Stern Scramble Restoration

retroshaun

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Location
Palm City, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom (GB & NIR)
I picked up this Scramble ages ago from a guy about an hour from here. He sold it to me for $80 and said it was a non worker. When I got there it had been stored in a tip of a damp garage for years. I actually thought twice about taking it but for $80 it was probably worth it for parts if nothing else. It looked pretty disgusting when I got it home and started investigating a little more.

The majority of the sides were in OK shape, very dirty and discolored. I tried a magic eraser which worked OK but started taking the paint off too - Stern cabs must be some of the worst constructed and painted cabs ever!

The good news was that a simple adjustment of the +5 got it up and running in no time! It could probably use an eventual overhaul or replacement of the PSU but its OK for now.

Inside - check out the creative lighting solution! This was removed immediately and the inside given a bit of a clean out and vaccuuming... everything seemed to be intact. I found the original Stern warranty card in there too!

Now the real problem... very rotten wood around the base, both sides. The wood literally flaked away when touched. The pics make it look a lot better than it was!

But the real cause of the problem... the small holes. I was very worried it was termite damage, and on further investigation it went at least half way up the inside of one side. I found spots where I could break the top few plys away easily with a screwdriver in the middle of one side of the cab. It was starting to look bad :( The damage went way up the side in places with "exit holes" at least half way up.

I contacted an exterminator who said he thought it looked more likely that this was caused by "powder post beetles" rather than termites, which was actually a relief. They are a little less damaging. Bad news was that the fumigation was gonna cost around $500! My eventual solution was a few treatments internally with "Boracare", a Borax solution that penetrates deep into the wood and dries really quickly too, avoiding further water damage. I made probably double the recommended treatments and made sure I went way beyond the damage areas, just to be sure there wernt any remaining infestations in the wood. Its not a cheap product but it seems to have worked and is extremely easy to apply.

Next job was to break away all the loose wood until I found something solid. I treated it with wood hardener and cut away the worst until I got to something semi decent. I added in a new piece of replacement ply on both sides, stabalized with metal brackets on the inside and bondo'd the gaps and around the base edges.

Next I stripped all the paint with an orbital sander and fine grit sand paper. In hindsight I would have used a different replacement wood as this is fairly heavily grained, but its not too noticable as its on the lower back corners.

I constructed a new base and added plates and leg levelers because I really wanted to get this cab up off the ground a little to protect the renovated wood. The design of the Stern cabs have a very deeply recessed base making it impossible to add standard levelers and get any sort of lift. The new base will also help to protect the bottom edges when moving the cab.

There was a big piece broken off on the inside edge above the monitor, several plys deep. I bondo'd it and sanded it back. You can't notice it was ever missing!

The coin door was a bit of a mess! It had had a security bar fitted, was a bit bashed and just really old and sad looking. It was removed, stripped and cleaned with a wire wheel drill attachment. I repainted it with a base coat and textured semi gloss. I also added a small coin-up button into one of the small holes left from the lockbar. The others were filled and painted over.

Next I stripped sides of the cab and added a rollered base coat applied. Then I rollered it with a color matched yellow. Looking sweet! I made a lot of coats, sanding between each one with fine grit. I then removed and repainted teh speaker grill and repainted the marquee brackets.

A new strip light was attached and a new speaker from Bob Roberts. Then I had a new back door made and rollered with the same paint used on the sides. The old one was badly water damaged.

Now the hard part... the stencils. I picked these up from This Old Game and they are amazing quality, but just a bit of a nightmare to apply over such a huge surface area. You really need 2 (patient) people to do this! Thanks to my wife for putting up with the F-bombs used throughout this process! I had experiemented with rollering this too, but it wasnt happening at all! Fortunately I read another Scramble restore thread here on KLOV and he had the same problems (he rollered it initially but when removing the stencil it pulled the paint away and left jagged edges) so I opted for the spray can route. I managed to find a great, quick drying and almost perfectly color matched red/orange from a graffiti paint suppliers, and the black is simple semi-gloss from the hardware store.

Lining up the second color was almost impossible, even with the reference points provided. We got it as close as we could. Fortunately the original paint was far from perfect too!
We ended up cutting it in 2 pieces (you can see the cut line across the middle with the blue masking tape) which made application a lot easier.

