A Joust restoration.. this is going to take a while

[bperkins01]

Well ....  Got another one..

I've always loved Joust and even while I was restoring my favorite machine, Centipede, I kept an eye out for an original Joust project/restoration.  What I learned is that they are not easy to come by..  Working / restored machines are selling for a considerable amount.

Buried in a Facebook Marketplace ad for a bunch of machines was a reference to a Joust cabinet that had been converted to a Silkworm.  The Joust boards were in some other cabinet that had some crazy setup to switch back and forth between it and some other game.   After getting a few pictures and going back and forth with the seller  - I was determined to make this poor machine back into a Joust again!

Beneath the brown paint and TECMO sticker - an original Joust will be back!

[bperkins01]

Here is the ugly duckling..



It's up on a dolly so I can move it around.

The cabinet is really beat up at the bottom.



I can repair the sides pretty easily.  I was going to replace the front - except it has the cabinet serial# imprinted on it.  I'd like to retain it..  but we will see how easily I can get the panels apart.

The board set on the other hand is in excellent condition.  A to A+ just looking at it.  I'm told it works perfectly - but I haven't tried it yet.   The boards were mounted in a Sinistar cabinet up under the monitor board face down.   The entire original wiring harness was also in the Sinistar cabinet - door interlock switches, all of it!  The owner made a clamp-on removable control panel with the Joust controls.  When he wanted to use Joust - he clamped on the control panel, connected it to the Joust harness through the coin door and swapped the video cable at the monitor.  It was two complete games in a single cabinet.



First Observations:

• Cabinet, Monitor and power supply are all the same serial number
• All of the system boards are the same serial number too..  Just a different one
• Monitor works - but has Silkworm burn in and the colors are pretty flabby..  I'll recap it first and look for a potential tube swap
• Control panel is the original joust panel - but with many extra holes
• Control panel wiring harness is a bit of a mess
• Coin door can be restored to look new
• Marquee and bezel missing
• Did Williams really solder all of their connections vs. using wire connectors?

First step is to strip down the cabinet and repair the shattered plywood....

[bperkins01]

It does have the original control panel..

But it was converted to a Silkworm panel (or something)..  there are many many holes.



Here is the backside of the clip-on Joust control panel that was used with the Sinistar cabinet.  A hunk of wood with odd buttons, etc.  At least the joysticks and leaf switches seem to be original  as well as a chopped up original wiring harness.



Back to the control panel....  The overlay must have been put on many years ago..  it is extremely tough and would not peel off.  When I could get some of it - it started taking the grain of the wood with it...



So I used a standard heat gun and putty knife to get it off.  I'm not 100% sure I'm going to reuse this panel - but I needed to get it uncovered so that I could measure it to manufacture a replacement.



Joust's panel has a 16G steel plate that is rabbeted into the top of the plywood.  Four of these holes are original Joust holes - the rest are an abomination!



The good news is that all of the info I need to make a replacement panel I can get from this one.  If I decide to repair this one - the 2 way joystick mounts are still in place.  I'd have to plug and re-drill the 6 button holes to make them usable for the original style buttons.

At minimum - I'll get an exact model of this CP designed in Sketchup.  I've completed the hole pattern for the steel plate.



                                                                         

I went ahead and generated a full set of plans for the Joust CP.



Downloadable here: Joust Control Panel  I've also ordered a steel replacement plate for the panel.  Depending on  how things go - I may make a few of these.

[bperkins01]

Of the few cabinets I've been inside - this one is pretty well constructed..

Williams used plywood and actual dado joinery on Joust.  Centipede is particle board, butt joints and staples.  Galaga is MDF.



What makes it nice is what is going to also make it difficult to get apart.  They used actual joinery with glue.  Hopefully I can knock the sides apart and get the front off.    One really nice feature of this cabinet is the monitor is on a plywood shelf.  Unplug the power and video and slide it out. Super simple.

It has this fun feature.. A built in mirror behind the marquee that is angled down toward the screen.




You can slide the monitor backward by unbolting it from the forward hole and putting the bolt in the rear hole so it doesn't slide onto the floor.  That distance gives you a little separation so the mirror can see the screen - very clever!



