Thief Restoration Question

[photoboy]

I picked up an original thief upright the other day. Bought it on an auction site so I wasn't able to check it out ahead of time but the pics looked pretty solid and they said it worked. I picked it up and it's pretty much all there. The cabinet though was coming apart at the seams. I was afraid it was going to fall apart before I got it unloaded. I'll post some pictures soon. I spent the weekend repairing the cabinet while trying to not get too crazy because its a pretty nice survivor. Someone did some very sad work to try and hold it together including just screwing from the outside through the laminate.
My first question is does anyone have some pics of how the control panel is held on. This one is using some brackets with a thumbscrew but it doesn't seem like any other system I've seem. Plus the controls don't feel very secure when playing. Again, I'll post some pics of this when I get a chance. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks again

 

[Phetishboy]

So you ended up with it. I was in on the bidding early but when it got up over $250 I gave up. Figured old Brian A ended up with it as usual. Yeah the bolt and wingnut thing for the control panel is legit. My Thief had it, as does my Shark Attack, also from PacNov. Not sure how much help it will be, but you can check out my Thief resto here:

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=293680&highlight=Thief

It was more of "piecing a Thief together from a donor cab and good used parts" than a true balls deep restoration, but then again I guess that's what a true restoration is essentially: putting back the parts that are supposed to be there.

 

[photoboy]

Oh I have look at your restoration but I didn't think I saw and pics of the control panel and how it went on. Some of the links were broken to the images or maybe I just missed a page. I usually am looking at this stuff late at night. I'll go back and check again. Great restoration by the way! I thought about messaging you directly but I figured I'd want to maybe post some pics of it myself too so I might as well start a thread.
Yeah I saw the link to the game early on and thought maybe I could get it cheap. It did go a little higher than I wanted but I have been collecting parts for a while now and I thought what are the chances I'm going to find a machine this clean, this close to me again so I went for it. I figured I could then sell some of the parts I have collected and maybe make some of that money back. You know the excuses you tell yourself to justify a purchase

 

[photoboy]

You can see it's a pretty solid project. Rolled it in right next to the Tron that's almost all back together. They put what I thought might be a Mr. Do CPO on instead of original art. Not really sure what it is. Anyway, when I was loading it up I noticed right away it was a few bumps away from falling apart. almost everything on the back had gaps and was generally coming apart. When I got it home the games played fine but of course the tape deck doesn't seem to power up. There is a cassette in it so it seems like everything is there. When I played it everything felt loose. The cabinet moved side to side, the control panel ends up all shifted and everything just left ready to fall apart. So this is where it started...

 

[photoboy]

Started by pulling a few of the boards on the back, glueing and reinforcing where I could. Once I laid the cabinet down I saw the entire floor had pretty much let go and was not even supporting the game on one side. Barely had to touch it and it just fell out. They had tried to run some screws through the laminate on the outside but they did very little at that point other than mess up the outside. I cut in some biscuits, glued and reinforced the heck out of the bottom. I also made a new piece for the bottom of the back. Nothing seems to be quite square and that piece in particular had a lot of damage. If nothing else now the back and base of the cabinet are rock solid. I'm going to cut a new back door because the particle board on the original is pretty much shot where the hide goes on.

 

[photoboy]

Some pics with the base and new back piece all glued in...

 

[photoboy]

Okay, I finally got the cabinet set back up and I took some pics of the control panel. The brackets that hold the panel to the cabinet are different sizes and thicknesses. Both of them are bent as well. I think if I don't find a better way to do these I might just make a couple of L brackets like these but weld a cross brace so they can't be bent up when there is pressure pulling on the controls. As I peeled the green brick CPO off the metal you can see remnants of the original underneath. It's going to look so much cooler with the repro art that Rich sent me. Just showed up today!
I also snapped a could of pics of the nasty screws they drilled right through the laminate on the front of the cab right by the marquee. I'm just going to take those out and hope they don't look too bad. Not much else I can do at this point but I don't think it justifies relaminating.

 

[photoboy]

Stripped the rest of the old overlay off the control panel a put on the new one I got from Rich. Looks so nice but when I lined everything up so the holes fall in the right place and it seemed square on the left and right it seems crooked at the top and bottom. At this point it was too late I had started to stick it down. No one else seems bothered by it but it drives me nuts. I think it's actually something with the metal panel because there is pretty much no way I could make it work and still have the holes line up.
From there I put in a new marquee light and started checking voltages on the tape deck. I was not having much luck and then the wife came out and asked if she could play. When I coined it up for her I heard the tape deck come to life and start making noise. The crappy connectors they had put in there much have been making bad connections. I pulled everything and soldered in and heat shrinked the wires and it was working reliably again but it wasn't giving me actual audio. It sounded like the wind blowing so I dug around the house until I could find an old tape deck to test the tape. Tape is a little worse for wear but it does work. So now I need to either find a replacement deck or see if I can fix this original one. I don't really want to stick in the MP3 player but if worse comes to worse I guess I would. Anyone know of either someone selling extra decks or a good repair guy?

 

[koolmoecraig]

Great work there. Such a very cool game.

 

[photoboy]

Thanks! It's one of those games I never saw as a kid but I really dig the uniqueness of it with the tape deck integration. Can't wait to get it all fixed and in the line-up.

 

[andrewb]

The crappy connectors they had put in there much have been making bad connections. I pulled everything and soldered in and heat shrinked the wires and it was working reliably again but it wasn't giving me actual audio. It sounded like the wind blowing so I dug around the house until I could find an old tape deck to test the tape. Tape is a little worse for wear but it does work. So now I need to either find a replacement deck or see if I can fix this original one. I don't really want to stick in the MP3 player but if worse comes to worse I guess I would. Anyone know of either someone selling extra decks or a good repair guy?

The deck is likely shot, as the rubber drive bands in all decks turn to goo after enough time. You may be able to repair it, as you can get bands online.

It's funny, I was just at a yard sale last weekend, and saw a deck that would have worked (as many of them will), and it was in good shape. I was going to grab it for someone here, but I said, 'nah, it's better to install the mp3 anyway', as that's what most folks have done, and I left it. Bummer, as it was a nice Radio Shack one from BITD, and was still working.

I know you say you don't want to go mp3, and I do get that, but it is a good alternative. The deck was never really a well designed solution to begin with. But if you want another one, there are ones out there that will work. You just need it to have the right 12V power input, and a line out.

 

[photoboy]

Yeah I very well might just go that route and call it good. I know it would probably me a million times more reliable but the whole coolness is the deck. If I did mod it with the mp3 I would just leave the old one in there to show all the kids who don't know what these old contraptions are

 

[photoboy]

For the time being I rolled it into the lineup. I also ordered an MP3 player to use until I figure out what I want to do with the deck. I figure sooner or later it would be good to have that as a backup anyway. Can't stay analog forever I suppose

 

[i86time]

Yes, it should be no major issue with repairing the deck. Open it up and measure the belts. Keep in mind they've probably stretched so order a size or two smaller than what you measure. I ordered new ones for my Shark Attack deck from https://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/cassette.htm#BELT