thunder blade Restoration

[polderarcade]

Oke people  first  sorry for not posting much on the forum because my terrible ingles I just love reading and not posting to much

But finely I have some time to start restoring my games but I think I can’t do this alone, so I hope you guys have some patience with me and can give me some info.
I know some basic electronics measuring wires and power is not a big problem and not afraid of soldering.

Only problem pcb’s, I did some work on pins, easier to find info for the boards in pinball machines
Finding problems in arcade pcb’s is more difficult, somebody at my work now’s something about circuit boards so I hope he can help me out a little bid
Bud if somebody has info or tips please let me now , where to start?

First project : thunder blade sit-down
Some pics and info

Pcb not working only a white screen the biggest problem now,Screen tested working whit an afterburner board


Rest of the electronics look nice I think so, realy clean


The biggest cosmetic problems big crack in the throttle cover ,and the back site of the chair lots of damage





I think its fixable whit some fiber class en liquid plastic after the project is technical working

For the people interested made my self a bar in the game room

Sponsor by sega

[polderarcade]

Yes I am happy there is life in my thunder blade



Started with measuring voltage on the board seems like oke al the chips and eproms get power. Tested if the crystals are running whit a radio sounds like they are working, no clue where to start looking now

Figured out to start some trial and error whit my particle working afterburner board.
Exchanging the main processor, Still no progress
Finally put all the eproms and removable chips from the thunder blade board to the afterburner board and now it’s running only problems whit the sound that I need to solve
It gives a lout humming noise and in the back ground I hear the sounds of the game

I can’t resist to play a game and need to say its dame difficult playing the game siting on the chair
Only bad thing is now I don’t have my after burner board any more

[polderarcade]

Oke two questions now it runs, disassembling the thunder blade for paint and cleaning
When I took apart the cover in front of the seat I found a small pcb whit two connectors looks like you can plug in ear plugs, somebody knows they had an special reason, or why they are there?




Second question somebody ever seen a grey thunder blade instead of black?
It looks like its intended to be grey but in factory they repainted it black before stickers



One last question is there a place where you can buy security torx ?

[level42]

Security torx, a good tool shop sells sets with all kinds of (security) bits.

All the other questions, sorry but I have no clue....

[polderarcade]

Sorry my mistake don’t mean the security torx bits, but the security torx bolts as you may now a lot of sega over here (this weekend one more I hope) so the bits are the first thing I got from the hardware store.
On al lot of the big games I am missing bolts or somebody replaced them whit all kinds of other bolts.
I want to put back original security torx

And important as cheap as possible

So a little update on the project, work the complete Sunday to disassemble the game final results:









First thing to do when looking at pics, it looks like the wheels under my thunder blade are not original so I cut them of
Before :




After :





So next step will be sanding it down, repainting and lots of cleaning

[polderarcade]

Oke slowly going it’s time for a little update

The base in paint mode, lessen one it’s a horrible job sand blasting and sanding down a deluxe cab.
lots and lots of strange corners



Cleant the base of the flight stick
Bevore:




After:




It’s a slow progress but I’m not in a hurry .
Hoping to start whit some plastics restoring this week.
And also started looking for I sticker company for the artwork and a car paint company for the paint on the plastic parts a metallic dark grey blue color, not affable at the local hard ware store

(off topic mode)
Sorry no road trip pics but the new kid in the gameroom

[level42]

GREAT !!! Congrats !!

[Superully]

that flight stick looked nasty - well done! and congrats on your latest catch, you're going for the BIGGIES!!!

[polderarcade]

Yes I know just like de big boys more than the up ride one’s only problem is space.
But there two more on the wish list: 2 player racer and my dream cab Sega rally 2 deluxe

[level42]

There are a couple of VERY nice twin racers for sale in Belgium.....but no low prices !

http://www.gameroom.be/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6510

[polderarcade]

I know bud little bid money problem at the moment, so I decided firs get al the project games op and running
have a lot of BIG projects.
So I can use al available funds for that, and when the big boys are running continue to new old cabs

[Reboot]

Nice cab and interesting restoration because there isn't much info to be found on this cab.
Any progress? Is it up and running 100%?

[level42]

Polder just picked up my Hard Drivin' (So he can make one good one from the two he has now) and Video Pinball.
He said he is totally focussing on the Afterburner at the moment.

[Reboot]

Ok, that's an even better cab 
Thought maybe he forgot about this thread and the cab was finished.
Just bought one myself so was searching info on it.

[playazclub]

So I don't wish to highjack this thread but for those looking for answers on the sitdown thunder blade, I have been posting bi weekly videos on Youtube of my progress.  Currently, the skid and nearly every metal part outside the monitor tower are being powdercoated as we speak.  Best of all, I was fortunate to buy up all of Sega's remaining for this machine (over 800+ pieces) both sitdown and upright so hit me up if you need parts and that includes decals.