Rat Rod (working title) - first Juke build

[drventure]

That hood ornament is fantastic! Yes, plating anything is a pain. I had some shelf brackets and a pinball shooter brass plated. Took more than 6 months. Ugh. They did turn out nice though.

I love those blue speaker rings. This is really making me want to do a juke build   

[roypattonphoto]

are u ready to build my box yet ? lol...

[gryhnd]

are u ready to build my box yet ? lol...

Ha!  You and I are about as far apart as you can get in the continental U.S.  Methinks shipping would be a ---smurfette---

[gryhnd]

That hood ornament is fantastic! Yes, plating anything is a pain. I had some shelf brackets and a pinball shooter brass plated. Took more than 6 months. Ugh. They did turn out nice though.

There is one large pitted area on the outermost ring of the target.  You can see it as a white spot in this pic:



I used my air die grinder with a soft grind stone and super low RPM to gently take off the oxidation and expose bare metal, cleaned it up with some acetone, masked it off with painters tape, and then hit it with some Krylon Chrome spray. Like all chrome spray paints, it's more of a bright silver than a true chrome, but for the small pea sized area I figured WTF. It's kind of a hack, and if you look directly at the repair it's ugly, but your eye is no longer drawn to that spot like it was with the white oxidation. Since it's also where the target curves under it's a bit out of the line of site, and with all the other stuff going on with the juke it's not something anyone will focus on. 

I'll see if I can live with it. Maybe eventually I'll try a different repair or a complete rechrome, but since this juke is in the rat rod theme (and the Chrysler "V" isn't perfect either), it all pretty much works.

[gryhnd]

and then hit it with some Krylon Chrome spray. Like all chrome spray paints, it's more of a bright silver than a true chrome, but for the small pea sized area I figured WTF.

This is the stuff. I found it at Micheal's:



Some guy used it to make a replica Cylon helmet. While his pics aren't the best, you can see how it's not  true chrome (of course) but not too too bad.

[roypattonphoto]

are u ready to build my box yet ? lol...

Ha!  You and I are about as far apart as you can get in the continental U.S.  Methinks shipping would be a ---smurfette---

lol...thats what UPS Freight is for...

[gryhnd]

Still waiting on the carbon fiber vinyl of course, but I drilled out the top for the hood ornament and have gently tapped it into place for now.

And...I've brought it into the house. Whoa, that's a huge step

For now it's in the home theater next to my big MAME upright. Too crowded there though, and half of it is on the area rug and half isn't so I have to shim up the one side. 

Might sell the Taito Legends upright and shift everything over to the right, or I might move the juke upstairs...not sure yet.

That aside, can I act like I'm 14 for a minute: "OMFG!!!!"

This ---smurfette--- frickin' cranks and she looks goooooood now that she's inside.

No big surprise, but it sounds 1000% better in the house than in the shop. When @ 1/2 volume it can be heard around the entire house (all three floors), and when you are in the theater room it feels like your intestines are liquefying from that thumping sub.

I'm pleased my friends, very pleased.

[gryhnd]

The carbon vinyl arrived yesterday, in 3 days! Considering it also came USPS but from CA all the way to MA, I'm still shaking my head about the two weeks for the hood ornament from MD.

Anyway...I decided the top of the Rat Rod looked a bit too barren with only the hood ornament on it. So ebay to the rescue again, and I have a set of 1960 Olds 88/98 front fender spears coming my way. I think I'll only need 4 of the 6 of these:



Each is about 8" long, so I intend to stagger two on each side of the hood ornament.  IOW they'll taper back from the central point of the hood ornament.

Here's what they look like on an original Olds (again, front fender):



I like the "sail" on the front of them. I think it goes well with the sail that rises from the tip of the Buick hood ornament and extends into the target.

[drventure]

Nice find! can't wait to see what that looks like all put together.

[gryhnd]

Nice find! can't wait to see what that looks like all put together.

Can't wait for them to get here. I'm going to hazard a guess that since they will be coming "economy", I might be in for another long wait.

In the meantime, I applied the carbon fiber and the hood ornament to the top this morning.

