Nintendo Helifire Restoration

CamaroMurph

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We'll this will be my first restoration thread and probably my first total restoration. Here are some before pic's. The game worked last time I turned it on which was about a year and a half ago. That's when i bought it. I turned it on, played a game, turned it back off, and it's been sitting in the garage dormant ever since.

It needs lot of love and I have a renewed interest in getting all my current games up to snuff. (Read this as a good way to avoid buying another new game as I am out of space)

The artwork seems to be in good shape just really dirty.
 

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And more. It has Nintendo's early "monitor in a box". 17304 plays.
 

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Still more. Look inside the monitor box on the right side. Those are the original spare fuses still taped in place.
 

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Were getting there. Bottom of the cabinet also had the original spare power fuses laying in the bottom. Interesting early power supply. Pre black ISO and PP-7A ala Radarscope/Red DK.

Well that's it for now.

Murph
 

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The good and the bad.

I got the cabinet completely wiped out. A good wipe with bleach to hopefully kill the balance of the white mold.

I was going to take the coin door off but found that two of the nuts are behind the wood for the coin door shelf. i have to remove the shelf in order to get the two nuts off.
 

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This is great, glad to see a truly rare game get a restoration. I look forward to seeing the progress and outcome!
 
And the Ugly.

The bottom of the cabinet needs a lot of help. Both the base and the side.
 

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Wow, that is awesome. Where did you find it? There has to be a good story behind that. :)

I have never seen a Nintendo cab in that style before other than in the flyers. I know games like Space Firebird also came in these, correct?

Thanks for sharing!
 
Thanks guys. I'll need all the encouragement I can get on this one.

I got this cabinet along with Radarscope from a warehouse raid that nocashvalue did a year and a half ago. It was one of those, can't find out about the condition, just state you want it and get it.

When I got them, Helifire worked but needed cosmetic restoration, Radarscope did not work but the cabinet was in pretty good shape. So, since I am stronger at the electrical side I choose to get Radarscope up and going and Helifire just ended up sitting until now.

I have only seen one other straight sided Nintendo cabinet in the wild.

Murph
 
What is your plan to fix the cabinet? I see possibilities:

1) Peel the top layer of ply off and replace with a laminate (I wouldn't try that..would seem to destroy the plywood)

2) Peel up and cut off the layer where it stops separating, then stitch in a thin layer of hobby plywood or laminate, then bondo, fill, etc..

3) Force glue under all of that, clamp down/weight down, clean up glue and loose with chisel, bondo, fill, etc.. (sounds best to me)

4) Have a new cabinet built (nahhh)
 
My initial thought is to go with #3. That's what I was planning to try first. After that and the bondo step, I would install new vinyl from Rich at TOG.
 
You'll need to get it slick as glass so that it doesn't show through and look bad with the vinyl. If you haven't used 'guide coats', look that up. I'd fix, fill, primer, block sand, etc.. and get it perfect, then use his vinyl. Lots of work, but it would look great.
 
Wow, camaro! Totally jealous of that cab. That thing is AWESOME. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

Do you think the cab is similar to the Radarscope cockpit but without the back piece?
 
Thanks for the kind words. I hope it turns out OK as this is the first cabinet I will need to really fix the sides and front up on.

I don't think it is quite the same as the cockpit front section. I believe the cockpit front section goes up even straighter (more vertical) from the top of the control panel to the top of the cabinet.

John - I think you were the first one that said "sell me that Helifire" when i got it right?

I haven't made much progress lately. I did manage to get the coin box shelf out tonight so I can get to the lower coin door bolts. The phillips screw heads were rust and 2 of the 4 just stripped right out. It took me much longer to get out 4 screws than I thought it should.

Murph
 

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Another small step. Some of the coin door bolts were rusted and snapped off even with some liquid wrench. Those were the easy ones. It was the one that just spun the carriage bolt in the door but wouldn't break loose. I finally got that one after about an hour of trying to grip the head of the carriage bolt.

Murph
 

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I didn't have a lot of time today but I spent a little on the artwork. I got the marquee all cleaned up. Got all the tape and sticky residue off it. It cleaned up pretty nice. I put it on one of my games to get a look at it when I was done.

I also washed up the bezel then realized I have a little more work to do on it. I will need to seperate the front bezel from the tinted back bezel as the in between sides of both pieces are dirty and need to be cleaned up. There is also one small scratch in the middle.

Murph
 

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Wow, never even heard of that game before! I love when obscure games like it get restored... we need to see more of that here on these forums.
 
Worked on the Bezel this weekend. Seperated, cleaned. Used some Novus on the scratches on the front face. Mostly before pictures here accept the ones of the smoked bezel at the end are of the finished smoked bezel.
 

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Finished bezel. Sorry about the glare but I couldn't get a better picture of myself. On to the next piece. The control panel. Here are some before pictures.
 

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