Gorf Restore from Time Pilot '84 conversion

KazooBR

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I picked up a Gorf cabinet in really great shape but it is converted to Time Pilot 84. I am converting it back to it's former glory! I've already started on a number of things and have it partially taken apart. Steps so far include:

- Drill out the back door lock. The other two were already drilled.

- Identify the parts I need. At this point I need wiring harness, board set, marquee, bezel, video interface, audio board, the level light board, 4 new feet, 3 locks, a power cord and a control panel overlay.

- CLEAN IT! It smelled like cigarettes and stunk up the entire garage. I drove to work the first day after having it in the garage and wondered why the inside of my car smelled like smoke (this was not the car that transported the game!). The third night our smoke alarms went off at 4:11am ... then again 15 minutes later. The garage is below a room we don't use much and it's door had been closed the whole time. I opened the door and a window and they stopped. Yikes, that's a stinky game! So, yesterday it got a double wipe-down with a water and white vinegar mix inside and out. Much better!

- Identify problem areas. The power board has a burnt connector. The yellow ground strap doesn't go to anywhere (where is that supposed to mount??). The power cord ground wire is not connected to anything and the cord itself has road rash with an exposed conductor. The monitor needs a cap kit. Some of the metal trim is getting rusty.

I think the cabinet is really in very good condition so I'm thinking I'll try to clean the paint and see if I can get away with just new side art. Any thoughts about that?

Here are the pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/brian.w.rieck/GorfArcadeRestore#
 
I think the cabinet is really in very good condition so I'm thinking I'll try to clean the paint and see if I can get away with just new side art. Any thoughts about that?

If it were me, I'd fix the holes on the front and repaint.
IMG_3644.jpg


As far as the sides, I didn't get a good look, but if you think the condition is good, you may be able to get buy with just side art.

The control panels from This Old Game are just beautiful. Rich is currently out of stock, but is planning on another run of them.
 
Gorf

The 2 colors on Gorf are easy to match. The hard part is the white speckels on the sides over the blue. Richie K. did one last year using a tooth brush dipped in paint then flipped the bristles to get the speckel effect. There is a thread on here about it. Rich's Gorf CPs are real nice by the way.

There is a yellow ground strap that goes to about everything metal. Most likely it is the one going to the control panel. If you need pics to help. Just let me know.

Found it but the links to the pics are dead.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=49807&highlight=gorf+restoration
 
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- Identify problem areas. The power board has a burnt connector.
Let me guess - the bottom one on the top connector, with the yellow wire? That one always seems to be burnt. Here's a tip, when you replace the connector, the bottom pin and the one above it(usually unused) are connected together on the power board. Make a "Y" with a piece of wire to help spread out the current draw between two molex pins. On mine, the end of the connector was burned clean off, and some previous owner had soldered the wire (badly) directly to the molex pin.

The yellow ground strap doesn't go to anywhere (where is that supposed to mount??).
The one on the bottom of the cabinet? That goes to the board cage. It goes down flat on the bottom of the cabinet, and one of the bolts that holds the card cage in place goes through the hole in the end of it.

-Ian
 
Let me guess - the bottom one on the top connector, with the yellow wire?
Yes, that's the one. They soldered mine too. Am I right that I want a 12 position .156 housing with pins for Linear PS from Bob Roberts?


The one on the bottom of the cabinet? That goes to the board cage. It goes down flat on the bottom of the cabinet, and one of the bolts that holds the card cage in place goes through the hole in the end of it.
-Ian

Thanks. I wondered why it wasn't connected but that makes sense since i don't have the cage.

Today I disassembled the cabinet, bondo'ed the bad spots on the bottom, cleaned the power supply and wiring and called around for a sheet of light gray laminate. Guess what? Nobody around here has it so it's special order and takes about 2 weeks to get. I'm thinking of using that instead of paint as that's whats on there now. Just lay it on over the top because there's no way to get the old stuff off. I also sanded, straightened and clear coated the marquee strips and the one above the control panel. Satin clear seems just right.

I've decided to paint the top too. I can't get all the spots out and the wood is a bit more cracked than I thought. So, I'll be stripping the paint in the next few days and ordering side art.

Oh, and I found a quarter in the bottom!

Brian
 

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Yes, that's the one. They soldered mine too. Am I right that I want a 12 position .156 housing with pins for Linear PS from Bob Roberts?
Correct. I'd recommend picking up a proper crimper for Molex pins if you don't already have one. Makes the job go much smoother. Bob Roberts carries the crimpers too.

You'll probably also want to get the rebuild kit for the power supply to replace all the old capacitors.

Oh, and I found a quarter in the bottom!

Cool! What year was it? I found a 1991 quarter in mine, so it must have still been in service at that point. Check the coin mechs - I once found a dollar's worth of quarters jammed in a coin mech.

-Ian
 
Cool! What year was it? I found a 1991 quarter in mine, so it must have still been in service at that point. Check the coin mechs - I once found a dollar's worth of quarters jammed in a coin mech.

-Ian


It's a 1983. I wondered how long it's been sitting in there!!!

