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Nintendo HeliFire Cab (Upright) Resto


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Arcade King
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Hey all,

Just wanted to share a project of mine I've been chipping away at since the beginning of the year. A couple of progress pics before the story are probably the go! This is the resto as it is currently.

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The project is a Nintendo HeliFire cab (if you're not familiar, HeliFire is a reasonably rare Nintendo cab released 1980 pre Donkey Kong... I thought I knew Nintendo but I hadn't heard of it until I lucked across this one 👍) - after completing a resto on that Space Fever Cocktail Cab last year I was keen to get the chance to restore a game I didn't know all too well and by chance this one popped up!

I wasn't 100% ready to start another project when it came up of course, but hey, when the opportunity comes up you gotta jump on it 😄!!

A mate shared the ad from FB marketplace which appeared to be a Red Nintendo cab, early 80's design which caught my eye straight up. I noticed the cab had a yellow bezel, which I thought was a bit unusual though. It was not immediately evident to me from the photos which game it could have been, so I took a gamble and grabbed it as soon as I could anyway.

Based on my knowledge at the time I figured the cab could have been any of the Early Nintendo Cabs like Space Firebird, Radar Scope or any Donkey Kong conversion-era game. The bezel design looked like it was from a Radar Scope cab - although Radar Scope Bezels are Blue. I checked with a mate who checked with a contact of his in the US who said it sounded like a "HeliFire"...

At first I didn't know what the game even was. From the photos it was definitely going to be a fixer-upper though! I went and looked the HeliFire cab up to find it was actually extremely rare.
A little info on the HeliFire game/cab from KLOV - Info below also available on this link:
https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8101

Snip for those who don't hyperlink

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TL;DR = Was keen to start project so I jumped in 😄 Found out the cab was more rare than i had originally thought

Here's what these cabs look like as new

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Aaaand here's what the cab looked like when I went to pick her up:

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I knew it was going to be a 'fixer upper' all right, but that hit me the first chance I had to see the cab in the flesh. Having a walk around there wasn't anything on the cab that didn't need work. The first thing on my mind was to determine what game the cab originally was...

I removed the Serial Tag on the back to take a closer look. Typically the model of the game should be denoted on the tag but not always.
As below, nothing on the tag RE the model. Serial 262 meant it was very early in production, I have not seen an earlier version of this cab anywhere to date (hope to of course 🙂 )

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So this actually checked out. The early Japanese made Plywood Nintendo Cabs did not even denote they were a Nintendo cab, it looked like some didn't have the model stamped on either. The Serial Tag had taken a big gouge too, which was a bit annoying. I did some research later on and found that these cabs were produced in 240v 50hz also.

Anyway, disappointments on damage of the tag aside, the details on the tag itself seemed to make sense. The next bit was to open the cab and have a scratch around for more evidence of what the cab was originally.

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So looking inside the cab, four things added up for me...

1. The cab was fitted with what looked to be the original Sanyo Monitor. The Chassis was replaced with a Kortek, am guessing the Sanyo EZ20 chassis would have been turfed ( 😞 )
2. The cab was fitted out with a Sanyo speaker and I knew from my Donkey Kong cab that the speaker connector was the same as a Nintendo cab.
3. The Single Mech Coin Door was correct compared to photos i checked, and it still had the Asahi-Seiko 740 coin mech installed (filed out and set for AUS 20c coins, but still legit 👍 )
4. The spray pattern on the inside of the speaker panel of the cab was the same as other original Japanese-made Nintendo cabs i'd seen on other posts/forums at KLOV 

This meant the chances of this cab being a bootleg were actually pretty slim, and that it was in fact a genuine Nintendo cab.
I just needed to confirm whether it was actually HeliFire or if it was another cab with a HeliFire Bezel fitted to it. Snooping around I noticed the adjustment instructions stuck to the inside of the rear door of the cab.

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I had a read of the adjustment instructions which mentioned TUB I/O and TUB ESS, both of which are boards of the HeliFire PCB (the third being the TUB-CPU board). Also, DIP Switch info details number of submarines, pots for adjustment of wave height etc...

I cross confirmed this info on Mikesarcade.com 
https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/spies.cgi?action=url&type=info&page=NintendoList.html

Confirmed HeliFire cab found in the wild in QLD!!!

