UPDATE! Thief Restoration - COMPLETE!

b_koenig

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Location
Oak Creek, Wisconsin
W as looking for a Thief for a while and the only one that could find semi locally (I drove 6 hours each way to Ohio last March) had a bad cabinet and the internals in boxes. I was sick of looking for one so I bought the project.

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Bottom was caving into the cabinet due to the water damage to the bottom

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Top was flaking really bad due to water damage
 
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Day 2

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Made new reinforcing 3/4" x 3/4" wood floor reinforcements, new top, new rear door, and new rear lower. Mounted all

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Bondo'd and sanded
 
Awesome work, i guess if you want something bad enough you will get it and pay
the price . but in the end you will be happy.

I noticed a baby pacman in the background, did you have to do all this to that machine too?
 
Thanks! Baby Pacman is a full restore, including touching up and clearcoating the playfield. Didn't have to chop the cabinet though. It's in my workshop because it has a coil issue in the drop target bank. I'll get to it soon and get it back in my arcade.
 
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Thanks! Baby Pacman is a full restore, including touching up and clearcoating the playfield. Didn't have to chop the cabinet though. It's in my workshop because it has a coil issue in the drop target bank. I'll get to it soon and get it back in my arcade.

i ask because ive seen a couple in person that looked worse than the thief cab.
looks like alot more work with the baby pac.
 
Day 4

Today I made a little progress. I sanded the primer and applied my first coat of magenta paint that I had color matched at Home Depot.

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That's some outstanding work. Thief and Baby Pac are two of my all-time favorites as well.

I have an NOS tape deck available. I also created an MP3 player for it if you are interested. Plug and play. Shoot me a PM if interested.
 
Thanks! My tape player works fine. I do need a tape though if someone can dub me a copy I'd pay them. Or maybe someone has an OG one to sell?
 
Day 4

Today I made a little progress. I sanded the primer and applied my first coat of magenta paint that I had color matched at Home Depot.

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Take note that some quality work is goin down in this thread..
yet he is not blasting it all over youtube and begging for likes and subscribes.

I actually enjoy waiting for the progression photos.

You wouldnt think it,, but shoot todd tuckey a call at TnT ,
he has his ways of getting tapes for arcade machines
 
Day 5

Today, I sanded the first coat of magenta and applied a second coat. Then took the coin door apart. I took the coin doors and marquee rails off of a couple of other projects as well. I dropped all of my metal off at the powder coater. When I got home, I peeled the mask off of the original side art.

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Got home from the powder coater and it seemed that the magenta paint had cured well enough that I could tape it off. I took the chance and taped the magenta sides and front panels. Then I sprayed the black. I left it in the heat for an hour and came back to spray the second coat of black. I removed the masking tape and plastic. The cabinet turned out beautifully!
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Thief Progress - Day 6: STUCK! NEED HARNESS!

Day 6

RAN INTO A HUGE PROBLEM! I started putting pieces in the game and found that the "complete harness" that I was given with the game was 1/2 of a Thief haness (the power harness for the light, tape player, speakers, etc) and what looks to be a Taito harness.

I NEED THE OTHER HALF OF THE HARNESS!

IF ANYONE HAS THE HALF OF THE HARNESS THAT I NEED (The one that go's to the PCB's), OR A FULL ONE TO SELL, PLEASE PM ME!

Here's where I'm stuck:

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