GORF Restoration Officially Underway!

TheDrewster

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Donor 2012
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So this is what I have started with. A GORF that has had the blood, sweat and tears played out of it. Bought it with no marquee, moderate humidity damage, and horrible patchwork on the front near the coin door. The only working lights being 2 way too hot 60 watt bathroom bulbs in the empty marquee hole.

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Today, I installed the newly acquired marquee, replaced marquee, control panel and backdrop lightbulbs with energy saving and cooler temperature bulbs, cap kit on the K4600 monitor (pics taken before degaussing), and started phase one in prepping the upper half of the cabinet. More bondo work and sanding needs to be done, but not bad for a days work.

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Looking good so far man. You've taken on a hell of a project; you're right the game has been played! I admire that you're restoring the game, and am looking forward to seeing your progress...
 
I've never seen a Gorf in person, how many lights are on the cab? In your first two pics it looks like there's a light behind the artwork that's below the CP. Do those 'space rank' labes on the bezel also light up?
 
There are:

2 Marquee lights
1 Backdrop light
2 Control Panel knee lights
6 Space Rank bezel lights
And finally 2 more inside the handle, but I dont have the tool handy to open it. Not that it would matter, as I dont have the right insert anyway.

Well, I think I got all the lights.... 13?
 
Shame you weren't closer, i just gave away an empty cabinet that was in much better shape and would have left you with alot less work. The guy was planning to cut it apart and make some kind of coffee table out of it. Good luck with your restore, it's looking better already.
 
GORF is a kick ass game no doubt. Good luck with this... can't wait to see it when you're done! My hat is off to you...
 
So today I grabbed the GORF back out and started phase 2 of the restoration; cleaning the insane amount of garbage and dirt inside. This has to be a fire hazard.

The GORF has now been completely disassembled. And Spyridon is right, that monitor removal was not intended for one person to do without laying the game on the side. That was one difficult puppy. I also took the opportunity to repaint and 'spit shine' the power supply.

Also, here is a group shot of all the new parts. New CPO and joystick insert from Rich at ThisOldGame, new textured black T-molding from NovaCade, and side art from ArcadeOverlays. If anybody has noticed, the side art is a little darker than the original game. So instead of matching the original color of the cabinet, I matched the color of the new sideart, which is Valspar Pacific Pleasure from Lowes.

Also, here is a picture of the full damage around the coin door now that the door has been removed. This will be quite a task. After the repair, I dont know if I should use paint or find new light grey Formica like the original.
 

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Sweet Drew. Looks like you're well on your way to a nice restore. Man, that CPO is going to look so nice. Looking forward to updates. :)
 
So today I grabbed the GORF back out and started phase 2 of the restoration; cleaning the insane amount of garbage and dirt inside. This has to be a fire hazard.

The GORF has now been completely disassembled. And Spyridon is right, that monitor removal was not intended for one person to do without laying the game on the side. That was one difficult puppy. I also took the opportunity to repaint and 'spit shine' the power supply.

Also, here is a group shot of all the new parts. New CPO and joystick insert from Rich at ThisOldGame, new textured black T-molding from NovaCade, and side art from ArcadeOverlays. If anybody has noticed, the side art is a little darker than the original game. So instead of matching the original color of the cabinet, I matched the color of the new sideart, which is Valspar Pacific Pleasure from Lowes.

Also, here is a picture of the full damage around the coin door now that the door has been removed. This will be quite a task. After the repair, I dont know if I should use paint or find new light grey Formica like the original.

My Turbo mini came looking like that too, yick! Cleaned up nicely though.
My hats off to you dude! No doubt it's going to look awesome!
 
Alright so this afternoon I rebuilt the control panel and shined the bolts. The only problem is whoever maintained this game previously, cut the light sockets out of the joystick. What the hell?!?! I was so psyched to see this joystick light up. Oh well... I guess I will have to settle for no lights for now. But with the addition of a new control panel, new buttons, and new red insert, it still looks mighty beautiful. So lets keep it wrapped nice and safe until the cabinet is finished.
 

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Looking good, but you need to find a way to get the lights working.

Interesting approach on matching the color to the art. I'm interested in seeing how that turns out.
 
Nice job so far.:)
I found this Gorf restoration. It has pictures of the Joystick bulbs and the sockets. I replaced them in mine a few years ago and they are small bulbs.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=80733.0
Gorf joystick bulbs #73 bulbs
Voltage 14
Wattage 1.12
Amps .08
Base WB1.5
Shape T1.5

Yep thats Spyridon's. His resto is my inspiration. As for the lightbulbs, I appreciate the info. Now if only I had something to plug said lighbulbs in to :p
 
If you're careful you might be able to pop out the pins in the socket and solder new wire to them, there's usually a little tab that holds them in and pushing them down with a screw driver will make it removable.
 
If you're careful you might be able to pop out the pins in the socket and solder new wire to them, there's usually a little tab that holds them in and pushing them down with a screw driver will make it removable.

I think he can rewire it, but it looks like he is missing the little PCB that the lights plug into

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Also, here is a picture of the full damage around the coin door now that the door has been removed. This will be quite a task. After the repair, I dont know if I should use paint or find new light grey Formica like the original.

If it was me, I would pull that whole front off and replace and then put new formica. Might be a little more work but that is a shit load of damage to try and fill and sand.
 
Behold! Progress at last!!!

With a BIG thanks to mrbill2084, I was able to repair replace the bottom half of the cabinet and the coin door. This went a lot smoother than I thought. So now, all I need to do is:

Touch up coin door
Degauss monitor
Add carriage bolts to fill the security holes
Repaint the blue half of the cabinet
Repair joystick light sockets
Apply side art
T-molding
Defeat the Gorfian empire :D
 

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