Finally back to this thing. Applied the side art, and in the process of repopulating the backbox. Somehow, I held onto every part over the last several years, except now I can’t find the vent grill for the backbox. Thankfully pps sells them, so one is on the way. Still have to get the backbox warning text on it, but getting closer. I’d love to have this thing on the cabinet in the next few days.

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I did grab one actually. I also have one for my tz as well and I absolutely love it. Can’t wait to get to the point where I can install it!

Cool! Would u mind posting a pic?

Finally at a point where I feel I am close. My goal now is just to have everything assembled. I know the main board needs work, but I’m not terribly worried about it. The displays are totally shot, so I have already removed them, but the speaker panel itself is in immaculate condition. I’m going to scan the speaker grilles, and repaint the black, but that’s practically all I’ll have to do. Looking forward to getting everything reconnected, and putting the backglass in. This project has seemed like a constant uphill battle, but that makes this part that much more special.

I can honestly say that these pics barely do it justice, it’s pretty stunning in person.

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I’ve restored quite a few machines, but I’ve never felt as good as when I put the finishing touches on assembling this one. I have spent literally hundreds of hours getting to this point over the last few years, and I’m relieved to say that it was well worth it. I wish pics could do it justice, as it’s a jaw dropper in person.

I still need to do some board work, and a few tweaks here and there, but everything is at least put together as of last night.
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Thanks all. I still have some work to do, but getting to this point was a huge deal for me. I was looking for a Diner and real challenge when this came along, and OMG I got one. I've had a few restorations that had happened in between me starting this and now, but It really feels great to bring this one back to life since it felt so hopeless when I started.

I’ve gone through everything over the last few days, and have come across a few dumb issues that I’ve had to correct, but other than that it’s nearly 100%!

I have to replace a few switches, one coil, and recap the power board. From the shape this thing was in originally, that’s not too terribly bad. I’m waiting on several orders, but might just have this thing done by the weekend.

One fascinating, but frustrating issue has to do with the mpu - there was definitely a pile of acid damage. It looks like it was stood up on its back when they leaked, so there is definitely a radius of damaged chips. I’ve ordered new everything to replace all of the components with acid damage, but still waiting on delivery. Anyway - after replacing a few pia’s in the path, I plugged it into the diner, and I’m still getting a pia 42 error code, and it’s not booting. I put the diner board in my taxi, and the taxi board in the diner, and both boards work just fine, but the diner won’t work in the diner cab yet. I’d leave it that way, but the diner is a sys 11c, which means I’d be missing the voices in taxi. Music works fine, but the audio section isn’t populated. Anyway, it’s fine for now, and I’m fairly certain I’ll have it figured out not too far into the future.

Overall, I expected this part to take much longer, but it’s nice to be wrong about that.

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Just wanted to give one final update. I had someone come along with an offer I absolutely couldn't refuse a few weeks ago, and although the fact that I let go of it makes me want to puke thinking of how much work was put into it, I'm very comfortable and happy with the trade. Looking forward to moving on to the next restoration.

Yikes. With all due respect to all, can we not do this on my thread please. I am a pretty humble guy, and it was a long and tedious process to get this machine to where it is currently. I'm not trying to compete with anyone, and I do it because I love it (for me, there would be no other reason). I'm proud of the work I've done, but it's discouraging to see where this thread is headed.