Pole Position cockpit restoration

[Jaydon]

I finally decided to start posting about this restoration project that I have working on. But before I start, I feel like I need to give you a fair warning. This thread will be picture heavy.
Back in January 2023, I came across a posting on Craigslist for this Pole Position cockpit. If I remember correctly, the seller was asking $650 for it. Of course, it wasn't working.
Here are the actual pictures from the ad.



Back in 2023, $650 was not a bad for a Pole Position in this condition that is located in Southern California. You don't see too many come up for sale around here. So I rented a trailer and drove the 40 minutes with every intension of buying it. When I got down there, I met with the seller to get a little history. He said that he and his kids used to play it all the time, but then it just stopped working. He didn't have the knowledge to fix it, nor the desire. The game looked complete. But it was in rough shape. The main concern I had, which was conveniently left out of the pictures from the ad, was this



This was not a clean break that went horizontally through this section, like this



But rather, the crack travelled both vertically and horizontally as it moved from outside to inside.



This could provide more surface area to glue. But more on that later.

The seller was noticing me inspecting this damage and I think he was scared that I was going to run. He said something about his sons horsing around that caused the damage. And before I knew it, he dropped the price another $50. I couldn't pass this up for $600. So we loaded it up on the trailer, covered it, and drove it back home. Does anyone else love the looks that people give you when they see you driving with one of these games?

 

[Jaydon]

Whenever I get a game, the first things I check out are the connectors and power supply. This is what the inside of the cabinet looked like.




I hate electrical tape. On the positive side, you always know where you have to start looking. Besides the power cord being spliced, the ugly elephant in the cabinet was the power brick.



Looks like someone got creative with a singular floating fuse replacement. I hate to think what would have happened if that singular fuse dropped a little shorted by touching pretty much anything. Also, for those who don't know, fuses are NOT suppose to look like this. This corrosion buildup is what causes heat, current issues, and premature failure of parts. If your fuses look like this, clean them with some very fine sand paper (1000+ grit) and isopropyl alcohol.

 

[Phetishboy]

Worthy restoration.

 

[Jaydon]

This was back in January 2023, before I had a test bench. So the only hope I had in seeing if the game actually worked was to tackle the power brick and cord. Besides it being absolutely filthy and rusty, I noticed that floating fuse, F3, was blown.



So I threw in a new fuse and fired it up.



Just kidding.

I stripped the power brick of everything.



After some sanding, painting, a new fuse holder, big blue, bridge rectifier and main fuse holder. I came up with this.



At the time, I was pleased with how this turned out. But more recently, I couldn't stand it. I actually completely stripped and repainted it again. More on that later.

Some might be wondering why I replaced the bridge rectifier and big blue. With F3 blown, I figured there was a strong chance something was wrong with the bridge rectifier. After some testing with the dmm, yes, the rectifier was bad. As for the big blue? I couldn't tell you. I had a couple of new ones laying around so I put them in.

With the corroded fuses and holder, I had a sneaky suspicion about the game board connections. The board itself looks beautiful. It was completely untouched, including the original green tipped battery



Yup. First thing I did was cut that sucker out and clean the board. It looks like I got to the corrosion before it spread.

With that taken care of, I moved on. The edge connector fingers was what I was worried about. Sometimes I hate being right.



Looks like things a wee bit toasty. For shits and giggles, I wanted to see what the pins looked like. I don't remember which board this pin went to, but it came from one of the burnt edge fingers.



As you can probably guess, the next thing I had to do was repair some burnt edge fingers on the boards and re-pin both edge connectors.

 

[Nondrowsy]

Add fans. I've kept an upright and cockpit going for 8 years with heavy play, Fans are your friend! Can't wait to see the finished product, good luck!

 

[andrewb]

FYI, when you have burned edge fingers like that, there's no need to repin the entire edge connector.

Most of the pins carry control signals, which are very low current. It's only the power and ground pins that carry high current (which are the end pins and the second ones in on each connector).

The pins in the harness connector can be cleaned, and don't even need to be replaced most of the time. Those are brass plated, so they are pretty tough. It's the finger on the game board that burns up, because it's tin plated and thin. So all you need is a proper repair on the burned finger. Then just keep the edge connector clean, once every couple of years, and the problem won't happen again.

Worst case if a pin was REALLY torched, you'd just need to replace that pin. The others are all still fine.

I just hate seeing people waste money and time doing things that aren't necessary, and don't actually improve anything. Your game will run just as good with the original pins. Spend those resources on other things that will make a difference.

 

[KaBoom1701]

Follow @andrewb advise on my cab. Never had an issue.

 

[Mojodog333]

FYI, when you have burned edge fingers like that, there's no need to repin the entire edge connector.

Most of the pins carry control signals, which are very low current. It's only the power and ground pins that carry high current (which are the end pins and the second ones in on each connector).

I picked up a PP2 cockpit over the weekend... I'm going to remove all the excess solder as you reccomended in other threads. Didn't you also recommend taking a pair of needle-nosed pliers and closing the edgeboard terminal for better connections? I'm guessing the terminal on the end might be spread from the 2 rolls of solder used on that pad.

What is the terminal with exposed copper? Is that the 5V feedback to the supply that got torched when the 5V feed failed?

 

[Phetishboy]

Such a great game. Mine has been in my Arcade for 18 years.

