Tron upright restore

GreaseBall

Well-known member

Donor 4 years: 2015, 2017-2019
Joined
Oct 18, 2014
Messages
3,003
Reaction score
651
Location
Portland, Oregon
This should be interesting...

I've never done a complete cabinet tear down restore before. I just moved into my new house with really nice space for my games AND a work space, so I figured my Tron deserved the special treatment.

I picked this up about a year ago now, which seems crazy in itself in regards to how fast this past year has flown by.

Anyway, like I said, I knew buying this game that it was in need of a restore and SHOULD get a restore. When I bought it for $400, the SSIO board wasn't working and the the game had a couple other issues. Attract mode would sort of cycle, but I ended up sending the boardset off to cdjump who fixed a litany of issues, so props to that guy for being super solid.

I also got a little overwhelmed with my games. I kind of went crazy scoring deals and psyched myself out with the number of projects/fixes and lack of space, on top of being busy with a 1 year old and another baby on the way. But now I have some time and space to do this, so here goes.

Major issues upon bringing Tron home: The PCB as stated, no side art, no inner art, no sound, dinged up edges/chunks missing from t-molding routing, and the joystick was cracked and apparently super glued. I also had zero lights coming on the cabinet which was an immediate let down.

PkSo83P.jpg


Bad picture, but that was the first one I took of it when I got it and must have had my finger near the flash. It looks like someone tried to use wood filler for the dings but it was cracking out of the spots itself.

CL2HfTS.jpg


Home in the new house and beginning the tear down. I was actually surprised at how easy it was, as I really had in my mind that this was going to be a nightmare. I say this now before I reassemble it, but it didn't seem bad. It was also at this point that I realized that I was completely missing both the marquee light fixture.

qIl7r4b.jpg


Thought it was weird that only one speaker was hooked up in there, I find just a lot of weird random things that someone did to this game at some point. On a side note I asked the guy I bought the game from the story behind it, and it sounded like he had it for some time but didn't mess with anything himself.

QCvrUFh.jpg


Might be the reason I had a sound problem. I ended up ordering some 8 ohm 6x9's from Stephen at Arcade Shop for replacements. The 4 ohm 6x9's seem nearly impossible to find, so I'll just try to crank the volume on the new ones if it's super quiet.

7hHrsjA.jpg


Almost all of the parts out of the cabinet, had a few pieces on the other side of the garage. I tried really hard to label everything as I pulled it and place it in bags or mark it so I didn't lose anything. I also decided to order some new plastics and inner art at this point from Darrin at Phoenix Arcade. I didn't realize how faded the plastic was until looking at more pictures online. I also jumped on the MCR switcher conversion and a new switching power supply from Arcade Shop just to avoid any major issues with the original power supply. I might try to rebuild the original (which was a little iffy when measured) but no immediate plans on that right now. I also ordered a replacement joystick handle from Groovy Gamer Gear. I bought some fixtures from CharlesD4341 so I'm going to use all of those as drop in replacements.

hy3Pkpg.jpg


Figured out what serial number I had, finally.

jz0NwFv.jpg


Almost completely torn down. After I removed the coin box and the t-molding, I dumped liquid wood hardener on pretty much the entire t-molding channel around the cabinet. There were a few spots that were really starting to crumble, namely the bottom corners (shocker).

s0cm4EY.jpg


Laying down bondo in all the spots that really need it. I saw another guy on here use the razor blade technique to cut excess as it was drying which I'll always do from now on. I used the stuff on another cabinet once and I felt like I was sanding the stuff down forever, so I hopefully won't have much sanding to do other than rounding out the bottom corners. The bondo was drying pretty fast in the heat, so I should be ready to sand within a few minutes from this post.
 
Looking good! Quick question, where did you get the wood hardener? I walked into Lowe's and the employee thought I was crazy. They've never heard of it!
 
Looking good! Quick question, where did you get the wood hardener? I walked into Lowe's and the employee thought I was crazy. They've never heard of it!

Home Depot, but Lowes should have it too I'd think. It's made by a company called Minwax.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BPINK...t=&hvlocphy=9032878&hvtargid=pla-309606672892

Looks like Lowes doesn't carry it for some reason, at least I can't find it online. But Home Depot always has it when I've gone in there.
 
When putting the wood hardener down the T-molding channel, I like to use a large oral syringe. Most pharmacies will give you a few for free. Clean them up with acetone when you're finished.
 
5hUSXn4.jpg


Talk about making the right move. Got my shipment from Darrin today, and holy shit these pictures don't do the new plastics justice.

Can't wait to pull the protective coating off and install them.
 
