Vectorbeam Space War restoration

Makes sense. I'll ask him what product he is using.

This company makes a filler specifically for P.C.
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Powder coated panel

Today I picked up the panel from the powder coater. As you can see the rust damage is no longer visible.

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Here's what it looked like before:

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And here's another pic of it now:

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I asked Dan what he used to get this smooth since fillers like Bondo won't work. He explained that he didn't use any additional product. He powder coated it once then sanded down the areas around the damage and did a light sand over the rest. Then he powder coated it again and did another sand. By this time the damage was filled in. Finally there was a third coat to smooth it out.

So not only does it look good, it has a fairly thick layer of material on it. Cost = $60.
 

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nice, a job well done and with that amount of powder coating now on it rust will not be a problem in the future
 
nice, a job well done and with that amount of powder coating now on it rust will not be a problem in the future

That's what I'm thinking.

He's going to try to do the same trick on the lower coin door from my Star Trek but I'm not sure it's going to work as well as it did on this panel. There was a ton of surface rust and about half the door was badly pitted. I may wind up having to find a replacement.
 
Control Panel Reassembly

I've put a lot of time into this panel. Taking it apart, disassembling each of the switches to replace the magnets, soaking the buttons in peroxide, getting the panel powder coated. So today I finally got to put it all back together. But first, I had to polish the plexi panel with the instructions on it. Using Novus 2 and my Harbor Freight polisher:

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After a couple passes it's starting to shine:

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I gave it 4 passes in all. It's not perfect but it's looking pretty good. Then I reattached the plexi to the panel. Then the switches go on:

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After that the buttons just snap on and it's looking really sharp:

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Close up:

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I still need to attach the new fluorescent lamp I bought for this and mount it to the cabinet but before I do that I'll need to polish the lower marquee.
 

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Oooh, that's pretty. Well done!

I've just hand polished things with Novus. I bet it's a hell of a lot easier and faster with a powered polisher like that.

I've spent 1-5 -- 2 hours hand polishing a bezel; it was truly un-fun but it came out gorgeous.
 
Oooh, that's pretty. Well done!

I've just hand polished things with Novus. I bet it's a hell of a lot easier and faster with a powered polisher like that.

I've spent 1-5 -- 2 hours hand polishing a bezel; it was truly un-fun but it came out gorgeous.

Thanks!

Yes, I did 3-4 bezels that way, some I even started with 1500 sandpaper and worked through about 10-12 passes. Then I bought a little palm sander for about $20. That was better but it only came with thin bonnets that were a pain to clean.

I finally decided to just go for it and get the random orbital polisher for (I think) $50 at Harbor Freight. Now each pass only takes about 2-3 minutes. It's worth picking up if you're polishing parts every month. There are three foam polisher heads of different hardness so you can do a light polish or a heavy polish depending on what is needed.
 
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Thanks!

Yes, I did 3-4 bezels that way, some I even started with 1500 sandpaper and worked through about 10-12 passes. Then I bought a little palm sander for about $20. That was better but it only came with thin bonnets that were a pain to clean.

I finally decided to just go for it and get the random orbital polisher for (I think) $50 at Harbor Freight. Now each pass only takes about 2-3 minutes. It's worth picking up if you're polishing parts every month.

I only do about 1 thing a year but it's still almost worth it. It's so painful doing it by hand...

How do you secure the plexi while you're polishing?
 
I only do about 1 thing a year but it's still almost worth it. It's so painful doing it by hand...

How do you secure the plexi while you're polishing?

It's so much quicker this way. You may still want to do 1-2 hand coats at the end for a really perfect result but the orbital gets you 90% of the way in no time.

Well, you could secure it to something but I worry about scratching the back or marring the surface with a clamp. So I usually just do it right on my garage carpet. If need be I can hold it with one hand and polish with the other, but usually it won't run away if you're holding the tool flat over the surface.

These things can be $150 or more at Home Depot. The Harbor Freight version is working well but it's pretty noisy when it's running. I'm sure a more expensive tool wouldn't be so loud.
 
It's so much quicker this way. You may still want to do 1-2 hand coats at the end for a really perfect result but the orbital gets you 90% of the way in no time.

Well, you could secure it to something but I worry about scratching the back or marring the surface with a clamp. So I usually just do it right on my garage carpet. If need be I can hold it with one hand and polish with the other, but usually it won't run away if you're holding the tool flat over the surface.

These things can be $150 or more at Home Depot. The Harbor Freight version is working well but it's pretty noisy when it's running. I'm sure a more expensive tool wouldn't be so loud.

Great info, thanks. I could barely justify a $50 tool for this since I use it once a year on average. $150 would be insane.

Careful of that dust from the plexi; I'm told it's not good to be around.
 
Is there any update on the restoration?

awesome thread and gave me alot of pointers before I start a restore
 
Is there any update on the restoration?

awesome thread and gave me alot of pointers before I start a restore

There is an update. After more than 2 years Space War is working. I've only had it running for 2 weeks if you can believe that.

First it appeared to have a dead board, but the board was tested and it worked. Next I suspected the monitor. Since I'd replaced just about every part, I brought it to a friend. He found that there was one missing voltage regulator. Not sure how I missed it but without that the rebuilt monitor would not have ever worked.

However, that wouldn't have mattered because there was also a problem with the power supply. The voltages coming off the PS would test perfect with a meter but as soon as it was under load the 5V would drop to nothing so the board wasn't running. Turned out to be a cold solder joint (my friend found that problem as well). Once that was fixed everything worked great.

My son and I have finally had a chance to play it and it has been great fun. This really is a vastly underrated game. You can choose so many styles of play plus add as many modifications as you want at any point during each game which means no two games have to be the same.

On some games you can just fire a lot and maybe get lucky but your bullets can also kill your own ship, so it's not without risk. On other games (negative gravity/closed universe is nuts) it's very hard to shoot the other player even when they are directly in front of you. I really should make a video showing the different modes but for now here's a photo.

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