it feels too cheap and the seller's story sounds too good, bring a file and a magnet because a real anvil won't fool either one.

Respectfully @caseyw12, gatekeeping keeps standards high so the FINAL piece doesn't end up as absolute garbage.

Yeah @rose_hart31 you hit it perfectly, I’ve lived here my whole life and still get shocked when the stars actually show up. It’s like Oregon saves up all its clear nights for the one week you really want to test your gear.