So there wasn't much else left to do but load it up on the ute, get it back home and start restoring to its former glory

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After getting the cab back home the first thing to do was take stock of the cab and start to strip that god-awful green paint off the sides to see what the original gelcoat (laminate) condition was like underneath. If it was possible i would have liked to have left it as its original patina for a bit of character. Alas, but anyway read on for more...

Both the Speaker Panel and the Coin Door Panel had about 15mm of gelcoat torn clean off the bottom of each. Somehow?

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I was trying to think to myself how a strip like that could have been removed from both panels in that way. Still cannot work it out.

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The RHS of the cab had some big strips torn off the bottom which looked pretty recent and made me doubtful of what I could do to leave it be with minimal work. But I wanted to strip it back and see what it looked like anyhow. So I went to work with Orange Goo remover and Magic Erasers to carefully remove that green paint on the side panels.

What a bastard of a job.

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I will say with the combination of magic erasers and certain removal products (there was a Diggers Vanilla scented metho based cleaner i used from memory?) that all the paint came off easily without affecting the gelcoat underneath

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During stripping the green crappy paint off the side panels I managed to get a fair bit of gel coat chip off and get stuck under a few fingernails too which felt amazing

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After a week off and on I managed to get both sides stripped down and my feelings on the matter were a bit mixed

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To be honest, I wasn't surprised but still disappointed to see it was in pretty bad nick. There were a lot of damaged areas that weren't exactly hidden, but didn't look as bad under the Swamp Thing green paint that the cab had slapped on the sides of it.

Now that the paint was removed, it really didn't look so flash.
I removed all the internals from the cab and laid it on its side for a closer look.

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^ As above the gelcoat was all lifting and I would need to either rip off the loose parts, or try to glue it all back and save as much as possible. I decided on gluing and clamping to save what I could.

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Also, I got onto painting the base satin black again as quick as I could so I couldn't see as much Green on the poor cab anymore 😄

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Along with the large chips (and in some cases as below, strips) of gelcoat removed, there were a multitude of dents and deep scratches found in the base.

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Further to the physical damage from impact, strips peeled off etc there was also the matter of the cab no longer looking remotely like the original colour.
It was then i had decided that leaving the cab in as-found condition like this would have made the cab look like a big faded red turd. 

It was going to need to be colour matched as close as absolutely possible to the original, repaired and repainted. I decided against new flowcoat/gelcoat because of my experience with it (none), and also the lack of availability, as much as I would have liked to try it. A hard, smooth enamel finish should approximate the finish almost perfectly and last for another 40 years all things being good!!

Taking a chip off the least sun damaged part of the cab possible I used a bit of cut and polish to return it to its original lustre (as close to anyway) and took it to Dulux to get colour matched.

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The above is a bit of a crap photo, but the colour matching looked very, very, very close to the original, I think Dulux did an awesome job of matching it.

All that was clear was that the new enamel had this really bright quality which made the rest of the paint chip look quite tired looking in comparison despite being cut and polished.

Over the next couple of days, I ordered a whole bunch of parts for the cab from different places, clamped up the front of the cab and started to bog up the damaged Speaker and Coin Door Panels and get it ready for a paint.

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With everything ready to go, all that needed to be done was prep the two front panels and apply a new coat to see how that colour would set!
Thanks and stay tuned for more on this one, I hope to put up more of the progress story shortly!
 

 

Edited by dedmunds
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To pick up from the original post,

After the cab was clamped up tight for a couple of days to allow the wood glue to fully cure, the next step was to make sure the front 2 panels were ready to paint, which meant repairing the damaged gelcoat at the front by bogging up the damaged sections.

The main points of focus being the bottom of the Coin Door Panel

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And the bottom of the speaker panel.

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With a decent sand and thorough clean and wipe down the front of the cab got all sealed up ready for a spruce

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After a little testing on some separate panels it was on with the paint!1525630010_2panelspainted.thumb.JPG.8d8a61da714615eb1c8f18ed05214a22.JPG

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Thinking about the paint as I applied it I was fully expecting the surrounding panels to look very different to the front - despite it being colour matched. It was more or less a larger scale of what I saw in the Sample chip that had the new paint side by side. The new paint looked vibrant and it even made the old surfaces that were pretty well protected look quite faded and dull.

Although initially I was packing it because I thought the colour match was wrong, eventually I realised that the way the fresh paint looked was a good thing, as when the paint dries and sets it should look closer to the HeliFire cabs shown in the original photos i'd found online.

