Solar Quest restoration

CaptainHendry

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Donor 2015-2016
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I bought a Solar Quest from a Craigslist seller in Colorado last month (I posted a thread the day the truck arrived: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=378773 ).

Because this was a CL purchase all I had was a few pics that didn't really show the condition. I knew there was some damage to the front corners but I hadn't actually seen it. The game looked pretty good when it arrived and, as promised, it was working:

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The first thing I wanted to do was replace the control panel overlay and do something about the worn panel:

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Unfortunately, no one makes a cpo for this game. I found one guy who had posted scans online but he was in Spain. I contacted him and, fortunately for me, his English was pretty good. He asked for a bunch of measurements for the buttons and the exhaust trails which are intended to match the ones on the bezel. I measured in inches and converted everything to centimeters.

Then I planned to address the panel itself. When I removed it I discovered one of the hinges had completely broken off at the factory weld points. Fortunately, there's a welder about a mile from me who I've worked with before. $20 bucks and it took him about 15 minutes (BTW, I was not looking at this when I took the picture.)

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I took the repaired panel to my powder coater and left it to be stripped and coated in the black I always use. That took about a week and cost $45. Another week after that my repro cpo was done and on its way to America. (Price was about €32 plus €17 shipping):

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However I made a mistake. The repro cpo was big enough for a full wrap of the panel instead of the short version you see above. I could have cut it down but why? I decided to go the full wrap which means I probably could have skipped the powder coating step.

In fact, the adhesive on the cpo didn't seem to stick well to the powder coating. I briefly panicked thinking it was a disaster. The cpo was bubbling and peeling up and then I broke out the 3M spray adhesive. Here's the final result:

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The blue color isn't a perfect match with the bezel but the red trails match up pretty well. I'm pretty happy with how it came out.
 

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Regarding the cpo length. The first Solar Quest I had had a full wrap cpo; like your machine now. I didn't really pay any attention, and it was in ROUGH shape; so I carefully pealed it off to scan it. Those scans are the ones you mentioned about online from Spain. I gave them to him a while back in hopes of remaking the cpo.

Since then, the large majority of the cabs I've seen have the "cut" version of the cpo. I'm fairly certain both were done from the factory, but I can't figure out why. The cut version has rounded corners, something an op wouldn't do or care about on location; so I really don't think it's ops doing it themselves.

The version I have now (2nd cab) is cut. Again, I've seen a lot more cut versions than full wrap. Personally, I like the full wrap a lot better.

The panel turned out great! Can't wait to see the rest of the restoration!
 
Cabinet repair

Both front corners were actually pretty bad which seems to be par for the course on these Cinematronics games:

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The side art was okay but the laminate it was attached to was very worn and dingy from age. I decided to strip the whole thing down and go from there. First step was removing the mirror, the board, the power supply and the monitor:

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Once that was done I peeled the old art. You can see how much brighter the laminate is underneath:

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Then I sanded the old laminate off. This took more than two hours using 60 grit on my orbital sander:

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For the flip side I went and bought myself a belt sander. That cut the time it took in half though I did put a few gouges in the wood because I'm not as good with the tool yet.

Notice how bad the front corner is in this pic. I painted on some wood hardener and let it sit for a couple hours before staring on bondo. Also, the cab was missing the sleds on the bottom so I made new ones:

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Regarding the cpo length. The first Solar Quest I had had a full wrap cpo; like your machine now. I didn't really pay any attention, and it was in ROUGH shape; so I carefully pealed it off to scan it. Those scans are the ones you mentioned about online from Spain. I gave them to him a while back in hopes of remaking the cpo.

Since then, the large majority of the cabs I've seen have the "cut" version of the cpo. I'm fairly certain both were done from the factory, but I can't figure out why. The cut version has rounded corners, something an op wouldn't do or care about on location; so I really don't think it's ops doing it themselves.

The version I have now (2nd cab) is cut. Again, I've seen a lot more cut versions than full wrap. Personally, I like the full wrap a lot better.

The panel turned out great! Can't wait to see the rest of the restoration!

Okay, so that's where the scan came from. Well, in that case thank you for doing it. I think it came out pretty good once I resorted to the 3M spray.