I must say I am disappointed in how the C.F. vinyl turned out. Nothing about the vinyl itself, but in hind sight I really should have sanded down the top of the cabinet first.  The vinyl telegraphs every little imperfection and spot of slightly raised grain, so there's a lot of what look to be little air bubbles, but aren't.

The additional chrome spears will cover up some, and hopefully also detract from them as well. Plus, if you aren't staring directly down at the surface, the pattern of the carbon fiber also hides the bumps a bit. Plus I keep trying to remind myself that a Rat Rod isn't supposed to be a symbol of perfection.

Michael's happened to have a 40% sale today off of frames, and I found the perfect match for our Steez Monkey Poster for short money:




ps - I pretty much have decided to sell or part out the Taito Game Room Classics machine.

[gryhnd]

(accidental double post)

[roypattonphoto]

now all you need a a swinging front protection door made out of a 35 Ford Grille 

[gryhnd]

now all you need a a swinging front protection door made out of a 35 Ford Grille 

That would look totally "rad" wouldn't it! 

[gryhnd]

Nice find! can't wait to see what that looks like all put together.

Can't wait for them to get here. I'm going to hazard a guess that since they will be coming "economy", I might be in for another long wait.

Hey, not bad. They arrived today!

They look awesome. Need a good cleaning with some chrome polish but I'm very pleased.

Unfortunately I don't think I'll get them installed this weekend. We're having a pre-season party for my son's soccer team tomorrow and time is tight. But, the Rat is in place and operational, so that's a plus.

My Taito 20-in-1 just sold, pending pick up tomorrow. Weekend has started off nicely.  Well, except for the piss poor Celtics game last night...

[gryhnd]

My son's pre-season soccer party was here yesterday, and everyone from the kids to the adults were fawning over the Rat. Comments/questions ran the usual "you made it?", "how did you do that?", "where did you get the idea?", "how much would it cost if you sold it?" and "that's awesome!"

A sibling of one of the team was celebrating his 13th birthday with us. When I told him he could play whatever he wanted on the Rat, his eyes lit up and in he went.

He quickly brought up AC-DC Hell's Bell's. You should have seen his face. He felt like a 

Sure makes all the effort worth it! 

Not sure when I'll have a chance to get the spears installed this week, but I did want to lay them out and see how they will look. IMO: pretty sharp!

The mounting pins are angled to various degrees (no pun intended) to account for the roll of the Olds 88 fender. I might just cut them off, or cut them short, in order to make installation more straightforward.

[Turvey]

I've been browsing this fine site over the last few weeks and specifically signed up to comment on this build. I hope you don't mind a newbie bumping a thread.

This has to rate as one of the nicest looking jukeboxes I have seen. It does make me feel inadequate though as I wish I was able to do what you have done. I only wish I had a tenth of your skills and eye for design. It has given me ideas on what I could maybe do in the future though.

Is this still 99% done or is there a pic of the finished article?

[gryhnd]

I've been browsing this fine site over the last few weeks and specifically signed up to comment on this build. I hope you don't mind a newbie bumping a thread.

This has to rate as one of the nicest looking jukeboxes I have seen. It does make me feel inadequate though as I wish I was able to do what you have done. I only wish I had a tenth of your skills and eye for design. It has given me ideas on what I could maybe do in the future though.

Is this still 99% done or is there a pic of the finished article?

Hey, thanks man! Ya, she's still at 99% done. I STILL haven't put the damn fender spears on yet! But you're motivating me. I also have a new camera now so I can take some decent shots again.

I'll see what I can do in the next couple weeks.

[gryhnd]

I finally recorded a quick and dirty video of the Ratrod in action. I promise to get some good pics of her in the near future:

[drventure]

Hey Greyhnd

i couldn't find it on your build thread, but what Jukebox software did you end up using? And was this a custom skin?

[gryhnd]

"Album Player", and it is one of their stock skins you can download.

[drventure]

Thanks! It looks great on your cab.

I'm not sure that skin will quite work on mine, but I'm tending to believe JRiver might be a tad too much for my cab, so that player looks like a great alternative.

[Mr. Dude]

Wow, that's awesome!  I'm a car guy and love the theme you came up with, great job!