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A Major (Havoc) restoration
Let me start off by saying that this is one of those projects where the word "cheap" gets tossed out the window and the wallet seems to drain much faster than it fills. Setting that minor inconvenience aside this restoration has been a fun and challenging one so far.
I had been kicking around the idea for the past couple years of restoring one of these to add to my collection knowing full well the costs to complete such a task. The opportunity finally came to put my money where my mouth is and buck up the cash just to see what this machine is all about so without too much hesitation, alot of help from a couple California guys and some crossed fingers, a complete and working machine was unloaded into the garage bearing the serial # 299 The games condition overall was at best a 6 1/2 out of 10 and though most people may have been content just finding one, i decided to completly strip this thing bare and start over. I did enjoy it for 20 minutes or so before tearing it apart though.
Rather than place descriptions under each pic. i'll just lay it all out there as to what's been/being done and you can scroll through the various stages of restoration until you reach the final ones that will show the finished product. I still have a long way to go with this but this journey will end in the next couple months with a fully restored machine. This machine will also have something special to go along with it that i'm pretty sure no other Major Havoc owner has, i'll keep that under wraps until it's been done. Here we go!
First of all, the cabinet was completely stripped of all its parts and the exterior had all (yes all) the black vinyl completely removed. The front coin door panel had a pretty good chunk missing out of it so rather than fill it full of bondo, it was much easier to remove the original and make a new one. The cabinet itself actually required very little bondo and 99% of what you see was sanded off. The inside plywood wood areas weren't spared from the sander either as i made my way around the cabinet. From there, the outside surfaces were given a good coat of Sherwin William satin enamel then wet sanded before all the new art/black vinyl went on. The silkscreen repros all came from Phoenix Arcade and Darrin did a very nice job on this project.
The old cpo was stripped with a heat gun and a new one went on along with some new bearings for the roller. The original roller and shafts were miced out and had no wear at all so i cleaned em up and put it all back together. The coin door, speaker ears, marquee brackets entire coin box/bucket and various other pieces were sent to be powdercoated and thank god i know somebody that cuts me a great deal on this part. The power brick was stripped bare, cleaned, painted, rebuilt and put back together with a new big blue/black, the regulator also got a full rebuild.
The monitor was by far the biggest challenge since it came with a Wells 6100 and i didn't have a single monitor component bearing the Amplifone name. It took many weeks of scouring the country and even out of country to come up with all the parts but now that the begging, pleading and spending are done the monitor will be the correct one for the cabinet and it will have a brand new tube to finish it off.
Finding the Tom McClintock repro marquee was a bit of a tuffy as well but after a few hours on the phone and several virtual conversations, my marquee was located. The original cardboard bezel was intact but suffered from the typical Atari sag, it did however serve as a great template to make a new one. It took me a couple hours to make this but it really turned out nice and it's made from a slightly thicker material that should help keep its shape. Locks, leg levelers, t-molding, instruction sheet, etc. etc. are all going to be new and the final finishing touch will be a brand new repro piece of 2 1/4" t-molding at the base which i'm having made as this project comes together.
Enjoy the pictures as i post them, ask questions if you'd like, make comments (good or bad) and know that when it came to this project if it isn't new you can bet that it's at least been cleaned, polished, sanded, painted or powdercoated. These should be somewhat chronological starting with the machine as it was when i got it.
At this point, all i have left is to install the Amplifone and put the t-molding on the base. This thing is soooo close that i had to stick a 6100 in it just so i could play it a little.
Here's that final piece of my restoration project that i've been waiting for. This should sit on one side of my machine very nicely.
This measures 30X48
I had been kicking around the idea for the past couple years of restoring one of these to add to my collection knowing full well the costs to complete such a task. The opportunity finally came to put my money where my mouth is and buck up the cash just to see what this machine is all about so without too much hesitation, alot of help from a couple California guys and some crossed fingers, a complete and working machine was unloaded into the garage bearing the serial # 299 The games condition overall was at best a 6 1/2 out of 10 and though most people may have been content just finding one, i decided to completly strip this thing bare and start over. I did enjoy it for 20 minutes or so before tearing it apart though.
Rather than place descriptions under each pic. i'll just lay it all out there as to what's been/being done and you can scroll through the various stages of restoration until you reach the final ones that will show the finished product. I still have a long way to go with this but this journey will end in the next couple months with a fully restored machine. This machine will also have something special to go along with it that i'm pretty sure no other Major Havoc owner has, i'll keep that under wraps until it's been done. Here we go!
First of all, the cabinet was completely stripped of all its parts and the exterior had all (yes all) the black vinyl completely removed. The front coin door panel had a pretty good chunk missing out of it so rather than fill it full of bondo, it was much easier to remove the original and make a new one. The cabinet itself actually required very little bondo and 99% of what you see was sanded off. The inside plywood wood areas weren't spared from the sander either as i made my way around the cabinet. From there, the outside surfaces were given a good coat of Sherwin William satin enamel then wet sanded before all the new art/black vinyl went on. The silkscreen repros all came from Phoenix Arcade and Darrin did a very nice job on this project.
The old cpo was stripped with a heat gun and a new one went on along with some new bearings for the roller. The original roller and shafts were miced out and had no wear at all so i cleaned em up and put it all back together. The coin door, speaker ears, marquee brackets entire coin box/bucket and various other pieces were sent to be powdercoated and thank god i know somebody that cuts me a great deal on this part. The power brick was stripped bare, cleaned, painted, rebuilt and put back together with a new big blue/black, the regulator also got a full rebuild.
