Here are my restoration pics of my Roller Disco i bought in 2001 for $500. In working order (except for the sound board) but very faded. Look at the second pic, the two holes in the front were where a locking bar was mounted to keep would be thieves out, which i promptly removed. I filled these holes with automotive body filler later when i restored the game. The backglass had a few cracks in the art unfortunately, but it wasn't too bad. The playfield was in nice nick, having only a few wear spots where there was no mylar.
As i said the sound board was not working.. just making popping noises as scores were being made. The cpu chip was getting really hot, and after checking the voltages and finding them to be correct i made a few phonecalls and finally tracked down a good secondhand cpu chip from Bumper Action Amusements (thanks guys!!!) Fitting that saw the sound board working normally.
It also had the usual connector issues (namely the mpu to driver connector... as any of you who own system 1 game would be all too familiar with!). Also i did all of the mandatory ground mods at the same time, and removed the battery from the mpu board and soldered on some wires to a remotely mounted battery pack.
I replaced the damaged pins and left the game as it was until mid 2004 when i decided to do a ground up restore.
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When i got the game home the backbox had metal straps screwed on holding it to the cab, (i transported the game with the head attached). On removing the backbox i found out why... look at the next pic, at some stage the backbox must've been torn from the cab!
To repair this i glued and screwed extra wood bracing underneath. i countersunk the screwholes and filled them with bodyfiller later while prepping the cab for paint.
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I tackled the backbox first, tracing the artwork with tracing paper before stripping the old paint with paint stripper and a scraper, then wiping it down witn methylated spirits and rags and letting it dry. Then i sanded it with 80 grit sandpaper and filled any dents with body filler. after the filler was dry i block sanded it again with 80 grit, followed by 220 grit and finally 400 grit before giving it a few coats of enamel white undercoat. when that had dried i lightly sanded it again with 400 before spraying on a few coats of yellow.
Next i did the black speckling using thinned black enamel paint and the toothbrush trick... dipping the brush in the thinned paint and flicking the bristles with my fingernail (i always test this first on cardboard!). I let this dry overnight.
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Next i made my stencils by taping the tracings onto sheets of white cardboard bought from the newsagents and cutting out the shapes with a hobby knife. I have to tape two and a half pieces of cardboard together to get the right size to a cabinet side, I use masking tape to do this and it works fine. I positioned the stencils onto the cab carefully and weighted them down with sockets and whatever else i could find to hold them flat. First i sprayed the fluoro pink, several light coats, allowing about 20 mins between coats, and letting it dry overnight before doing the black.
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Heres the finished backbox. Next i did the cabinet, doing all the same steps outlined above.
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And heres the finished cab and backbox... In my next post i'll go into some detail on the playfield restore etc.
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