Reversing Rally - A NJ Star Wars Cockpit Restoration Story - DONE!!!

[m_mcgover]

This thread will keep track of my efforts to restore a Star Wars Cockpit back to its original glory from a 1000 Mile Rally.  Much of this thread is cross posted from klov.com.  I thought this group would enjoy this restoration-in-progress

(Warning...long post with lotsa pics.  )

As of July 10th, Satan has one fewer game to play in his Hellcade...

Some of you may have seen this post about a poor Star Wars Cockpit that was converted to a Great 1000 Mile Rally:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68094.msg788588#msg788588

It turns out that this machine was located very close to me.  Well, it took nearly two months to negotiate price and line up the schedules of the machine's owner and availability of my buddy's trailer...

But, on July 10th, I was ready to return home (a mere 12 miles) pulling this:



Although it is a perfectly playable Great 1000 Mile Rally 2, I think I will convert it back to its original form...

The cabinet itself looks to be in pretty good shape. The bottom edges are missing no chunks and the edges themselves look quite solid. Here is one of the back corners and maybe the worst spot along the bottom:


That's gum in the second picture...from the 90s? Let me know if anyone wants it!

The plastic bezel is in good shape, but... R2, how am I supposed to fly...uhhhh....drive this X-Wing? Where are the brakes?!?!?!?  



As you can see, the conversion did include adding a nice white button to the control panel.   I'm not sure the best way to repair this as I don't believe there are any reproduction cockpit CPOs available. Maybe I will leave it as-is for an eventual SW/ESB kit. At the very least, I'll change the white button to green to make it a bit less obvious...Any other suggestions?

Also, the driving gauges that have been added are stickers under some clear plexiglass. I am hoping that a little goo gone will help me take care of those.

It looks like the curved smoked plexiglass clearly is not installed properly yet either...


However, underneath the 3 stickers and black paint is the original SW marquee glass...in what (from the back) appears to be in pristine shape.  

Now, onto the insides. There appears to be not much left from the original machine. No Star Wars PCBs or vector monitor (duh), but I have both of these, even if the amplifone monitor I have is 19"...Also, the wiring harness has been hacked out. And, I'm not sure that the monitor mount is standard issue for a cockpit, either...



The best part is that the volume control was bypassed so playing Great 1000 Mile Rally is quite ear-splitting...

I think the first order of business will be removing Rally and doing a bit of cleaning.

The big job will be removing the new "sideart" and black paint from the sides. I am hoping that the black paint has served to preserve the original artwork, which is hopefully in good shape. To do this, I was planning again to try Goo-Gone to remove the 1000 Mile Rally stickers, followed by either Safest Strip or Citristrip. Has anyone tried both and want to offer their opinion on what is most effective?

I certainly don't want to end up having this entered again into the Hellcade, worse than before!!

[m_mcgover]

This is the first part of a long restoration of the Star Wars Cockpit I picked up in July. 

My first order of business was to pull out the 1000 Mile Rally 2 controls & boards and get a better look at the condition of the backglass.

Despite having to deal with 25 yrs of dust and dirt, I do like the initial opening up of an arcade machine as it ofen has a real "Indiana Jones" moment.  These machines are like time capsules and you never know what kind of historical items you may find.  In this case, it looks like this machine was once in an Atlantic City, NJ arcade at a Flyers Skate Zone (ice rink chain in the Philadelphia area, named for the Philadelphia Flyers):

 

I've also found what appear to be casualties of the conversion.  Could these be yoke springs?

 

And, I am happy to report that this is my first game with a cash back bonus:

 

After the pulling out the Rally pieces, I removed the steering wheel from the control panel.  Here is a picture of the Rally'ed control panel before:

 

I pulled off the speedometer stickers and cleaned the panel with Simple Green.  It didn't come out too bad, all things considered.  The overlay is missing a few chunks.  There is, of course, the hole for the pushbutton installed as part of the conversion, and a smaller hole near the upper left of the yoke opening for a screw that was holding the steering wheel optical encoder in place.

 

Next, I moved onto the backglass.  Here is what I started with:

 

First, I pulled off the Rally decals and then used Safest Stripper and a plastic scraper to get most of the black paint off.  I removed the rest with a sponge and water.  And, what I had afterwards was better than I hoped for -- a backglass that appears to be in pristine shape!

