Author Topic: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface  (Read 99401 times)

Superully

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[Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« on: August 01, 2010, 04:03:29 PM »

from my first roadtrip to england i brought home my holy grail, the first arcade game i've ever played, the one i've always wanted to have: MOON PATROL

because of the long school summer holidays, i have a lot of time on my hands right now to restore this game back to its former glory. enough said :arrow:

the restoration begins ...

overall the cabinet is in pretty good shape (at least at first glance), especially the sides. have a look at those pictures the seller took for me.





everything's there: marquee, bezel, control panel



looking at the sides closely, you can see the usual dips and scratches ...







... and the typical worn corners



pretty bad however is the front panel where once a security bar was installed



both coin doors will get the full powdercoating treatment





an interesting detail can be seen on the front: obviously the guys who stamped in the registration number made an error, so they had to scratch it out and stamp in the correct number. i will "remove" that error during the restoration but try to keep the correct number intact!



i discovered another interesting detail when i removed the lower coin door: obviously a piece of wood from another cabinet was used for the construction of this game - you can still see the artwork on it. does anyone know which game it came from?



on to the control panel :arrow:



not bad at all, but unfortunately some cigarette burns ...



... along with chunks of the overlay missing!



the joystick (assembly) is rusty and will have to be rebuilt



what i've learned over the years of restoring arcade games is that most damages to the cab result from either no leg levelers or destroyed leg levelers. because of that, most of the time this is the first thing i fix when restoring a game. how are things with the moon patrol cabinet?

i've noticed that the game is difficult to move around, not because it is extremely heavy, but because there seems to be something wrong "underneath" the cab itself. let's investigate 8)

as you can see, the leg levelers and their bases are totally worn out. first of all i thought they were screwed in without any nuts, but when i removed the small pieces of wood which held the leg levelers, i realized that they had been attached the wrong way round, therefore putting the pressure on the wood and not on the nuts themselves!



leg levelers along with their bases removed



woodfiller applied ...



... and sanded down. since it will be covered my the bases and especially since this is the bottom of the cabinet, i don't want to be too anal about small imperfections ;)



the old rusty leg levelers with their wooden bases



i was lucky to find a cheap spare piece of probably the hardest wood around in a home depot and kindly asked one of the assistants to cut out four new firm bases for me - which he did. all this cost me 0.50 euros ;D



i glued on the new bases and secured them with four steel nails each - should be strong enough to support the weight now! :twisted:



looking much better than what i started with!



finally a wide angle shot of the entire setup



to be continued ...

all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

scr33n

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2010, 05:29:25 PM »
Nice cab - and nice condition  :-* :-* Good luck with your resto Ully :spaceace: :spaceace:

You're in competition with Bruno .... Who will finish faster this resto?

 :lol:
PROJECTS FROM SCRATCH:

Galaga - PacMan - Donkey Kong Red Cab - Track & Field Upright - Tempest - Burgertime - Gyruss - Defender - Track & Field Cocktail - Robotron 2084

RESTORATIONS:

Q*bert - Timber

Superully

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2010, 05:52:13 PM »
You're in competition with Bruno .... Who will finish faster this resto?

i know ;D! bruno most definitely will, because i haven't even received all the parts needed yet - and i'm in no hurry and will probably be a little more anal than bruno is, sometimes too anal, but that's just how i am 8)

the lunar restoration battle has begun   :twisted:
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2010, 07:08:15 AM »
Goodluck with the resto Ully !

Laschek

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2010, 11:19:40 AM »
i discovered another interesting detail when i removed the lower coin door: obviously a piece of wood from another cabinet was used for the construction of this game - you can still see the artwork on it. does anyone know which game it came from?