The results are opretty impressive! The final touch was new textured T-molding and a few coats of clear coat over the artwork to protect all the hard work. A couple of these pics make the clear coat look a little uneven but its actually pretty good... the camera flash definately makes things look worse then they are.

Project complete - enjoy the pics :)
 

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Scramble is one of those games that I have fond memories of, but I'm not sure I'd commit my scarce square footage to it. But man, if I had one that looked like that, I'd make the room. Absolutely beautiful!
 
Scramble is one of those games that I have fond memories of, but I'm not sure I'd commit my scarce square footage to it. But man, if I had one that looked like that, I'd make the room. Absolutely beautiful!

Thanks for the compliments. Its a game that stayed etched in my memory for some reason from my childhood. I guess I played it in the arcades a lot and have great memories of there being one in a rec room on a camp site we went to with my folks way back in the day. Its not my most desirable / sought after cab, but I still enjoy the game and it looks pretty nice now.
 
Great job! It's nice to see another Scramble restoration. I did mine last fall (http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=200262) and it has become one of the most-played games in my arcade. I think Scramble is very underrated and has one of the best-looking cabinets.

I'd also be curious to see more progress pics. You can put your photos on a free image hosting site like imgur.com or photobucket.com and link to them in your posts using the "
 
That looks great. I love my Scramble. Mine has the STERN instead of the space man and it is on my list to get the stencils and change it over. Nicely done!

The High Score Save Kit is a nice addition as well if you don't already have it.
 
Very nice work! Scramble was one of my favs from BITD. I have the pcb for my veritcal jamma....

Nice to see it come back to life. I love that cab!
 
This looks awesome, that has to be one of my top five looking cabs, has that art deco look and unique colors, great to see these restored..
 
Awesome job....Scramble is one of my favorites that I used to play at the old bowling alley, many many years ago....I picked up a cocktail awhile back but I think the upright is where its at.....

Scramble and Robotron and life is complete.....
 
More pics

Before. The majority of the sides were in OK shape, very dirty and discolored. I tried a magic eraser which worked OK but started taking the paint off too - Stern cabs must be some of the worst constructed and painted cabs ever! The good news was that a simple adjustment of the +5 got it up and running in no time! It could probably use an eventual overhaul or replacement of the PSU but its OK for now.

S001_resize.jpg

s002_resize.jpg

s003_resize.jpg


Inside - check out the creative lighting solution! This was removed immediately and the inside given a bit of a clean out.

s004_resize.jpg


I vacuumed this crud out of the inside... everything was intact. Found the original Stern warranty card.

s005_resize.jpg


Now the real problem... very rotten wood around the base, both sides. The wood literally flaked away when touched.

s006_resize.jpg


The pics make it look a lot better than it was!

s007_resize.jpg


But this is the real problem... see the small holes? I was very worried it was termite damage, and on further investigation it went at least half way up the inside of one side. I found spots where I could break the top few plys away easily with a screwdriver in the middle of one side of the cab. It was starting to look bad.

s008_resize.jpg
 
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Very dirty underneath and a lot of broken away wood. Again, the pics don't really show the full extent.

s009_resize.jpg


And the other side. The damage went way up the side in places with "exit holes" at least half way up. I contacted an exterminator who said he thought it looked more likely that this was caused by "powder post beetles" rather than termites, which is actually a relief. They are a little less damaging. Bad news was that the fumigation was gonna cost around $500!

My eventual solution was a few treatments internally with "Boracare", a Borax solution that penetrates deep into the wood and dries really quickly too, avoiding further water damage. I made probably double the recommended treatments and made sure I went way beyond the damage areas, just to be sure there weren't any remaining infestations in the wood. Its not a cheap product but it seems to have worked and is extremely easy to apply.

s010_resize.jpg


OK - the insects are gone - lets get started. First job was to break away all the loose wood until I found something solid. I treated it with wood hardener and cut away the worst until I got to something semi decent. I added in a new piece of replacement ply on both sides, stabilized with metal brackets on the inside and bondo'd the gaps and around the base edges.

s011_resize.jpg

s012_resize.jpg


Next I stripped all the paint with an orbital sander and fine grit sand paper. In hindsight I would have used a different replacement wood as this is fairly heavily grained, but its not too noticeable as its on the lower back corners.

s013_resize.jpg


I constructed a new base and added plates and leg levelers because I really wanted to get this cab up off the ground a little to protect the renovated wood. The design of the Stern cabs have a very deeply recessed base making it impossible to add standard levelers and get any sort of lift. The new base will also help to protect the bottom edges when moving the cab.

s014_resize.jpg


There was a big piece broken off on the inside edge above the monitor, several plys deep. I bondo'd it and sanded it back. You can't notice it was ever missing!

s015_resize.jpg

s016_resize.jpg
 
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The coin door was a bit of a mess! It had had a security bar fitted, was a bit bashed and just really old and sad looking.

s017_resize.jpg


Coin door removed...