 

Next order of business will be to remove the raster monitor (a WG 7900, tube MVA48ABK05X), the switching power supply, and give it a good overall cleaning before moving onto to removing the black paint from the cabinet sides.

[m_mcgover]

This is my second post of what will likely be a long restoration of the Star Wars Cockpit I picked up in July 2008.

Fast forward to yesterday, September 21. 

I removed the rest of the 1000 Mile Rally parts -- a 19" raster monitor, transformer & fuse block, and the wiring harness.  The op that did the conversion hacked in a jamma harness, so I'll either need to pick up a Star Wars harness or make my own.  I then removed the SW coin door and coin box.  After all that was out, I vacuumed it out and wiped it down with Simple Green.

My next step was to attack the sides.  Before attempting to remove the black paint, I needed to remove the Great 1000 Mile Rally decals.  I wanted to find a way to do it that did not harm the artwork underneath.  But what is the best way?  Apply Goo Gone?  Just scrape them?  Wallpaper steamer?  I exchanged PMs with pr0k on klov.com, who suggested dry heat to activate the adhesive and peeling them off. 

First the good news...I made another $5 or so when a pile of quarters came falling out of the bottom once I tipped the cockpit onto its side.  I can put this towards new sideart if this doesn't work out!   

So, I pulled out an old hair dryer and went to town.  For the most part, this did the trick.  There were two types of decals applied all over.  The larger decals had a rubbery consistancy and got very stretchy with heat applied.  The other round decals were more like big stickers.  In many cases, these took a lot more work to pull off as they were constantly tearing. 

Unfortunately, in a couple of areas, I ended up ripping the Star Wars artwork underneath.  I'm not sure if there was not enough paint or if I left the hairdryer on a spot too long or didn't get the decal hot enough before peeling.  With some practice (and I had plenty of practice since there were lots of decals to remove), I was able to do much better. 

In fact, on the second side, I only had one small place where the Star Wars artwork got damaged.  There were a few tricks that I think helped.  First, I started to lightly score the big decals so that they could be pulled off in strips.  Second, I didn't continue to work on one decal.  After each strip was removed, I would move to another decal.

Here is a picture of the left side with the decals removed:
  

The dull white areas are left over decal adhesive.  The bright white areas are where the artwork got damaged.   

With that done, it is finally time to go for the black paint removal.  Inspired by and using klov forum regular Jake's process  ]http://forums.webmagic.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=801436&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1&nt=2]

I went for it.  I picked up some Citrustrip and a scraper from Home Depot.  I also had a small bucket of water with a sponge and paper towels for wiping paint + stripper goo from the scraper.  I went slowly since I didn't know what to expect.  I applied the Citrustrip in small areas (about 1ft X 1ft) and let it sit for 5 minutes.  Then, I carefully scraped off the paint using a plastic scraper.  Once I got most of the paint removed from the 1ft X 1ft area, I went back with a wet sponge to clean off the remainder of the paint/stripper goo.  All told, it took about four hours to complete the one side (like I said, I was trying to be overly careful, so I went quite slow). 

The results of the process speak for themselves.  Here are some after pictures:
  
A closeup of the Sith Lord himself:   
 

Here is the final result:
 

A big improvement over this:
 

Dontcha think?  I am pretty stoked so far with how this is turning out.   

[Mauzy]

  This is what the great restoration stories are made of. I will definitely be watching this one. I can't believe how clean the artwork under that paint was. Good Stuff!

[beerbarrel]

Very Nice....

[m_mcgover]

Whoa.  A long time between updates, but I got extremely busy with work through last December and then once you get to the winter in NJ it gets a bit cold to be doing work in the garage.  At any rate, here is an update to my Reversing Rally to Star Wars Cockpit restoration. 

Warning...long wordy post with lotsa pics. I hope you enjoy it...

Since last time, I've started to make the cabinet repairs.  First, I repaired the holes that had been drilled into the kickplace for the Great 1000 Mile Rally foot pedal.  I started by gluing wooden dowels in the holes.  I used Titebond wood glue After the glue set, I used bondo to fill in any gaps.  Finally, I sanded it all down smooth. 