Talk about making the right move. Got my shipment from Darrin today, and holy shit these pictures don't do the new plastics justice.

Can't wait to pull the protective coating off and install them.

A picture really is worth a 1000 words. What a side-by-side comparison!
 
Been a bit busy with regular life stuff, so haven't been able to do much in the past couple of days. I got in the garage and skimmed some more bondo on the cabinet in spots where I could see depressions in the MDF, along all the edges, in the T-molding channels, corners, etc. I hate using the stuff but aside from cutting a new cabinet I'm not sure I have many options to get this thing smooth and clean. Hopefully I'll be able to sand a bit tomorrow and start laying the primer coat(s) on the cabinet.

I did manage to get out and sand some stuff and get it painted. Not sure of the correct nomenclature or what have you, but sanded the control panel brackets, latches and the cross bar deal. I actually threw the latches in my tumbler overnight to try and knock off a bunch of the rust and it seemed to work okay. Painted it a metal finish, which ended up being a bit more metallic than I had wanted but I don't really care. It look 10x better than the rusting/black over sprayed pieces and generally look cleaner.

MGM3mcd.jpg


Like I said, hopefully I'll have a little more progress tomorrow.
 
Been a bit busy with regular life stuff, so haven't been able to do much in the past couple of days. I got in the garage and skimmed some more bondo on the cabinet in spots where I could see depressions in the MDF, along all the edges, in the T-molding channels, corners, etc. I hate using the stuff but aside from cutting a new cabinet I'm not sure I have many options to get this thing smooth and clean. Hopefully I'll be able to sand a bit tomorrow and start laying the primer coat(s) on the cabinet.

I did manage to get out and sand some stuff and get it painted. Not sure of the correct nomenclature or what have you, but sanded the control panel brackets, latches and the cross bar deal. I actually threw the latches in my tumbler overnight to try and knock off a bunch of the rust and it seemed to work okay. Painted it a metal finish, which ended up being a bit more metallic than I had wanted but I don't really care. It look 10x better than the rusting/black over sprayed pieces and generally look cleaner.


Like I said, hopefully I'll have a little more progress tomorrow.

Good stuff. Appreciate the attention to detail :) It'll turn out wonderfully for sure!
 
Quick update!

Haven't given up, just been busy with a lot of other life stuff.

I woke up a couple weeks ago and basically said to hell with painting the game, maybe laminate would be better. So, I ordered black laminate for the cabinet and will install that.

Problem is I deploy for a month and won't be able to really mess with the game until beginning of October. Luckily most of the sanding and Bondo work is done, shy of a couple small spots. Then I'll route the t molding channels and get to work on laying vinyl.

I'll also have to spray paint the kick panel and other various spots before then. Just hoping rain doesn't start until end of October.
 
FINALLY getting some more progress made. Between being busy and not having motivation, I finally got some work done. I spent the past few days doing a few touch ups, and finally routed out the repaired T-molding channels and got the edges painted up.

Later in the evening, Brick Top and aapljack came over and we applied laminate to Tron and Brick Top's Eyes cabinet that he recently picked up. First time for both of us, but it went well overall. I had two tiny fisheye imperfections under the laminate and I couldn't figure out how they got there for the life of me. They are almost impossible to see and you can feel it, but I figure with art on the side, I'll be the only one who knows they are there. I'm not happy about it, but....whatever.

Uqx719q.jpg


Bz8glLx.jpg


MlKPh87.jpg



GTZknni.jpg


GPFJqRh.jpg
 
Last edited:
Im in the middle of doing the same kind of meticulous restore. I painted everything and remounted. Im still looking for the volume Pot replacement for mine which was rusted. I also ordered the Phoenix arcade art package last week but haven't gotten it shipped yet.
 
Quick update!

Problem is I deploy for a month and won't be able to really mess with the game until beginning of October.

I can't wait until Greaseball gets back. I'm enjoying watching this project. Would love to see some more progress and pictures.
 
I can't wait until Greaseball gets back. I'm enjoying watching this project. Would love to see some more progress and pictures.

I'm back! I posted the other night, bottom of page 1. Got laminate applied to the cabinet sides finally!
 
Finally got some time and motivation to jump back into this. I had been sitting around for a while with my inner art in hand, but I was honestly nervous about installing it. I also had some touch up work to do on the insides (a little more bondo, sanding and repainting). I ended up wet sanding the insides and them painted another coat just to try and get them glass smooth.

My other issue was that I simply did not have the original inner art to make the templates from. Phoenix Arcade has instructions on how to make rubbings from the original art, and then make templates, etc. I didn't have anything to even start with, so I had to get pictures from Brick Top and Darrin Jacobs and try to figure it out from there. I also photocopied the art on legal size paper to match up and cut at that first before I stuck a knife in my artwork.