The monitor was by far the biggest challenge since it came with a Wells 6100 and i didn't have a single monitor component bearing the Amplifone name. It took many weeks of scouring the country and even out of country to come up with all the parts but now that the begging, pleading and spending are done the monitor will be the correct one for the cabinet and it will have a brand new tube to finish it off.
Finding the Tom McClintock repro marquee was a bit of a tuffy as well but after a few hours on the phone and several virtual conversations, my marquee was located. The original cardboard bezel was intact but suffered from the typical Atari sag, it did however serve as a great template to make a new one. It took me a couple hours to make this but it really turned out nice and it's made from a slightly thicker material that should help keep its shape. Locks, leg levelers, t-molding, instruction sheet, etc. etc. are all going to be new and the final finishing touch will be a brand new repro piece of 2 1/4" t-molding at the base which i'm having made as this project comes together.
Enjoy the pictures as i post them, ask questions if you'd like, make comments (good or bad) and know that when it came to this project if it isn't new you can bet that it's at least been cleaned, polished, sanded, painted or powdercoated. These should be somewhat chronological starting with the machine as it was when i got it.
At this point, all i have left is to install the Amplifone and put the t-molding on the base. This thing is soooo close that i had to stick a 6100 in it just so i could play it a little.
Here's that final piece of my restoration project that i've been waiting for. This should sit on one side of my machine very nicely.
This measures 30X48
Comment
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Comment by Ataricade on May 6, 2009 at 5:24pm - Hey she got it done, it looks great! Nice detail work on Rex. Very cool Chris. :-)
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Comment by Chris25810 on May 6, 2009 at 5:16pm - That final piece i talked about earlier has now been posted.
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Comment by Orrimarrko on May 4, 2009 at 4:20pm -
Truly amazing. I marvel at what you're able to do with these (your Paperboy as well.) Everything looks so clean and crisp - and the wiring is nice and tight.
For someone who has no skills to do this, I often say, "Do these guys take requests?" ;)
Great job!
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Comment by Chris25810 on April 29, 2009 at 11:38pm
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It's been a while since i posted anything about this project so here's a bit of an update as to where i'm at with this thing.
The T-molding project went very well and it seems that everyone that bought a piece from me is happy with it. Thanks again Francis for spreading the word, i owe you a beer or 12 at CAX The machine itself is now sitting in my basement but the monitor is being a pain in the ass. The Amplifone replacement is a brand new tube which is requiring convergence and a chassis rebuild all at the same time. I wanted nothing to do with the monitor aspect so i'm waiting till the call comes in that it's done and all i wanna know is how much i owe!
The rest of the game is done, Rich has sent me a nice banner print of the original flyer and that one final piece that i mentioned earlier in the blog is getting really close to being ready. I've seen a sneak peak of it and all i can say is that it's gonna be cool.
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Comment by Chris25810 on April 2, 2009 at 10:10am
- The original zinc coating was a bit too tarnished for my taste so i took it completely apart(take a few pics. of the underside, it's snakey in there) and carefully scraped the labels off. I sanded the shell for a while then painted it with a hammered finish rusoleum which obviously looks a bit different than original but still looks better than the tarnished look. The transformer has just a light coat of black on the edges and the copper band was polished up a bit with some very fine steel wool. I done a few power bricks and they're all pretty much the same but i can't stress enough that you take a few pictures before you take it apart, alot of these wires look the same. Good luck with yours!
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Comment by Spyridon on April 2, 2009 at 9:51am -
Beautiful...just beautiful. Can you provide your technique on the power supply. It looks great and I need to do the same thing on a Centipede
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Comment by Jeffrey Matthews on March 29, 2009 at 12:47am -
Chris;
Very well done....... You even took the time to restore the rear of the cab! That is where I drew the line on my restoration. It became an obsession and was causing me actual loss of sleep. I am grateful that Francis was there to talk me down on more than one occasion.
Thank you for doing the molding reproduction, I am looking forward to getting my delivery. I think I'll be ordering another, for when I finally get my 720.
Jeff
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Comment by Ataricade on March 27, 2009 at 1:39am
- Cool Chris, I'm looking very forward to seeing it amongst the rest of your games. Please give it prime placement somewhere. At least have one side exposed (i.e. don't sandwich it between 2 games, like I did to my 720° and my MH after restoring them). In other words: don't do as I did. :-)
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Comment by Chris25810 on March 27, 2009 at 1:34am
- Thanks for the kind words Francis, this really was a challenging and fun project all at the same time. Hopefully this t-molding helps put an end to the restorations that are so close but have just been missing that one piece to make it complete. Enjoy everyone, final pics. to come once it's in the gameroom.
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Comment by Ataricade on March 27, 2009 at 1:11am
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Chris this whole restoration was beautifully done. Very very nice work! I'm going to put a link to this blog in the Major Havoc group's "Links of Interest" section on the Resources area. I had performed a similar restoration to my MH, including intensive work to the head, but I didn't replace the side art. This game is one of the most worthy of this type of restoration.
I think when all's said and done and you get it moved into your game room, you'll really enjoy playing it and learning all the levels as you better your skills.
You really need to be commended for that t-molding project that you took on. Countless people over the years have talked about getting a run of that done, but of course as you know, all that happened was just "talk". It looks excellent in the picture. I can't wait to check it out firsthand. On behalf of all those with 720s and MHs who will benefit from your legwork and up-front expense of this project, thank you very much!
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