During the original breakdown/cleaning, the lower control panel fell off.  This piece must have fallen off before, as it was hastily glued and nailed in place on the edges from the outside of the cabinet.  I used bondo to fill the nail holes and sanded it down smooth once it dried.  Before replacing it back on the cabinet, I needed to replace the original blocking that held this piece in place with new 3/4" square pine molding.  This time I glued the blocking with Gorilla Glue and used 3/4" staples.  I figured the Gorilla glue would work better since one of the surfaces is Atari vinyl.

Since the cabinet was pulling apart in spots, I decided to use Gorilla glue to try and tighten things up.  If you have not used it before, Gorilla glue expands before it dries to fill in gaps.  As part of the application process it uses water.  In order to get glue between the blocking and the cabinet sides, I first injected some water with a eyedropper.  Then, I filled a syringe with Gorilla glue and injected some of it into the gap.  I used pipe clamps to hold everything tightly together and shot in new 3/4" staples from the inside while the Gorilla glue set.  This worked out quite well as the cabinet is much less wobbly after gluing.  Here area a few pics showing the clamps in place while the glue set.  It looks a bit messy, but it really helped to tighten up the cabinet.



I used the same eyedropper/syringe technique for getting some Gorilla glue in the gaps between the blocking and cabinet top.  Again, I shot some new staples as well.  Here are some pics while the glue is drying:



Next, I replaced the original blocking that supported the angled front cabinet top with fresh pine 3/4" X 3/4" square molding.  These were stapled and Gorilla glued from the inside.  I tried to place these based on where the original blocking were (which also looked to have been pulled out and re-glued as a repair during this cabinet's earlier life.  Either I or the previous repair didn't get it quite right, so the top piece is now a little too low.  I'll need to go back and glue in some spacers to adjust the height so the cabinet top is in the correct position.
 
Now, it was time to remove the black paint covering the sideart on the right hand side of the cabinet.  I used the same Citristrip technique as before with the left hand side.  That is, working in small areas (~1.5' x 1.5'), I applied the Citristrip with a paintbrush and let it sit for about 5-7 minutes.  Then I took a plastic scraper and carefully scrapped off the stripper and paint, wiping the scraper often with paper towels.  Once I got most of the paint off in that section, I would go back with a clean sponge and water to get the remaining paint off.  This worked great!  This time, I took a bunch of pics during the whole process so you can see the paint removed section by section.  I hope you enjoy them:








Once again, I am extremely pleased with how well the black paint came off from the side art.  You can see I did a much better job on this side removing the original stickers as there are only a few small areas were the sideart was damaged by me (there are more scratches on this side, but I am extremely pleased at the condition of the art, all things considered).

There is still a lot to do, but my goal is to have it done in time for my family's July 4th party...we'll see if I can hit the deadline! 

[KDOG]

Looking awesome.

[Level42]

Looking awesome.

+1 It's almost like the black paint has actually protected the artwork over the years....the colors are vibrant !

[Nostalgia]

Wow man, what a cool start to a restore. Im definitly gonna follow this one. That side are looks great for being painted over. 

[CheffoJeffo]

 

[m_mcgover]

Whoa, once again, it has been too long between updates...but this project is getting close to complete.  It was a lot more work than I thought it would be...and every time I paged through Level42's great SWCP restoration here on byoac forums,  I found myself saying..."yeah, I should probably do that, too..."  It doesn't help that work can get insanely busy, leaving me very little free time to work on this...anyway...I'm sorry if I am too wordy...you can always skip the text and look at the pics.  


With that said...let's go back to...

Spring, 2009 (yes, 2009!)
I rebuilt the amplifone HV PCB and deflection boards using the Amplifone FAQ.  At the time, I test these monitor boards in the upright Star Wars cabinet I owned (it has since been sold).  I have in my possession the TO220 resistors, so I plan to mount the 50 ohm resistors to the heat sink using this fine guide:  http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showpost.php?p=1294667&postcount=106

Next, I removed the Plexiglas, followed by the wooden canopy arches, in preparation for this cabinet's "surgery".  I followed a nice guide put together by bones3010 over at klov forums.  Using a screwdriver, I was able to gently pry apart the canopy from the base and use an open ended hacksaw blade to cut through the staples.  Once all of the staples were cut, it was pretty easy to remove the canopy from the base and set aside.

