Thursday, July 26, 2012

Time Pilot Is Finished!

Time Pilot was the second game that I bought when I started collecting back in 2009. I have awesome memories of this game from back in the day and always wanted to have a nice one in my collection. I picked one up from a local collector for cheap but the game was pretty beat- horribly hacked control panel, chunks of cab missing, bad slashes in the woodgrain sides, hacked wiring, etc:

A few months later, I came across a Centuri cab in pretty decent shape. It was a converted Vanguard with a swiss cheese control panel, but the monitor was crisp and the woodgrain sides were nice. So I swapped cabs and that now houses my Time Pilot. At that point, me and a few other KLOV members attempted to repro the side art. Follow that story here: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=204615

In the months to follow, I traded for a bootleg cpo and "customized" the control panel with a yellow Wico joystick and button colors to match the bootleg overlay. Eventually, I'll look for the correct Monroe joystick, but for now I think the yellow Wico looks sweet:

I found a nice marquee and began work on a repro Time Pilot bezel, which I finished in Jan. 2011 and installed.  I received the Time Pilot art package from Rich at This Old Game- the art really looks amazing! I was a bit worried since the box was almost bent in half, but there are only minor wrinkles in the art that weren't a problem at all.  I had a bit of time one night to install the front, kick art and one side while the kids were playing in the driveway. Rich's products are top notch and this art is no exception. Beautiful, bright colors and perfectly sized.

Here's one side after I got it on and put all of those damn carriage bolts back in:

 Once I finished up the second side, I re-painted all the black areas on the inside bezel area and the bottom front to freshen it up.  I then installed the offset t-molding.  Here's the game completed.  I couldn't be happier about how it turned out!