Working on my third King Kong restoration now.
This one is getting a huge boost in all the very important minor details from the help of John Lundy.Much of what we will be able to do above beyond the typical cabinet ,playfield,polishing work we did on the past two this time around will be as a result of his ability to make various things and additional passion for the project as well as the owners willingness to let us do it our way without restrictions .
I will be trying to bridge the gap on this game in particular between rough and crude prototype and finished product by reinterpreting some of the cosmetics or mimicking what I have seen on others that I have done that were more complete.What that means is that we will replace very generic plastics with more finished ones and make sure things match up,make sense and look nice.

Here is a link to follow.
http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album541

Here are preliminary photos.

Christopher Hutchins

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A few more pictures to highlight what is going on in the link provided since it is much more practical to focus on the link for updates and knowledge than the post.

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Gutted.

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Pulling Mylar.Scary as hell on something like this but it has to be done.
Rebuilding mechs as well in process.

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Making some good progress this week.John has really been focused on the mechs and associated parts going to extremes with getting rid of the surface rust and corrosion as well as making perfectly accurate labels etc,rebuilding everything and I am chipping away at the cabinet repairs between other projects already in the works.

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The head is probably the worst thing now that the Mylar is off the playfield but the majority of it has been repaired.A new panel was not possible because of the risk to the structure.

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The face of the head is being worked now.

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Coming along a bit more on the cabinet.These are really tough because you can't damage the art trying to make repairs so everything has to be done with total caution.Even just applying tape that is too sticky can peel it.On top of that there are many layers of paint to work through.
At this point the cabinet has been repaired in the larger areas..

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Working the lower as well.
Sanding the floor clean as possible and reworking the straight black areas.

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Have the areas that are possible to be primed in primer now.
The back is solid and should look nice once refinished.

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The trim has been sanded and prepped now metal etched and textured coated.The final finish will be done after it sets a couple days.

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Started the repair process on the playfield.Mostly just staging it up with the first clear to begin reworking the surface and repainting.Without this step it would be too risky to sand,fill or tape on it.

Also put the topper that was on there to good use.

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The trim is refinished now.Should get into painting the cabinet and reworking the playfield next week.

This is a textured finish so it takes a bit more effort and experimenting to get just right. Making it uniform is the most important aspect.

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Lockbar and legs.

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The cabinet is starting to turn the corner.Still have a good ways to go but this should at least get me back to a workable point from where it started.

Christopher Hutchins

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Repairing the lower is tricky as well.Trying to repair the damage without making more damage is the toughest part.

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Masking also proves to be painful since the art is very fragile and there is cracking to deal with but I have killed off some low tack tape to minimize concerns.The trade off is that it could blow off easily during painting even with lower pressure.

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Blacked out for now.There will be a lot more rework in store for this cabinet but just getting the repairs done and blacked back in is a good step.
The back of the head is solid now too so that is a relief.

Christopher Hutchins

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Yes it is an activated/hardner use black single stage. The advantage is it can be sanded taped and still cleared over later in the process when I get to the art rework and airbrush portion.
A different finish is used on the rails legs and trim.

Head unmasked.Will start working the other colors next. The toughest part of the head moving forward will be dealing with the transitions from color to color.That is never a perfect process by nature of the one off painting method for repairs verses factory screening originally done but I should be able to get it looking respectable at the very least..

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Lower unmasked and while it needs more work it is generally less challenging than the head will/has been.The biggest question right now on the lower will be what to do with the inserts that were placed in the front.I can alter them such as changing the colors,creating art to place on them(I was thinking two reds with snake eye pupils) or the like,remove them entirely,wire them to interact with the game etc but it needs to be figured out now before moving forward.

Always open to suggestions on that issue.

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Not exactly sure what they were there for and the choices of wiring them to function as they might have been designed is limited by what the code supports which is nothing.
I see two choices for wiring them.One would be tying them to the color correct lock inserts during game play .This would mean the green insert to the green lock insert and the red insert to the red lock insert.The other would be to change them to like and matching colors say two amber,reds or yellows to match/compliment the cabinet art and tie them to the GI.

