Afterburner Upright Restoration

[muddymusic]

By request here's my Afterburner restoration from Jamma+

This cab arrived and looked ok, some of you may have seen it on eBay. It
seemed in excellent condition from the pics but was very cleverly
hiding all the bad bits.

Here's how it looked at first.

Looks ok doesn't it?

Let's have a proper examination of the cab.....

Right side:

Bezel & decals

So
far a few scrapes & scratches, side art is all bubbled up, decals
are ripped, split wood and nailed on t-molding. Nothing that can't be
put right.

And here's where the big surprise was on the left of the cab. This wasn't mentioned!

A f*cking great slice all down one side, really deep too and it's been sprayed over by the looks of it. Ouch!

Big section completely missing here:

I
didn't get any photos of the interior but the pcb was flapping about,
and the wiring was all hanging loose in the middle of the cab for some
reason.

 

[muddymusic]

I thought at this point it was going to be a full replacement artwork
job so decided to go for it. Probably not a great decision after my
Initial-D project

First
thing I did was strip it down and give the inside a clean as usual. It
has had a brand new monitor at some point in its life as there's a Hanty
9000 where there was once a Well Gardner by the looks of it - this
means that unusually it's a COMPLETELY burn free tube

Gave the footplate a good rub down as it had a few large rust areas, and that came up nicely.

Then made a start on the left side as it was by far the worst part of the cab.

Pulled
the art off, which pretty much just fell off the cab once I started
peeling which left me with all the adhesive. If anyone has had to deal
with this stuff you'll know what a pain in the ass it is to remove.

My missus found me a can of this stuff in Homebase though which looked like it might help.

A quick spray and 5 minutes later I was VERY pleased to see that it did exactly what it said on the tin!

With all the gunk removed I got on with cleaning up and filling any
damage with some P38 body filler. This seems to be the stuff of choice
among arcade collectors and I can see why.

Sanded back, and looks horrendous at this point!

Masked off and ready for paint.

5 coats of satin black spray paint later and it's looking a whole load better.

Right side stripped back

And gunk removed

This side was in good shape, just a few little little areas needed touching in with my trusty paint pen.
muddymusic2014-03-31 15:32:06

 

[muddymusic]

I didn't blindly go ripping the art off, I had already been very
generously given full vector files for the entire cab artwork - however
they had never actually been tried out on a cab so might require a bit
of alteration, so in exchange for the files I offered to make any
adjustments needed and update them accordingly.

The front decals are perfect.

Here are the sides.

I
figured it was probably best to print out a draft version first of all
and try it against the cab rather than spend a load of cash having
incorrect artwork printed up properly.

Easiest way to do this was
to make a little side art jigsaw puzzle. Not massively accurate but
good enough to see how close it was for a quick check.

Offered up to the cab and taped in place

The
whole thing is slightly skew which is easily done when working from a
scan. It will need a bit of looking at. I marked out the worst areas
with a pen just so I could check against the files later on.

My first thought was to get the art straight cut and then trim it once
on the cab, however that's not really accurate to the original die cut
stuff as it sits back from the edges and has a nice shape to it, so I
decided to do it properly.

Made a paper cover for the cab side
and traced around the cab edge using a steel rule where I could, then
traced the outline of the art so I had an accurate shape for both. I
marked out any distinct artwork areas to use for lining up.

Close up - it doesn't look particularly great but once I get it in illustrator that won't matter.

I
took the template off the cab and laid it flat on the table, now I
could put the side art over the top and make sure it was 100% correct.
Which I'm pleased to say it was.

I scanned in the outline and artwork and stitched it together in
Photoshop, this gave me a perfect layout of the artwork outline.

I then made a vector outline which will be used for cutting the art to the correct shape.

This also means I can see how the side art files need adjusting exactly.

So made a start working from top to bottom, extending some areas to allow a bleed area.

More work on modifying the vector file.

Top section just required some points moving and extending, the lower section was quite far out as shown in my last pic here.

I
also had to add in a few missing lines - namely on the JET INTAKE
surround which should finish on a point at the top with a white border
and an additional angle on the lower part.

