A Jedi’s Journey is a lonely one-Pic Heavy Resto!

Jedidentist

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Donor 3 years: 2011-2013
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Sudbury, Massachusetts
Welcome to another long-winded Jedidentist restoration project! I'm not going to say that this one is anything super-exciting, or ground breaking, but I always love to share…especially since my family despises these more than they appreciate them. Nothing's more rewarding than hearing your 4 year-old ask, "Daddy, why do you fix all these games?" Ugh… ;) In any case, here's what I managed to pry from Parabolic's basement:

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He documented the beginning of this restoration here:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=73651

and here:

http://www.coinopspace.com/group/journey/forum/topics/long-time-coming

This started out as a conversion to Avengers, and he managed to piece together all of the parts to re-assemble it into what is pictured above. He managed to score a NOS Bezel, had a repro marquee done (unknown maker), and replaced the CPO. He also got a repro looping 3 min tape and cassette player. Monitor was also recapped, and included repro side art and T-molding that wasn't installed. Needless to say, this didn't come cheap and I had to ship it up from South Carolina, but it was WELL worth it since he already did the hard part. It was in pretty decent shape, but not good enough for my "arcade"! I started with stripping it all down:

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I was going to take the monitor out, but the more I looked at it, the trickier it looked and I really didn't need to tempt Fate on that one, so I just let it be. There were a couple of complications with this resto. The first was the color matching of the paint. I cut off a sample of the melamine and took it both to my local Sherwin Williams paint store and Home Depot. The Home Depot sample came out purple looking, and the Sherwin Williams scan came out as almost black…so no luck with the computer scanner. The Sherwin Williams Deep Navy Blue appeared the closest, but even then, the paint wasn't as close as the paper sample indicated. It still looks very nice, but not 100% perfect. However, I did what I could and I figured after spending $40 on 2 quarts of paint, I really wasn't going to do any better.

The second problem I ran into was that the sides are made out of MDF. I guess the Journey cabinets were made out of both particleboard and MDF, and I got an MDF version. The issue with this stuff is that instead of the corners being "broken" like particleboard does, the MDF was just "mashed". Other base areas were just separated. The only fix for these areas was just to cut out those areas with a razor blade and Bondo over it. I also didn't feel comfortable attempting to sand down all of the melamine. Due to the time of year, this restoration was done in my finished basement and I didn't like the idea of that much sanding. Additionally, sanded MDF ends up being very "fibrous" and I didn't want a "woolly" painted cabinet. So, I decided to sand down the Bondoed areas, and just roughed up the melamine with 150 grit paper and just roll it with latex. I did this with my Tron and it came out well. So on with the Bondoing:

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This was then sanded down:

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This is always the worst part of any restoration. Fortunately, it only took 2 coats of Bondo to get everything filled in. After that, I used some roll on primer which I sanded down with 220 grit:

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I didn't prime the black sections as there wasn't as much Bondo work, and I've had no issues with latex paint adhering to four of my other cabs. I added some Floetrol to the blue latex paint to see if it would help with the orange peel effect. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do jack squat. I painted the sides once, sanded with 220 and 320 grit, and then painted again…terrible orange peel. Sanded it again with 220 grit and then Medium #1 steel wool. Word to the wise…USE THE STEEL WOOL!!! I've sanded several cabs with my electric Dewalt sander and a Black and Decker Mouse. If you do that with primer or latex, you always end up with swirls because the paint clogs up the sandpaper due to the heat of the friction. I've also sanded by hand, and it still happens, but just not as quickly. I'd go through 1 ½ sheets of 220 grit per side and still didn't end up with a satisfactory result. However, with steel wool, I still went through 3 pieces, but it went twice as fast and was infinitely smoother. USE STEEL WOOL. After that, I painted for a third time:

PaintedRightFront.jpg


I still got some orange peel, but it wasn't going to get any better. I wasn't going to wait 3 months and take this thing back out from the basement to spray this in the Spring, nor do I have a compressor for an HPLV gun. I went through the torture of using the Preval spray painting system with Pac-Man and Turbo, and I wasn't impressed enough to bother with it again. You still get orange peeling with it, and it wasn't much better than what I did with my Tron, which I rolled. This ended up being a little more than my Tron, but bearable.
 
