Virtual On twin restoration!

MasterFygar

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Well, the time has finally come. This game has always been my grail and is my favorite in my collection so it's time to launch my first restoration. Since this is a 90s game and is mainly plastic this will be interesting :D
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When I first got the machine. Grunge residue everywhere (especially around decals, you can kind of see it), blown bulb on the right marquee and the wiring was screwy, had been hack-jobbed to hell before I got it (though obviously you can't tell that from the picture). The internal cardboard bezels had also broken and come loose and were obscuring the monitors as you can see.

Where it is now:
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It looks better in the pictures than in person. It needs some pretty major cosmetic work all the way around. Sadly, I didn't have any pictures before I did my initial cleanup. It took about 5 magic erasers to get rid of a pretty-much everywhere layer of skating rink grunge. When I got it, it also needed a new optical cable... and in the end, I basically had to rewire the whole thing. No pictures of that, but it required removing the seats and balancing them while reaching underneath and through to the bottom of the cabinet. In other words, don't try rewiring it unless you have a deathwish.

NECESSARY:
-FULL CLEAN (DONE)
-Replace optical cables/rewire (DONE)
-Repair Cardboard Bezels (DONE)
-Fix left marquee bulb/starter (DONE)
-Degauss monitors
-Seat backs
-Repair center divider
-Canopy decals
-Repaint wood parts
-T-molding
-Replace bolts
-Fix yellowing
-Detailed clean
 
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Thanks man, I appreciate it! :D I was afraid nobody would sub since I know 90s games aren't most folks here's cup of tea. It'll be interesting with the plastics for sure, haha.

The monitor got even worse (it was always super discolored) after a mini electric storm around here so it looked like this for a while:

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It was literally basically an inverse of what it was supposed to be. A few rounds with my degaussing coil and some readjusting and:
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TADA! Crisp, colored and no longer nauseating. Next step: the cosmetics!

NECESSARY:
NECESSARY:
-FULL CLEAN (DONE)
-Replace optical cables/rewire (DONE)
-Repair Cardboard Bezels (DONE)
-Fix left marquee bulb/starter (DONE)
-Degauss monitors (*DONE*)
-Seat backs
-Repair center divider
-Canopy decals
-Repaint wood parts
-T-molding
-Replace bolts
-Fix yellowing
-Detailed clean
 
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Man that game brings back memories. I have friends that are still refuse to play me in that on the sega saturn. Good luck with that restore. I'd love to have a set of them if I had the room. As far as the plastics at least for the white ones look at what people have done to the star wars cabinets. Might give you some ideas.
 
Thanks for the kind words guys! I have great memories with this game too, glad I'm not the only one. This is always a hit whenever I have friends over, it's a universal favorite. Ccosby, let me know if you're ever in my parts of VA, you're always welcome to drop by and play me in a few rounds.

Anyway, just a slight update, I found my old document of what I did when I did a mini-restore upon first getting the cab and updated the first post with the new (old?) info and pics. Normally I won't update unless I have cool before/after pics to add but I felt adding a new before pic this one time warranted this. Also, I've found a way to fix the cracks/yellowing in the plastics and to repair the divider, so I'm rolling (thanks for the Star Wars tip ccosby, appreciate it and that helped a lot!). Very soon I'll have the seat backs all taken care of as the next step, stay tuned.
 
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Well, while I'm waiting for the parts I need, I decided to do some work on the CP details. These pics don't do it justice, but the plastics were absolutely filthy, crusted all over with old food and fluids (it had actually congealed the plastic and some of the screws down as you can sort of see, made removal difficult) I probably don't want to identify. Also, no offense to our Canadian KLOV friends, but I really don't think my game needs to cover the serial number to announce its use of Canadian money.

Left:
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Right:
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First things first, decided to clean the plastics in a Dawn solution. It worked really well. Didn't eliminate a couple of deep scratch areas that still give it a slight discolor under light, but the brown haze is done for.
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Okay, here we go. Time to take out this stupid duck paper.
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Oh no...
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It's not paper. It's a STICKER. The op obviously didn't expect anyone to ever use this cab outside of Canada.
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This one is a nightmare to remove and takes about five Clorox wipes, so I'm guessing there's no way I can keep the serial number intact on the other side.
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A huge sigh of relief as the entire half that was covering the label comes off with no residue or trouble!
A good scrub and this is what I'm left with on the left side:
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The green tint on the left of the serial number is a stain and didn't want to come off, but I eliminated most of it with careful use of Clorox. Ditto with the sticker residue.
 
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Before:
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After:
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This is what I decided to do with the blank space on the right side for now. Whipped this up using a design from an old pinball sign and a SEGA logo (obviously). I'll replace it with a higher quality photo paper version soon. Considered putting a monetary amount but I liked the free play logo so I kept it as is.
Before:
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After:
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Left side, decided to use a smaller version of the same logo.
 
