Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom - project

Tornadoboy

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Last year I picked up a Buck Rogers upright for $1 off of Ebay, catch was it had the ever loving crap beaten out of it. The monitor is scrambled, the re-wiring is piss poor, the main PCB alternates from being scrambled, to partially working, to not doing anything at all, the cab has water damage, a kicked in front panel, an abused coin door, no back door, and a control panel overlay that has seen better days.

But the joystick and marquee look nice. :D

Note that the second picture shows that I have started peeling off the paint on the right side panel, it isn't as bad as it makes it look, the only really significant water damage is at the bottom.
 

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Here are more photos, showing some of the damage:
 

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Oooook, what I've accomplished thus far:

I've managed to peel all the paint off the water damaged side panel, removed the cracked front panel without killing myself and everything else, then cut its replacement. The middle photo shows me using the remains of the old front panel as a template, and the next of the new piece resting in place. Looks like a good match, I'm going to paint before mounting it and I'm still debating the best way to do that. The last pic shows the disassembled coin door.
 

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This looks very doable. Good start so far...

Yeah my biggest worry is the rot at the bottom of the side panel, my plan is to saw off about 4 inches all the way across, biscuit new wood in, make a template using the bottom of the other side, cut and T-slot the piece, and hopefully in the end make the whole business as invisible as possible. Artwork and electronic issues aside everything else is more a trial of patience than skill and in theory it should all come out looking pretty good, at worst it will make a good multi-game cab.

In all it looks like it will be $1 well spent! I love fixing the "unrepairable", don't you? :D
 
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Looks like you know what you are doing. Not sure that I would. That's one of those that I would have put out of its misery and sold the parts.
 
We'll see if it survives the procedure or dies on the operating table, but after seeing what other people here have done with cabs in far worse condition I'm reasonably sure I can save it. The electronics are another matter, but I have a spare monitor and I'm always on the Ebay lookout for another BR PCB, and maybe the original is still fixable. I've attached a picture showing the whole cab which I stole from the KLOV database, which I don't feel bad about as the picture itself is of my cab and was stolen from the Ebay auction I bought it from. :D

Note that suspiciously it doesn't show the side with the water damaged bottom, but hey the seller made no bones about the fact that it was hurt'n and for $1 who can complain?

Looks like you know what you are doing. Not sure that I would. That's one of those that I would have put out of its misery and sold the parts.
 

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Props must be given for resisting the urge to part out the game and for taking on such a time consuming project so that Buck might one day live again.
 
Props must be given for resisting the urge to part out the game and for taking on such a time consuming project so that Buck might one day live again.

I got a lot of inspiration from the "worst cabinet brought back from the dead" thread, I learned a lot about what is possible with a little patience and planning.

Just tried treating an area with Minwax wood hardener, and probably caused some brain damage from the fumes, it'll be interesting to see how effective the stuff is. Also I tried removing the control panel overlay without destroying it in case it would later be needed for a reproduction. Ummmm... that didn't work out too well :(

Good news is I finally got a reply from someone whom did a run of CPO reproductions and is trying to do side art, dont know yet if anything will become of that.
 
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