Overall I was very happy but the painted surface had tiny ripples in it, even though i tried to be careful with the application thickess. It was after i finished that first coat on the 2 front panels I realised I forgot to apply the primer before I sprayed on the enamel!! Annoying but no huge deal 😄 the coat dried out beautifully, and it will still be getting another few coats yet so i will be able to get it perfect.

After a few days of letting the paint set, i stood the cab up and took it outside to compare the freshly painted front to the faded half bogged up side panels

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It was actually as expected and when complete should look incredible!
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With a few days for the cab to cure, this allowed a bit of time to strip back and restore some of the other cab peripherals.

The Upper Marquee Retainer before

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Upper Marquee Retainer after (and lower Marquee Retainer after)

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The Coin Door as removed from the cab

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Coin Door completely stripped back and primed

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And repainted (sorry about the fingerprint smears and dust haha) 

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Thanks and I'll put up some pics from the new parts arriving, the restoration of the Control Panel etc shortly,

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Edited by dedmunds
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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey again!

A couple of updates which should take us to the present where I am at with the cab.

(Forgotten to add this photo to the last post in the thread 😄 )
I took some pictures with a floodlight which showed the colours at the cross section between panels, (with the light at the same angle on both panels there) and the original colour vs the new colour looked mint... This made me super confident that the colour Dulux did for me looked spot on.

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Being satisfied the colour was good as I was going to be able to possibly get it, the next steps were to test-fit the components I had restored or ordered anew.
(I still need to strip the sides, patch and repaint - but curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see what the cab was going to look like all kitted up with everything i'd bought for it haha)

First step was dropping the coin door back in ( should have let the paint set on the coin door a little longer looking back on it now)

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With the door bolted in and a new coin mech face added, the t-mold, decals and HeliFire Marquee were next

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If you look at these pics and the pics above it goes to show how different the paint looks under different light sources hey... Amazing.

I chucked on some of the flat T-molding sourced from MikesArcade, and spent quite a bit of time chiselling and cutting out old glue and broken off bits of the old t-mold in those slots. Overall managed to do a nice neat job of that so when it does sit in its final spot it will all look neat!!

You can see that the sides still need some love. She has had a rough trot through some parts of her life by the looks...
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As above, I chucked on the decals on the front using a couple of tiny bits of blu-tack so i wasn't sticking the decals to the finished product.

Props to Mike and Tony from MikesArcade for the coin sticker, and also to Olly at ArcadeArtShop.com for the HeliFire Instruction Sticker.
Works of Art!

The HeliFire Marquee was acquired by way of Rich from thisoldgame.com and it was (still is) spotless...

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Fitted in, the marquee looks absolutely incredible.

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The next major part of restoring the Control Panel was tough.

I was in touch with a couple of people from the States RE original Control Panels, one was not keen to sell just yet and the other had set the price at about $800USD which priced me outta that.

I looked online and sourced a CPO, and a new Monitor Bezel from Escape Pod.
I'm happy with the Control Panel Overlay, the Bezel... Anyway, moving on!

Unfortunately due to the Silicon and Hot Glue that someone had stuck to the original gelcoat, everything had to be stripped off it to get it back to bare timber again.

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So all of that had to come off, painfully slow 😞 

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As you can see the process of gently trying to lift off that thin sheet of MDF? (think it was MDF) totally savaged the CP which i wasn't very thrilled with.

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Over the course of a couple of months i found the time to get back to it.
Sanded and reconditioned ready to paint and repopulate

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The cutouts with the bolt holes on either side were the original ones, the rest were swiss-chessed in during its lifetime.
I didn't patch those as they would not be visible and have no impact on the CP structurally, so i figured the CP had been through enough already...

Here's a photo of the panel half painted and unpatched, Note - the below is not how it looked in the end, it was 100% better 😅
(i patched up the spots where the timber was damaged to make sure everything was nice and smooth and uniform)

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It seems through my hastiness to get everything together though, I forgot to take a picture once i finished patching and painting it... I chucked it all together too fast!
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In with the new CPO, I put in some black card I had laying around until I finish stuffing around with an instruction card in photoshop (you can't seem to buy them anywhere...)
Then the rest of the buttons were added, and the T-mold trimmed at the base of the Control Panel
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And voila - installed on the cab! Still haven't painted the insides black yet, that's one of the last jobs haha
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Truth be told I am not very happy with the new Bezel... New and Old ones side by side.
Compared to the old Bezel:
- The print is reversed
- The print quality is not great
- The colours are not 100% right, it seems a bit too orange but the new Bezel doesn't seem to match the CPO like the old one does.

