Double Star Wars Project

OU Flight

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Ok, here goes my first major game restoration. I just recently came across a pair of upright Star Wars cabinets for sale. I was told they had been in storage for the last 12 years, which was very believable from the major layer of dirt and grime on them. I originally planned to only get one of the games that was in better condition, but I just couldn't pass up it's abused twin. Cabinet #1 looks like it is pretty decent shape except for the bottom left corner has swelling from water damage. Cabinet #2 on the other hand, has much more water damage, especially the front panel. The sides are also pulling apart at the seams. On top of that it looks like the #2 cabinet was the local motel for several rodents. Luckily it looks like they were well fed and didn't have an appetite for electrical wiring. This cabinet was also missing the rear door.

Both cabinets are missing the high voltage section for the Wells Gardner 6100. Everything else appears to be there.

As far as functioning mechanically, I only have attempted to power the first cabinet. When powered up it makes a thumping sound from the speakers and the red LED's light up on the boards. I am waiting to try the #2 cabinet until after I work up the courage to de-fur the inside so it doesn't turn into a reenactment of the Death Star explosion.

Here are some pictures of cabinet #1 (on the right)

Until I can find some high voltage units I am going to focus on the cabinet restoration. The side art looks good but the vinyl around the decal is pealing in some places. I will have to figure out how to repair that portion so the side art can be saved. Also what is the best way to deal with the section of around the T molding that are now slightly wider and showing raw wood. The really bad parts at the bottom will just have to be replaced, but there are some areas in the upper cabinet that only has very minor swelling. Is it best to sand it down to match the T molding, or is there a better way.

Thanks
 

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Here are some more pictures of cabinet #1 before its "bath."
 

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After first round of cleaning.
 

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The Force is strong with this one.

Well I just got the first of the two needed HV units (thanks Ray) and installed it. When I powered on the machine I just got a thumping from the speakers and no picture or any marquee or coin lights. I then turned up the brightness on the flyback and got a bright white dot in the center of the screen. After playing around with it I turned the brightness down to where it was just a red dot. and eventually got a 2 inch diagonal red line from that center point. I am not sure how I got what I assume is the spot killer to come on (the red dot making a Z shaped pattern across the screen. More fiddling with the test switch and credit button brought pure music to my ears. A loud, "The Force will be with you" rang through the garrage. Thank goodness at least there is some life in there! That was last night.

So today after a little bit of research on here, I removed the EMI Shield PCB, plugged the harness directly into the main boards, and unpluged and replugged most of the wiring harnesses. IT'S ALIVE! The picture is there, the game plays and with sound. Woo Hoo. The picture does need some adjusting but it's looking good.

Now I have to figure out why the marquee and coin lights are not illuminated and begin the restoration process on the cabinet (which I was waiting to do until I knew the game would at least work). And then it will be off to tackle its ugly step brother. (Which I still need a HV unit for if anyone has one)
 
I can't believe it

Well after taking the shop vac to the nasty #2 cabinet, I got antsy and decided to go ahead and test it out even though it is still missing the high voltage unit. When I bought the two cabinets I didn't even test out this one because it was just so full of trash and who knows what kind of poo. The guy that sold it to me even said it was completely dead.

Well to my surprise, when I plugged it it it fired right up. I pushed the service credit button and got game sounds! Even though the yoke looks completely trashed, it seems to be fully functional. I just can't get over the fact that everything looks so bad but works. The power supply has some of the fuse holders loose, the EMI cover board looks warped, and there is so much crud on the PCB cage that the boards don't want to pull out.

Needless to say, the game is now unplugged and will not be turned back on until a thorough cleaning job is done. I just had to see if the game was functional before investing money in it.

Still looking for a Wells Gardner K6100 HV unit if anyone has one.
 
Here are some pictures of #2 before vacuuming it out.
 

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I got it from a guy that had them in some kind of storage trailer. #2 was missing the back which I am sure is the reason it is in such worse shape.

Well let's see, I can tell you there is some hair or fur, rat or mice poo I would guess, and all kinds of chewed up paper and cloth stuffed in the cracks like the gaps around the tube frame. It is kinda funny the cabinet that had the back on it didn't have any of this in it but the rear door instruction sheet has been eaten perfectly all the way around stopping just short of the type. It's like the mice just ate the margins so they could still read the instructions.
 
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Does anyone know what I can use to clean the crusted on crap off the PCB cage and actual boards? Should I use some type of media blaster on the cage and get it recoated or just find a new one.
 
For the cage, if it's just surface rust, I'd just hit it with a media blaster and repaint or re-coat it. Those can be a bit difficult to replace.
 