The coin door was in good shape and had just a few rusty spots. I steel wooled and Naval Jellied those, cleaned the coin slots and coin return buttons, repainted it all, and added new locks (all matching between my games). I cleaned it inside and out with Clorox wipes, and brushed every nook and cranny clean with a brush…even Armor Alled the black plastic monitor bezel. The marquee that it came with looked nice lit up, but there was something off, so I got another repro:

MarqueeComparison.jpg


The top is what I had and the bottom is the new one I received from chris25810, which he had laying around. On the top one, the "Bally Midway" and other writing was very dark and speckly…not a great print. Additionally, the border around "Journey" was maroon, and not white. The newer one, on the bottom, doesn't have those problems and was a glossier, sturdier repro. However, the colors seem to be a little more washed out when lights are on. A small price to pay, in my book. The last thing I replaced was the kick plate from Twisted Quarter. So after all of that, on with the side art:

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Always use the dry method. It's amazing how fast you can do this after doing Tron, 720 vinyl and side art, DOT, and 3 sets of Pac stencils.

So, without further ado…now presenting Journey:

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PostCoinDoor.jpg


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PostInside.jpg



Now one other little upgrade I did involved these:

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I had this Cambridge Soundworks setup laying around from my wife's college days. I figured, why not hook these up? So, I ran these to the cassette player instead of the normal speaker hookup:



You really can't hear as much of a difference on my little iPhone video as in real life, but it's definitely a "fuller" sound.

The only things I have left to do is replace the coin slots with the more accurate plastic ones and then I'm going to replace the cassette player with the xray2/Rikitiki sound mod:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=146261
 
Wow...another great job. I will be using some of your tips for my 720 later this week....Im doing the vinyl! ;)
 
Wow...another great job. I will be using some of your tips for my 720 later this week....Im doing the vinyl! ;)

Good luck on the vinyl! Go really slow and pull the pre mask as you're doing it so you can find air bubbles early. Be very careful if you life the vinyl back up to relieve the bubbles because it will distort the color. I don't want to discourage you, but that vinyl was the toughest thing I've ever done, and watch out because it might be just a little short on the main sides of the body.
 
Looking good :)

Thanks! I know a lot of people wouldn't have even bothered, but I can't help myself. I don't buy used furniture for my house, or have anything old in it, so it's tough for me to leave anything old and dirty around. However, when I get a ROTJ, I don't think there's going to be much that I CAN do to restore it...it's got all sorts of weird parts and very little repro stuff.
 
However, when I get a ROTJ, I don't think there's going to be much that I CAN do to restore it...it's got all sorts of weird parts and very little repro stuff.

Yeah - I agree. I don't see repro people going to extra lengths to help collectors restore ROTJ. But I think the gameplay is kinda crappy.

Nice Journey, BTW.
 
did I read that right?
this was parabolics Journey?
IIRC he was one of my first in line to get the Journey sideart
which was like 2 years ago :eek:

glad to see the game finally restored.
hopefully well have an update on the Journey sound mod very soon.
 
Another fine restoration. Nice work! I can't believe you can do that in your basement. I make such a mess, that I have no choice but to work in the garage.
 
I'd like to get a Journey cocktail one day.

I've got a number in the back of my head for how much $$ I'll have to cough up to get one, though. Let's just say it might be awhile...:D
 
did I read that right?
this was parabolics Journey?

Yeah, it was...and he still hadn't installed the side art yet! A couple of the outside edges lost a little of the adhesive, but not more than 1/8" or so, so it's okay. This was actually the first of his collection he sold, but the last one he wanted to. However, it's gone to a good home! ;)

hatrick-yeah, it's a little scary in the basement, but it was even worse with Tron and 720. I make a lot of mess too, but I seem to make more of a mess in the garage. I guess since I know I don't have to be as careful, I end up getting more careless!

pd-I don't think a cocktail will run you quite as much as this did. I remember seeing in one of the Journey threads that someone was considering selling theirs.
 
pd-I don't think a cocktail will run you quite as much as this did.

A guy said he got his asking price of $2500 for a Journey cocktail in an earlier "for sale" thread. And it had wear on the CPs (though it still looked very good)...
 
Nice work - that really looks great. I also like the spacing of your games on display. It lets you see some of the sideart on each one.
 
I don't buy used furniture for my house, or have anything old in it, so it's tough for me to leave anything old and dirty around.

Hahahahaha... I can only imagine what you thought of our games/house then. I guess I'm the anti-Jedidentist. :) I actually like games a little dirty and old looking. :D

Nice job on the restoration! :beerchug:
 
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