You've got to get yourself a kit to upgrade it to OT and be able to run both.

Love this thread! It's a great game that some times comes up for super cheap cause it's a beast.
 
Mark me as interested in that kit as well.

I finally got my Virtual On up and going, I'm watching this thread and taking some notes.
 
Thanks guys! Yeah Prairie, I wasn't aware such a kit was out there... do you have any idea where to get one? I didn't realize there WAS any way to run both games in this cab, that's definitely something I need to do.
 
I've just seen original VO machines running OT so I know it can be done. One OT is on Model 3 and the other is on Naomi. I'm not sure how it interfaces but I've seen it done.
 
Interesting. I could possibly do that if I got a JAMMA switcher and a beefier PS. I'll look into that once the cosmetics are complete, that's a great idea.
 
Don't cram both in in there since model boards are quite large.

I'm sure some operator here may know or has seen an VO upgraded. Ken Westerfield may also know where do gather the right parts.
He was the Sega Arcade senior tech before they shut down their services once they merged w/ Sammy. http://irepairsega.com/

He's only 10 miles from me so I've visited his shop a few times.
 
Well, I'd only do it if I could run both in the same cab (never seen an OT board before, but if it's anywhere near as huge you're right and it would never work), I'd still want this one to play the original. I have OT on the 360 and it's a totally different game... technically better in many aspects, and I'd love to have a cab someday, but not as a replacement for this one, especially since the stock joysticks for OT were more sensitive for the faster/more complex gameplay. I may contact him regarding one upgrade I've been trying to figure out how to do for the Japanese live monitor system, though, thanks for the info.
 
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Alright, finally had a little time to work on this again. Before I hit the decals I need to work on the structural stuff, big time.

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This random chunk of wood was holding up the divider piece (with a screw through both sides) since the plastic that held it up broke at some point (probably some hooligans hanging off of it at the rink).

Removed it enough to separate the pieces and took a look at the damage.

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...I'm gonna have my epoxy work all cut out for me.
 
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Well, this stuff seems to be doing pretty well. I'm using BlueMagic QuikSteel (plastic epoxy reinforced with steel to make it stronger) to make this as strong as possible for holding the dividers. It's a bit difficult to work with well, but it's totally sandable so I went with a bit more than I needed to make sure I can level it out with no dents or gaps in the final product. I'm going to use Krylon Fusion plastic-bonding paint to make it blend cosmetically.

First test, on a badly cracked area of the main cabinet side. Worked wonderfully.
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Fixing some gashes down below. This was a bit less successful (it hardened as I was working with it so I had way too much in the end) but should be easily fixable in the next steps (too much can be easily sanded down, not enough would be unfixable).
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The roof repairs went splendidly! Some sanding will be necessary as well, of course, but it's surprisingly close to the original shape already.
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Overall I'm thrilled with the plastics so far. I had no idea this stuff existed until I stumbled upon it in the auto section at WalMart the other day. Great bang for the buck for sure. Gonna tackle the sanding tomorrow if I can fine a fine enough brand locally.
 
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Thanks Tighe! I looked up the deoxIT stuff, and it looks great, but with all this epoxy and the gum stains on a lot of these plastics I think I'll need to do a full new Krylon fusion repainting.

On that note, there's been a lot of progress. The sanding is a nightmare (it's hard to sand steel-reinforced plastic) but it's working. Here's a good example of the one spot finished so far. When you run your finger over it, it feels like one continuous flow with the original plastic. It'll be great with a couple coats of Krylon.

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I also removed all the plastic parts so I can finish work on them and then take them out for sanding/repainting.

Side plastics, ancient gum and scuzz all over it:
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Mid-sand. I don't know why I paid for all that epoxy, apparently 90s chewing gum does a fine job of bonding to plastic and remaining unsandable...
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Ah, much better. An easily paintable stain is all that's left of the gum.
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I had trouble getting a shot of this, but it looks like someone took a knife to the plastic, slashed through it and stuck gum residue inside! Blargagh. The plastic sticking up was easy enough to sand and the epoxy filled it in just fine, but I'm never amazed at the lengths people go to to screw cabs up on location.
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Again, sorry for the crappy photograph, I was working late-night and my normal camera was out of battery so I had to use a cell. This is that side entirely repaired with epoxy in every imperfection/crack/gash/chip (as you can see there were a lot of those). I did the same to the other side as well, that'll be a part of the huge update coming up. I figured out a method to apply the epoxy incredibly lightly and smoothly so there won't be much sanding neccesary.
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Big update coming soon, but in the meantime here is a lights-out pic of my workshop area to give you a little preview. Thanks to Mylstar I have every decal NOS... and the best part has to do with the seats. :) I need to get some screws and more sandpaper before I go much further, but we're getting up to the good stuff...
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