And this is how it currently looks with the new Marquee, Bezel, Front Decals and Control Panel.
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So yeah, this is where we are at folks!!

I plan to get around to getting some more bog and getting stuck into repairing the sides of the cab then painting as soon as I can folks - I'll post some updates soon as I am ready to chuck on the side art and then finally to get to work on the PCB!!

Thanks again,
Den

Edited by dedmunds
typos, missed some content
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  • 4 months later...

Heli Fire update 3: The long bloody road of panel repairs

Hey everyone!
No updates for a little while as I am well aware, if it isn't one thing with little jobs, holiday season and family stuff, favours helping mates move or massive freakin natural disasters definitely set the timelines back for poor old Heli Fire compared to where I wanted to be at the moment.

At last checkin, yes, the front of the cab looked ok although I still was nowhere near happy with the quality of the finish for the front panels. They got a minor sand on the speaker panel recently, which will get touch ups during the final coat. 

This leads us now to the RHS side panel! the most mangled part of the cab. As it was the worst I wanted to get into that side first and try to get back to its former glory. Below pre works, after a small amount of bog, and a light sand to check for the most visible imperfections on the panel.

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At that point I still hadn't ventured into the unknown of trying to repair so many tiny imperfections in this old gem of a cab, tbh I was pretty sh*t scared of getting stuck in because I very well knew what i was getting myself into, but at the same time i also knew i wasn't going to go into my garage one day and find it had magically completed itself...

And yes this part of the job is akin to crossing the Hay plains if you've done it. 

You would remember that when the cab was picked up that it was a horrible mess. there was so much damage it would have been easier to tear the gelcoat off the sides and start again. Didn't want to because I really wanted to keep as much of the original cab intact even if it was under a coat of paint. Call me old fashioned but whatever, it's a 40 year old cab so old fashioned works just fine for me here 😄

To refresh your memory without having to scroll and find the before pics

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The green terror as it came home - you can see my Donkey Kong PCB connected up in it  lol😄

After the strip back using some Diggers metho based vanilla cleaner and magic erasers

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You can see that the damage on the bottom was really bad hey

Using metho cleaners on the bottom also made the top layer of ply dry and curl which wasn't the greatest plan in hindsight. Note to self: glue first next time before stripping back paint.

As you would remember once again we applied a tiny bit of bog to some of the base there, which is where the long road beganPXL_20211218_061151338.thumb.jpg.5c6257ff2d1da3f8b5e4c037e9d8af53.jpg


So began a couple of months off and on of bogging, sanding priming, rinse and repeat.
Masked up for the whole thing because as it turns out bog is nasty sh*t and isn't great in the long run. nothing like a schweddy P2 mask in the middle of a wet humid QLD summer. ayyyy

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But yes, being this around summertime it was important to keep myself hydrated in the garage as you do. This the first of many bog applications before an initial prime where i learned quite a few lessons about the intake of paint / primer into Bog and the importance of priming... 
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After a wipedown of the side panel, I went around the cab with a critical eye and (quickly as I had a mix of wet bog) patched a ton of imperfections that I could clearly see on the surface.

I went over this side panel and went over to find every scratch, mark, dent, crack, chip, split, gouge, scrape which turned out to be half the bloody cab!!

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With the above lightly sanded back (badly, yes, for those of you who are looking at that above picture of those patch ups on the bottom of the panel saying "nup" 😄 ) well yes, you're right - sanding to the edges like that without covering the overlap did a really crap job... There was still timber exposed also which along with the bog sucked in all that primer, and you see the result:

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Looked crap.

Before I went any further (and after my experiences with the top layer of ply and stripping that green paint off), I had a tap around all of the base and side edges with the handle of a screwdriver to listen if there were any sections of ply that seemed like they had separated.

Most sections were easy to see like below.

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I used a flat head screwdriver to gently separate those ply layers that already cracked, and used a razor blade with a generous dollop of glue on top to push that wood glue right into the joint, so when it got clamped it would be 100% solid again once dried.

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So yes, with that out the way and learning from where i went wrong with my bog application on the base the first time, I then went and continued to apply primer and bog. Once again, I repeated the process as above, and went over the panel.

