Another Tapper Restore

bmcclary

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Well, I'm starting another restoration. I am picking up this Tapper on Sunday and have already started doing some minor work on the machine.

I've been looking for a Tapper for years and finally came across one while talking to a salesman at a local car dealership. I've bought many cars from him in the past so we were shooting the shit while filling out some paperwork. I have no clue how, but we started talking about arcade games. He said "i've got a few games". I thought he would say he had some BS but after asking him what he had, he said "I've got this bar game where you serve beers to people". My ears perked up and said "Tapper?" He laughed and said he thought that was the one.

I asked if he would sell it and he told me that he wasn't looking to sell at this time. I put a notice on my calendar to call him every 2 months to check in and see if he was looking to sell. After months of pestering him, he finally caved and agreed to sell me the game for $1k.

After sending me some pictures thoughout the week (I had to coach him on how to send me pictures through his burner phone), I went and checked out the game last weekend. Overall, it is in good shape. A few small issues:
- Getting a blue screen with no gameplay
- Art is faded and chewed up on the back corners
- Could use a new CPO and player 1 & 2 start buttons
- Missing tap handles for controller

I was able to track down 2 of the tap handles from a collector in a FB group locally. I cleaned them up by attaching them to my powerdrill and using some 140 then 400grit sand paper.

I also picked up a new CPO from This Old Game, a new power supply, power supply adapter, tmolding, kick plate protector, ribbon cables and player 1 and 2 start buttons from Arcade shop and a new Midway coin door plate from eBay

Here is what I plan on doing to restore the game:
- Replace power supply with switching power supply and MCR Power Supply adapter
- New t-molding
- Replace CPO
- Remove rust from Coin Door and put a new coat of paint on front and back
- Add coin mechs
- Through cleaning
- Replace kick plate protector
- Replace Midway Coin Door plate

What I may do later:
- Have foot rail and cup holders rebrassed
- New Side Art and kickplate

I don't even have the game yet and I am already in to it for $500 :) I'll continue to update this thread as I begin the restoration process.
 

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More progress over the past 24 hours. I picked up the game yesterday and had an uneventful move.

Got the game home and fired it up. NO PICTURE on the screen. Just blue. I swapped out the power supply for a switching one (temporary while I have CDJump fix mine) and was able to get something on the screen. However, it was only showing a blue image. I tried troubleshooting and adjusting the pots on the neck board, but no luck. Also, NO SOUND. HOW FUN!

Looks like I'm going to have to call in the pros to take a look. I zapped myself once yesterday and dont feel like doing that again :)

I stripped the old crumbling CPO off using a heat gun. The first layer came off fine, but I was left with a sticky layer of adhesive I decided to let some CitriStrip do its magic.

I also replaced the rusted out leg levelers with new ones, replaced the T-molding and did a general cleanup.

Left to do:
- Get the game working LOL
- Have CDJump fix my board (getting missing sprites etc) and original power supply
- Paint original control panel and apply new CPO from This Old Game
- Dismantle and sand original coin door then paint
- Install new side art (some day)

I still really love this hobby. Cracks me up that I am so in to this game. I LOVE ME SOME TAPPER
 

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Some more minor updates. Was able to apply the new CPO from This Old Game today Product is AWESOME! Very forgiving and easy to work with. I would highly recommend this CPO if you are looking to restore yours.
 

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Cool, can't to do my cpo too! Did the citristrip remove the glue, or did you use something else?



CitriStrip did a pretty good job, but still left a bit behind. I did my best to get it all off, but ended up just painting over some of it with 4 coats of Rustoleum Satin black
 
Progress stalled a bit while I was out of town for a few days. I ended up working on the coin door on Sunday. I dismantled everything and sanded down all the rusty parts w/ a dremel. After doing that, I painted the front and back with Rustoleum Satin black. For the coin rejector, I used a cleaning bit on the Dremel w/ some Brasso. It did a pretty good job overall. Not perfect, but good for now.

I should have the board, power supply and sound amp back in a few weeks. I replaced the old Hantrex monitor that was missing red and green color w/ a Happ Vision Pro I found on CL for $150.

I'm on the fence on whether I want to put all new side art on. I'll get the game working first and get a few months of play out of it :)
 

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