UK Tempest Cabaret Restoration

aeroflott

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Donor 7 years: 2013-2016, 2018, 2020-2021
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Location
Wiltshire, United Kingdom
I recently tried my hand at restoring a Donkey Kong cab which whet my appetite for another project, and so I picked this Tempest Cabaret up in November from a chap in Oxford over here in the UK.

Over here, Tempests are pretty rare, and the cabaret especially so, so I was delighted to have found this one for sale on ebay.

I bought it almost blind - just a few pics to go by. It was in the guy's garage. Turns out it had a really easy life. only 3000 credits on the counter, and it had been owned by a programmer who played it in his office and latterly home. He said the monitor had only recently gone but it did play blind supposedly. Biggest concern was that it had been stored in a garage with no heating.

After getting it home and looking at what I had, it turns out it was in really nice shape - matching serial numbers, the lot. No water damage, everything solid. The laminate had no damage either.

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The only "damage" was the top vinyl had been torn and the grill was missing from the top. Nice and easy to repair that I reckon. Plan is to strip is right off and replace. Think I'll keep those holes open as is, for better ventilation as Tempests have a habit of getting very hot:

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Insides were filthy as you'd expect:

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Despite the filth, everything was there:

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So started with a hoover out and a hot water scrub on the sides:

Bloody filthy!

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Before/After:

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Looking better already...

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So all of that excitement was back in November. So in December I got round to looking at the monitor. Found some burnt out parts in the Low Voltage section - a common fault it seems with the WG6100, I discovered after reading up here.

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After a bit of research, ordered an LV2000 from Vector Repair

Roped in my buddy LB Lilley to help out with a bit of advice and desoldering, and hey presto, got the LV installed nicely, after a few British teas and bacon butties from Mrs TB. Hurrah!

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Back home, plugged in, and all I could get on screen was the test mode. But we had a stable picture:

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So it was reporting Math Box and Audio errors. Bummer. The board had picked up these faults in the last month, as it was playing blind when I got it in November. Checked out all voltages and everything was fine from what I could see. So managed to track down a new board in the US at a good price, but the guy wouldn't ship to the UK, so after a bit of persuasion, he agreed to ship to a mate of mine in Philadelphia. My mate duly sent it onto me. It arrived without customs issues, just five days later! Sexy:

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So that morning, out in the garage, I plugged everything in, switched on and....

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Bingo! Nice stable image. Played too without any issues. Sound nice and clear and loud. Easiest repair ever!

So I guess I could have just dragged it into the house as is, but I wanted to strip down and give it a deep clean.
 
So over the festive holidays, I made a start on the rest of the cab. First up, the control panel:

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It's got 30 years of gamer grime on it, and the spinner is grinding with the traditional Tempest "Buuurrrrrrrr!", buttons a bit sticky.

So let's strip it down:

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Let's get things a bit wet:

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Got Mrs Aeroflott involved too. You can't beat a woman's touch:

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Boiling hot water, Fairy Liquid, and an old toothbrush seemed the best method:

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Two rounds of gentle scrubbing, and a rinse in between:

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And finished off with a thin coat of baby oil:

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Looking much better. The dirt lifted off really nicely. Looks like new again. Nice to be able to keep it all original too. There's a tiny cigarette burn above the fire button, and a small bit of wear on the corner under the spinner but it's barely noticeable.

All the buttons and the spinner have been dismantled and scrubbed in hot soapy water where possible. There was some gnarly gunk and hair (bleh) caught up inside in the spinner mechanism.

So everything was left to dry out in the airing cupboard ready for reassembly.
 
Got to work on the bolts for the spinner, which had ugly rusty tops. I figure if I'm restoring the control panel, I don't want rusty bolts spoiling the hard work.

Bit of wet and dry to get the rust off. Left one before, right one after:

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Bit of Hammerite paint on the tops, and leave to dry:

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Small job, big improvement.
 
Finished up the control panel this morning.

So the spinner first. Installed the new plastic bushings to stop the grinding noise.

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Applied Nyogel lube to the washer and bushings as per manual.

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Rebuilt the spinner with the cleaned up parts (came up nice!), making sure the optical wheel is between the sensors and rebolted to the control panel.