Next, I removed the floor speaker plate and cleaned out under the seat.  Ugh.



After it was clean, I went over it with an orbital sander to get the stubborn dirt, grime, and top layer of wood.  Then, I flipped the machine on its side to remove the base plate.  Since my base plate had some swelling in one corner, and was filthy, I decided to build a new one.  So, to remove this one more easily, I used a circular saw to cut from wheel to wheel on either side of the center channel.  This allowed me to pry out the middle channel w/o putting too much strain on the sides since the base plate.  Once the center channel was removed, I went back and pulled out the staples around the perimeter with a pair of needle nose pliers.  To do this, I drilled a small hole on either side of the staple for the needle nose pliers to fit in.  Finally, I was able to remove the remaining two sides of the base plate, by prying from the insides.  


I traced the original base plate onto a new 3/4" sheet of birch plywood and used a saw board to cut it to the proper size.  Next, I traced the wheel holes.  I free-handed them with a jigsaw, which worked out pretty well, except for the first one, which ended up being a bit more of an oval than a circle...but this will be under the machine and the only people that know are who are reading this post.  

I cut replacement pieces to create a new channel down the base plate’s center.  This time, the channel pieces were glued and stapled to the cabinet bottom instead of the new base plate.  I also left a gap for the big cut.  I also cut wood pieces to screw into the wood on the sides and the underside of the cabinet for reinforcing the cut I was about to make.  I made sure to label all the joints so I had no issue putting it back together.  I removed all of the top half reinforcement pieces and used a hand saw to cut between the two pieces on one side of the cabinet.  I cut deep enough into the floor so I could screw in the side support I had made.  Next, I used a jigsaw to cut across the floor.  As I cut along, I would stop to install the reinforcing pieces I had made once I cut past where they would go.  When I got close to the other side, I needed to flip the cabinet so the remaining uncut side was on top.  By cutting the cabinet like this, it is almost impossible to tell it has been cut once reassembled and the floor is covered with new replacement matting.

[m_mcgover]

Fall, 2009
I removed the non-standard 19" wood frame pieces.  I also removed the metal frame that was used in the conversion (which turned out to me a Taito 19" metal monitor mount).  Next, I moved on to control panel overlay removal.  I used a heat gun and used a metal drywall knife to remove the old overlay.  With the old overlay removed, I applied Citristrip and let it sit on the panel for about 30 minutes, which was enough to soften everything up so I could scrape off the remaining adhesive and black paint.  Lastly, I used some steel wool to remove the remaining paint.  Once that was cleaned off, I used some JB Weld to affix two thin metal pieces on the back of the control panel, covering the holes.  When the epoxy was dry, I bondo'ed the holes from the top, sanded smooth, then primered & spray painted several coats of Rustoleum satin black.  I re-covered the panel with the great reproduction overlay courtesy of RikiTiki from ThisOldGame.com.  To do that, I pre-clamped the overlay on the control panel for 48 hrs.  Carefully lined everything up and applied the overlay, top-down.  To start, I kept the overlay clamped down before the first bend, removed about a 1" strip of backing along the top, then pressed it down.  Once that was down and bubble free, I removed the clamps, flipped back the overlay, peeled the backing and pressed down, going about 3/4" - 1" at a time, taking extra care at the bends in the panel.  After it was down, I strategically placed down some folded paper towels under some wood paint stirring sticks and re-clamped everything for another 48 hrs or so.  Looking at the pics, I may have over-clamped... but...it came out nice.  Here are some pics of this process:

[m_mcgover]

Summer 2010
What was first going to be bondo/paint jobs turned into a re-vinyling after reading Level42’s restore thread.  Several of the external outside black pieces were revinyled.  In order to do this, I first removed the old vinyl with a heat gun, a tedious process.  I filled in any holes or chips with bondo then sanded the bondo smooth.  For any pieces that got bondo'ed, I applied a couple of thin coats of polyurethane using a foam "brush".  In between poly coats, I lightly sanded using 400 grit.  You want a nice, even, smooth surface for the vinyl, which will show every imperfection once applied.  There are a couple of spots that I did not get 100% smooth, but the end result is so much better than what I started with,  I can live with it.   

