[スーパーレイジーロードの旅!!] ナムコポールポジション

[ataritoobin]

This guy did a pretty good job putting the 2 pieces back together:  http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=141550

Wow, good job indeed!

Yep, the Namco version most definitely came in two halves from the factory.  The other Namcos I've seen come in two halves, and it's pictured in the manual and flyer as such.

I actually came across a pic the other day in a Japanese book of bootleg Namco Pole Position cockpits (Top Racer) getting hauled away in a truck.  Apparently those came in halves too as they were hauling away the front halves of the cockpit  

You can see the plate and the four bolts at the bottom that hold the cabinet together.  There are also three bolts on the inside top of the cabinet to hold the halves together.

Thunder Ceptor would be the same:

In Japan, Pole Position also came in a smaller, plainer, "half" like cabinet with a blue control panel.  You provide your own seat!

Pole Position II used the same cabinets (and judging from the decal placement on some I've seen, was available as a conversion kit) and had conveniently placed "II" decals  

[ataritoobin]

Collector WOKA in Australia was kind enough to take a bunch of pics and measurements for me over the weekend (thank you thank you thank you  !)

It looks like I'm missing a piece of the coin door box - it should have a enclosure on the back, much like Taito upright cabinets, and a coin counter underneath.  All of this must have been in the way when whoever owned it decided to make a piping system to the bottom of the cabinet  

Some pics of WOKA's setup:

Here's mine:

Looks like it wouldn't be too difficult to re-create.  Since this isn't outward-facing, I probably will leave mine be until later on.

Funny to see that the same things are destroyed/replaced on other Namco Pole Positions - steering wheel, seat, and floor mat.  Also interesting that almost all of them have a chewed-up lower edge of the "marquee" on the back - I'm thinking this is due to the cabinets not having a "bottom floor" on the underside of the cabinet - probably causes issues trying to move with a hand truck.

[ataritoobin]

Waiting for some parts to come in.  I came across this -   wow!  120 inch screen!

[ataritoobin]

I decided to add a memory capacitor (1F, 5.5V) in place of the original (and removed at some point) on-board battery.  They say they will hold the memory for around 6 months without needing to power on the game.  If I don't play the game for 6 months, then I deserve to lose my high scores  !

I had done this previously to my Stern Meteor pinball machine.  I headed to my local electronics shop and didn't see any bins with these caps.  I did spot a short round cap in a bin of axial caps - hey!  Happened to be just what I needed

On closer inspection of the PCB, the negative side solder pads had come off (presumably due to acid damage) with the old battery, so I had to jumper the negative side to a nearby ground.  The scores are now saving!

I'm almost done with the CP, will post some pics soon.

I also purchased a fine point (still pretty thick!) oil-based black paint pen to touch up the black areas of the side art at a local hobby store.  I've found that Sharpies tend to turn a bit purple compared to the original black silkscreen and tend to smear if the areas need to be cleaned in the future.  The results are good so far - need to remember to bring my camera with me at all times  !  

[ataritoobin]

I diagnosed the audio issue a little bit (only getting audio out of the rear two speakers).  I decided, before spending the $10-per amplifier chip, to test the wiring/speakers.  The wiring checked out O.K., so I routed the audio to the speaker in an old Peavy guitar amp I had in the garage and I'll be darned, both front speakers were bad!  In 15 years of collecting, I can honestly say that's the first time I've seen that!  The speakers are 6" 8 ohm (I have an extra 6" 4 ohm - d'oh!).  The music did sound much better with the rest of the accompaniment  

Below is the restored control panel after a few coats of "Chrysler Red" paint.  You can see it's too shiny, will have to matte it down a bit:

Here is the DecoColor oil-based ink pen I've been using for the black in the side art touchups so far:

You can see the scuffs in some areas, plus a patch where someone must have stuck duct tape or something to the side :

Paint splatters and more scuffing/scratches:

After some cleaning and touch-up in the black areas:

I'll more than likely leave most of the colored areas alone because it would be quite easy to make those worse before making them better.  Some little things like the logo for example might be able to be touched up using something like a low-tack Frisket as a stencil.

[Etienne MacGyver]

Another step in the good direction!

looks very nice !

[Superully]

wow, that control panel came out great. i'd love to see close-up shots of the fixed areas though if possible! great work

[ataritoobin]

wow, that control panel came out great. i'd love to see close-up shots of the fixed areas though if possible! great work

Sure!  Need to bring my tripod with me - with the flash on and macro mode I get a blown out image, if I use macro mode and no flash I can't hold it still enough 

[Muerto]

Holy moly - youre doing a great job here!!!!!
And as Ully said, that CP is sweet looking again!

[gyruss]

as stated before, awesome work so far!

[muddymusic]

That looks great, coming along very nicely 
I make a lot of use of those paint markers, they get used on all my resorations - good for touching in flaking glass paint as well as side art.

[ataritoobin]

Here are a couple of better pics of the CP repair:

A little more inviting now!  Still WaAaY too shiny!  The shinyness makes it look like amateur hour    Steering wheel is STILL nasty..but I might have something in the works!  Meanwhile...


Got a package from Japan!  

Perfect!  That's as good as the casters will ever look    

Here's how the cabinet looks now:

We might want to call out the maintenance crew for the Suzuka track - looks like those poor people have been stuck upside down on the roller coaster for almost 30 years!

Next things to accomplish:

Get interior grey paint matched and re-paint the lower inner panels by the feet - might have to pull a Bruno and haul the cab to the paint store     !!

Start thinking about the seat - I got some measurements, but will have to refresh myself on sewing!

Match the lower green color and fill the extra holes.

Figure out a way to "matte" the CP finish.

Make a new coin door.

[Superully]

absolutely wonderful work so far. love your eye for detail and the dedication you put into this!

[ataritoobin]

Thanks all! 

OT, but I saw this bad boy for sale over in Australia:

[level42]

Geez, that is a poor man's PP....but at least you play sitting down !