Thanks for the recommendation on the crimper. I thought I could just use pliers/sidecuts but after investigating it seems they really are needed to do the job right. Can I get away with a small screwdriver to pop the pins out of the connectors? I hate to spend even more for a molex pin remover that I'll use just a few times. Maybe it's OK to just cut the whole thing off and be done with it.

Brian
 
I have an extra level light board if you want it, and I might have some of the other stuff you need too. Just PM me if you're interested....
 
Can I get away with a small screwdriver to pop the pins out of the connectors? I hate to spend even more for a molex pin remover that I'll use just a few times. Maybe it's OK to just cut the whole thing off and be done with it.

I personally use a paper clip, but a small screwdriver works. The pin remover tool isn't needed for this sort of connector, but for making good crimps, a proper crimp tool is.

Another option, if you're looking for the "quick kludge" route, is to just find a two pin molex connector, and splice both wires on to the yellow wire in your harness. File down the burnt part of the connector, so that you can plug the two pin connector onto the lower two pins on the power board. This really is only an advantage if you've got the bits lying around already - if you have to order parts, just fix it right. :)

Also, looking at the pics, it looks like you're missing both the lamp board and the plastic piece it mounts to. There's a molded plastic block with holes in it that the lamp board screws into - it acts as the mount for the board and as a mask so the lights only light up the proper window in the bezel. Also, it looks like you have Time Pilot instructions where the rank lights should be on your bezel. Is that just a sticker, or did they scrape away the artwork and tape in the Time Pilot stuff from behind?

-Ian
 
Also, looking at the pics, it looks like you're missing both the lamp board and the plastic piece it mounts to. There's a molded plastic block with holes in it that the lamp board screws into - it acts as the mount for the board and as a mask so the lights only light up the proper window in the bezel. Also, it looks like you have Time Pilot instructions where the rank lights should be on your bezel. Is that just a sticker, or did they scrape away the artwork and tape in the Time Pilot stuff from behind?

-Ian

The bezel was perfect before they scraped the paint away and stuck the TP84 sticker under there :-( Anyone need a bezel without the level section???

I've got the lamp board and brown 90-degree mount on the way this week. I think I have most everything I need coming ... but recent reviews of some pictures have me wondering if the joystick was also modified. Is there an external board that goes with it?

Brian
 
The bezel was perfect before they scraped the paint away and stuck the TP84 sticker under there :-( Anyone need a bezel without the level section???
That sucks. I'm sure you'll find a complete bezel. In the short term, you could probably get away with printing out a copy of that part of the bezel (I think the art is available at one of the arcade art sites), and sticking it there.

I've got the lamp board and brown 90-degree mount on the way this week. I think I have most everything I need coming ... but recent reviews of some pictures have me wondering if the joystick was also modified. Is there an external board that goes with it?

The joystick is optical. There's a little circuit board with optical gates that mounts to the bottom of the assembly, and the stick itself pivots some metal plates through the optical gates, making/breaking the beams. The trigger switch connects to this little board, along with the indicator lamp board in the top of the stick. The control panel harness plugs into this little board, then goes straight down to a plug to the main harness. The lights in the joystick are supposed to come on when it's ready to fire. They are driven by one of the transistors mounted on the lamp board. That's why there are nine transistors on the lamp board and only six lights. One transistor for each level light, one transistor for each of two possible coin counters (only one of which is ever installed it seems), and one transistor for the joystick handle lights.

There was also clearly buttons added to your panel - Gorf never had fire buttons on the panel, only the trigger switch. But I'm sure you already knew that :)

If you need, I can take pictures of the underside of my control panel tomorrow.

-Ian
 
FYI - I just ordered side art from arcadeoverlays.com. I got word from them that they did lighten up the blue background color based on some feedback they got on earlier prints.

I plan to take the approach of matching up the blue paint to the side art. I may not end up with the exact factory blue but it should blend very well with the side art.
 
And, now, to finally contribute something new (I think) to the discussion about Gorf restores: The bottom is laminated, not painted, as most know. I just matched up the color and it's D92-60 DOVE GREY from Wilsonart Laminate (sold at home depot) which has a matte finish. The phone number on the sample is 1-800-433-3222 if you wanted to call them direct for some reason.

http://samples.wilsonartcontract.com/p-275-dove-grey-d92-60.aspx

You'll need a 30x96 sheet to do the three sides (back is painted blue).
 
Ooh. Nice - you're re-laminating the bottom. You're definitely going above and beyond :)

Cosmetics definitely aren't my thing. I can fix all the electronics, but I probably couldn't paint a cabinet to save my life.

Definitely looking forward to seeing this come together.

-Ian
 
Yep, nice job if you're going to re-laminate the bottom.

Heck, I didn't realize it until I posted (or PM'd). Had I known that I probably wouldn't have bothered repainting mine. I have lock bar holes, but other than that the citri-stripper made it look REALLY clean. But since I filled in the holes with some white wood filler, I went ahead and painted.
 
Today I replaced the frayed line cord, fixed the burnt PS molex connetor with the Y wire suggested by retroHacker, verified voltages are good and cleaned more parts. Laminate showed up so it's time to work on the base cabinet in the next couple days.
 

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