Bubbles Restoration

Roadrunner000

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This one wasn't a full blown restoration and I can't find the before pictures. I will be doing a nice full stencil job on another complete bubbles later this spring if and when I get the stencil tracings completed.

Story is this one was converted to a jamma Toki..I picked up the cab from fellow klover because the bubbles art was still intact under the small toki decals and cab in super nice shape for a bubbles which seem to always be beat up.

Cab Condition
All boards and hardware from bubbles were mostly gone...
Bubbles Marquee gone
Bubbles Bezel still intact and in good shape..:eek:
Bubbles cpo converted and overlay long gone with extra holes drilled.
The wiring was a disaster ....jamma wires all over the place and no organization.


The original Iso transformer was intact but the wiring hacked to shit...

I started by finding the missing parts I needed. I located someone with a complete working set of boards and metal backing for both. They also had a bubbles marquee and spare joystick and some parts

Next I found a almost complete bubbles harness..minus a few cut wires and connectors...this project started before Dokert started his harnesses or would have gone that route right away..as it turned out..I ended up purchasing the first bubbles harness to have as a spare for future project and he made me a few small portions of the hacked harness so I could save this one that I found.

I decided to use the existing fully wired control panel I had from the other complete bubbles that I was going to repaint at some point..this way I could just use the converted control panel and install a NOS bubbles overlay I located and make it all new when that cab restoration was completed later in spring...only thing I replaced on this control panel was buttons with new clean ones. I gave this overlay a good cleaning with magic eraser and then after countless cleanings shined it up with some secret stuff that gives these cpo's a nice shine that lasts a long time. There are some cigarette burns but the flash makes them look worse..the overlay is really in very nice shape.

The hardest part of the restoration was finding the screws to mount the boards to metal plates..I had a few of the original ones I found in cab so I went to local home improvement store and matched up all original screws so it would match..also picked up some of the harness plastic holders that were missing or cracked in cab so they could be replaced...

Once I got all the bugs worked out the game and got it boot up I found a few bad 2114's..big surprise..but after that it fired right up...

I found out that the transformer on marquee lights was bad as it blew out a nice bulb...:mad: hate when that happens...no worries..I have a box of nos ones I picked up..about ten minutes of rewiring and I save original marquee light assembly with nos tranformer and marquee lights up...

I saved a few bucks too when I found the keys to the original locks and had saved them...so a little cleaning and rewiring and some TLC and boom we have a rejuvenated Bubbles..not too many of these around...

The cab looks really nice for no touchup or repainting...has a nice shine to it still...only thing I wish someone would repro is the bottom plastic molding that some of these williams cabs had on the sides..there are nice and save the bottom from alot of chipping and roadrash..



I also have HUO one I purchased shortly after I got this cab...so right now I have three...:D I'm still not too good at the game...I can get around 200,000 when I play serious..
Final product turned out sweet ....

I included a picture of the wiring I pulled out...I actually found some of the plugs for original bubbles that I was able to salvage..but most of it was just a large tangled mess..

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Welcome to the Bubbles club. I got a hacked up Bubbles cab from Komodo a year or so ago and finished the restore last summer. Fortunately, he had a NOS CPO & bezel (that was a big portion of the cost) that saved me a ton of looking and heartache.

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ken
 
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