The black edges also got repainted if they were originally black.  Here are some pictures of the re-vinyl'ed pieces.  For the speakers, I repainted the grills first, and then covered them with delicate surface easy release masking tape which made it easy to remove the vinyl over the grills. 




I used the same masking tape trick on the sides when trying to fit a piece of vinyl on a piece I could not easily remove from the cabinet.  This made sure the new vinyl did not stick to the existing sides before I trimmed it to size.

[m_mcgover]

Fall 2010
I cleaned up the edges around the cabinet and some small rips in black vinyl using Evercoat.  Evercoat is like bondo, but it is much easier to work with when you are trying to do very thin layers. 

Once they edges were smooth, I masked the sideart and cabinet interior, did several light coats of Rustoleum primer, followed by several coats of Rustoleum satin black.  In addition to the edges, I painted the kick plate that had the gas pedal holes repaired, and the seat which had some scratches filled in with Evercoat.  I did not do the seat back...and looking back...I probably should have.  I was running out of time with the upcoming winter and I decided if needed down the road, I would probably re-vinyl, which is something I could do indoors.



I replaced all of the 3/4" t-molding around the two sides and just cleaned up the wide t-molding over the canopy.  At some point, I will probably replace the wide t-molding, but for now, the cleaned up old wide t-molding is good enough.

I created a new cardboard bezel with the great help from Killerkades over at klov.  He sent me templates and a CD of pictures of the process he used.  I ended up using black corrugated cardboard that looks like a science fair display.  In order to mask off 1/2" wide stripes, I used the following trick (since I could not find a local store with 1/2" easy release masking tape).  I taped an exacto blade to a post-it note pad that I measured to be 1/2" high.  Then I pushed the roll of 1" wide tape and slowly rotated the tape roll to get two 1/2" strips of tape.  I used shaker can silver to create the silver stripes.  To make the bends, I cut through the back of the cardboard on the opposite side using an exacto and aluminum straight edge.  Then I made the bend with a counter edge to get it nice and straight.  I currently have it waiting for a new set of 25" amplifone brackets.




For the floor, I had to scrape, sand, and curse the glue that was used to hold down the original mat.  Man, that stuff was annoying.  I got enough of it removed so that the new mat would sit flat.  My two aluminum mat retaining pieces on the sides were bent up pretty good.  Using them as a template, I cut and bent a couple of new pieces from some scrap aluminum.

[opt2not]

Thanks for coming back to update this for us! Looks great so far!
I remember seeing this post thinking "I wonder whatever happened to this restore...". Also thought "why would anyone put a Rally in a SWC machine!?". 

[THE POKER BRAT]

Even though id rather look at the restoration pictures first than reading all of the comments,...i must say,...you got me curious about one thing.   


"?  H  O  W--M  U  C  H--D  I  D--Y  O  U--P  A  Y--F  O  R--I  T--??

I think most of us here would like to know,.       and drool       over the bargain basement deal you got,..or.. if you were emptying your pockets with large wads of cash,.so we can laugh our heads off   

[m_mcgover]

"?  H  O  W--M  U  C  H--D  I  D--Y  O  U--P  A  Y--F  O  R--I  T--??

I think most of us here would like to know,.      and drool       over the bargain basement deal you got,..or.. if you were emptying your pockets with large wads of cash,.so we can laugh our heads off  

I will tell, but let's turn the game around first...how much would you pay for a working driving game that looks like this:

       


You tell me what you would be willing to pay and then I'll tell you what I paid.  I've of course put more money into it...and coming up with a final price would be difficult...especially when you consider I sold the monitor, game pcb, and controls from the working driver that I started with...

[THE POKER BRAT]

I would pay,....300 -350 ...id sell the driving parts to recoup some $ back,..then painstakingly start looking for whatever parts i needed,..
when you get tired of playing,..i wouldnt mind buying that machine off you,..

NOW ITS YOUR TURN>>>  "How much did you pay for it"??    SOME OF US WOULD  LIKE TO KNOW.

"?  H  O  W--M  U  C  H--D  I  D--Y  O  U--P  A  Y--F  O  R--I  T--??

