Spy Hunter controls restoration - anyone?

pipcade

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Just picked up a Spy Hunter and the controls all work but they don't look as good as they should:
DSC00782.sized.jpg


has anyone done a full restoration of Spy Hunter controls? I couldn't find any pics/tutorials online. I'd like to take the thing apart, REALLY clean the "tubing", repaint the center red, replace/clean all bolts, repaint the handles black, replace the thumb buttons (are those available anywhere? if not may have to dye them somehow), and repaint the gas pedal.

Surely someone has done this and I will not be trailblazing?

brian
 
i did mine, but its been a long time ago. Best i remember, if you take the handles off - (safety torx, or safety allen, i forget which) the plastic tubing will come off. IIRC, the switches can be unscrewed and left with the actual tube that the handles attach to. I cleaned my buttons up with a magic eraser, and they came out fine, they weren't really terribly worn, just dirty.
The weapons van light is just like an 8 liner machine, the bulb assembly snaps out of the housing. Once you get it loose, that frees the black center section from the yoke, and you can then remove the nut that holds it to the plate, and refinish the plate.
I actually taped my control panel off, and resprayed the red part of the yoke with it still attached to the panel. The plastic tubes cleaned up fairly easily, again - they were really just dirty. I wire brushed the handle pieces, hung them up and sprayed them with several coats of semi gloss black. They came out looking great. It really wasn't hard to do - the worst part was dealing with getting the switches loose. Those wires are really flimsy, and all too easy to break if your not careful.
 
Thanks for the helpful info! Once i get the dang thing working reliably I'll tackle restoring the controls :)

brian
 
I would think this would be easy enough to do assuming the security screws in the handles are not stripped. I would disassemble, repaint the center red, probably sand down the grips since the ones I've seen had sections where the original coating or paint flaked off. Then I would spray the grips with black appliance epoxy. As for the buttons, as mentioned try cleaning them first if that doesn't work you may be able to paint them. It's been a while since I've checked but I think they are plastic. Krylon makes fusion paint which is meant for plastics. Hopefully they make the colors you need. I know they make black. Cleaning the plastic tubing then spraying with black krylon fusion should work pretty well. I think I have also seen tubing that is very similar to the original for sale. Not specifically for arcade games I've just seen it in passing so I'm sure it could be tracked down. As for the buttons there would be some concern of how well the krylon fusion would hold up at any points where they might rub. If you were to use this I would make sure to give them ample time to fully cure. I might also think twice about painting a button that had very little play in it's construction as paint could keep it from moving freely as it should. For what it's worth that's the stuff that came to mind. Funny I've owned 5 spy hunters I think and have never gotten around to restoring any of them cosmetically.
 
As far as the tubing goes you might be able to get away with just giving them a good washing with soap and water then wiping them down with a car vinyl cleaner/protectant like Armor-All, that stuff can do wonders for black plastics.
 
As far as the tubing goes you might be able to get away with just giving them a good washing with soap and water then wiping them down with a car vinyl cleaner/protectant like Armor-All, that stuff can do wonders for black plastics.

Yeah - I was thinking of running them through the dishwasher if i could get them off.
 
Spy Hunter

I'll be posting my restoration information shortly on my website.

So far I have been working on:

Complete take apart of the steering controls
Cleaning, stripping and painting of the metal parts
Cleaning all the plastic parts and using armor all
Replace the buttons and re-solder wiring

Replacing all the security screws with the same type but allen type
Epoxying the cabinet, countersinking holes for screws, stainless steel screws and clamps to secure and square cabinet then bondo

PCBs
Cleaned the PCBs
Reseated all socketed chips
Recapped the PCBs

I have been looking for an exact replacement for the black steering wheel tubing... if you have one let me know. It's 1 1/4" inside diameter spiral tubing.
 
I'll be following this thread with great interest. I'm restoring one as well and popped open the guts for the first time yesterday.

While on the subject, is there any time of Spy Hunter repair guide out there? I'm having a hell of a time finding basic information. Right now my CPU LED doesn't turn on at all and the Cheap Squeak flashes continuously. I'll stop now for fear that this is becoming an unintentional threadjack.
 
manual

THe Spy Hunter Manual and the MCR Manuals have a ton of information if you haven't seen them.

Start with checking you power supply voltages, re-seating all the socketed chips, etc. If the capacitors are the 28 year old originals... they will most likely need to be replaced.
 
Every do anything with those thumb buttons? Mine are faded like yours as well. I think the only thing you could get away with is color dying them.
 
Has anyone ever tried to completely break down this steering wheel? I'm better than halfway, but I'm having a devil of a time removing the roll pins(spring pins) from the main red casting. Trying to remove the steering bar halves. My punch doesn't seem to be long enough to get them completely out and it looks like one was mis-drilled from the factory from back to front. So their solution was just to drill another hole in the back and throw in a roll pin, thus making it impossible to punch it through to the other side.
I've never attempted to drill a roll pin out before.
I'd like to powder coat it red and the bars have a bit of rust on them. Nothing severe.
Between the shifter, the accelerator and the steering wheel there is ALOT of mechanical hardware in one of these.
Anyone else tore one down to it's parts?
 
I left the pin in. I cut the wires behind it. Then thread fresh new wires back through after the paint dried. I marked each wire before pulling them out of the steering column.
 

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