Well, have made some minor progress lately. Nothing to write home about, though.
I ordered some white vinyl and found the Atari System 2 sideart, so I ordered that as well. The vinyl came from thisoldgame, which happens to be right here in Oregon City! So I was able to stop by and pick that up. I haven't installed it yet though, cause I will need to do some bondo work first. I haven't heard back from the sideart yet, so I need to follow up on that.
And while I was at it, I decided to have a go at cleaning the CP again. It was so dirty that you couldn't tell the difference between the white, and the white with the "half-tone" to make it look shaded. And the colors were so filthy that you really couldn't tell what the original colors were. But the first time I tried to clean in I used some serious elbow grease, including tools like toothbrushes, scrubbers and scour pads. And I tried non-toxic cleaners like 409 and goo-gone. But in the end none of it made any difference, so I figured I would have to replace the overlay (That's when I started my tracing project).
But I had another go last weekend with a Magic Eraser, and talk about magic! It actually cleaned it so well that I am thinking about not replacing it at all! Or at least moving the priority of CPO replacement way down. It looks like someone did some black spray painting at one point, cause there are black speckles on it that won't come off. But all-in-all, I am going to file this one in the good-enough-for-now category. I have pics, but haven't dumped my camera yet.
I also checked out the controller again, and am going to replace the pots. The gameplay seemed funky to me, and taking a dmm to the pots showed me they are shot. So I will order a couple from mouser and replace those as well.
And that reminds me - anyone reading this who has a Paperboy controller, do you have much (or any) in/out motion in your controller. I am not talking about pushing forward to back to go fast/slow, but if you were to pull up on the handlebars, do they move at all? I might be missing a washer on the shaft, and I seem to have about 1/8" travel or "play."
Anyway, I will try to get CP before and after pics posted soon.