I marked every single thing I could find, no matter how insignificant and circled it so it would get patched

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Then filled em with bog again!

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This time I applied the bog pretty bloody liberally, which I was a bit worried about looking at it drying and setting because i thought i went overboard, but in the long run it was the best way to go with the level of damage it had.

taking no chances and wanting this to be the best possible outcome - lots and lots of sanding, by hand or block, with either 220 or 400 wet and dry

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And yeah again, summer in Brisbane... Hot, humid as hell and masked up as we all know and love by now

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I rate this as more of a bastard of a job than stripping off the paint with magic erasers. One of the rubber bands even snapped off the disposable masks!! 
I went around the cab and sanded up every little patch as best as i possibly could.

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Until it was as ready as it would ever be to get a second hit with some primer

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From there, I had a process of bog, sand, prime, bog sand prime, repeat repeat repeat until I was happy with everything.

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It was a long and arduous process which i'd prefer not to go into more, but i used about 8 cans of Primer on that one side. Suffice it to say I was very keen to see the side as close to perfect as I could get it.


After deciding that i couldn't wait any longer and that this was the best that I was going to get this side of the cab, I gave it a BAM with our Spice Weazel!!
And boy oh boy, do I have a story to tell you all about painting this too... FFS, it was agonising. Have a look at the following pic and read on anyway

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As you can see, for a first coat it is ok - if you squint. 

For the first 2 panels (coin door panel and speaker panel) i used a bloody Bunning special Wagner W180P paint gun to paint everything. It did an ok job the first two panels, but this time - naturally trying to paint one of the most visible panels on the cab - all hell broke loose.

 

The paint gun (although meticulously cleaned and tested on another piece of plywood prior to) - started to spatter big globs of paint onto the surface of the cab half way through the painting... Not only did this create HUGE globs which would not settle, but it also applied the paint way too thick overall despite my attempts to tune the air pressure, nozzle and paint output. After all that prep seeing what a s*it job it did (well, I did), i was absolutely spewing... I actually decided to take a long 300mm plaster scraper and carefully glide it over the larger globs left by the gun to smooth it all over, that's how bad it went.

I was left with a few lap marks which i knew i wouldn't get away with, but they will be easily fixed on the next couple of coats compared to what the paint gun left.
To add insult to injury, as I just finished tidying up the god awful mess that Wagner paint gun made and stood up to take a photo, a bug flew onto the side of the cab and decided to take a little trek through the paint. 😡

You can see that he didn't get very far.
He had a mate below that didn't go as far either. They will be sanded over and become permanent additions to the cab. 

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With that anyhow I left the paint to set because every time i looked at it i wanted to stuff with it even more. I decided the best COA (course of action) was to take a step back, let it set, and I can then deal with the imperfections during the second coat (when I will use a decent paint gun and air compressor this time!!!)

Next morn:
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The bottom edge i did not touch with a plaster scraper to try and flatten it out - I had already tried to stuff with the paint too much, and so I just left it to set. You can see the marks toward the top of the cab in the photo below, where i tried to settle the paint with reasonable success. 

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I left that enamel to set for a week, then stood the cab up. Overall it looks mint compared to how it looked originally.
This being how it was originally

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This is where we're at now. Is progress!

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NOTE: A week on, that super duper vibrant red really settles as the paint sets, and something I noticed about the first 2 panels is that their real super bright tones have settled down also. They are very much in line with the original Panel on the LHS of the cab now.

Another week on from this - the floods hit and the garage got washed through by that super monsoonal rain we had.
And yes, that is all moving water - a lot of it. So Helifire went on blocks, and there it stays until maybe this week and I will try to scrape the cash together for an air compressor, hoses, gun, and some more paint.

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I will update this as I progress with the paint folks, so watch this space - its a test of patience to get it really good but I guarantee i will get it there.

Cheers!!

 

 

 

Edited by dedmunds
Forgot stuff, typos were made, you know
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Heli Fire update 4: Ahoy!!! A working HeliFire PCB!!

Hey all quick one compared to the super post above. Got the lead on a second HeliFire PCB from a mate who was looking at ordering a couple of PCBs from the states - ex operator stock all untested.

Among those was a HeliFire PCB which I snapped up once i got wind of it. Got here in 3 days from the US, albeit the shipping was about $130 USD, getting up there to the same price the PCB was!!