Coin door is all there - but in need of some straightening out and a fresh coat of paint.



Merry Christmas Joust cabinet - 1982.



Here is the power brick - need to clean it up and test it..  Its really just a transformer with a cable..  The Atari power brick has much more to it..  Maybe I'll check the resistance on the winding's before adding power.  It doesn't look trustworthy.  At minimum I'm replacing the power cord and the EMI filter.



Patient up on the operating table.  The guys in the waiting room just need monitor work - no major surgery like Joust.

Here's the plan:

• Remove the front coin door panel
• Remove the botton
• Cut 12" off each side and replace with new plywood
• Cut 6"-8" off the front and replace with new plywood
• Sand everything, prime, paint, stencil in Joust sideart

I might have replaced this back panel and the front coin panel, except if you look close here - the cabinet serial number is stamped on the part.  Same for the front coin panel.  Notice the staple too...



This type of repair isn't for everyone.  It took me a while to figure out the best way to get this cabinet apart and not completely destroy it.  Williams made a solid cabinet.  The material is plywood, they used dado joinery, glue, staples and corner blocking.

After messing with it a bit - here is what works best to get this apart.  The inside corner blocking needs to come off first. You can use an oscillating multi-tool saw and a pry bar to get them out.  Best to work slow and try not to shred the plywood - but you are going to in some places..



My clamps have reversible heads so that they can push the sides apart.  Use a bunch of them to spread the load evenly and work slow.  As it crunches, cracks and pops  - use the saw, putty knife or blade to help things work apart.  Try to locate the staples and cut through them as you see them.  The front and bottom will have to come off as one section because of the way the coin box is designed.



Well - the top is loose - but the bottom is still on - more clamp spreading from inside the coin door panel.  Had to do this across the bottom as well.   As soon as you see a staple - cut it inside the joint.  Next time I'll try a magnet or stud finder to see if I can locate them to dig them out first.



It's apart - I'll focus on the sides first while I formulate a plan for the front..



The bottom edge is trash.  I'm using the straight edge to create a square reference point for cutting.  Now I'm going to sleep on it and make sure when I wake up I still like this idea..

[Mike A]

This is going to look great next to your other cabs. I like the pissed off looking ostrich head poking out.

[bperkins01]

Decided to go with the plan



I started by trying to sand off the brown paint that was on top of the side art.  It instantly gummed up the pad - sanding wasn't going to work. 
Next I tried a paint stripper that I had laying around for 20+ years - you know - the smelly stuff you can't buy anymore..  that worked..  it took a few coats of paint some on ... scrape a layer .. paint more on..  scrape a layer..



The original plywood was a good quality maple - its actually pretty smooth here even though it may not look it.  It only took a few minutes to smooth it out with the sander after the stripper work was done.  Williams used a primer under the original brown paint too.



The track saw will make parts of this easy - 12" off the bottom..



One thing I strongly recommend - if the original T-molding is there - leave it on as long as possible.  It's a great guide to keep you from sanding the corners round or dinging them up.   While sanding the sides - once you start digging too far into the T-molding - you can see it.



Joust a foot shorter - is it a cabaret now?

[bperkins01]

My machine is still coming apart - but some parts can start going back together..

First up is the power brick:



Not the best looking power supply I've ever seen.  Its mounted on MDF - and I'm pretty sure its original.  Normally I try to keep everything original as I can, but not this.  After washing it up, the utility outlet is fine, not crazy about the fuse holder.  Next order to Arcadeshop I may add a new one in.



The nuts and bolts are the typical rusty pile you normally find.  I have a Harbor Freight vibratory polisher.  I'll toss them in over night and see if they clean up.  The line filter likely is fine - but for $11 - I'm replacing it.  Power cord was junk. (as expected)



Gave the wires a bath and wire brushed the transformer.  I did avoid getting the paper wet as much as possible.  Paint is still wet here - but they look great cleaned up.  Put the meter on the connections to check ohms - the are all pretty low as they should be.  No shorts.



