Turbo control panel tips.

[paigeoliver]

Now that I am on my second Turbo I thought I would share a few tips on what to do about the control panel. This information should also be applicable to most other driving games as well.

First we will start with the panel itself.

Every Turbo I have ever seen has a BUNCH of cigarette burn marks at the top of the panel. There is unfortunately no perfect solution to this, but it is possible to sand the top portion of the panel down to flatten it, and then buff it out to make it shiny again. You will lose the texture on the area you did this to though.

As for the rest of the plastic, it should clean up nicely with some convertible top cleaner (at least that is what I used).

Now onto the steering wheel. Turbo came with a steering wheel that was wrapped in foam rubber. You can either replace the wheel and spoke assembly with one from a 70s era Atari driving game (which is what had already been done to my first Turbo), or you can do this.

Get some rags and some tape. Use the rags to fill in the areas where the foam rubber was missing, and then wrap in tape until the wheel basically has the right shape again. Then go to and get a cheap black steering wheel cover (look for the leather one that you sew on), and install that. Another option is simply to get a new 3 spoke "Grant" wheel ($20 if memory serves correct) at the auto parts store and install that.

The center cap consists of a large black piece (remove, sand and repaint), and a Sega logo (not much you can do with it, just clean it the best you can).

If you still have your original wheel, then use some steel wool on the spokes and then polish them up with chrome polish.

The Turbo shift knob is wooden. Pull the knob off (while stopping to use steel wool and chrome polish on the shaft), sand it, and then restain it to get a good finish on it again.

Now, to finish up we are going to make one of the gauges functional. Pick a gauge and remove it. Go to the auto parts store and get a voltage gauge (you might have to order it from JC Whitney) the same size. This hooks up to ground and +5 on the power supply. Now when you turn your game on the gauge will come on (and light up if it is a lighted one). You can also replace the second gauge with another voltage gauge hooked up to ground and +12. You can also optionally take the new gauge apart and put the original Turbo gauge graphics inside them.

If anyone is knowledgeable enough to make one of the gauges move with the gas pedal then please chime in here,I would realy like that.

That is it, we are all done. Your driving game panel is now looking great, and you can now monitor the voltages your power supply is putting out from the front of the game.

I will add some pictures to this soon.

[paigeoliver]

Also, anybody interested in more little articles like this? I have done a ton of work to most of my games, and have lots of little tips and hints to share.

[MinerAl]

Please do more posts lke this.

Posts like this are what I needed when I was new, and still are fun to read now that i'm... old.

[Xiaou2]

 Nice write up : )

  What about the pedals?

  I just got a Spy Hunter : )   However... the pedals were in rough shape.

  You could see that there was a rust on them..  but after scrapeing some of the paint off... I realized that there was a LOT of rust was under the old paint!

  I took a wire wheel attackment and poped it onto the drill press.  This was my first time using one... so wasnt sure about it...

  At first applying light pressure... I realized that I could use very heavy pressure without harm.  

  It took off a good deal of the paint and easily took away rust... and polished the metal very nicely.

 However... some of the paint was very thick and needed to be hand chissiled off.   I used some cleaner to soak into the paint to help loosen it off as I scrapped.

 Wire wheel'd it once more to finish the surface... and buffer wheel attackment for smooth shinny results.
(keep the rpm's low when buffing plastics to make sure that it dosnt melt enuff to make a radical surface alteration.  I also recomend not too fast on the metal...is it could rip it out of your hands if not carefull)

  Finally, I found 'Krylon rust converter'.   It says it is black... but after spraying the pedals... it was clear...?!  But after about 15 minutes... it turned the pedals dark purple... and when I awoke, they had fully turned black! : )  

  Last step - when pedals are cured and dry... than add a few coats of heavy duty gloss black paint.  (I think its the epoxy type by rust-oleam)

 
* For non black pedals... you may want to find other type of clearcoat paints to protect the bare metal.

 
* Dirty Circuit boards / monitor yoke bds?   Radio shack sells "Electronic Component Cleaner".   I just remove the little brush end on the can... and spray heavily over the whole thing.  

