I picked up one of my favorite arcade games of all time at a local arcade auction.  Rob, Henro and I used to play this game all the time at the now defunct golf course.  I doubt most people have even heard of it but it really is a super fun game!

At first glance the only real problems were the scratches on the blue sides so originally I was just going to put new laminate on the sides but decided that 2 sheets at 50 bones a piece was too much so I went for the arduous task of stripping and repainting instead.  After I started sanding away I noticed that the right side previously had laminated under the paint and the left side just particle board.  The particle board side came off very easily but the laminate was harder going as it starts to melt under the orbital sander.  Apparently there were quite a lot of scratches on the laminate side as I reached bondo that would not let go of the blue color.  After a few nights of sanding I finally got both sides, front and back all smoothed off and puttied.  I rolled on one coat of primer and got it all sanded down for the gloss black.

The next part was the coin door.  Although it looks fairly clean I wanted it to look newer so I stripped the paint and will be replacing the coin reject buttons and adding two locks.  I used paint stripper to pull the paint off and steel wool to finish off the underlying rust.  Then I shot it with Rustoleum textured black paint on the front and black satin on the back.  This is how it looks all put together again.

The last major part was the steering wheel.  Not only was it rusted but the plastic/metal housing it sets in was broken.  Broken yes, but the game still plays flawlessly, but it is a horrible looking control panel with sides of the housing broken off.  The housing also came with a piece of white pvc pipe stuck on there but it looked pretty bad.  Cleaning the wheel was easy using Fast Orange hand cleaner for the rust, Chrome polish for the shine and Armor All wipes for the handle.  For the housing I decided I would use the pvc that the cabinet came with but add laminate for a clean look.  Much cheaper than trying to find the same Atari housing in mint condition.  I roughly cut some laminate in a circle and epoxied it and the pvc to the housing.  Then I sanded and puttied the edges until it was nice and smooth.  Next I stripped the metal control panel mount with sandpaper, since I was going to repaint anyway, I figured it should all look the same.  Again I used Rustoleum textured black paint on the panel mount and housing.  This is how it looks with the wheel attached.

I also cleaned the speaker grill because it had gum stuck in the holes and vacuumed the inside of the cabinet.  I sprayed lots and lots of Lysol to get rid of the smoke smell.  I installed new silver T-molding and rolled a high gloss black.  I'll be ordering new coin reject buttons and coin locks soon as well.

The cabinet is missing the original seat but I'm not sure I'll build one since it will take more space from the game room.  If I play enough I think I may add it though.  Still thinking about that one.  And I can't decided if I want to add sideart like the original game.  It was some pretty ugly art so I really don't care to put it on there but maybe just for restorations sake I may later.