Kee (Atari) Drag Race Restoration (ongoing)

I presume no but I haven't looked specifically, other than doing a general search for 'Drag Race' at several of the usual suspects.

I originally hoped to restore two of these cabs as a method of financing the project, so i looked into copying them. The cardboard cowl can be done but the 'monitor topper' (as Atari calls the overlay) was a show stopper for everyone I showed it to.

Does anyone in the community have the ability to reproduce these? Are they made for any other games?
 
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Multiple tracks of work occurring the last few days and (hopefully) this weekend.

Last year I saw a FB ad for a barn clean out of rather nasty looking games. Most items were too far gone IMO but I happened to see the plexiglass from for a Drag Race mixed in there. When I arrived I was able to scavenge two control panels but there was no DR cabs to be found. :( Oh well, at least I have spare parts.

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First up is harvesting white buttons. These tend to significantly yellow in sunlight but that can be reversed. I took the two 'orangest' looking ones below and soaked them in hydrogen peroxide with a UV light kicker for 12 hours.

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You need to test and watch how long you put these in for, some plastics soften significantly. These turned out fine, I'll start treating the rest.
 
Next for harvesting are the Cherry E-18 micro switches from the shifters. The E-18s have a slightly higher maximum operating force than most micro switches, maybe that's why they were used in the shifters.

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Switches from the various vendors have various operating points, overtravel, movement differential etc. that I barely understand let alone can determine which is important for functionality in the shifters. Maybe none matter. After looking at the ZF, Honeywell, and Omron offerings I decided it would be easier to salvage the ones I had rather than order new ones.

After brass-brush cleaning the exteriors I checked each one with a continuity tester. Anything that didn't operate reliably and/or had more than 1 ohm of resistance got put into the rebuild pile. That was 2/3 of them. I drilled out the rivets, took them apart, and cleaned he contacts thoroughly. Added drops of Deoxit gold to the contact plates before sealing them back up.

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I was unable to repair three. In two of them the parts came out on the 'wrong side' of the case, the spring shot off, and it was too much of a bother to reassemble. I kept the pieces for if I really need them in the future and figured out how to prevent this. The last was one of the green cases which interestingly was the expensive "Gold Crosspoint' version. Ooh la-la. Unfortunately none of these switches are sealed against water. This one was pretty trashed and seemed to be missing the spring which had probably rusted off. Again, I saved the pieces and could probably salvage it if really needed.

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The lesson here is that Cherry switches from 1977, even those that have not been exposed to the elements, are most likely failing. Taking these apart and cleaning them is not that hard. The panel mount buttons I was struggling to find replacements for before can probably be done the same way, Ill tackle more of those soon.
 
I didn't re-press them. I left the old rivets in, used a vibe knife to hatch marked the sides, clamped, and put drops of epoxy in the X marks and rivets. If that's not enough they'll be bolted into the shifters which also holds the case bodies together.

When I do set rivets I have a setting kit for my drill press. If you do want to set them the line marked in red is the correct size rivet, length would be about 0.4 inches.

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Ahh yes, I remember those. If someone made a 23" monitor mold I think these could be made, the issue of course is cost per unit and rarity of the machine. How many would get sold?
It isn't just Drag Race that had an Overlay. I have a Space Laser knock off with a Taito boardset and 23" BW monitor. It had a formed plastic overlay. Ended up slipping in the Braze upgrade, The overlay is on it but cracked. Even it some clear overlays were available that would be great since it looks like some were sprayed and could be masked, etc and painted with an airbrush. Looked like some were vacuum formed. Could probably use a necked 23" tube as the mold.
 
That Drag Race project is cool. I remember playing this at a small local arcade back when it came out and it was new. They had one of these and a Sprint 2. Don't recall which one was there first but over the course of going there I recall they had one then the other.
 
It isn't just Drag Race that had an Overlay. I have a Space Laser knock off with a Taito boardset and 23" BW monitor. It had a formed plastic overlay. Ended up slipping in the Braze upgrade, The overlay is on it but cracked. Even it some clear overlays were available that would be great since it looks like some were sprayed and could be masked, etc and painted with an airbrush. Looked like some were vacuum formed. Could probably use a necked 23" tube as the mold.

Yeah, multiple games at the time had overlays. It might be worth it if a commercial shop sold generic, clear 23" overlays but I assume most customers would only pay for a completely finished product for their particular machine. That would never be cost effective unless the shop had access to a printer that works on concave or convex surfaces. Even then, for these rare games could you print and sell enough product to pay for the labor to create the image ? What vendor will take that chance?
 
Yeah, multiple games at the time had overlays. It might be worth it if a commercial shop sold generic, clear 23" overlays but I assume most customers would only pay for a completely finished product for their particular machine. That would never be cost effective unless the shop had access to a printer that works on concave or convex surfaces. Even then, for these rare games could you print and sell enough product to pay for the labor to create the image ? What vendor will take that chance?

Anybody remember Shrinky Dinks?
If a shop used melt-forming instead of vacu-forming they could print a pre-distorted image on the raw stock then shrink it to the CRT mold.
I guess the same could work for vacu-forming. The experts can figure out the details.

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Actually, they still make Shrink Dinks. Why not get some big sheets from them and experiment?
I'm sure they don't sell Bigass (tm) sheets normally, but perhaps a special order item?

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By the way, here's what he said about the manufacturing process in that thread:

"The overlays are made from .060" thick polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) plastic. They are rigid like lexan, but because they are made from PETG they are flexible without breaking and can be vacuum formed. After printing, the sheets are formed over a metal mold that was machined from a 3D scan of a sacrificial overlay, and then they are edged routed."
 
The monitor ( TEC TM-623 ) is back from Sergei at Midwest Gaming. It blew up while he was working on it and the flyback started melting?

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Given that this is a TM-623 I sort of expected something like this so I also had provided him with an M7000 monitor of the same vintage. He rejuved the tube and swapped it into the M7000 so I now have a working monitor for Drag Race.

I don't think they sell Tm-623 flybacks anymore so Ill save the chassis for parts, I expect I'll be seeing some more of these in the future.

And. lesson learned, Ill be installing new caps into these monitors before doing anything else with them in the future. Possibly this could have been saved?
 
The monitor ( TEC TM-623 ) is back from Sergei at Midwest Gaming. It blew up while he was working on it and the flyback started melting?

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Given that this is a TM-623 I sort of expected something like this so I also had provided him with an M7000 monitor of the same vintage. He rejuved the tube and swapped it into the M7000 so I now have a working monitor for Drag Race.

I don't think they sell Tm-623 flybacks anymore so Ill save the chassis for parts, I expect I'll be seeing some more of these in the future.

And. lesson learned, Ill be installing new caps into these monitors before doing anything else with them in the future. Possibly this could have been saved?
That's not the flyback, that's the HV lead. You may be able to splice that.
 
Yep. HV transformer output wire.

I wouldn't try spicing it. Unless you are really good at linesmanship and soldering you will likely end up with sharp edges or points that will cause coronal hot spots.

Just reinsulate it.
Use black RTV silicone. Put it on thick and smooth. Don't try to make it pretty. Don't over work it. You must avoid air bubbles at all cost. And clean what's already there first. Get it really clean. Air and dirt and oils and water are the enemy when reinsulating an HV anode wire.

And let the new RTV fully cure! It will be conductive while it's curing. Wait until you cant smell vinegar anymore. And then wait a few more days just to be sure before powering it up.
 
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