 

[andrewb]

Didn't you also recommend taking a pair of needle-nosed pliers and closing the edgeboard terminal for better connections?

I'm not following.

The times I've recommended pinching terminals with a needlenose pliers is on the TO-3 frame transistor sockets, on vector monitors.

On that board, you'd just want to redo all of those fingers that are burned up, as those are all done poorly. Looks like they are all grounds.

 

[Mojodog333]

I'm not following.

The times I've recommended pinching terminals with a needlenose pliers is on the TO-3 frame transistor sockets, on vector monitors.

On that board, you'd just want to redo all of those fingers that are burned up, as those are all done poorly. Looks like they are all grounds.

Sorry, I didn't recall that accurately. In one of my Sea Wolf threads, you suggested using a screwdriver to bend the contacts, so the 'C' part of the metal grabs the PCB more firmly.

 

[andrewb]

Sorry, I didn't recall that accurately. In one of my Sea Wolf threads, you suggested using a screwdriver to bend the contacts, so the 'C' part of the metal grabs the PCB more firmly.

Ah, yes. However that's on Sea Wolfs. They have a different style of edge connector, where the signals are the same on both sides of the board, for all finger positions. And the edge connector has contacts where each position is a single C-shaped contact that touches both sides of the board.

Pole Positions are different, where the edge connectors have springed pins, and there is a separate pin for each side of the board. (Because for most of the positions, there are different signals on each side of the board.) So it's a different scheme, and doesn't have the same issue that Sea Wolfs have.

For Atari games, it isn't a matter of the contacts loosening up like it is for Sea Wolfs, but rather the fingers on the game board get oxidized after 40 years, which is what causes the poor contact, and then the fingers burn up.

So for PP, all you have to do is clean the fingers every couple of years, and you'll keep all problems at bay.

 

[Jaydon]

Sorry I have given an update in a while. Life has been super busy.

So here is what the battery area looked after I removed the battery and did a little cleaning. The only corrosion or green I still see is around CR6 on the left of the picture, which I have cleaned up since this picture was taken.



This is what I did to repair the board fingers. The first part was to remove the burnt up fingers. I was a little shocked by the amount of damage to the actual fiberglass under the connector, especially for a ground connector.



I took some UV curing resin and filled in the damage. Using a razor, I shaved the bulk of the resin away. Then I cut up very thin strips of 1000 grit paper and sanding in the direction of the board to the edge, I was able to get the area smooth.
If this step is skipped, you will have lumps on the copper tape after it laid. Ask me how I know.
The area looked smooth, so I put the tape on, and I could see all the imperfections on the board repair showing through. So I have to take the tape off and sand some more.

Here is a picture in the middle of all that.



After all of that prep work, I cut some thin strips of copper tape and using very tiny tweezers, applied them to the board.



Using some liquid tin, I tinned all the fingers.



Here is the other board. The same process was used.



I want to give a huge shoutout to @lilypad19 , who covered exactly this type of repair on his webpage.... https://lakeside-arcade.com/2025/08/10/pole-position-pcb-repair-logs/

 

[Jaydon]

I ended up doing a re-pin on the connectors for both boards.

I know, I know. I can hear @andrewb hitting his head against the wall from here. I imagine if we lived closer to each other, he come over a kick me hard in my shin. And he would have every right to do so.

So with the rebuilt power supply, new edge connector, and repaired fingers, it was time to fire it up and test the monitor.



Dammit , I forgot to install the Dallas DS1220.



All right. The game is alive!!

Now onto the cabinet repairs.

 

[lilypad19]

Nice work - be careful about the spacing between the fingers. Many edge connectors have east-west slop in them. It is very easy to have a pin in the connector straddle 2 fingers.. I often have to slice the copper just a hair thinner to get all of the spacing right.



This is a bit too close IMHO..

 

[Jaydon]

Nice work - be careful about the spacing between the fingers. Many edge connectors have east-west slop in them. It is very easy to have a pin in the connector straddle 2 fingers.. I often have to slice the copper just a hair thinner to get all of the spacing right.

View attachment 844782

This is a bit too close IMHO..

That is an awesome catch. Thank you again!!

Luckily, a little razor blade makes for an easy fix.



Thanks again, @lilypad19

 

[Jaydon]

Lets get to the restoration!!

I have done a few game restorations before. But nothing of this size. I totally underestimated the amount of time needed for something of this magnitude. To give you an idea, I started this part of the project in August 2024. I thought it would take a couple of months. No way. There was a lot more work that needed to get done than what I originally thought. Of course, then life happened and it got too cold to paint. So the cabinet sat for about 8 months, halfway done, until this past summer.

Here is the plan;

1) Strip the artwork
2) Wood Repair
3) New interior vinyl
4) New art
5) New rear plexi
6) Repair coin door, pedals, steering wheel, etc.

So we all know what I'm starting with, here are some before pictures.

 

[Jaydon]

Some more pictures

 

[Jaydon]

 

[Jaydon]

Besides it looking dirty and gross, it had the smell to match. Much of the smell I suspected was from the carpet (or what used to be carpet). But once I started disassembly, I found the source of some more nastiness.

Behind Seat LQ.mp4

I don't know if you spotted it from the video, But there was a menu in all that crap. I was really tempted not to touch it. But curiosity got the better of me. Turns out it is a 40 year old menu from Shakey's Pizza. I guess this game was in one of those locations. Interestingly enough, 2 of 3 locations are still in business.