Taking a Quantum Leap - Hailrazer's Quantum Restore

hailrazer

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Donor 3 years: 2014-2015, 2017
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Taking a Quantum Leap - Hailrazer's Quantum Restore

So I bought a Repro Quantum Pcb last year. Got it populated and finished up. But no way to test it.

About the same time a good friend of mine gave me a K6100 from a Space Duel. Said he wanted me to put it to good use. I re-built it and set it aside.

Fast forward to Feb 1st. My friend text me and tells me he found a working Atari Badlands in Dothan Alabama. And it was in a Quantum Cab in good condition. The guy wanted $300 for it.

Well I texted the guy. Turns out he is a radio personality there in Dothan. He bought the game from FunSpot there in Dothan. He knew it was in a Quantum cab and he knew it was rare. But he wanted it to go to someone who would restore it.

He asked if I had anything to trade for it. Well I had a working Space Invaders that i got for $75. He was thrilled! We agreed on the trade and I picked it up Feb 4th.

Here's what it looked like when I got it.

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So the plan is to restore the cab completely. But you might have noticed the original artwork was under that black paint. So since it has to come off anyway I used CitriStrip and set to it.

The artwork was there but of course it had issues :(

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The edges, bottom and all white artwork tattered or bubbled a bit. Well I was planning on new artwork anyway :)
 
So here's the plan :

1: Sand the cab down and bondo/repair all edges.
2: New white laminate
3: New artwork
4: Remove steering wheels, repair control panel
5: New CPO, new trackball, NOS cone butttons.
6: Powder coat all metal and coindoor.
7: New wiring harness
8: New marquee
9: Rebuilt ARII
10: Rebuild power brick
11: Install rebuilt K6100
12: Install Repro Quantum pcb
13: New T-molding
 
I actually think the original art looks pretty good.
Why not just clean it up and touch it up?

Either way, cool project and super fun game.
Congrats.
 
Hi Hailrazer, props on the nice find.

Just wanted to see if you would provide your technique for using citristrip e.g. How long do you leave it on? What do you use to scrape? Do you use any other cleaners after the citristrip?

I have a tempest in the same boat and I'm good with the less than pristine look for a cab.

Thanks!
 
I actually think the original art looks pretty good.
Why not just clean it up and touch it up?

Either way, cool project and super fun game.
Congrats.

+1 on this. Would rather keep it mostly original if possible, nothing wrong with a survivor.

Kalan714 just posted an original Quantum board in the FS section.
 
Quantum is all about drawing circles ... what better way than using a steering wheel to do donuts. Maybe keep one and add the trackball beside it. :D

Oh, +1 on keeping the original side art.
 
It's amazing how little can be actually seen or discerned from pics. The edges and especially the bottom of the artwork is tattered. The bottom of the cab will need to be bondo'd and repaired which will mean ruining the bottom 6" of the artwork. And the artwork is "soft" after the paint removal. The white areas can be scraped off with a fingernail.

I want this to last another 30 years. So it will be repaired, laminated and new artwork. :D
 
Hi Hailrazer, props on the nice find.

Just wanted to see if you would provide your technique for using citristrip e.g. How long do you leave it on? What do you use to scrape? Do you use any other cleaners after the citristrip?

I have a tempest in the same boat and I'm good with the less than pristine look for a cab.

Thanks!

Put on the Citristrip. Put it on with a very light coat. Let it sit until it bubbled up. Scraped it off with a plastic scraper. Cleaned it with Simple green. Then cleaned it with water.
 
So first things first, strip her down!

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And while doing that you find some interesting things. Like did you know you can use a Chick-Fil-A card to hold the power switch? Well apparently you can. LOL

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Now that she's stripped down, let's get her totally naked!

I used a heavy duty scraper blade and some heat to get off the old artwork

https://www.harborfreight.com/heavy-duty-scraper-69785.html

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But oh no! We have 13 holes in the front panel , from lock bars and foot pedals , that will need to be filled.

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In order to fix the holes I cut 3/4" pieces of a 3/8" wooden dowel.

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Then I used wood glue and sawdust and put the dowels in flush.


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After that I put a piece of laminate on.


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After I put on the artwork I will route out the coin door and speaker holes. The reason you do it that was is so the artwork is easier to put on. With big holes it is much more difficult to install artwork :D
 
I was planning on trying to save the control panel but it may not be possible.
I will have to weld/fill over 24 holes!

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So if anyone has a Takeman Repro control panel for sale , please hit me up!
 
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