It's been a while.....

Well, it has been a long while since I have looked at this thread. Boy how things have changed. I started this thread when I was still really new to the hoby and didn't know much. I still don't know a lot, but I'm getting pretty good at some stuff.

Star Wars #1 got a good cleaning and minimal patch job to the bottom of the cabinet. It has been in our game room for quite a while now and is the favorite.

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Number 2 on the other hand was banished to the back corner of the garage for the last year and a half, where it sat and collected saw dust. Several months ago I decided it was time for Number 2 to be revived from the dead. My plan was to not only resurrect it but to bring it back to life as a cockpit. I had most of what I needed to complete the transformation: plans to cut and construct the new cockpit, monitor, boardset, and some of the other parts have been reproduced. Rich's new side art for the cockpit fueled my drive even more. I just needed to find a set of metal brackets and a wiring harness to complete my plan. I searched and searched for the metal parts. Thought I was close at one point, but to no avail. This machine had to be brought back though. It had been neglected far to long.

So at the begining of this month I began the tear down and construction of a new upright cabinet.

This is where I started from after having had it sit in the garage for a year and a half.
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More before pictures.

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You can see the swelling from the water damage.
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The front panel was really bad from the water running down the front of the cabinet.
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The bottom of the cabinet was just falling apart all the way around.
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The side art on this side has some nice swooping scratches through it.
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You can see the water damage on the front panel and how the side is actually separating from the front panel as well.
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Rat crap and debris in the PCB cage. You can't tell, but somehow the PCB's jumped the plastic tracks half way down in the cage. I had a heck of a time getting the boards out without destroying them. If anyone has a set of the plastic tracks they want to sell please let me know.
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After finally getting the boards out I discovered that I have cockpit boardset number 27. Kinda cool I thought.
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I began stripping down the hardware off the old cabinet to clean an prep the parts for their new home. Almost immediently I am faced with just how bad of shape this cabinet is in. The front panel has water damage at the top and bottom. When I go to remove the control panel, one side of the cabinet front panel breaks off just from the weight of the CP opening on its hinge.

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The PCB cage was all rusted up from rat urine.
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The marquee is removed next reviewing a nasty surprise. The top shelf area is full of spider webs and rats nest. The speakers are rusted and the wood is completely soaked from the rodents. It is quite clear that this cabinet cannot be saved.....

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Rats nest under the cardboard bezel.
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Now I am totally grossed out by what is inside the cabinet and can't believe I've had this thing sitting in the garage for so long. I think the same week that I was at this point of the disassembly was when the Ms Pac cocktail "Driveway Douche" thread was going on. In the thread one of the retailers on here said they wash out all of their cabinets with water. If I'm remembering wrong I appologize. I think this is a seriously bad idea to mix old wooden cabinetry with water, but because this cabinet is so gross and the cabinet is going in the trash anyway, why not give it a try. At least it will keep the rat crap from becoming airborn.

So I haulled it out on the driveway and went to town with a spray bottle of bleach and water and then hosed it out with the garden hose. OH MY GOSH! I could not belive how much nasty crap came out of that cabinet. Totally disgusting! To my suprise though, sitting on the driveway it looked way better.

I washed it before pulling the monitor due to the amount of nasty stuff that I didn't want to touch. Because the monitor was still in there I couldn't unbolt the wire harness that goes under the front of the monitor. That is why it was draped up over top during the washing.
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Night and day difference in the marquee area, but.....more on it later......
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The monitor came out nice and clean.
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Here are my findings on the wash your cabinets out with water method:

DO NOT DO IT!
DO NOT DO IT!
DO NOT DO IT!

Just to be clear, DO NOT DO IT!

Yes, it works great to wash away years of dirt and grime, and keeps rat feces from becoming airborn, but you have a good chance of destroying your cabinet in the process.

Every part of this cabinet that had any water damage swelled up far worse than it was before, and more importantly, lost its structural integrity. Parts that were strong before now had the consistancy of a damp sponge. Remember the marquee shef full of rat crap and pee? All that got washed away, but now the years of urine that had been soaked into the wood were free to give the cabinet a quite unpleasent odoriferous stench.

A couple of days later I went to pull the cabinet out from the wall by the front panel, and it just fell off in my hand from the lack of structural integrity in the partical board now.
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The sides have also almost completly broken free from the base of the cabinet.

The monitor suport rails that are right against the cabinet sides are particle board. They also no longer have any strength. You can push on them with your finger and they just bend. I bet if I gave them a good yank they would come right out.
 
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