Defender - nightmare restore

[gameguy1957]

Won this thing off of eBay a while back. Paid < $100 for it and thought I got a deal. Especially since it was only 30 minutes from the house.

The first picture shows the bad side, the second is about as perfect as you can ask for in a machine that's around 25 years old.

[gameguy1957]

So , I thought I was going to pick up a machine that needed to have some of the plywood re-glued. But look what we found when we went to lift it into the truck - Major termite damage.

[gameguy1957]

So I stripped out the cab and discovered that the termites had the good sense not to eat through any of the artwork layer of plywood. So I decided to try and save the cab. I started by scoring the artwork layer with a razor blade and then used a flat, wide shovel to peel the artwork off the bad wood.

Then I cut the wood straight across, just below the remaining good wood.

[gameguy1957]

Can't find the pics of the wood cuts or replacement, but here's what the side looks like after putting everything back together.

I'll get some stuff up on the progress of the electronics soon....

[gameguy1957]

First pic is of the original board. The machine had been in storage for many years, and they left an original set of AA batteries in it. You can see the results.

Second pic is a clean, non-working board I got from eBay.

Third pic shows the finished board. I've added a lithium battery kit, replaced the capacitors that are right behind the connector for the power harness. One of the capacitors had been put in backwards and all three looked like they were in very bad shape.

I could get a startup sound and a few square blobs of color on the screen on startup. The colors were of the orange or red and yellow I remember from the original startup screen. It also gets the startup sound when power is applied.

I had ordered new ram, but they sent the wrong parts. So I'm stuck at this point for a while until parts come in, I've got a cap kit on the way for it too.

[beerbarrel]

WOW! Unbelievable!  Good luck..

[RayB]

And now the bad news... termites in his house! 

[Level42]

Save yourself a lot of hassle and order this as soon as it's ready (won't be long):

http://www.jrok.com/hardware/wsf/

More info here:

http://forums.webmagic.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=2&Number=866860&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

[Mauzy]

I applaud your dedication. I consider myself to be a salvage anything and everything possible person, but I would have stripped everything out of that cabinet and had the cabinet itself in the dumpster at the construction site down the road so fast the termites would have to run to catch up...

[gameguy1957]

Save yourself a lot of hassle and order this as soon as it's ready (won't be long)

Well, I actually went through some of the stuff I got a while back and found a full Defender boardset that looks really good. I removed the board that I had been working on (that still needed ram) and put the clean one in to the cabinet.

It starts up and I can see text on the screen, but it's only about two inches high and is flipping too fast to see. I can make out a few words, but not enough to tell what is says. I have a spare WG4600 kit that I'll put into it in a few days and we'll see what happens.

Also discovered that a Rush'n Attack is a converted Defender. So now I have enough parts to build two complete machines. The newly found cab is really solid, but I'll have to try and save the original artwork that's under the black paint and Rush'n Attack decals.

I'll probably take all of the best parts and make into a dedicated Defender and use the spares to do a multi-Williams.

-JM

[gameguy1957]

I applaud your dedication. I consider myself to be a salvage anything and everything possible person, but I would have stripped everything out of that cabinet and had the cabinet itself in the dumpster at the construction site down the road so fast the termites would have to run to catch up...

There are no amusement parts or arcades in the area, so classic games are hard to find around here.  (There is one arcade, but they don't do the classics. Just shooting, dancing or fighting games).

-JM

[SavannahLion]

I applaud your dedication. I consider myself to be a salvage anything and everything possible person, but I would have stripped everything out of that cabinet and had the cabinet itself in the dumpster at the construction site down the road so fast the termites would have to run to catch up...

Yeah, I probably would've felt the same myself but when you stop to think about it, the problem can be dealt with. Termites are probably something easier to deal with than say... black mold. I've never used it myself for this purpose, but I understand using a copper treatment such as Copper Green, Clear Copper (my preference) or something similar will prevent future termite infestations. I wouldn't try it with damage as severe as his since it would ruin the artwork, but for minor termite infestations, you could probably use CPES. I can't imagine a chemical arsenal without having those at my disposal.

[Wade]

Subterrainian termites can't be moved and survive (they can't survive without their queen) so there should be no real risk to taking in the game as far as pests are concerned.  That said, I have never seen a cabinet that bad before.  Amazing!!  I definitely would have gutted it of good parts and trashed it.

Wade

[spacies]

That is some seriously bad luck.

Glad we don't get termites over here!

[ChadTower]

I dig the method of pulling off the top layer of ply.  I haven't seen that one yet.  Interesting.  Could you provide some more details on that?  Did you use thinner plywood as the new piece so the ending thickness doesn't change?

[gameguy1957]

I dig the method of pulling off the top layer of ply.  I haven't seen that one yet.  Interesting.  Could you provide some more details on that?  Did you use thinner plywood as the new piece so the ending thickness doesn't change?

I actually don't know how it worked as well as it did. The only thing I can think is that it got the termites into it and they didn't like the paint, so they only ate up to the painted layer and not through it. Then it must have gotten moisture under it (we have a lot of high humidity here along the coast so it is possible it wet without actually soaking it). The moisture loosened the glue on the top (painted) layer in the areas where the termites left thicker wood. Anywhere they didn' eat was still solid which is why I scored it midway up the side.

Anyhow, when I pushed the shovel up under it, it just came loose.

The repaired area is thicker, but not enough to notice without pointing out to someone. The most noticeable thing is the line left where the blade cut the plywood. It left a 1/8" gap that can still be seen.

It was an interesting project and I've almost got it playable now. I get video on the screen, but need to do some more monitor work. I think when it's finally finished I'll have just over a hundred dollars in it and about a week's worth of time.

-JM