I think most of us here would like to know,.      and drool       over the bargain basement deal you got,..or.. if you were emptying your pockets with large wads of cash,.so we can laugh our heads off  

I will tell, but let's turn the game around first...how much would you pay for a working driving game that looks like this:

     


You tell me what you would be willing to pay and then I'll tell you what I paid.  I've of course put more money into it...and coming up with a final price would be difficult...especially when you consider I sold the monitor, game pcb, and controls from the working driver that I started with...

[m_mcgover]

I would pay,....300 -350 ...id sell the driving parts to recoup some $ back,..then painstakingly start looking for whatever parts i needed,..
when you get tired of playing,..i wouldnt mind buying that machine off you,..

OK.  so fair is fair.  My initial costs were $200 less the parts I sold from it which came to $115, so before I started adding $$ into it, the cabinet alone in the condition of the pic above was $85.  It was located 12 miles from my house and I borrowed a buddy's trailer, so moving costs were essentially $0.  Now, I also started with a working, junker SW upright cabinet that was coverd in a textured black paint:



So I was able to transfer most of the electronics (AR II, game pcbs, amplifone pcbs)  from it into what you see before you now.  So, is that : worthy?

[THE POKER BRAT]

SWEET DEALS YOU GOT THERE!,..   i must say that 200. for a cockpit is good.. and an upright as well?  i wouldnt want to know how much you paid for that one..

    OK OK OK!!!  TELL ME...HOW MUCH$$$

[m_mcgover]

i wouldnt want to know how much you paid for that one..

    OK OK OK!!!  TELL ME...HOW MUCH$$$

What's next?  My mortgage payment?   

Again, it gets cloudy, because I bought the junker upright to and keep the working pcbs.  Then I was able to sell the cabinet for about $50 - $75 less than I paid...

[m_mcgover]

Well, hey...it has been nearly a year...I guess I should finally sum up this project.  I apologize that I have not been very diligent in keeping this thread current with my progress...

Winter, 2010 - 2011
Since it was cut in two, it was possible to move it into the basement (which has a 90 deg bend on the way down the stairs).  Once it was moved down there, I was able to reconnect the two halves, and start loading it up.  I installed what I think is a Star Wars upright harness using pictures I had downloaded online to help as a guide.  I needed to create the section of harness that runs to the second set of speakers.


With the harness, power brick, game pcbs & cage installed, I started to put together the monitor.  I got the 25" medium resolution raster tube and 6100 yoke from a KLOV forum member.  After reading as much of the documentation I could find online, here is what I did.  I carefully marked the location of the convergence rings on the tube neck and also drew a line down the complete assembly so I could put it on in exactly the same place.  
original yoke on left, marked on right


I carefully cut through the glue holding the rings in place and slide them off.  I swapped in the 6100 yoke in place of the raster yoke.  



Here is it placed in the cabinet (note, I should have left it out to more easily converge it, but I was rushing to try and get it working before a party.  I'll have to take it out to make the proper adjustments.  In order to reach the amplifone deflection pcb, I extended the yoke, DAG, and degaussing coil wires.  I replaced the convergence ring assembly in the same location as it was before.  If you look close, you can see the red wire extensions for the degausing coil and the black wire extensions for the yoke harness.  I double checked everything prior to soldering in the extension wires and shrink tubing the joints.



Once I had everything connected and double-checked, I turned it on and heard "The Force will be with you", but saw nothing on the screen.  The spot killer was off and I could hear deflection chatter, but no neck glow....so I knew I was close or the tube was bad....  It turns out that when I had taken apart the tube end connector to clean the pins, I did not get one (or both?) of the heater pins back in place properly, so it was not making connection.  Once I figured that out, I plugged everything back in and voila, Star Wars was playing in this cabinet for the first time in over 12 years.  At least that is what I think based on thread that I found on rgvac usenet group about a Star Wars cockpit converted to a Great 1000 Mile Rally in my home state of NJ:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.video.arcade.collecting/browse_thread/thread/abecf8829817d315/4039403f53b11d3a

By replacing the convergence rings in exactly the same spot as they were before, you can see that convergence is pretty good in the center.  I do have some work to do in the edges and corners.  You can see this in the PULL TRIGGER TO START message.

[Le Chuck]

Welcome back.  Looking amazing, such a wonderful project.  Of course I'm totally jealous but very appreciative of the opportunity to see somebody saving that beauty.     