  Make sure the power is unplugged... and that you wait a day before pluggin in and booting the machine.  

  You may need to spray the board several times for all the grime to run down (place some shop towels under it to catch the mess).    Its also very expensive spray... but after its clean... the boards will look like new! : )    Cleans corrosion too... so might work better.
 
 To help the drying... a hair dryer might help... however... Id still wait a day till booting up.  Also be carefull not too overheat areas with the dryer.  (maybe a fan on it overnight better option..)

* Dusty Cabnet?   Hairdryers do have a good kick to move air arround... esp the new ones.  Cheaper than compressed air cans - and more ecco-sound.   Finish up with mini vac...

 

   

[Xiaou2]

paigeoliver,

  can i use any optics for the turbo gas pedal?  one of mine is busted :  (

[Donger]

These are great tips!  It would be great if you put these on your website for future reference.

[Xiaou2]

 Thanks  

 My site is old as hell... and the text somehow changed to black which ive yet to find the time to fix.

  When I started the 'Marble Insanity' project... I needed most all my pages for that and had to compress my control building stuff into a single page... since homestead only allots me like 5 pages.   : (    

  If I had the space... (I cant afford any more), I could probably fill it up with more cool tips, pics, ect...

  My time is now divided into these projects currently:


- Marble Insanity 3d model/animation making (trying to learn max...)

- Restore Spy Hunter Pedal, Wheel, light cab touchups...

- Change 'Turbo Outrun' to Outrun, and restore controls/cab

- Fix 'Turbo' Optics, restore pedals, have a pro look it over for overheat problem)

- Dissassemble Black Knight 2000 pinball part by part, clean & polish parts... replace parts, fabricate some new plastics, and somehow find a way to scan in the playfield - touch up in photoshop, and then print it out to be placed over the top of the old one... as the one I got has major cracking and graphics wear/missing.

  (The condition of all my machines arnt that good.. thus how I could actually afford them all! )

[cw]

I had been given a tubo cockpit that was in pieces from water damage, I did however keep all the controls and pedal with optics, seat (which is in very nice shape), monitor, score and high score board, shifter, back plexi, coinbox, wire harness, bezel, some of the rearart, and the powerboard.  All the gauges and wheel had been yanked.  I found it hard to believe someone had let this thing rot in the
rain but it was toast......     I am willing to trade or sell all but the shifter so let me know if ya  need  anything......

[paigeoliver]

I may actually need the optics from the control panel. Mine may be missing, they aren't on the panel, but they may be inside the cabinet.

[Tailgunner]

If anyone is knowledgeable enough to make one of the gauges move with the gas pedal then please chime in here,I would realy like that.

I'll assume you want a functioning tach, since it's the gauge that directly relates to the position of the gas pedal. Real tachs use a pulse that's generated in the ignition module, so to use one you'd need some form of pulse generator that uses a pot to control the pulse rate. Said pot could be slaved to the original input pot on the pedal, effecting the pulse rate and giving the tach the stream of pulses it's looking for.


Another way would be to use a electrical gauge (as opposed to a mechanical gauge, ammeters or voltmeters won't work.) Engine temp gauges, oil pressure gauges, ect are really just ohmmeters set to read a specific range of resistance. Find one the right size for your dash panel cutout, with a large enough sweep range (180 to 270 degrees would work best) to convert into a tach. Take it apart, remove the pointer, and repaint the face so it looks like a tach.  All you'll need to drive it will be a pot that covers the resistance range the gauge is expecting, a means to add that pot to your gas pedal, and 12 volts to power the circuit.

[paigeoliver]

Turbo doesn't have a gas pedal pot, if I remember correctly it has a 3 or 4 position optical switch. Definitely optical though, as the gas pedal on a Turbo doesn't work if you shine a light on it inside the cabinet (or if the back door is off and a lot of light is coming in).

[Tailgunner]

Doesn't really matter, as long as the pedal moves you can add a bit of linkage and turn a pot. Check the pedals page at Lew's Wheels for a general idea of what's involved.

http://www.monmouth.com/~lw4750/pedals.htm