When this game first got to me I had mixed
feelings about it. I live in Washington
State and I had the game shipped to me from
New York via Forward Air trucking. The
seller was probably a liquidator on eBay --
I don't think he knew much about arcade
games.
Just about every metal piece on the game was
either rusted or corroded. The good thing
though was that the artwork on the sides of
the cabinet, after some MAJOR cleaning, was
in very good shape. Because I eventually
wanted to have a super nice Pole
Position the artwork was VERY important to me.
All mechanical assemblies were rebuilt.
NOS artwork (control panel overlay, wheel
center cap, track sticker, marquee) was
sourced. A new Happ Controls coin door
assembly, Wells Gardner monitor, and various
other new parts were also installed.
I began by taking the
game completely apart. I carefully took
pictures with a digital camera and labeled
bolts/washers/screws/etc in plastic baggies
while I removed all of the major assemblies
and eventually ended up with only the wood
cabinet. The restoration started from there.
Below are some before and after pictures. This
was my first arcade game so I went a little over
board with it. :-) It took forever to
complete but was a great
learning experience. Yes, this game
was re-painted inside and out and yes I had totally
lost my mind when I was working on this
project. I think it turned out pretty
good tho.
