TMNT Restoration

crash41301

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I never got around to posting this on here. Since someone requested some pictures of the internal wiring of my TMNT and I didnt have anywhere good to host them I figured I would make a thread to show off my TMNT restoration :)

I picked the cabinet up from a fellow in Ohio about 2 years ago. The control panel was painted a nasty black with a paint brush. They hadn't removed the buttons and joysticks when painting it with the brush, nor had they bothered to remove all of the original CPO artwork, only parts of it. It was really ugly looking. I'll try to find some pictures of "before" to post.

Anyway, I ran across someone selling NOS artwork on ebay about a year back. I snagged some of that in sniper form at the last minute. I then purchased a reproduction CPO cover and t-molding.

My (at the time 3yr old) son was upset when the turtle arcade was rolled out to the garage that summer. He was no longer able to play it. Once in the garage I removed the very faded side art and went to town with an electric sander. I sanded until I got bare, smooth wood.

It was at this time that I noticed that the bottom edge was a bit messed up. I used wood filler to add back in spots and then sanded on it until it was the right shape. The bottom now looks great.

I also removed the coin doors and sanded on the front until it was nice and smooth. Next I grabbed some black spray paint and painted the front nice and black. I taped off the coin doors and painted them black too. Once that dried, I applied the NOS artwork to the sides.

The control panel I sanded the crap out of with my electric sander as well. Afterwards I installed the repro artwork and new T-molding. Because someone had originally used a brush to paint the CPO I had to remove paint from the buttons (or buy new... but I really wanted the original colors). I grabbed a rag and paint thinner and sat and rubbed until the paint came off.

The original Wico joysticks were beyond worn out. I REALLY didn't want micro-switch joysticks, and I also wanted the original look of TMNT that I remembered from my childhood. I searched a bit and I found someone on ebay selling NOS wico centering rubber grommets. I also ran across someone on here selling NOS Wico dust covers. After installing both and adjusting the leaf switches the Wico's feel brand new!

So that's about it for the outside. Without further delay here are the pics of it.


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Here is the underneath of the CPO. Don't mind the multi-meter sitting there. I've been working on the NBA Jam sitting next to TMNT and under the CPO seems to make a good spot to sit stuff and keep it hidden from the kiddo.

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Looking down through the CPO hole. Don't mind the random quarters. On the left is a Turtles in Time Board. I had an original TMNT in there, but the sound started having issues. I'm actively looking for another TMNT board in 100% working shape to mount back next to the TIT board.

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Just another pic of wiring for the guy that asked me about original wiring routing.

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From the back with the service door open. At one point the K7000 chassis bit the dust. It was one of the K7000's with the un-replacable flyback. I ended up replacing the chassis with a Wei-ya chassis. I'm not very happy with the Wei-ya though. The colors are a bit off and it won't get narrow enough for the screen. I ended up picking up a repairable K7000 chassis, which is what is sitting in the box in the front right of the cabinet. I just haven't gotten around to swapping the Wei-ya back out. Monitor issues are the bain of my existence.

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The speaker and marquee light wiring

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That cabinet looks fantastic....if you find any before pics, be sure to post them. I'd love to see what it looked like before you started.
 
So I looked and looked, but couldnt find the "before" :( Boo... I know I had them, but I guess I lost them sometime in the last ~2yrs. Shows me to post a danged restoration thread sooner! lol
 
I had an epiphany! I checked my old outlook on my previous laptop for email attachments and found some "before" pictures. Anyone know how to look up ooold ebay listings? The worst part, the cpo isnt in the pictures. I remember it being in the ebay listing though, and I have the link to the ebay auction still.

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Especially note the messed up edge on the bottom
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Wow! Awesome job on the restoration! I hope mine looks that good when it's finished. Any advice or tips for putting the side art on? Was it hard to put on considering it's 3 pieces per side?
 
Wow! Awesome job on the restoration! I hope mine looks that good when it's finished. Any advice or tips for putting the side art on? Was it hard to put on considering it's 3 pieces per side?

This was my first attempt at putting side art onto a cabinet. I actually got it REALLY good on the top 2 pieces on the right hand side, but the bottom piece I messed up on the first side a little. You can see small creases if you look REALLY close on the bottom of one side. After that I really figured out what I was doing. The second side is flawless.

My best advice on the 3 piece part is 1 part at a time, from the top down. Just make sure to line up the art before applying. If you happen to run across a single piece of NOS bottom art for the this side
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let me know. I wouldn't mind fixing mine. I'm just not willing to pay much for it since it doesnt look *that* bad even now :)
 
Man, it looks awesome. Great job.

TMNT and TMNT:TIT were two of my favorite games when I was a kid. Dropped many a quarters to get through them.

Though, after owning a 4P Konami cab for over a year, I realized they don't play the same in a home freeplay environment. Don't get me wrong, I think 4P Konami games are still cool, but they get old after a while unless you can get some 4P action going.

Love the NBA Jam by the way. That game never gets old. :)
 
Though, after owning a 4P Konami cab for over a year, I realized they don't play the same in a home freeplay environment. Don't get me wrong, I think 4P Konami games are still cool, but they get old after a while unless you can get some 4P action going.


I agree, it isnt the same without having at least 2 people playing. The more people that join in the better. When visitors come over around my age range they almost always want to play it for a little bit. Normally my 4yr old will also want to play, so we at least get some 3 player action going :)


Man that looks great! You have given me an inspiration to go buy an X-Men in about the same condition that I've been debating on.

In KY? If you don't get it PM me the details :D
 
Crash,

GREAT looking cab. I'm in the process of doing mine now...a life long dream fulfilled.

My question is, what kind of buttons are those? The reason I ask, is because if your buttons are original, mine clearly are not. Which I need to remedy.

Here's a pic of mine:
 

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Crash,

GREAT looking cab. I'm in the process of doing mine now...a life long dream fulfilled.

My question is, what kind of buttons are those? The reason I ask, is because if your buttons are original, mine clearly are not. Which I need to remedy.

Here's a pic of mine:

Your buttons look like they are micro-switch based. If I had to guess I would say that's very likely not original considering the joysticks are leaf switch based. My buttons are leaf switch based just like the wico joysticks. No idea where you can pick up leaf based buttons. It seems like the industry moved to micro switches right around the TMNT era. The leaf's are nice since they are completely silent vs the clickity-clackity of micro switches. Though the experience depends on the game I guess. For example my NBA Jam would seem weird with leafs, but TMNT just seems right :)

Based on how dirty and worn internally mine were before I took them apart to clean and rebuild, along with being very nearly the same color as the joysticks, AND being leaf switches I am rather sure they are original. Since the previous owners of the cab didnt care enough to remove them before painting the CPO I am going to guess they also didnt care enough to put different ones in. :rofl:
 
Would you be able to post up a close up pic of your monitor ground and also where the ground strap starts at and ends at at the top of the cabinet. Here is a picture of my TMNT cabinet. It looks like they either cut the ground strap or removed most of it. I want to put everything back to how it was from the factory. I circled the ground strap i'm talking about. Thanks - Justin
 

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Bob Roberts carries the buttons and balltop shafts, close enough colors at least. Kind of hard to tell anyway as the blue/purple fades and even the originals had some differing shade(Different suppliers I would imagine).

FYI: Some TMNT control panels had 4" sticks, others had 3.5" sticks. If your panel is routed where the joy base sits, you have 3.5" sticks, if not you have(or did) 4" sticks. This IS factory both ways, has been confirmed more than once.

4" sticks in the colors for this game are not possible to find for every color, and you're better off routing out the base area and getting 3.5" sticks.
 
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