I'm sure I over complicated this process more than I needed to, and I know I confused myself several times, but I got it done. Long story short, I used the paper template, cut cardstock to match it, then lined up the photo copies and tweaked it from there.

qgxhCb3.jpg


gVO5LEE.jpg


AQezxWN.jpg


8q1R3xe.jpg


The black light plastic looks a little off in this picture, but when I push it down flush it looks more centered in the white ring.

lUbzhhy.jpg


The mess

Ap55g4G.jpg



I had painted this kick panel, bondo'ed the hell out of it, painted again, sanded, etc etc etc. I finally said to hell with it and applied laminate like I did the sides. For the coin door hole I made a small pilot hole with a drill bit, and slowly increased the size of it until I could get my flush trim bit in the hole (giggity) and route it out. Then I drilled the coin box holes from behind and cleaned those up. But at least at this point it's a solid, durable finish, and matches the sides.

1cbA9IL.jpg


Got the T-Molding installed, speakers placed (and later rotated and secured). At this point, the T-molding of all things, started making me really feel like I had hit a good milestone in this project. It just felt solid finally.
 
D3aSXhq.jpg


Started painting a lot of hardware.

1VfgURw.jpg


Coin box bolts. I screwed these up at first, and then sanded them to bare metal, wiped with alcohol and shot with satin black again. This time they looked nice and smooth.

jZLn8Jp.jpg


Nasty coin mech.

eTC4eAq.jpg


Sanded, clean coin mech.

8utN9ZD.jpg


lQoYqnG.jpg


This is probably overkill and may not be a proper color. I used Rust-Oleum metallic Titanium Silver for all of these parts. This cash box was rusted as shit and I sanded it and painted it. It's one of the closer things to the metal color but I think it looks nice overall.

iJ4fjfX.jpg


Coin counter painted and cleaned up. It had so much oxidation and gunk on it that I couldn't see the original metal stamping on the side, but after sanding and painting I could. I was happy with my masking job on the counter too.

TKLYRKO.jpg


Broke everything down and painted every piece and screw I have left.

After the paint cures for another couple days, I'm going to start reassembling it all and hopefully get it installed in the cabinet. I also just ate it and ordered new shroud art from Phoenix Arcade the other day and will end up replacing the older/cracked art on my shroud. It's not BAD, but if I'm going to do this right, I should probably get new, better looking stuff for it.
 
Finally got my coin door all finished and reassembled. This really shouldn't have taken a week like it did, but I tend to get greedy, get OCD, or just mess the whole thing up on my own like touching wet paint. I ended up sanding this thing completely probably half a dozen times and stripping it with citristrip twice. In the end, I'm happy with how the exterior turned out. I am not happy with the interior, but, at least it's hidden. I just had paint issues and ended up saying fuck it after messing with everything for a week.

I bought the coin door badge on eBay, drilled holes by making a template from lining up clear plastic on the coin door, marking the holes, and then drilling from behind. I got the rivets and a clincher online and stamped those into the badge, and I like it a lot more than having just stuck the badge to the front.

For the texture I did the 'splatter technique'. I used both thumbs and just barely applied pressure before the aerosol engaged and the paint just kind of sputtered out. I started away from the door and then just moved the can around the top until it looked good/even. After it dried, I just did one more coat of satin black over the top and that's how it turned out.

ouWNkq1.jpg


KOk9cs8.jpg
 
That restoration is looking great! Anytime you want to refinish any of my game coindoors, with your OCD, just let me know! :)

Scott C.
 
note to self: never restore a Tron hahaha

the time and dedication you're putting in is beyond killer. let's see this thing done and in the arcade in 2018!

1502766801379.gif
 
Me too!

Hello everyone. I am also starting on a Tron cabinet restoration, and I have been reading through every Tron thread I can find on this board!

My cabinet has the original side art and black covering, and I have been debating with myself how to proceed. Unfortunately the sides are gouged up enough that I will need to do something. I've read one restoration effort where the original covering was kept but touched up, and this one where it was stripped and replaced with laminate. The third option I've seen is a black spray paint. Any ideas on the best approach would be appreciated. I should add that I don't really want to disassemble the cabinet, so I will be looking for an approach that wouldn't require that. I can probably lay it down on its side intact where necessary.

Also, what tool can I get to remove the security screws on the joystick and the bezel? I bought a set of Torx security bits for this purpose. The T20 looked like it would fit, but it doesn't really. These screws are all rusted out and need to be replaced.
 
Back
Top Bottom