Polisher does a decent job removing rust.  These don't cost anything to replace - but they are still original!



Jumping ahead I mounted the transformer and related to a new block of plywood.  I used the original MDF as a guide, drilled the holes and located all of the parts in the same places.  Painted it white to match.  Williams soldered all of their connections.  I'm not a fan.  I added ring connectors to all of the wires on the EMI and new power cord.

Last part is making a jumper block for the 12 pin Molex that normally would select 120/240v and manage the interlock switches.  After powering it on - all the voltages checked at the transformer output.



And because I could - I connected it to the power distribution board and checked the output voltages on this one to.  So far - power is all good and clean!

[Mike A]

That sure is purdy.

[J_K_M_A_N]

Damn it I love watching stuff like this when guys with crazy talent (and that are kinda anal) do work like this. So nice looking. Can't wait for more progress.

J_K_M_A_N

[bperkins01]

Thanks guys - next week is the pandemic furlough unpaid vacation I get to spend my time in the shop week.....
My plan is to have the cabinet all back together with new plywood added and all primed up. 
We'll see how far I can get!

[Arroyo]

This will be an interesting one to follow (well all your work is), as there is a lot of restore work here.  I’ll be taking notes in the background .  That power supply is pretty.

[bperkins01]

Working on the coin door panel



I decided to remove the lower 6" of this panel. Simplest way to do it is raise the saw blade just above the thickness of the plywood.



and saw a clean line right across the front.



It knocked off pretty easily with a mallet..  Clean up the bits and pieces, etc..



The old part - this wasn't repairable - if you wanted it to last.



 I missed some pictures at the router table - but I cut in the dados on the back of the replacement part to match the original.    I used thickened epoxy to glue this in place.  It fills gaps and won't come apart.  Which pretty much means this is permanent.  The important part on this repair is to know that plywood 40 years ago was actually 3/4" thick.  Today's plywood is 1/32" thinner..  If you look close - I'm clamping the thinner one from the bottom to push it up so that the face is flush.  The part you see is the important part.



From the top - the face is flush with the new part AND its perfectly flat.  A quick sand and repaint of the front and it will all be invisible.  I still need to cut the rabbets on the sides.  One other thing I did is I left it a little long.  Once I determine the actual overhang relative to the floor panel, I can cut it to length.  Its easier to have it a little bit too big and cut it down than to have it too small and try to add material. 

Blanks for the side panels. 



Originally I thought Joust was maple plywood - its actually birch.  Doesn't matter really - but its good information.



Here is how I'm adding the 12" back to the sides.  I've cut a couple biscuit slots for alignment.  After putting it all together, I didn't really need them.  But they are in there.  My bench is large and flat.  I put down a few rows of packing tape (clear and shiny just under the plywood edge) to prevent gluing it all to my bench.  Because the plywood needs to be perfectly flat - the board with the spacers is clamping it all down tight to the bench.



Add some thickened epoxy, a couple of biscuits and another long clamp to bring them together.  This is the same situation as the front where the new wood is 1/32" thinner than the old..  but it will be on the inside and the only part that will matter is near the bottom and it blend with the T-molding.



Everything held in place flat for epoxy to set up. 



Pulled the clamps off - the face is perfectly flat and flush. Exactly what I was shooting for.  I still need to cut the rabbets, fill some dings on the original black part, finish sand and it will be ready for a final paint job.



This one will be a little trickier because I need to cut dado's on the inside to match the original parts for the bottom and coin panel to fit back into place.  I purposely left the front edge over sized.  This eliminates any possibility of getting that front edge out of line.  I can cut it in place.

If for some reason I messed my cut across the bottom of the original side panel and it wasn't square -  I could have left this panel over sized on the front and the back and used the original sides for reference making it nearly impossible to mess up.  Its actually easier that way.

Now to do the second side..

[Mike A]

Nice write up.

The differences in plywood thickness threw me off the first time I tried to match stuff up.

[bperkins01]

Nice write up.

The differences in plywood thickness threw me off the first time I tried to match stuff up.

