Pole Position to Pole Position II Conversion

Phetishboy

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I am far enough along on this one to finally post some progress. I started with a $110 working Pole Position purchased at auction:

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I had to redo the gas pedal, as the pot and cable were missing. In their place was a microswitch (cheap op fix). Once those parts were acquired from Nash and Mylstar, respectively, I then turned my attention to the intermittent steering problem. I would lose all steering at random points during a race. A quick PM to my good friend Rossmackie and I picked up a working opto, a complete steering mech and a bunch of pedal parts. He even threw in a nice Pole I bezel. I left it as a Pole I and moved it into my gameroom for about 1 year, where it was my most played game, until I picked up my cockpit. Then it sat out in the gayrage for about a year until I decided it wasn't gonna sell, even in decent shape and working, so I decided to start picking up Pole II parts and converting it. I decided I had better go threw the cab and clean up and fix those areas that needed fixin. First I decided to remove this:

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From the right front corner:

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and see what the damage was. Well, it was bad. Whole corner was busted out and crumbling, but only about halfway into the particle board, meaning I could easily bondo it. Which I did. Then I recut the T-molding channel with my router. When the bondoing, sanding and slotcutting were done, I realized I would have to color-match the white and blue in the side art and touch up those areas. I ended up masking around the blue triangular field and spraying 3 coats of Rustoleum 'Sail Blue' on it. I then waited 3 days and masked the blue field off and sprayed Rustoleum white fusion paint on the area around the borders of the blue field. When I removed the mask, it looked pretty sweet:

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Though you can see where the bright white ends and the faded white of the rest of the side art begins (at the top and right angles of the triangle). I will be masking the rest of the graphics with frisket when I get the chance and hitting all the white areas to make it look uniform and complete.
 
Here's the untouched side:
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vs. the repainted side:
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Pretty close blue match, and it looks better than scratched up torn and otherwise old blue vinyl. I will be masking and painting the unfinished side when I get the chance. I then decided I should remove the CP, clean and lube the steering column and remove the old CPO and repaint the metal. I then decided that I would use a Willis overlay I had picked up on eBay for $5, which, to me, really matched the Pole II marquee colors better than the original Pole I overlay:

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So after that was done, I figured I'd post pics. I will touch up the rest of the side art and apply new T-molding when I get some time from my other restoes. Until then, it is looking pretty good:
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Left to do:

-Touch up the rest of the sideart

-Install new T-molding

-apply grip tape to the gas pedal.

Thanks for reading.
 
Nice work on the sides...though I have to disagree with you on the Willis overlay...

BTW - Also good job on restoring the POT back to the pedal. While the microswitch solution worked decent enough for Test and even Fuji, you NEED the range of motion that a pot provides for acceleration for the other two tracks. "Balls out" just doesn't work with those tracks.
 
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Nice utilization of the willis CPO. I think it looks snazzy.
Thanks man. I guess I wanted the Pole II to *look* more dedicated without having to buy the $200 side art. Keeping the old Pole I CPO on in this case made it look like a 'conversion'. I actually still have an extra CP with a nice original Pole I CPO on it to compare this to.
 
That Willis CPO = awesome.

That may be the only Willis CPO I have ever liked. Looks sweet.
 
Chips for conversion

I'm about to pick a Pole Position up this weekend and I cant find online any chipset / eeprom updates to make it PP2. Any suggestions? Thanks!
 
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