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TUB = HeliFire, so all gud 👍👍👍

 I dragged all the crap (er i mean components) for the cab out of storage and connected everything up.
Following this I gave the PCB a good once over, and all ROMs looked to be ok and in place, ribbon cables and interconnects ok, nothing appeared to be broken off, badly damaged or missing, so all was good to go there!

While testing i had the PCB out of the cab, I wanted to keep an eye on it in case any heat, burning smells, smoke, anything went bang (hey the PCB was made in 1980 - who knows what condition they're in if untested)

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Gave it a kick in the guts, nothing went bang so that's always good - and sure as sh*t after a few seconds I had a game on screen!!!

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This below is the main screen in MAME, so as you can see it's far from perfect but it's working!!

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I really gotta work out what's going on with the screen width. On this Orion Chassis, I have the width jumper set to N = Narrow, and it still isn't showing the "top" text or even the score digits on the monitor. I wonder if I might need to source a new chassis that has better compatibility with the Sanyo monitor. I have buckleys of finding a EZ-20 Chassis in Aus so i guess I will see what I can do there 😞 

Still a win having a working PCB!!! 😁💦 loving it

Hope to update with moar soon folks

 

 

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8 hours ago, Boots said:

There should be an adjustment pot on the board that allows you to adjust the size of the picture in H & V at the same time, then use the other adjustments to get the ratio correct.

Cheers @Boots I had a look at the PCB but didn't notice anything, I know for sure my TKG-4 has V and H pots, I know because every time i have a boardset shipped, nobody packs them properly and the pots get snapped off 😅

I'll go have another look mate and also when all else fails RTFM right ?
Thanks again,

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image.thumb.png.a89f6baedf73fa0b3fb794f5e1a5b192.png

These are the pots off the PCB which I had a go at tinkering with a bit. made the picture a bit more bearable but alas no chance in picture H value. Chassis is set to N jumper as mentioned, and H width coil looks like its adjusted as far out as it'll get. No other adjustment pot i could see... will keep checking though

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No I mean on the monitor chassis board

There is a pot tucked away in the middle of the board somewhere I think that shrinks the picture keeping the ratio constant. 

I haven’t worked on one of those for a while but I’m pretty sure it’s there somewhere. 
Once you get a full picture you adjust the narrow size to fill the screen. 

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1 hour ago, Boots said:

No I mean on the monitor chassis board

There is a pot tucked away in the middle of the board somewhere I think that shrinks the picture keeping the ratio constant. 

I haven’t worked on one of those for a while but I’m pretty sure it’s there somewhere. 
Once you get a full picture you adjust the narrow size to fill the screen. 

Ahhh copy, well I've gone down for a look, all I can see is v-lin in the middle of the chassis, happy to adjust it a touch as long as it isn't B+ voltage... I was hoping to identify B+ so I know I am not messing with anything too crazy

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Only other pot I can see on this PWB-2022 is at the bottom of the Chassis there

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I'll give it a small adjustment and see how we go.

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  • 5 months later...

Hi everyone, i have been meaning to write something since July but it has been pretty busy at the moment. I still dont have time now but I will put something up anyhow 😄

Since last post on the topic of HeliFire, a lot has happened. The project is 95% finished with the exception of correcting some geometry issues on the Monitor which i currently have the hardware for, I just need to get around to doing it, whenever that is.

Anyhow i have a stack of photos and i have selected a bunch to show you how everything wrapped up.

To cut a long story incredibly short, after the coat of paint that I did on the sides from my last post, I was deeply unhappy with the job I had done. The coat looked like a POS and for the rarity that the cabinet is, it just wasn't good enough at all. With the Brisbane Arcade and Pinball Collective 2022 rapidly approaching I decided it all needed to go and get done professionally. After a visit from the old man up here he had a look at the paint job i'd done (the man has been restoring cars all his life incl his own spray painting so he knows what he's doing) and said "all that shits gonna have to come off!"

So, off it came!

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I sanded it all back to gelcoat and bog again (incl. all the prime work). Dad did mention that the prime and prep job i did was excellent, but the enamel primer i used wasn't gonna be compatible with a 2-pack paint. I wasn't sure and didnt want to take chances so we just sanded off the whole damn lot.

 

At that point i felt pretty devo'd. I had found this cab and did everything i could to match the colour and paint type to make it a faithful resto of what it would have been back in the day, and in a way i felt like I failed a bit there. 

