Taito Trimline Restoration

[MarkusB]

Hey everyone!

This forum has a lot of cool and motivating restoration stories. Today I would like to share my own project with you:
It started with discovering an ad, in which several slot machines were offered. I´m usually not really a collector of these machines, but I gave it a look. Indeed, the second picture showed something promising. It was hard to identify, but a quick research revealed, that is had to be some "Taito trimline" machine.
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[MarkusB]

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As the machine was located only about an hour our away from me, I was able to pick it up for more or less a scrap value. Arriving at home, it removed the monitor and took a look at what was left of the machine. The upper shell was broken off, it was completely painted in pink and the bottom was covered in mold.
The only electrical parts left were the monitor, the power supply and a bunch of lose wires. The cabinet it self was also in rough condition. The side got beautified with a custom side-art. And the wooden pieces in front of the speaker were kicked in as usual.
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[MarkusB]

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I brought back the original look of the cab by removing that giant sticker and grinding down the remaining areas. It revealed some of the original wood grain. I painted everything but the sides in black and laminated the side panels with similar wood grain foil. The T molding had to be replaced as well. I also screwed the upper shell together, which fortunately had the Taito label still on it.
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[MarkusB]

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As you can see, the original CPO, bezel and marquee were all missing. Up to this point I didn't know what game the machine was shipped with. Some flakes, which chipped off the control panel, showed some orange and gray. I assume, that it included "Phoenix". To reduce the costs of this project, I recreated the artwork from scratch. As all game-related parts were missing anyway, I chose to convert the cab into "Space Invaders", which was also available as a "trim line" machine.
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[MarkusB]

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It took quite some time, but the recreations turned out to be quite good. The marquee was printed on a semi-transparent acrylic glass and the CP on an aluminum plate, similar to the original one.

Now the cab is finally finished. There are a few things that I could have made better, for example the wood grain of the bezel, which is a little too bright. But all in all, I am happy with the Space-Invaders conversion, which is powered by a 60-in-1 I had laying around. The most important thing is, that the cab was not trashed and stripped for the few parts.

I hope you enjoyed the short journey.

Markus

 

[KazooBR]

That looks great! Nice job on bringing that back to life.