Defender Resurrection II

[GearHead]

My Defender was the first restoration I took on.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,150817.0.html

In the process of restoring that machine I bought another on Craigslist to use as a parts donor.  After transferring the guts of  game into my restored cabinet I had an empty shell.
Who doesn't need another project? This one will become a Multi Williams.

Here's how I got my second Defender.


I definitely had some work to do. The artwork was there but flaking and worn off.  Looks like someone tried to redo a bit of the black on top.





The cabinet bottom had some water damage and was swollen, delaminating and flaking off with some chunks missing. An all too familiar sight for us...










I decided to try and save the original artwork without going crazy retouching it. This machine would be refinished a bit but still look like one that had seen action in an arcade.
Winter break was coming up so I had some time and my school's shop all to myself.  Time to do some work on my second Defender.

[GearHead]

First order of business - Stabilize the wood.

I used the same method I employed with my other Defender. Saturate the wood with a penetrating epoxy, wipe off the excess and clamp down using blocks of wood wrapped in plastic bags. I made sure the epoxy got into all the voids and under the delaminated layers.   I used Abatron LiquidWood which has worked well on several other projects of mine.






Nice thing about using the school shop - lots of clamps!

A day later everything is solid. No flaking or loose wood.  Not pretty yet but the damage has been stopped.










Filling in the wood was done using another two part epoxy.  This time I used HF Staples Epoxy Wood Rebuilder.  It has the color and consistency of peanut butter when mixed. It's easy to apply and sand, it's now my favorite wood epoxy.





There were some big chunks of wood missing.






Everything sanded down nicely and was ready for paint.

[GearHead]

This game made its way from Texas to Massachusetts.  I think I'm going to keep the permit.



Painting
I focused on touching up the black paint with Rustoleum Satin Black 7777.  I painted the larger sections with a paint pad and details with a brush. Covered up the shiny sections at the top of the sides where someone had done some repainting. The smaller sections between the red and yellow areas took a while but it was worth the time.

The paint I used on my total repaint Defender isn't a true match for the red on the original artwork so I didn't touch up any of the red sections. The yellow is pretty close so I repainted some of the large sections that were down to the wood. If I find better matching paint I'll fix the rest of the sections.

Here's the cabinet after the first coat of paint.  Things look a lot better and still have that "authentic" working cabinet look.







After more touch up and a coat of clear to even out the sheen of the different black paints. 

[jan25th]

I would like to see a close up of your artwork touch up. It looks pretty darn good in the pictures you posted. Must have been a lot of fiddly work. What kind of brush did you use?

[GearHead]

It looks good from a distance which was my goal. I touched up the black to even things out and to give some of the red and yellow sections more definition.



but a closer look reveals there still lots of red and yellow paint worn off and bits of black missing.





Here's where I filled in a yellow section with some Krylon Sun Yellow paint I used on my other Defender project.  Not quite a match so I didn't do any other sections.



I teach at a high school and work on the cabinet in the art building.   For the detailed areas I "borrowed" a bright brush like the second brush from the left in this picture.  It was a cheap brush had been used several times by students.  It was a bit stiff from all the use it got which actually helped me paint sharper lines.  For larger sections I used a paint pad.



I could have spent days touching up all the black sections but I wanted the cabinet to look like it had been in an arcade and was 30 years old.   The clear coat keeps anymore red and the yellow from flaking off.  If I get inspired and have lots of time a few years from now I can do a full restoration of the artwork. 

[jan25th]

Props to your patience. Looks good.

[pbj]

I had a Comet pinball with similar cabinet issues.  I just sat down with some paint markers and filled in all the chipped areas in the yellow and red.  The end result was a huge improvement.

[GearHead]

Absolutely zero CRT monitors around here so I decided to go with a Wells Gardner LCD. 

The monitor bezel I purchased was narrower than the old bezel by about 1.5 inches. A small pain in ass but easily remedied by cutting some 3/4 inch x 3/4 inch plywood strips and attaching them to the cabinet.


Rear View

I had the frame of an old 19" monitor and used that as the base for mounting the LCD monitor.   A few pieces of wood and some black paint and the monitor was mounted and in place







A new marquee and monitor glass and we are looking good. 



I threw the isolation transformer back into the cabinet to give it some more weight.  I still need to close up the back.

There is one part missing that I need to find - The upper retaining bracket for the monitor glass which I think is the same as the upper marquee bracket. 
Anyone know where I can pick up an extrusion/profile that matches this?

[yotsuya]

Looks good. I teach too. The access to the woodshop has been valuable.

[GearHead]

Finally got around to making a MultiWilliams control panel for the game.  I looked at few overlays and decided to go with This Old Game's Defender themed CPO and I also popped for the plexiglass.





I wanted to keep things old school and went all leaf.  The Leaf Pro 8 Way joysticks were a good compromise in height between a Defender/Joust stick and a Robotron.

Had to 3D print some more spacers for the leaf switches to work with the short leaf buttons.





Looks pretty good.



The feel of the joysticks is pretty good with games.  Playing Robotron takes a little getting used to, but it's not bad.  Defender and Joust are close.  The Leaf Pros need a little more resistance but they will do for a machine in my classroom.

[GearHead]

I decided that I wanted to make the control panel swappable so I used an ATX breakout board off of eBay and an ATX connector. None of the pins are connected to each other on the breakout board so it has 24 available pins.   I just have to make sure I don't push the power on button.







Not much inside the cabinet.  The JROK MultiWilliams board is pretty small.

[ChadTower]

Damn, that's some fine work.   


Where south of Boston are you?  I live right by Gillette.

[8BitMonk]

The feel of the joysticks is pretty good with games.  Playing Robotron takes a little getting used to, but it's not bad.  Defender and Joust are close.  The Leaf Pros need a little more resistance but they will do for a machine in my classroom.

Agreed on the resistance, I had a Dominux8 in my Dig Dug cabaret and went back to a WICO.

I decided that I wanted to make the control panel swappable so I used an ATX breakout board off of eBay and an ATX connector. None of the pins are connected to each other on the breakout board so it has 24 available pins.   I just have to make sure I don't push the power on button.

Great idea! I want to do a swappable CP on my Defender as well and may go this route, thanks.

Where'd you buy the long ATX cable going to the CP and was it pre-wired or did you crimp and wire it yourself?

[GearHead]

Damn, that's some fine work.   
Where south of Boston are you?  I live right by Gillette.

Thanks.
I'm just off Exit 10 on Route 93. About 8 miles south of Boston.

Great idea! I want to do a swappable CP on my Defender as well and may go this route, thanks.

Where'd you buy the long ATX cable going to the CP and was it pre-wired or did you crimp and wire it yourself?

I cut my Jamma harness in half and crimped one end of it and fed the other end into the breakout board.

Seems to be working nicely.  I will update things when I finish off some other control panels.