Reversing Rally- Star Wars Cockpit restore, part2

m_mcgovern

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Sorry in advance for the length and the pics. I hope you enjoy...

This is my second post of what will likely be a long restoration of the Star Wars Cockpit I picked up in July.

For details of the acquisition check out this link here.

My first post on this restore can be found here.

I removed the rest of the 1000 Mile Rally parts -- a 19" raster monitor, transformer & fuse block, and the wiring harness. The op that did the
conversion hacked in a jamma harness, so I'll either need to pick up a Star Wars harness or make my own. I then removed the SW coin door and coin
box. After all that was out, I vacuumed it out and wiped it down with Simple Green.

My next step was to attack the sides. Before attempting to remove the black paint, I needed to remove the Great 1000 Mile Rally decals. I wanted to
find a way to do it that did not harm the artwork underneath. But what is the best way? Apply Goo Gone? Just scrape them? Wallpaper steamer? I
exchanged PMs with pr0k, who suggested dry heat to activate the adhesive and peeling them off.

First the good news...I made another $5 or so when a pile of quarters came falling out of the bottom once I tipped the cockpit onto its side. I can put this towards new sideart if this doesn't work out!
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So, I pulled out an old hair dryer and went to town. For the most part, this did the trick. There were two types of decals applied all over. The
larger decals had a rubbery consistancy and got very stretchy with heat applied. The other round decals were more like big stickers. In many cases,
these took a lot more work to pull off as they were constantly tearing.

Unfortunately, in a couple of areas, I ended up ripping the Star Wars artwork underneath. I'm not sure if there was not enough paint or if I left the
hairdryer on a spot too long or didn't get the decal hot enough before peeling. With some practice (and I had plenty of practice since there were
lots of decals to remove), I was able to do much better. In fact, on the second side, I only had one small place where the Star Wars artwork got
damaged. There were a few tricks that I think helped. First, I started to lightly score the big decals so that they could be pulled off in strips.
Second, I didn't continue to work on one decal. After each strip was removed, I would move to another decal.

Here is a picture of the left side with the decals removed:
2876971651_5b58060df2.jpg
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The bright white areas are where the artwork got damaged.
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With that done, it is finally time to go for the black paint removal. Inspired by and using Jake's process outlined here.

I went for it. I picked up some Citrustrip and a scraper from Home Depot. I also had a small bucket of water with a sponge and paper towels for
wiping paint + stripper goo from the scraper. I went slowly since I didn't know what to expect. I applied the Citrustrip in small areas (about 1ft X
1ft) and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then, I carefully scraped off the paint using a plastic scraper. Once I got most of the paint removed from the
1ft X 1ft area, I went back with a wet sponge to clean off the remainder of the paint/stripper goo. All told, it took about four hours to complete
the one side (like I said, I was trying to be overly careful, so I went quite slow).

The results of the process speak for themselves. Here are some after pictures:
2877804846_1f4f930db6.jpg
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A closeup of the Sith Lord himself:
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Here is the final result:
2876971783_d181cdd911_b.jpg


A big improvement over this:
2877874104_da3cc5e244.jpg


Dontcha think? I am pretty stoked so far with how this is turning out.
 
Re: Reversing Rally- Star Wars Cockpit restore, part2

I'll be the first to say...damn! I love to see this kind of thing that's what we're all about. Godspeed to you, I can't wait to see more progress pics. I've only played an upright, I can't imagine how cool the cockpit would be.
 
Re: Reversing Rally- Star Wars Cockpit restore, part2

I agree! This is awesome. My question is who on earth would paint over that beautiful Star Wars side art? For a rally game???

Dan
 
Re: Reversing Rally- Star Wars Cockpit restore, part2

Holy cow...

That came out much better than I expected it would when I first saw this project. Keep up the good work, and keep the updates coming.

I love these threads!
 
Re: Reversing Rally- Star Wars Cockpit restore, part2

Wow, That really is a thing of beauty. I'm shocked at how well that worked on getting the black paint off. I thought that first pic meant the stars wars art had come all the way off when you were scraping it.
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Glad to see that it's still in pretty great condition underneath after all. I will have to try citrus strip on my gorf i'm trying to restore.

Keep up the great work!
 
Re: Reversing Rally- Star Wars Cockpit restore, part2

WOW. The paint is coming off better than I would have hoped. So when you get the cab all tip top, are you going to transplant the internals from the upright or hunt down the parts seperately?


ArcadeMaze
 
Re: Reversing Rally- Star Wars Cockpit restore, part2

@Radiac- Yes, I was hoping for results simmilar to Jake's Tapper and fortunately, that is what I got! In Citrustrip I Trust!!
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@ARCredux- I probably should have been more clear. The "lighter" white areas are left over sticker/decal adhesive. All I can say is Citrustrip is my new hero. You should definately give it a whirl on your Gorf.

@ArcadeMaze- I've slowly been collecting another set of parts. I already had a second Amp tube when I started this in July. Since then, I've picked up Amp deflection and HV pcbs, a second yoke (that will need rebuilding), a second boardset. What's left is another working AR2 PCB, wiring harness, and Atari vector power brick. When it is all said and done, I have something special planned for the SW upright...
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Re: Reversing Rally- Star Wars Cockpit restore, part2

What the hell? Great 1000 Mile Rally is an awesome game! Shame you are ruining this great cockpit to put Star Wars in it...

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I agree! This is awesome. My question is who on earth would paint over that beautiful Star Wars side art? For a rally game???


A coin-op game's primary function is to get coins.

1998 Collections:
Star Wars Cockpit $9.25/week
Great Rally 2: $322.00/week
 
A coin-op game's primary function is to get coins.

1998 Collections:
Star Wars Cockpit $9.25/week
Great Rally 2: $322.00/week

Those damn for profit people are what's ruining this hobby for the rest of us!
grin.gif


But seriously, nice restore. This shows why not all converted cabs need to be trashed.
 
Excellent! I can't believe the art is in tact under all of that black paint. It must've been a great feeling to strip off the portoin that exposed Darth Vader. Looking forward to further updates.
 
@jeffsgames- Yes, in the end, I'm glad someone went to the trouble to convert it to something else so that it didn't get the ax or incinerated. And, in a strange way I wonder if the black paint actually served to protect the art underneath. I only wished the op didn't go the "extra mile" and slap on so many decals and stickers. They were a real pain to remove and the only reason right now that I have any artwork tears
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@JeffC- Yes, I could almost hear Vader's breath as I removed the paint from his face.
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That was a highlight. As was removing the paint just to the left of the seating area. The three small x-wings flying vertically on the blue background was just so vibrant...it was great feeling.
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My point was that I am so glad there are still arcade cabinets around, and other collectors and reproduction part suppliers out there to make this a great hobby. Sucks that the cab looked so bad when you got it, but man are you going to feel great when you're done!
 
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