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Added the buttons and wiring.

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And here she is:

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The spinner is silky smooth and silent now. It's not too loose either, just feels nice and smooth and weighty. Shiny bolts!

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Clean control panel loom porn:

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Finished result:

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Before/After:

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Couple more jobs over the last few days.

Painted the power brick base with gold Hammerite. Not the best job ever, but it looks neater. I wanted the hammered finished but the local hardware shop was out of stock. It won't look so garish once it's repopulated. As it's going to live inside the cab it'll do:

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Removed the wiring loom:

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Gave it a good scrub and wash:

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Minty clean!

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Loom is drying out in the airing cupboard. Going to rebuild the power block tonight.
 
Finally got the lock drilled. After 20 minutes of drilling and hammering things into it, I managed to pop the door and bust the lock open with a large screwdriver. No damage to the door though I'm pleased to report.

It turned out that half the bolts that secured the coin door to the wood, also secured the cash box itself from the inside, so it was never coming off with out drilling, or just getting a sledgehammer to the whole lot.

Anyway, once in, I slid open the cashbox to reveal a nice surprise!

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There's about £20 in change, some old floppy discs numbered 1 to 28 (mysterious), and two packets of Rizla.

Nice!

The coin door itself is actually in quite good condition, just the lower door could do with a respray. I'll be cracking on with that at the weekend.
 
Here's the finished work of the power brick:

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It was stripped down, everything cleaned, base repainted with gold Hammerite paint and Big Blue capacitor replaced.

Here's the before and after shot. As it arrived in the cab when I opened it up, and fully restored:

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Next up - back to what was left in the cab. Removed the cashbox and coin door ready for stripping down and cleaning.

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Here's the cashbox. it's in not bad condition. Pretty filthy and some rust spots on the top and on the test switch panel. Hoping that Brasso will get it off:

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In the sink it goes:

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Back of the test switch. Also includes the volume pot. This needs a good clean and some switch cleaner on it:

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Parts:

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This is the only part of the door I'll be repainting. It's the lower door and has some rust:

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Bit more work today.

Cleaned up various bits around the credit switch and coin door loom:

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Sanded bottom of the cab and exposed wood:

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Stripped the paint from the coin doors with Nitromors:

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Here we go, ready for spraying:

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Used hammered finish black Hammerite Spray. This is after 3 coats. Going to do one more coat as soon as I've finished this post and leave it to dry in the garage, along with the credit switch which had a lick of Hammerite too:

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So that's everything done, apart from redoing the power cable which is a 20 minute job. Just waiting for my t-molding to arrive from the US, and hopefully next weekend I can start populating the cab.
 
Amazing job on the restore. Wow, that CPO cleaned up NICE! I've also never seen anybody wash the wiring harness. That is dedication. :)

I can't get enough of these Atari cabarets. I just built a new cabinet for my Centipede cabaret because it was literally falling apart.. The Tempest cabaret cabinet is different in a few spots, which is cool to compare. Thanks for sharing pics, and definitely looking forward to seeing more!!
 
Pretty sweet job! I just got my Tempest Cabaret a few days ago and am already in the process of ripper it to peices. Good to see this thread so that I can use it as a reference while i go through mine. Really want to give the insides a good wash like you did, seems like an easy job and it looks so good.
 
Finished off a few bits today.

More fun with paint stripper - upper coin door, test switch plate and bezel retainer all got the treatment:

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Hopefully they'll be dry overnight. Onto the speaker grill next. This involved removing the speaker, and masking the rear and front of the cab and three coats of smooth Hammerite:

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Brushed the crap off the speaker:

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Postie made a delivery from the US too. smooth black t molding from t-molding.com - excellent price (much cheaper than the usual UK source) and quick delivery. Highly recommended. Will get this on tomorrow.

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Next up, a small amount of repair work to the top of the cab, and a lick of paint:

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I'm done I think. Just these bits left to dry ready for the start of the rebuild tomorrow.
 
awesome project. CPO came out almost perfect. I also like the texture of the metal paint jobs you've done, that seriously came out of a spray can?
 
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