muchuckwagon
Active member
Yeah, I might have a "problem". What does someone with a laundry list of games that need restored for over a decade do? Buy another project game of course! I was able to snag a Time Pilot back on February 9th. The good....very little other than the game works. The bad, nearly everything else as this game clearly was in the hands of a crackhead. Only a crackhead would try and reinforce the cabinet with brad nails that are about a 1 inch long.....causing the nail heads to pop. Nails that you can't fully drive into the cabinet and they bend, no problem. You just cover those nails and other damage to the cabinet with new side art. Yes, only a crackhead would spend all that money on new side art but do nothing to prepare/repair the cabinet before applying the side art!
My goal with this cabinet is simple, complete a 9 to 5 restoration. Meaning, the cabinet looks like a 9 from 5 feet away. I don't have the time for a full restoration and honestly, I want to get the game playable by the end of April. I plan to salvage the side art by carefully removing the brad nails. Hopefully the rest of the cabinet damage blends in from 5 feet away.
Here is my plan of attack after a deep cleaning:
My goal with this cabinet is simple, complete a 9 to 5 restoration. Meaning, the cabinet looks like a 9 from 5 feet away. I don't have the time for a full restoration and honestly, I want to get the game playable by the end of April. I plan to salvage the side art by carefully removing the brad nails. Hopefully the rest of the cabinet damage blends in from 5 feet away.
Here is my plan of attack after a deep cleaning:
- Remove the brad nails and use screws to secure the sides to the cabinet base (done)
- Replace the internal cabinet blocking that is broken or missing along with bezel supports
- Replace the back door that looks like it was used as a chew toy by a T-Rex
- Bondo random holes in the cabinet and repair the busted/missing left front corner (done)
- Bondo the t-molding channel (reinforce) on the bottom of the cabinet to prevent further damage as the cabinet is moved (done)
- Strip - coin door, marquee brackets, monitor brackets, cabinet vent & handle along with all visible cabinet bolts (done)
- Repaint - coin door, marquee brackets, monitor brackets, speaker grill, cabinet vent & handle along with all visible cabinet bolts
- Repaint - Rear of cabinet and touch-up woodgrain damage on sides
- Repaint - Cabinet interior
- Add a proper marquee light fixture
- Replace all the wiring - Jamma harness (ordered) and Jamma adapter (have in my parts pile)
- Keep the existing power supply and ISO transformer
- Add a proper Monroe joystick and leaf buttons (have both in my parts pile)
- Create a proper solution to mount the PCB as it was previously dangling from 3 (4 inch long) crackhead screws
- Add new t-molding
- Monitor - TBD






