Time Soldiers. Polishing the turd.

[paigeoliver]

Picked this up for next to nothing. It worked but had a terrible monitor is in poor shape and one of the sticks was broken.





I started working on it today with the control panel. The screws were rusty, the buttons were a mix of two types of leaf buttons that were likely left over from previous conversions. The player one joystick was broken, the plexi was cracked and it was overall in pretty poor shape. The operator who did the conversion stuck the cocktail / weird cabinet title sticker on the control panel for some reason. Part of that came up with the plexi, so obviously that wasn't going to stay.

Started out with this.



Two hours later I had this.



I repaired the player one stick and moved it to player 2, where I figure it is unlikely to break a second time.

[yotsuya]

How was the stick broken?

[IG-88]

Wow! Remarkable difference. Can't wait to see what you do with the rest!

[paigeoliver]

The bottom part wasn't being stopped from rotating freely when you pressed up (it was jumping the guide post).

How was the stick broken?

[paigeoliver]

Got a chance to to work on the coin door tonight. It still needs matching looks and one new coin switch, but it is otherwise ready to go.

Thieves had broken into this cabinet in multiple ways, (prying the coin door and shattering the bezel glass and ripping the control panel off), that makes some of the work a bit more difficult. The coin vault door wouldn't even close at all when I got the machine.

Before.



After.

[IG-88]

How or what was your procedure for cleaning up the chrome bits? They look great.

Also, what are your plans for the bezel?

[paigeoliver]

I used car wax on the chrome faceplates.

I have the cardboard bezel. It is a bit faded but is still usable. I will need a new piece of glass though.

How or what was your procedure for cleaning up the chrome bits? They look great.

Also, what are your plans for the bezel?

[paigeoliver]

Today I finished taking everything out of the cabinet, took care of the bottom section that was coming apart, did some prep work and managed to get one side painted.

I was not attempting to achieve perfection here, this is a 32 year old particle board cabinet that has definitely seen water and it wasn't worth the effort to try to make it perfect. The t-molding was not really in reusable condition, so I will need some more.

[paigeoliver]

Getting a lot closer. Still need to paint the top marquee retainer white, repair the monitor and put the internals back in.

[IG-88]

Interesting choice of color for the cab itself. Wasn't sure I was gonna like it but it looks pretty good with it put back together.

By the way, what did you ever do with that Pro Tennis?

[Nephasth]

T-molding...

[paigeoliver]

I still have the Pro Tennis, it works fine, it is slightly visible in one of the pictures.

The cabinet color was based on the fact that I already had that color sitting on the shelf. I had considered getting a blue, but thought it would be better to contrast with the artwork then to poorly match it with a blue that didn't quite match the other blues on the cabinet.

[paigeoliver]

The t-molding is secondhand. I ripped it off the back half of a showcase cabinet that I have sitting under my carport.

T-molding...

[paigeoliver]

Repaired the monitor, recapped it and reinstalled it. Game should be finished and playable tomorrow.

[kixfan]

Looking good!

I like the green.

[404]

personally not a fan of the color but i must say, you did an absolutely amazing job cleaning up this machine in such a short amount of time.

[paigeoliver]

Thought I would be finished today, but I am spending longer than I thought cleaning up the original wiring.

Isolation transformer appears to have been wired in backwards.
They had an unused pin (Test) wired to red on the monitor and the actual red wire was perfectly clean and bundled with all the ones they never hooked up to anything. God knows how many years they operated it with no red in the monitor.
There was a power switch and it was even hooked up to wiring, however it didn't do anything as the game was wired to come on when plugged in and both wires from the switch were just attached to the same terminal.

[BC_Jeffro]

much better 
the first pic hurt my eyes a little

[Malenko]

great job. I like the color, its different. I'd pony up the dough for new t molding or at least try to hide the gap a little better.

[paigeoliver]

Yeah, I ripped that t-molding off a cabinet I was going to junk. I am going to put new t-molding on all my cabinets eventually, but it isn't at the top of my to do list.

great job. I like the color, its different. I'd pony up the dough for new t molding or at least try to hide the gap a little better.

[Entropy42]

The cleanup job on the metal makes such a huge difference in how the cabinet looks.  That was just car wax, sanding, and a polishing wheel? 

[paigeoliver]

Painted the black, used car polish and a rag on the bright bits, and spun the carriage bolts in a drill on sandpaper to derust them.

[emphatic]

Great work, really liking the colour choice!