Thank you kind sir  

[bperkins01]

This is the lower rear panel  The edge shown is the part that is next to the floor.  Considering how bad the sides and front were - this is in relatively decent shape.  The plywood is a little chewed up - but this part has a serial# stamped on it..  So..  I'll preserve it.



Skipping ahead - I used two boards that I covered in packing tape and cut some scrap for end stops.  Clamp it up tight and filled the edge with epoxy.  If you warm the epoxy with a torch (lightly brush by with the heat) the air bubbles will all pop and create a clear fill. 



A little sanding, primer and paint - it will be better than new.

[Mike A]

but this part has a serial# stamped on it..  So..  I'll preserve it.

Thank you.

[Arroyo]

I want to setup a tent in your shop and play.  Excellent work.

[bperkins01]

(thanks Arroyo - the shop is open...  I bet you've always wanted a shot at a wood lathe.)

(rant on)
If anyone gets ONE takeaway from that last picture  - it should be this:

Bondo is for filling surface defects - 1/8" or less.  Epoxy is structural and strong.  They make boats, ski's, airplanes and corvettes with epoxy.. 
No one makes anything structural out of Bondo!

Learn to use epoxy.
(rant off)

[bperkins01]

My original plan was to just rebuild the control panel.  After spending time drawing it in Sketchup and re-looking at the original and trying to keep the original panel since it had a factory date stamp on the inside...  I'm going to repair it.

From my panel designs - I was able to create a DXF file that I send to an online laser cutter.  The steel replacement panel that came back is nearly perfect!  I have to tweak a couple of items and I can reproduce the steel plate at will for reasonable cost.



But what to do with the Swiss cheese I already had.  I've seen some hacked up repairs to this style of panel - but came up with something that will be pretty nice.   



The holes are all 1 3/16" - I see people trying to match the existing ones - which just means when you redrill for the buttons, you are compromising the plug you just made.  Drill it oversize - here is a 1 1/2" Forstner bit creating a clean hole for the plug.



Then head out to your local hardware store and get a 1 1/2" dowel.  Here it is with a stop block set to the thickness of the panel.



Clamp it down to some plastic and epoxy them in place.  The joystick openings are supposed to be square.  However the mounting plate and blind nuts make the round part not relevant.  This will get sanded smooth and cleaned up. 

The hard part is getting the adhesive off from the old overlay.  I've gone through every solvent I have and the best I can do is get it kinda gummy..  Paint stripper and a putty knife have worked the best - I give it a "C-"  But nothing else has worked. 

[Mike A]

Very nice. I like watching you save what you can of the original cab.

[Arroyo]

Good idea over drilling the hole size for a standard dowel

For the adhesive, I take it an orbital sand with a high grit paper wouldn’t work?

[bperkins01]

For the adhesive, I take it an orbital sand with a high grit paper wouldn’t work?

Gums it up immediately..  I got about 90% of it off the front face.  I need to paint strip the bottom face and scrape and then sand..  if I gum up 2-3 sheets vs 10.  that works

[bperkins01]

One more because I can:

I purposely over sized the panels replacing the shattered plywood at the bottoms of the side panels.   It's possible to pre-cut them to exact size, glue them in place w/o shifting and have them perfect. But its REALLY HARD to do!  If it's off a little - what do you do?  cut it off and try again?  Add more wood?  Its a pain..



One reason to have a track saw (or equivalent) is that you can cut the panel in place - to the exact size.  No thinking or planning.  In fact - if you are measuring - your working too hard.  Here the track is lined up on the front edge.  Clamp and cut!  No mistakes possible. (ok - none probable)



Perfect straight line - it will not have even the slightest hump in the T-molding.. I cut the front and back sides this way..  When I'm ready - the bottom will be cut to length too..  Almost no thinking involved.



No gaps!!



Here is a different issue:  The bottom is the outside face of the cabinet side.  Its perfectly flat/flush to take the side art.  However - because 40 year old plywood is 3/4" thick and modern plywood is 23/32" - the new stuff is too thin on the INSIDE face.  To fix this - I added two pieces of veneer to shim it up to the proper thickness.