 

So as it was i carted the cab off to get spray painted. The spray painter said he'd colour match the paint no worries, and i must say I was pretty clear that the colour had to be a dead-on match for the original. As it turns out my anxieties about the finish were only short-lived until I saw the finish. I was super excited to pick up, and this was the result we got

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As you can see it came up absolutely amazing. The finish overall was fantastic, and was very smooth and extremely close to what I imagine an original baked-on acrylic or gel coat would have looked like from Nintendo Japan in 1980.

Most importantly, the colour matching was critical.

I had some chips of the gelcoat that I kept and compared them to the paint job when I got the cab into the garage.

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So not only was the finish absolutely amazing, but the colour was about as close to dead-on as you could get. If it was enough to please me, it would more than easily please any Nintendo buff or collector.

So with the cab back, the extremely exciting process started of cleaning it all up and getting it show worthy for BPAC

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Everything removable came out including the coin door box and shelf, the box monitor (picture was when I'd already put it back in), and it all got a sand back with some light sandpaper and a very thorough vacuum.

With that done, I began the process of reinstalling the coin door, and then the coin box and shelf

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And then as you can also see from the above photo, the rest of the internal wiring, the Chassis, HeliFire PCB, the heap of dumb Nintendo wiring, Sound amp and Video Inverter and PSU ready to test run.

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With the internals sorted, it was on with the CP, Marquee, Bezel, front decals (Instruction Sticker and Coin Sticker) 

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And before I knew it, I was staring at an actual complete, fully restored Nintendo HeliFire cabinet

As I have reached my 20MB limit for photos I will do another post showing the rest of the progress

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(Continuing from above)

With the cab complete, I had one more day to finalise everything before the cab was due to be picked up for BPAC by Jimmy the following day.

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I very nervously measured, marked out then applied the coin sticker exactly where the fade marks were in the original paint (took photos 🙂 ), so I could be certain the replacement would be installed in the same factory position 👍

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I had run out of time to apply the HeliFire side art by myself, I actually wanted a full day to prep for it as the side art is order only and only the second set known to exist in the world!

 

The paint also needed a full week at least to cure, so that meant it would need to be applied while at the venue, not earlier 😞 

(BTW - Massive shoutout to Mark Shields AKA Timerunner88 who re-created the side art from the product flyers. what an incredible job...)
 

With everything done it was time to get HeliFire on a truck and off to BPAC

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AS YOU CAN SEE, HELIFIRE WAS TRANSPORTED VERY CAREFULLY, AND DID NOT GET AS MUCH AS A SINGLE SCRATCH

So if you have a cabinet that could go to BPAC, but are concerned about how it would go between and at the events, here is testament to how they're looked after😉

 

So here we made it to Brewdog Murrarie for Kong Off 5 and AAC3 (Australian Arcade Championship 3).

A quick powerup on site and everything worked great (ask me about that Orion chassis sometime though - it went boom at just the wrong time 😞 )

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So HeliFire got to take its place in the BPAC Classics lineup along with its nintendo brothers kindly provided by Ben Campbell of 1989 Arcade Bar Sydney, and also @Pelly (for the DK, DK Jr, and beautiful R-Type)

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Extra shoutout and cred to Dave for Q*bert, elevator action and Centipede/Crystal Castles and of course Marc Bell for Ghouls and Monkey Ball

 

Over the course of the week I had help to get the side art expertly applied by the one and only @Kaizen

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And here it sat, as a major part of AAC3. I am hoping everyone who got the pleasure of playing HeliFire on genuine cab and Hardware enjoyed it.

I, for one, missed out thanks to catching covid at the end of the event - which sucked a bit.

 

Following the event, HeliFire got home safe and sound once again without so much as a mark.

Here we are now at home downstairs next to SF Zero II (in my Challenger I got from Kev in Sydney), and My Astro which all went to BPAC also 😄 

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(And yeah, caps, vector adjustment and a degauss needed on the Heli Monitor, thats why i didnt say it's 100% complete hehe 😄 )

Happy to have the project done and playable, and look forward to the finishing touches, and also finding original parts to install to it over time to make it even more original.

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 Looking at the cab as is now, the work done and the way it looks and plays, I am extremely proud of where the cab is now compared to when I picked it up in May 2021. 

Thanks so much for reading about the journey guys and I hope to provide any updates if anything changes on this one

👍 Cheers, Den

 

Edited by dedmunds
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