Scramble restoration

delroy666

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Donor 2011
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I recently finished my summer project and thought I'd share some pics of my progress. I picked up this Stern Scramble for about $100 a while ago - advertised as a "Scrabble" on the local 'for sale' site. :rolleyes:

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The power supply was in bad shape, the wiring was hacked up, it was missing a marquee light and the WG K4600 monitor and PCB were non-working. The cab was also missing the back door.

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As is common for Stern cabs without leg levelers, the bottom edges of the cabinet were in rough shape. The one side was missing a couple inches of wood.

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The coin door wasn't too bad - a couple of dings, but someone had drilled a hole in it to mount a credit switch.

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The joystick was completely loose, but at least it was the original Wico leaf joystick. The paint on the bezel was flaking really badly too.

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I stripped the cab of all parts and started with the metal pieces: coin door, marquee holders, speaker grille. etc. using a wire wheel drill attachment to get everything down to the bare metal.

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Just for clarity, that's the original Monroe Red Ball-top leaf joystick, not a WICO.

Stern used Monroe sticks.

RussMyers
(former Scramble owner)

The joystick was completely loose, but at least it was the original Wico leaf joystick. The paint on the bezel was flaky really badly too.
 
Next I tackled the base of the cabinet.

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After sanding the whole cab, I decided to cut the bottom 5" or so of the bottom away and replace it with new plywood. I made a straight cut using a circular saw set to 3/4" depth with another peice of plywood as a guide.

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I cut and routed some new pieces from some scrap plywood, glued them into place and fastened them with a pneumatic air nailer. I glued some 45 degree cut peices inside the cab in the corners as reinforcement. I added new front and back pieces to the base and added new leg levelers, all glued and nailed into place.

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I also removed the wheels, cleaned them and repainted them with metallic finish Tremclad.
 
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I used Bondo to hide the imperfections in the new plywood piece and the seam between. I also filled in all the dings and scratches in the rest of the cab.

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After lots more Bondo and sanding, I cut a t-molding slot in the new section using a router and then put on a coat of primer.

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Then I painted the yellow base coat using CT Premier latex with a satin finish, rolled on with a small foam roller. The colour is CIL "Sunshower".

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I got the stencils from Rich at thisoldgame.com. First the orange - the colour I used is Behr "Sweet Mandarin".

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While waiting for the paint to dry, I build a new marquee light holder and installed a new fluorescent light fixture. I also reinstalled the freshly-painted metal parts like the coin door (with new repro "Stern" sticker), marquee holder, and speaker grille.

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To try to recreate the original paint texture on the coin door, I used a light coat of truck bed liner spray, followed by a few coats of Tremclad semi-gloss black from a rattle can.

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Back to stenciling... I got the black paint applied and after letting it dry I installed some new t-molding and brought the cab from the garage into the house to apply the final touches.

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New back door installed..

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I installed the repaired monitor, PCB (with souzilla/madrits high score save kit), new home-made wiring harness and added a new switched power supply. My PCB repair log is here.

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Since the replacement glass bezel I bought off eBay arrived in a million tiny pieces, I did the best I could and printed the graphic on a plotter and sandwiched it between two pieces of plexi. It doesn't look quite as vivid and crisp as the original glass bezel, but it'll do for now. The joystick just needed a new rubber grommet and a good cleaning, now it feels like new. The two different coloured buttons on the control panel are temporary, until I can find some new long white leaf buttons.

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But you can't see the wood grain/particle board like on all STERN cabinets from the factory! ;)

Just kidding!

That looks awesome! amazing work sir!
 
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