My first shot at restoring Wico Joysticks (TMNT)

EvilEmuOfDoom

Member

Donor 2012-2013
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
Messages
455
Reaction score
4
Location
Fairview, Tennessee
I had planned on replacing these (and still might pickup some just because) but figured I had nothing to lose by giving them a shot.

The blue and yellow joysticks came apart nice an easy, the purple one needed a little coaxing and the red one required rust cutter and a hammer *sigh*. So, by far the red had the most rust. I forgot to take pics before I started the first one so sadly I can't show you just how bad the red one was, however, here are my "before" pics (with the exception of the red one):
IMG_1292.jpg

IMG_1293.jpg


I tried a few different things and went in the order of Red, Yellow, Purple, Blue and it's evident in person that I got better with each one. There is still some visible pitting on the shaft of the red stick and some minor swirl marks on the yellow and purple balls (only visible when looking VERY closely in GOOD lighting though). However, after seeing how the Blue one came out I'm probably going to re-do the others tomorrow or Sunday.

Here is the final product:
IMG_1300-1.jpg

IMG_1301-1.jpg


In the end, my process was as follows:
1) Mounting the shafts in my drill press
2) Slowly work with 220 grit sandpaper carefully on the metal to get the rust off and VERY carefully on the balls to take the wear/scratches out.
3) Repeat the process with 400 grit sandpaper making sure to go slow and keep everything even.
4) Repeat the process again with 0000 Steel Wool.
5) Finally, while still in the drill press I used cotton polishing cloths to apply Brasso to the shafts and "Meguiar's Ultimate Compound Polish" to the balls.

Note: I had originally planned on using 600 and 1000 grit sandpaper which I could freaking SWEAR I had but couldn't find any and was too lazy to run to Lowes at 9:00pm ;)

Note(2): I really tried to keep this post clean but there were soooooooo many ball/shaft/polishing jokes tonight from my friend Josh and even my wife that I can't even tell if what I'm typing is dirty or not anymore...
 
Nice work there - they look new. Now you have me thinking about what I can do with my Stargate. Ooooooohhh!

You may want to wax the shafts, rather than oil them as some folks have advocated. You're trying to shut down an oxidation process, and wax will work better than oil, and won't attract dust / grime like oil will.
 
Nice work there - they look new. Now you have me thinking about what I can do with my Stargate. Ooooooohhh!

You may want to wax the shafts, rather than oil them as some folks have advocated. You're trying to shut down an oxidation process, and wax will work better than oil, and won't attract dust / grime like oil will.
Thanks :). I still need to go back over the Red, Yellow, and maybe Purple since the Blue came out so good. Also, I still need to do the ends by where the drill press was holding on (visible in pics). It's funny you mention waxing since I was standing in the auto parts store with my friend Josh (who has been kind of my partner-in-crime throughout this process) and was wondering if a good car wax would work... I think I'll end up going that route ;).
 
You have given me hope for finding some used ones and fixing them. They look great man.
Do it! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

I see you've been reading this post: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?p=1256522#post1256522

very nice, that red and blue shaft have a lot of wear at the plate line.
Gah! I was looking for that thread! I had to do it from memory as I was searching with the wrong username :(

So about the wear from the metal washers... Will that cause any problems? I was careful to only sand enough to get the rust out without making the wear spots deeper but it still concerns me.
 
should be fine, I wonder who has one with the most wear? i'm expecting to see some eroded out I beam looking one lol.
 
Great post. Hopefully more people on the fence will save these. I've refurb'd a few of mine and they look great.

Definitely NOT rocket science...if you have nasty old sticks, they are pretty easy to clean up and make new. Just don't get crazy with heavy abrasives which will cause deep scratches and require a lot of material removal.

Lots of media will work: steel wool, sand paper, micro abrasive pads, many kinds of compounds & polishes. Just go slow & start with a lighter than anticipated abrasive to see how it goes at first, and then go heavier if needed.
 
Great post. Hopefully more people on the fence will save these. I've refurb'd a few of mine and they look great.

Definitely NOT rocket science...if you have nasty old sticks, they are pretty easy to clean up and make new. Just don't get crazy with heavy abrasives which will cause deep scratches and require a lot of material removal.

Lots of media will work: steel wool, sand paper, micro abrasive pads, many kinds of compounds & polishes. Just go slow & start with a lighter than anticipated abrasive to see how it goes at first, and then go heavier if needed.
Thanks :). I got a couple in similar condition off eBay as spares and I'm planning on taking a video of the process. Although, you definitely hit the main points as well, go slow, be careful, don't start with heavier grit than absolutely needed. While I started with 220, I used VERY little pressure and just enough to take off the heavy rust before moving higher.
 
heh on mine i started with 60grit tho they weren't as badly cut in as your yellow and blue. worked my way up to 220. some of the finer grit papers i actually used some old semi used pieces (aka scraps just what i had around). yours did come out quite nice tho!
 
i did a couple a year or so ago and the whole time i could hear beavis and butthead doing a running commentary of what was going on.

got an entire box of pulls to go through to see which ones might actually be salvageable.
 
Back
Top Bottom