Normally I would not care because its inside the cabinet and no one will see it..  Except...The coin door panel meets this area in the front.  If I didn't shim it to the same thickness, there would be a gap where the coin door panel meets the sides.  I only need to shim the front edge where the panel meets.



Two sheets of veneer, some yellow glue, plastic sheet to prevent gluing the clamping block in place and clamps.  When it comes apart it just needs to be sanded to shape and filled a bit.  Then I can finish the 3/8" dado's all around and prime everything for reassembly.

[Mike A]

No thinking or planning.

That is my specialty.

[bperkins01]

Got sidetracked for a while... back at the Joust Cabinet..



Here is something I've never seen on an arcade cabinet restoration forum - So let me show you the old school way...  Once the veneer was in place - there was still a hump between the old front edge and the new veneer.

Now your thinking - why not just sand it?  You could.. but what happens is you end up rounding it all over and taking away too much material.  The end result usually is a concave surface right at the seam.

Above is a #4 hand plane - The shavings are set to thinner than paper.  The way it works is you are shaving just the high spot without cutting into the low areas.  This is how boards were flattened 100 years ago before all of the modern machinery..  Flattening this transition area took about 60-90 seconds..  A hand tool is much more effective than a power tool in this instance and does a better job..



The original veneer got damaged in the old area..  You would be inclined to fill with Bondo..  I would not..  It has zero strength.  Epoxy with wood filler is a much better way to repair this problem.  Epoxy is stronger than the wood it is holding together.  This area needed to be repaired because it would show where the coin panel meets the inside face.



A little out of sequence - Router with edge guide cutting the dado's.



Williams cabinets were pretty well constructed - here are replacement corner gussets.  The original's got destroyed during removal (as they should have)..



Not a huge fan of staples - but this is the appropriate use of them - gussets, glue and staples. 



Joust cabinet all glued up and clamped up... Need to cut the T-molding slots and add blocking for the feet.  One thing will change from the original:  The blocking/feet will protrude from the bottom at least the thickness of the foot - there is no way I'm letting the bottom of this cabinet get destroyed again.  Williams originally made is so the cabinet feet recessed - which destroyed the bottom of this in the first place.

[wp34]

Nice use--and explanation of the hand plane.   

[Arroyo]

A hand tool is much more effective than a power tool in this instance and does a better job..

And next your gonna tell us that the horse and buggy was severely under appreciated

[bperkins01]

A hand tool is much more effective than a power tool in this instance and does a better job..

And next your gonna tell us that the horse and buggy was severely under appreciated

Nooo.. it was fantastic compared to walking 10 miles into town... 

But in this hand plane example - I can't think of a power tool that I could do the same work in the same amount of time and have a better result (or the same result for that matter - a sander would be worse..)

[Arroyo]

Just jealous I don’t know how to use those things.  Instead I would take 40min to setup some power tool cut and then get pissed when the guide slipped and I ate into the piece.  Happened more than once

[bperkins01]

Just jealous I don’t know how to use those things.  Instead I would take 40min to setup some power tool cut and then get pissed when the guide slipped and I ate into the piece.  Happened more than once

The hardest part of using them is knowing how to sharpen the blade..  getting see-through shavings is not a given...  I'll show you

[jennifer]

A hand tool is much more effective than a power tool in this instance and does a better job..

And next your gonna tell us that the horse and buggy was severely under appreciated

Nooo.. it was fantastic compared to walking 10 miles into town... 

But in this hand plane example - I can't think of a power tool that I could do the same work in the same amount of time and have a better result (or the same result for that matter - a sander would be worse..)

Well a jointer, However they are incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands, and have sliced the fingers off most shop teachers...But get what you are saying, Nice work.

[bperkins01]

Well a jointer, However they are incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands, and have sliced the fingers off most shop teachers...But get what you are saying, Nice work.

Well - can't exactly pick up the entire cabinet and put this edge through a jointer.. 

A sander (or preferably sand paper on a hard sanding block) would have been my second choice BTW...
However - the hand plane is faster and cleaner than sanding.

[jennifer]

Oh yes I see...For some reason I thought that was taken apart, yes the hand plane would be quite awesome for that then.