[m_mcgover]

Summer 2011
I tried numerous times to get the monitor converged, but was unable to get something that I was satisfied with.  There was no way to get the horizontal green to lay on top of the red/blue, which I was able to converge quite nicely:



After talking to someone that made his living manufacturing tubes, I was convinced that I would never get it dead-on.  So, I scrapped this monitor set-up and located an A63AAX01X tube, which is identical to the A62AAX00X tube originally in the cockpit Star Wars, except the corner monitor brackets on the tube are a few mm's closer (or farther?) from the front of the tube...which was surely something I could deal with.

I went through the same convergence process as before with the raster tube...and this time I was able to get the RGB converged much better; hoever, getting the color purity just right took a lot more effort in two of the four corners.  Fortunately, I had some "chevron" shaped magnets that I used to be able to get the purity close enough in the 2 problem corners.  This is what the CRT looks like now on the white grid test patter -- much better converged.  It really makes a difference being able to see stars as white dots as opposed to stars comprised of small columns of purple and green dots.  :-)  Purity is still not perfect, but it is much better than before...enough so that destroying the Death Star is a lot more fun than fiddling with the monitor.



With the monitor converged (enough), I put it back into the cabinet and reassembled everything.  I mounted a fan to blow cool air over the amplifone boards.



I also replaced the fluorescent starter and tube for the rear backglass and was greeted by this beautiful site on the next power-up.



I purchased and installed a SW/ESB kit from VectorLabs over at KLOV.  I mounted a small Radio Shack push button into one of the plastic bezel screw holes so either game can be played with a 2 second push of this button.  Forgive the camera shake on the Empire pic.



All that is left:

1) to replace the 4 rubber yoke stops, which have disintegrated over the years...I have replacements I scored before RAM Controls imploded.  I've tried to do this, but I have a stuck  screw that I have been unable to remove to get the yoke apart to complete this.  Some day....
2) fiddle with the monitor to get the convergence / purity perfect?...
3) relive my childhood and play the hell out of it. 

Here it is in its final resting place in my arcade:



Certainly an improvement over what I found in the wild:

[Spyridon]

One of the best "return from the dead" projects ever!!!

[m_mcgover]

Thanks, Spy....your comment means a lot to me coming from you as I really enjoy and admire reading your restorations. 

After this one, I don't know where your energy comes from.    

This one felt like a marathon.  I am glad it is done!

[Rando]

Here it is in its final resting place in my arcade:

1) Wow
2) Awesome recap, I'm glad I got to see everything summed up to completion
3) You need to MOVE it!  In the spot you have it (best I can tell) you can't see the Deathstar/Vader and all of that hard work you put into it to restore the artwork?  Yes the game looks and likely plays awesome, but you've got the eye candy hidden!!! 

But seriously, nice.  And also seriously, let it be seen! 

[amendonz]

Awesome awesome awesome. Great thread.

[m_mcgover]

Here it is in its final resting place in my arcade:

3) You need to MOVE it!  In the spot you have it (best I can tell) you can't see the Deathstar/Vader and all of that hard work you put into it to restore the artwork?  Yes the game looks and likely plays awesome, but you've got the eye candy hidden!!! 

But seriously, nice.  And also seriously, let it be seen! 

No worries....the angle of the photo was chosen to see all the games (or at least parts of them) in my arcade.  Star Wars is not up against the wall so the right hand side can be seen very clearly:


The left hand side is a bit hidden due to Sinistar, but you can at least see the Sith Lord instead of awful Great 1000 Mile Rally stickers and black paint  ...

[opt2not]

It's beautiful! Well done! 

[Mac Green]

Give The Man A Hand  Great work

[Level42]

I am SO glad that you saved this and restored it so wonderfully !!!!!  

And yes I'm a bit proud that you found it through my thread.

[madmatt]

Truly, one of the best restores I've seen.   

MM

Out 

[DamagedGoods]

It's crazy to think that someone would paint over the beautiful artwork on that beast.
nice job restoring it.

[opt2not]

Is that Major Havoc beside the pinball machine? 

[m_mcgover]

Is that Major Havoc beside the pinball machine? 

Why yes it is....a very special Major Havoc that will be getting some finishing touches soon....   

[Zrooney]

Wow, fantastic job.