Super secret Make Trax finished! pic heavy

kcfreeloader

kcfreeloader

New member

VAPS


Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Messages
766
Reaction score
30
Location
Clinton, Missouri
My super secret project is completed and delivered in it's final resting place.

The project was my second restore and was sooooo much fun.

It all started with picking up the cab in Illinois.

The cab itself was in pretty decent shape. A few gouges, some water damage near the bottom. The cpo had divots from where the joystick nuts were. Some people on here probably would have killed me for not just touching up everything, but i wanted this machine to be as close to perfect as i could get.

The machine was stripped and all the boards and wiring harness were cleaned. I sprayed the power supply mounting board and cleaned it all up. What a mess. The coin door was in pretty good shape, but the coin bucket door had a big hasp screwed to it. So i pulled that off and welded over the holes. Cleaned it all up and resprayed it. Resprayed the coin door and all the other metal trim pieces. I also scanned both sides, vectored the art and made the stencils.

I peeled back some of the water damaged areas and injected wood hardener with a hypodermic needle under the layers. I then clamped it with some parchment paper covered boards. That didn't work. So i injected a slightly thinned wood glue into the layers and clamped. That did work. It was time to move the machine out of the hallway (boy was my wife glad.)

Here are some pictures of the stripped machine awaiting paint prep.
2011-07-12_18-50-58_439.jpg

2011-07-12_18-51-08_579.jpg

2011-07-10_12-43-46_950.jpg
 
The machine was sanded and the gouges filled. The bottoms were fixed with body filler and then sanded. It was time for primer.

After the primer and more sanding the kick panel and monitor areas were shot with semi gloss black lacquer.


Here's a shot of the machine after the black was sprayed and masked, awaiting the red.

2011-07-14_19-39-49_828.jpg


I then shot on the red paint, which was a "direct to metal" oil based paint.

2011-07-15_12-34-54_109.jpg


Then i shot out to colorado for a week and let it cure real good.


When i got back i sprayed the green areas with a semi gloss lacquer. The green diamonds are actually mask that was left behind for registration. The big circle on one side is an experiment i was trying to help size the artwork.

The finished green
2011-07-26_18-47-10_180.jpg

2011-07-26_18-47-19_162.jpg
 
Last edited:
I used a semi gloss clear lacquer for the finish coats. I didn't intend to shoot a lot of the clear, but my first coat resulted in a sag. So i fixed that and shot again. And of course sagged in a different area. Fixed that and followed it up with a couple more. I was worried the clear might make it stand out and look too fake, but it didn't. I'm really glad i put the extra coats of clear as it relay made the art work pop.


I then filled the divots where the joystick mount nuts were and put on the cpo. I wished i had sprayed a coat of primer on the plywood control panel as you could see the plywood layers and the body filler through the cpo a bit. Oh well. Then i put everything back together and started to freak out when the monitor wouldn't work right. Got that fixed with the help of KLOV. Then it was finished! The main thing i learned was i am using lacquer for these from now on.

I wrapped the machine, loaded it on a trailer (with four other games), and headed for the Grassroots Gaming Expo in Outtumwa Iowa. Of course we have a 6 week drought, but the second i take games on an open trailer that fixes that. Forget rain dances. Load up some games on a trailer. Fortunately, i had it wrapped well and none of the games took any damage on the way there (not so lucky on the way home.)

Then the game was presented to the former 1st place record holder, and the kindest, most caring guy i've ever met in my life, Walter Day.

DSC00694.jpg


2011-08-04_12-54-11_353.jpg


Walter loved the game and promised to beat the current record. I can't say enough kind words about this man. He is one of a kind. After the expo, we took the game to Walter's house and placed it for him so he could start practicing. Walter was very gracious and gave us a bunch of rare promotion posters he had collected over the years. That was really cool!
 
Last edited:
Beautiful job! I wish I had the equipment to spray like that. Had I known 2 years ago that I would be doing any of this, I would've invested in a small compressor and gun...oh well. Great story too!
 
Thanks everyone! It was a fun project to do and it was great giving the game to Walter. He really deserved it. Walter of course ran an arcade at one point. He purchased a warehouse of games with some investors at another. But unbelievably, he has never personally owned an arcade game. He played the game for a while saturday and that is the first time i've ever seen him play a game. I hope he is able to get some stick time in and set a new record.


tomtime said:
Awesome restore and awesomer story! I bet that made his day!
Click to expand...

Walter told me "this just didn't make my day, i think this made my decade." In the small amount of time i've known Walter he has treated me and my family as his family. The guy is truly special.

Jedidentist said:
Beautiful job! I wish I had the equipment to spray like that. Had I known 2 years ago that I would be doing any of this, I would've invested in a small compressor and gun...oh well. Great story too!
Click to expand...

If you decide to do any more i really enjoyed working with my set up. I used a turbine powered HVLP gun. If you aren't familiar with the turbine HVLP it's basically a powerfully dedicated air unit. To do HVLP you need a pretty big compressor and i'm sure it would need to be 220volt. You can buy a turbine HVLP with a good quality gun quite a bit cheaper then just the required compressor. Also it is easy to pick it up and change locations. They run on 110 volts just fine and unlike a conventional compressor, they only require about 3 seconds before they are ready to go. The disadvantage is that's all it does. You can't use the turbine for much else like you can with a compressor (okay technically you can blast your dog with air out of the hose for fun but that's about it.) Of course you could get a pretty decent compressor and still be under the cost of the required compressor. Not a lot of choices of guns either. I've found 2 companies that sell sets that have gravity feed guns.
 
Last edited:
Great story, nice to see someone do something for Walter after everything he has done for the Arcade gamers. Nice job and wow, great restoration!
 
tobyocc said:
Man I hope he writes a song about you and the machine. It will be awesome.
Click to expand...

That would be so cool! His music is great!


Braido
The gift was a natural. The fact that it was being done for a person so deserving, made the machine such a pleasure to work on.

toolguy
I'm not a huge fan of the game. It's kind of a pacman like maze game with some twists that set it apart. It requires really precise timing to play well. Maybe if i was better at it, i would like it more. Certainly worth a few plays though. One thing i certainly like is the Williams stencil artwork. That was a lot of fun to do.


Oh, and thanks again for all the kind words.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Journey it’s finished
Replies
0
Views
1K
Tluk9474
supertechnoboy
Supertechnoboy's Joust Cocktail De-conversion/Restoration
2 3
Replies
54
Views
5K
kennethepalmer
kennethepalmer
Badlands Pedals Finally Finished!
Replies
2
Views
695
RIPsweetmachine
putyoursoxon
Operation Thunderbolt Pickup
Replies
4
Views
1K
putyoursoxon
putyoursoxon
jimbodeanny
Super Punch-Out Glosstoration
Replies
15
Views
3K
J67AB
J67AB
Back
Top Bottom