I also needed to
extend the blue and white swish, move the VF-1 and rescue text and
extend their containing fill boxes. I find it easiest to have the scan
alongside on my second monitor like so:

This
means I can quickly check with a glance everything is lining up
properly, I can also highlight the cutpath and zoom right in to make
sure fine lines are in the correct place such as the white outline on
the JET points.

Some
areas have been extended to allow a little bleed in case the cutting is
slightly out, this should mean it will still be correct even if it's
offset by a few mm.

Everything looks correct now so I import it
to Photoshop and cut out the vector so I can see how the final art
should look when I get it.

Nearly ready for printing now, so making the final adjustments. I
altered the colours quite a bit to match the scan, the whole image is
set for CMYK colour.

It's an easy job in Illustrator and takes
just a few minutes to completely recolour an image. I picked closest
matches from the scan and swapped them for the existing colours.

Before

After

And the left side done, again super easy to do when working in
illustrator as you can flip the entire image then mirror all the text
elements. Just a few lines to extend where the AB logo was.

And that's the artwork ready to go.

 

[muddymusic]

Had a look at the right side base, it's obviously had a few knocks over the years and a chunk is hanging off the back.

I've
never been good with woodwork, but this hobby has certainly made me
learn a few things. Some of you may have done this differently but the
result is a solid fix.

Here's the base as it was

So
I tipped the cab up a little and placed some blocks underneath, removed
the t-molding - which was nailed on! - and cleaned up any loose stuff.

I then drilled 3 small pilot holes and countersunk them.

Put
a nice squirt of wood glue between the pieces and screwed the loose
piece on tight, making sure the screw heads were sitting slightly below
the wood.

Filled the gaps and broken areas at the front and back with P38 filler, and also patched in any other missing bits.

Let that harden and gave everything a sanding.

Masked off the cab and gave the area 5 coats of satin black paint.

The paint is wet in the pic so it shows up any imperfections more than normal, I'm happy with the result there.

Artwork has arrived, pair of sides and replacement front decals - I had to order 4 pairs so have spares if anyone needs them.

I'm
really pleased with how this came out, I didn't use any lamination just
a good quality vinyl which has given the art a nice shine. The cut
shape lines up perfectly with the original piece I have so I'll
hopefully have a chance to apply it all tomorrow.

T-molding applied to the right side. I couldn't fill the front area perfectly, but it's a damn sight better than it was before.

Control panel cleaned up and put back on the cab.

Front decals replaced and plastics cleaned. Painted the bolts as well.

Here's the front finished.

Now the moment of truth....will the side art fit properly?

And
applied. I'm really, really pleased with how this came out. The die
cutting was perfectly to the original shape and the art was done at best
quality on grey block vinyl to make the colours really stand out.

In detail it looks very close to the screened stuff.

And the other side:

So that's it, all done. First cab I've done full side art for and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.
Sadly
I can't keep this as I've got nowhere to put it so it will be for sale
right away, but I enjoyed restoring it and learned a lot of new things
along the way. Next!

 

[Purity]

Thanks for sharing. You did a very good job of that broken corner. It looks tidy after the respray.

I'd have been worried about putting three screws in there as it could have broken in half, but you pulled it off

Good stuff!

 

[Guests]

A truly beautifull machine made even beautifuler or a great restoration on a great machine.
I have an upright and being after a cockpit but always said that the upright is so beautiful that I would´nt let it go even if I would get a cockpit.

If you still have sidearts for sale I will take a pair soon....

 

[andyJay]

how did you scan the side art muddy? i need to copy the good cowling top art off one of my superhangons for the other

any tips welcome!

 

[iamjimmi]

Nice work!

 

[muddymusic]

how did you scan the side art muddy? i need to copy the good cowling top art off one of my superhangons for the other

any tips welcome!

I use a HP4670 see through scanner which is perfect for doing side art scans in A4 sections.

 

[andyJay]

cheers,i have an old A2 canon scanner in the loft obtained from the bargain bin at work which should do the job then..looks like i'll finally have to have a shot at adobe illustrator!