Tron Restoration – Completed (Almost…)

I took this week off from work, and one of my goals was to get the Tron painted and put back together.  The first thing I needed to do was to do some further wood putty repair to the cabinet.  Tried the “Rock Hard Wood Putty” but it was too powdery when I sanded it, and didn’t leave a smooth enough finish.  Been reading about other restorations using Bondo, so I gave it a try.  It worked great!  Didn’t work fast enough, or used too much hardener on the first batch, but it still worked out great.  I didn’t have too much to repair on this cabinet, so it didn’t take too long.  Also fixed the front corner up to that you can’t even tell it was busted off.

Then I painted the entire cabinet with primer:

Once the primer was dry and the cabinet was sanded smooth, I painted it black.  I used Rustoleum Semi-gloss Black with a foam roller.  However, I ended up accidentally getting the oil based paint, not latex.  I was really happy with the results of the paint, but cleanup was a bear.  I think I will stick with Latex on future project.  This cabinet really stinks from the paint!

I ended up taking the ventilation screens off of the back doors so I could paint them.  They were starting to corrode, so a fresh coat of Rustoleum will help them to last longer and look better.

After the paint dried, I brought the cabinet into my basement.  Much easier to move a full size cabinet when there is nothing installed in it.  Once I got it downstairs, I installed the new sideart.  This was really tough!  The sideart was tough to work with.  I ended up trying the “wet method” of installing it, using water with a touch of soap in it to coat the adhesive.  This allows you to reposition it when placing it on the cabinet.  Has to be perfect!  Once the artwork was in place, I used a squeegee and a wet towel to squeeze all of the water out from under the artwork.  Ended up working great!  I was really nervous spraying water on adhesive. 

After the sideart installation dried, I moved the game into it’s place in the gameroom.  I have it on the end of a row of games, so I had plenty of space to finish assembling it.  It took a long time to assemble.  This cabinet is one of the most complicated designs I’ve seen.  Since it is probably one of the coolest classic cabinets, it was worth the extra work.  There were so many screws and brackets I was sure I would miss something somewhere.  However, it went smoothly!  I put the movie Tron in my DVD player to watch while I was working on the game.  Didn’t really add much to the project, but it gave me an excuse to watch it again.

Speakers reinstalled and ready:

Back view of the cabinet:

Repaired and painted test and volume controls.  Had to hammer this one out for a while to straighten it out.

Watching Tron while assembling the game:

Here’s the picture of the final assembly.  It’s not 100% completed yet.  There are a few final things I need to do, that I will list at the end of this post.

Here’s a quick screenshot of the freeplay chip that I installed.  Works great!

There are still a few things I need to do before it is totally finished.  

1. New t-molding
2. Midway kick protector (vinyl)
3. 2 white fluorescent bulbs
4. Repair coin door (find missing pieces) and add bulbs
5. Cap kit – the monitor “jumps” after it’s been played for an hour or so.
6. Touch-up the black paint