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Complete Data East Star Wars

Andy B

Andy B

Site Supporter
Joined
Oct 6, 2014
Messages
1,366
Location
Hull. England.
Got all the bits together to re decal my Data East Star Wars.

Was going to wait unti Easter to start it but then display stopped working Monday so thought ***k it I’ll start now.

The decals I have bought are the black version from Retrorefurbs.com.

Pete said he didn’t know of anyone yet that had done DESW in black so, until someone tells me otherwise, I am going to call this, when complete, the first black Data East Star Wars in the country :)

I’ve bought a full set of LEDs, complete rubber set, replacements for all the broken plastics and a pinball playfield protector.

Done a few hours Tuesday through Thursday after work this week and in that time have:

- stripped the playfield down all but pop bumpers and metal guide rails
- disconnected (and labelled of course) all the boards from the backbox
- removed 90% of wiring from bottom of cab (am leaving what’s left as this is not going to be super minty refurb)
- removed all boards
- removed backbox and backbox hinges
- removed coin door
- removed playfield
- put playfield in the corner in the living room to keep warm!
- put cab and backbox down garage

Next job is to take off siderails (anyone got any tips) and then start the sanding down!

Will post photos as I go along
 
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B79CD353-9979-4916-9BA1-220FFC8E02A7.jpeg 0E35F510-7E3C-4646-9C50-70A62F412745.jpeg TForgot to take full playfield photo before I cracked on (doh!) so all I have is these two photos of what it looked like when I brought it home:
 
Have some close ups of the playfield as I stripped it down but, unless someone would like them uploading for reference purposes, I won’t bore you by posting them!
 
That's going to look good in Black, you adding sideblades or just leaving the inside black?
 
I use an old icing Knife but I file the edges to made it a little easier to cut the double sided tap of the side rails !!
 
"Cost "or just copying Bally/Williams what they did ,but don't forget stern bought out saga who bought data east ,so now they do screw them on ;)
 
Day down the garage sanding and sanding and...sanding. If I never see that Data East Star Wars blue ever again I will be a happy man.

Started on the head. Had a couple of hand me down sheet sanders so started off with one of those with some 40 grit and used a palm sander with 40 grit for the tricky bits.

Took me 4 hours just to do the back box and was really dreading doing the cab itself - had visions of me being stuck at it all day Sunday - so I nipped to wickes and bought a £40 400 watt random orbital sander with some 60 grit pads (couldn’t get 40 grit unless I was prepared to wait to collect from Screwfix Monday).

Best £40 I’ve spent in a long while that. The orbital took the paint off a treat. Though I did get through 10 discs. Just 2 hours to do the cab.

I still have some of the inside still to do but need more discs which I just ordered from Screwfix to collect tomorrow.

Piled loads of filler in the few holes/splits there are in cab and back box and will sand that down tomorrow.

From all shop logs I’ve read on here it seems like I’ll need to give the wood some further, finer sanding down so have ordered some 120 grit discs and will go over it again tomorrow with those.

Hope to be in a position to prime tomorrow afternoon.
 
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Filling and sanding (again!) today. 120 grit with the orbital and detail sander all over.

Thought I had it all ready for priming, so I primed it.

Found a ***t load of imperfections after priming that I couldn’t see or feel when wood was bare so out with the filler again.

Just time to post some photos while I have a well earned beer waiting for the filler to harden.
 
800 - wet and dry - ouch!

I literally am speechless.

I was thinking 180 - which is the finest pads I have for my detail would be excessive.

You can tell this is my first one!
 
Sanded some more filler...eat, sleep, repeat.

This was supposed to be a relaxing weekend after a stressful week at work.

I feel like tearing what hair I have out!
 
Cheers @AlanJ not going that fine. The bits that can be seen will be covered in pretty thick vinyl and the stuff that can’t be seen...can’t be seen.

With this refurb I am going with my mam’s old adage “a blind man would be glad to see that” (no offence to any blind men or women that might be reading this).
 
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