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Stripped all the mechs and mountings...

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And started to remove the paint. Paint stripper didn't work so the wire wheel attachment for the drill did the trick.

s020_resize.jpg


Mechs in pieces!

s021_resize.jpg


Inserts ready for a deep soapy cleaning.

s022_resize.jpg


RUST!

s023_resize.jpg

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Base coat applied. I couldn't get all the damage smoothed out perfectly but it actually looks pretty good in the flesh.

s025_resize.jpg


Textured semi gloss applied...

s026_resize.jpg


And the mechs, cleaned and reattached.

s027_resize.jpg


New STERN sticker and - voila! What I also did (not in this pic) was attach a small coin-up button into one of the small holes left from the lockbar. The others were filled and painted over.

s028_resize.jpg


Back to the sides. Heres the stripped cab.

s029_resize.jpg


And here it is with a base coat applied! Sunny California summer days help paint dry real quick!

s030_resize.jpg


And finally a rollered, color matched yellow. Looking sweet! I made a lot of coats, sanding between each one with fine grit. Took a long time but its worth the extra effort.

s031_resize.jpg


Speaker grill, removed and repainted. Looks brand new.

s032_resize.jpg
 
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And here it is - very very yellow! Coin door has been re-attached and the marquee brackets have been repainted too.

s033_resize.jpg


Marquee looking great now...

s035_resize.jpg


Old speaker (light bulb removed)

s036_resize.jpg


New strip light attached (need to tidy up wiring!)

s037_resize.jpg


And a new speaker from Bob Roberts.

s038_resize.jpg


New marquee light seems to do the trick.

s038a_resize.jpg


Next - a new back door! Perfectly matched by a handyman friend of mine, routed and then rollered with the same paint used on the sides.

s039_resize.jpg


And fitted, with a new lock. Way better than the old, water damaged one!

s040_resize.jpg
 
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Now the hard part... the stencils. I picked these up from This Old Game and they are amazing quality, but just a bit of a nightmare to apply over such a huge surface area. You really need 2 (patient) people to do this! Thanks to my wife for putting up with the F-bombs used throughout this process!

This is the first side, black (second color) stencil. You can just see some red underneath. I had experimented with rollering this too, but it wasn't happening at all! Fortunately I read another Scramble restore thread first and he had the same problems (he rollered it initially but when removing the stencil it pulled the paint away and left jagged edges) so I opted for the spray can route. I managed to find a great, quick drying and almost perfectly color matched red/orange from a graffiti paint suppliers, and the black is simple semi-gloss from the hardware store.

Lining up the second color was almost impossible, even with the reference points provided. We got it as close as we could. Fortunately the original paint was far from perfect too!

We ended up cutting it in 2 pieces (you can see the cut line across the middle with the blue masking tape) which made application a lot easier.

s041_resize.jpg


Heres a pic from the red application. I made several coats and hand sanded a little between each, being careful not to damage the stencil.

s042_resize.jpg


Another view. Other side.

s043_resize.jpg


Stencil removed! Pretty nice result! You can see the registration marks in place ready for the second stencil.

s044_resize.jpg


Second color going on...

s045_resize.jpg


And there it is - the end result! Its not perfect but it looks pretty darn nice.

s046_resize.jpg


Heres a few pics with the new textured T-molding applied... I used a hot glue gun to keep it in place.

s047_resize.jpg
 
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T-Molding...

s048_resize.jpg

s049_resize.jpg


And the end result - one restored Scramble! I added a few coats of clear coat over the artwork to protect all the hard work. A couple of these pics make the clear coat look a little uneven but its actually pretty good... the camera flash definately makes things look worse then they are.

s050_resize.jpg


Voila!

s052_resize.jpg
 
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