Might be from a pinball???

traveller

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2010, 11:38:17 AM »
i discovered another interesting detail when i removed the lower coin door: obviously a piece of wood from another cabinet was used for the construction of this game - you can still see the artwork on it. does anyone know which game it came from?


looks like a taito cab side to me, I've read somewhere that they used any disgarded pieces of cabinet for such parts, makes sense really - better than throwing it away  ;D


Superully

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2010, 11:45:50 AM »
looks like a taito cab side to me

you're right, most likely wild western! would also fit the color scheme :arrow:

all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

level42

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2010, 12:28:02 PM »
This is pretty interesting AND weird. Moon Patrol originally was an IREM game, so how does a Taito part end up in a Williams cab ?
Maybe the cabinets themselves came from the same production factory ?

Spyridon

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2010, 10:36:05 PM »
This is pretty interesting AND weird. Moon Patrol originally was an IREM game, so how does a Taito part end up in a Williams cab ?
Maybe the cabinets themselves came from the same production factory ?

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.  It's odd that a Taito piece was used. 

baritonomarchetto

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #9 on: August 05, 2010, 07:11:48 PM »
Quote
as you can see, the leg levelers and their bases are totally worn out. first of all i thought they were screwed in without any nuts, but when i removed the small pieces of wood which held the leg levelers, i realized that they had been attached the wrong way round, therefore putting the pressure on the wood and not on the nuts themselves!

I thought my Joust was the only cabinet with leg levellers installed in the wrong way... but it looks like other Williams cabinet have this "defect"!
"A true Gentleman leaves no puzzle unsolved"

Superully

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2010, 05:40:38 PM »

the restoration continues ...

starting with something simple: the two back doors which had a lot of holes in them. i filled those up, sanded them down and prep'ed them for two new coats of black



here's one of them in nice fresh shape!



speaking of shape: this cabinet is definitely out of shape, ...



... so let's try to help it getting back into shape with some glue first! note: this is the back bottom of the cab, notice the worn back board with dips and scratches all over it :(



there are two stickers on the worn back board, one of which is hardly readable, but i want to save both of them nevertheless!



so i cut out two templates and tape them on top of the stickers with blue (easy-to-remove) painters tape



two coat of black later :arrow:



mission accomplished



and the cabinet is back in shape



from the back to the front: the holes where the security bar once was have been filled ...



... and sanded down!



remember: someone had accidently stamped in a wrong cab serial number which had then been scratched out and the correct one put underneath. i'm trying to hide that error while keeping the correct number intact!



this is how the front looked after filling up all the holes but before applying some coats of fresh paint



and this is how the cab looks now! unfortunately, i slipped with the roller once and painted over that strange taito board they used - let's see if i can get the paint off! you can call me "anal" now please ;)



a little closer: BEFORE :arrow:



AFTER :arrow:



you might ask yourself: what about that security number? well, have a look :arrow:



:spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace:

to be continued ...

all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

ckong

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2010, 08:10:35 PM »
Very nice, this will be an awesome restoration for an awesome game. moon Patrol is a great game as is the art on the cab.

Etienne MacGyver

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #12 on: October 31, 2010, 08:30:20 PM »

and this is how the cab looks now! unfortunately, i slipped with the roller once and painted over that strange taito board they used - let's see if i can get the paint off! you can call me "anal" now please ;)


Ully you are Anal ;D

But i understand your analness (hmm sounds strange)  :D

Looking great!, what a little paint can do uh!

Superully

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #13 on: November 01, 2010, 09:13:11 AM »
what a little paint can do uh!

i had to use a loooooot of paint on this one, because the spots where i had to use wood filler were still shining through. good news is that they were finally covered up after 5 layers of black, bad news is that i now have a slight orange peel on the front, but it looks great nevertheless. so much better than before!!!
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Q*ris

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Re: [Restoration] Moon Patrol - Return to the Lunar Surface
« Reply #14 on: November 01, 2010, 09:52:17 AM »
and the cabinet is back in shape

You make it sound like it's sooo easy but to me this is pure magic to get such a perfect result.
I can't wait to see what you're about to do on the wonderful side arts, this will inspire me a lot because I have some artworks to repair
and I'm a bit nervous to start the resto.