Yeah, I agree it seems like both types were factory but I don't see the advantage of the short version. As you can see from mine, then you just have the paint wearing out on the panel. That's more of a pain to fix then a new cpo.

And I really don't see the point of those dumb bolts near the bottom. They don't attach to anything! I just left them off. The cpo material is thick enough that you can't tell.

Thanks, I have a bit more progress to post.
 
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Replacing the rear panel

The worst damage on the entire game was to the panel that sits below the back door. Not only was a huge chunk of it missing but somehow the entire thing had been cracked in half:

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I decided to replace it. I pulled the old panel off and it actually broke in two in the process.

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I used the bigger piece as a template to draw the size on a piece of plywood and filled in the rest with a ruler:

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Then I cut it and routed out the vent using the old piece as a guide (there's a dip on the right side but it's the back panel so I can live with it).

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Once it was cut I painted it and nailed it into the cabinet using my Senco SLP20:

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Next up: A bucket of bondo to fix those corners!
 

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Okay, so that's where the scan came from. Well, in that case thank you for doing it. I think it came out pretty good once I resorted to the 3M spray.

Yeah, I agree it seems like both types were factory but I don't see the advantage of the short version. As you can see from mine, then you just have the paint wearing out on the panel. That's more of a pain to fix then a new cpo.

And I really don't see the point of those dumb bolts near the bottom. They don't attach to anything! I just left them off. The cpo material is thick enough that you can't tell.

Thanks, I have a bit more progress to post.
The full wrap cpo looks way better. I agree that the metal just wears, then you have to deal with it which is kinda a pain. I also do not get those bolts at all, either. That looks really nice with them off, I'm probably gonna do the same for mine. I want to find a second control panel that's in bad shape and fix it up with a new overlay. That way I can leave the original...original; and have my nice new one. My original is in nice shape, but I just prefer the full wrap.
 
The full wrap cpo looks way better. I agree that the metal just wears, then you have to deal with it which is kinda a pain. I also do not get those bolts at all, either. That looks really nice with them off, I'm probably gonna do the same for mine. I want to find a second control panel that's in bad shape and fix it up with a new overlay. That way I can leave the original...original; and have my nice new one. My original is in nice shape, but I just prefer the full wrap.

Yeah, the full wrap is my preference.

BTW, I still cannot find the interior art piece for this. I asked everyone selling stuff at CAX and called several dealers around the country. No one had seen one. I know you were working on a repro at one point. Any hope for that? I'm starting to think I'm never going to find one for sale anywhere.
 
Yeah, the full wrap is my preference.

BTW, I still cannot find the interior art piece for this. I asked everyone selling stuff at CAX and called several dealers around the country. No one had seen one. I know you were working on a repro at one point. Any hope for that? I'm starting to think I'm never going to find one for sale anywhere.
It's still in progress, but it should be happening. I have an original that a friend is borrowing. I made a duplicate on chipboard, and he scanned and made a stencil for the blacklight art. The duplicate got damaged (I think water?), so I'm getting the original back to make another couple copies and then we just need to test the painting/copying process for the blacklight effect.

I looked for a long time when I had my original cab, which was also missing the inner art. So, I know how difficult it can be to find. I'll make a duplicate for you, so once it's done; it'll get your way.
 
I've actually never played this game, aside from the Vectrex version. I didn't realize it utilized the mirror/blacklight art effect. Would love to see some nice photos and/or video that capture the effect.
 
It's still in progress, but it should be happening. I have an original that a friend is borrowing. I made a duplicate on chipboard, and he scanned and made a stencil for the blacklight art. The duplicate got damaged (I think water?), so I'm getting the original back to make another couple copies and then we just need to test the painting/copying process for the blacklight effect.

I looked for a long time when I had my original cab, which was also missing the inner art. So, I know how difficult it can be to find. I'll make a duplicate for you, so once it's done; it'll get your way.

Great! Thank you. It's really not the same without the artwork.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.
 