[bperkins01]

Small update today - but at least its a milestone..



I made the leg leveler blocking about 1/2" thicker than the original.  The screws in the blind nut go through pre-drilled holes into the bottom and there is a little glue to hold it.  Once the feet are in place - they will not be able to retract to the point where the plywood can hit the floor and get ruined.. again..



To line up the hole - hold the blocking in place from the inside with the leg leveler.  This made it easy to screw in too...



Here are the old shattered edges of the plywood.  They are actually worse than this looks...



Cabinet back on its feet for now - I have a few more dings to fill and then I can prime/paint.

[J_K_M_A_N]

Wow! VERY good work. That looks amazing. I did not know something like that could be done.

J_K_M_A_N

[Arroyo]

Well done Bobby.  There seems to be a majority consensus that arcade manufactures really screwed up by not putting more emphasis on the leg levelers to prevent cabs from ever touching the ground.  I know there are purists that would disagree, but that’s one place I would certainly call an upgrade from the original.

[bperkins01]

Thanks guys - it someone ever wants to put this on the ground - they can pull the levelers out..
But while I own it.....  no ruining the cabinet dammit!

[bperkins01]

I've showed this little trick in other posts, but it's worth repeating.  The rear edge of the plywood is banged up from 38 years of existence (brown patches at rear edge).  Many would leave it and the rest would use Bondo to fill in the voids.  I'll use Bondo under very limited circumstances - and this isn't one of them.  Bondo has no strength and this area will get hit again or it will flake off.  It is not an adhesive.

That said - I have a piece of wood which has packing tape on it (clear in this case) clamped flush and tight to the rear edge.  Epoxy will not stick to packing tape and it leaves a smooth surface.



Next I skimmed in 2-part epoxy thickened with wood flour (very fine saw dust).  All of the low areas get filled in with glue that is stronger that the wood.  Once it cures, pop off the form and finish sand.  Its a good way to clean up dinged edges.

 

Reached a milestone today - cabinet got its first coat of paint.  Here is the Kobalt HVLP spray guy I use.  I picked it up at Lowes years ago and it does a decent job. 

I used Rustoleum satin black oil-based paint reduced with a little mineral spirits.  The back doors got painted and my temporary spray booth is set up near the front of the shop.  HVLP is nice because there is very little over-spray.



Before...



And after...  Its still wet here.  The satin black tones down once it dries. The coin door panel needs a sand and second coat of paint to finish it off.

The top is made of MDF and has that pebble texture from years of humidity and absorption.  I'm not crazy about how it painted up.  There is a little too much texture for my liking.   I'm considering re-sanding, sealing and repainting.  A wood hardener/epoxy sealer will firm up the MDF so it will provide a more uniform surface.   Having to spray another coat of black makes this an easy decision.  Using the spray gun takes a little practice - but cleaning it is a real pain.  If I'm going to spray more black - I'll maximize the effort and get the top a bit nicer. Even though you will almost never see it..  I'll post some before and afters on the top once its done.

The sides will get a coat of primer, sanded and then a color coat of "Joust Brown". 

Stay tuned..

[Arroyo]

Nice write up, very informative.  Curious how the HVLP helps prevent overspray?  I figured that had to do with how good of a taping job one did.

[bperkins01]

Nice write up, very informative.  Curious how the HVLP helps prevent overspray?  I figured that had to do with how good of a taping job one did.

It doesn't really "prevent" as much as it doesn't create a cloud like high pressure guns.  I don't know all of the science behind it..
It somehow creates a high 'volume' of air under low pressure which atomizes the paint vs. using high pressure air to atomize it (which creates the cloud)

The pressure at the gun is ~29 psi..  it shoots the paint slower is the best way to describe it..
There is a lot of art to spraying and I'm a C+ spray painter at best..  getting the air, paint, pressure, viscosity all right is not that easy..  The guys who do it all the time  have a good feel for it.  When you need a color that's not in a can - then it can't be beat.  Black is obviously in a can..  But Joust Brown isn't...  So this is a bit of practice