Bondo and Laminate

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the bondo process since most people have probably seen it. Here's the result. That bad corner is looking much better now. If you look really close you'll notice I also filled the bolt holes. Cinematronics games use bolts through the sides to hold the monitor, the control panel and the power supply. I hate the idea of putting big holes in my brand new side art, so I don't. It's easy enough to screw everything in from the inside. Not stock I know but I figure if somewhere down the line a purist gets this game he or she can always put them back in. But as long as I have it, no bolts.

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Next I cut the t-molding slot. I don't own a full size router. I just use my laminate trimmer which is basically a palm router with a clear base (instead of metal).

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I ordered 3' x 8' laminate for the sides. I'm using Wilson Art's recover which isn't cheap but is very easy. First I cut it down to about 75" with a razor. Then I cleaned the game and made sure I had coverage all around. Then you peel and stick it, just like side art.

Once it was down I changed the bit on my laminate trimmer and cut off the excess:

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Then the side art. The print looks good but I think the cut is a bit different than the original. The part below the panel shouldn't drop away that much as it does:

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But it looks pretty good overall. Side 1 is done.

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As you can see it was getting dark so tomorrow I'll repeat the process with side 2.
 

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I've had three of these that had never been converted. None of them had the cardboard (except tiny bits of the original at the bottom of the cab), and ive never even seen one for sale. Its weird. I tossed an omega race backdrop in and it worked well enough. The colors are a bit different though. That is going to look brand new, how killer.
 
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I've had three of these that had never been converted. None of them had the cardboard (except tiny bits of the original at the bottom of the cab), and ive never even seen one for sale. Its weird. I tossed an omega race backdrop in and it worked well enough. The colors are a bit different though. That is going to look brand new, how killer.

I actually bought a Space Invaders backdrop but it was destroyed in shipping. I think the Omega Race idea might be a good short term fix until the repro is ready.
 
Side 2 Laminate

Yesterday I applied laminate and side art to one side of the cabinet. Now for side 2. Cleaned the cab. Cut the 8' laminate down to 74" and applied it like side art:

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Then I cut the excess off with the trimmer. I do about 3-4 feet at a time and then zip off the excess. I worry if let too much accumulate the weight might cause it to crack at the edge:

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Done!

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Didn't have as much time today so I didn't get to the side art. I did have time to file the edges. If you haven't done this before this is not an optional step. Freshly cut laminate is razor sharp. A couple months ago I pressed down on an edge that hadn't been filed and it cut my palm right open.

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With a little luck I'll have this back together this weekend but there's still a bit left to do including laminating the front panel, painting the coin door, polishing the bezel/marquee and of course reassembling everything.
 

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is looking very good, i was not aware that self-adhesive laminate was available? were you able to also get the black as a self adhesive laminate?
 
is looking very good, i was not aware that self-adhesive laminate was available? were you able to also get the black as a self adhesive laminate?

Yes, I've been trying to spread the word on this stuff. I started using it after buying a 2' x 4' piece for the front of my Star Castle. It was so much easier than using contact cement that I started buying 3' x 8' sheets for game sides.

It's not cheap. Regular vertical grade laminate is about $45 for a 3'x8' sheet. The self-adhesive stuff is around $85. So you're talking around $170 plus tax to do both sides of a game instead of $90 (+ cost of cement).

The advantage is that I can do a side in about 30 minutes with no drippy, smelly contact cement. No rollers. No waiting for it to dry (but not too dry). No dowels. It's much easier to work with and looks just as good.

And, yes, it comes in black. I'll be using a black sheet for the front of the game.
 
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Finishing up Laminate

Got the side art installed on side 2 today:

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With that done I just had the front of the cab left. The original textured laminate was stained and there was damage at the bottom so I sanded it down and used bondo to fix up the damage.

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I had a 2' x 4' sheet of self-adhesive laminate left over from a previous purchase so I used that. The front is 24" x 36" so I cut off about a foot with a knife and then cleaned up the edge by clamping it to a piece of plywood and using the laminate trimmer. I also had to buzz off about an 1/8" all along the length to get it to fit. properly.

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Once it was fitting properly I just peeled the backing and stuck it down, just like side art. Then I drilled a hole big enough for the trimmer bit and cut out the piece for the coin door.

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Getting close to the end of this project and it's looking pretty good.

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Tomorrow I'll work on the metal, the plexi and start reassembling everything.
 

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