ThAnks. I have not seen any other DE games come through here with that system and of course there is not King Kong manual so I am glad to know there is some documentation out there for it. Can you tell me a specific manual to reference it ?

No worries some times the most obvious things can escape you if you overthink it.
Makes sense. There are Simpsons labels on some of the harnesses and the lamp panel is a repurposed Simpsons panel. The last one I did was mostly POTO and did not have the cabinet inserts.
No wiring in the cabinet for the lamps though so hopefully I can sort it out off the suggested manual.

I now have the head reworked.Not perfect of course but much better than it was without turning it into a very,very long term project.
I would say it is 92% as is but with another 30 or so hours plus lots of additional materials,cure time and expense I could squeeze 5 or 6% more out of it. Trying to avoid falling into that trap because it rarely pays off in the long run.If the extra effort was a bit less time and material heavy say 10 more hours and another single clear coat I could see it though.

The transition is tough it looks like a single color but it is about 5 on this section.Lots of mixing thinning dusting,cleaning but it fakes in pretty well.Will do a few things to finesse it a bit more texture and edge wise but nothing substantial.

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The finish is cured and at its final gloss level on the cabinet.

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Back in the rebuild section .

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Now back to the playfield.There are so many holes and plugs that have been moved or used that I am just filling most everything up top and will take it from there.It took quite a bit to shave down the plug placed in the target bank area .That is being filled and will be leveled further prior to repainting.This has to be done very carefully so the art and surrounding inserts are not damaged in the process which only creates more work.

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Put a lot of time into the playfield the last couple days.Still have a bit more to go before it is ready to clear again.

The highlights are that I cleaned up the flipper hole cut outs,leveled the repairs and started the repaints.The worst and most of which are now done.

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The inserts in the middle are always the worst on these.

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White is done where needed and possible.Gray as well but only where needed.

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This is the toughest part.Like the head it looks like a couple colors or so but it is several to at the very least fake in the look over the cracks in the art.Less is more in this case so only the damage is done.

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The blue is a tough match but looks promising.Same thing with the orange .Hard to tell prior to clear but should be very good.

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Now unmasked.I still need to deal with some yellow work,wood tones and fine details before the next clear goes on.

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Got the second session playfield repaints completed today.Some more involved work in the yellow because I don't want to lose the detail.Wood plug and surrounding area is roughed in and will be finessed in the next stage.

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Second clear was applied.

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This is where it is at now pending an overnight dry.
Lower

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Mid section.Not just like the factory but looks about right.As good as you can hope for in this case.

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Upper section.Still needs some work but much improved.

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King Kong is now in rebuild starting with the cabinet.I am doing the final playfield work today.
John is rebuilding the cabinet HEP style

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Cabinet internals coming together.

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Playfield is final sanded and polished.

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Took some pictures at a different angle to highlight the state of it without the overhead reflection as much as possible anyway.

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Some of the more detailed repairs are better captured in the pictures that follow.

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These show the more complex center section and upper portion in the final form prior to rebuild.There are a couple minor things that could be further enhanced but strictly beneficial when it is bare otherwise would be a waste once rebuilt so those are accepted in this case given the effort needed for the complete project not just the playfield.

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Cabinet rebuild is almost complete.
we went with the latch mech that was fitted fully so the labeling and everything is now complete.

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Playfield rebuild is also taking place so it should close out shortly.

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The underside is coming along now as well.I cannot stress how nicely done all this is with the effort John has put into remaking labels and reconditioning each bracket etc as close to factory as possible.

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This lower underside picture really highlights the effort notice even the little solid state labels on the flipper plates have been remade..

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Everyday .It is the only thing I obsess about more than these restorations.

The wiring is now mostly done.

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Topside is closing out also.Will populate fully prior to installing it back in the cabinet.

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Wireforms are back from powdercoat.
I am going to try one single color first.If that doesn't work right I will refinish it from there but the yellow powder is the base either way so it will be determined as it further nears completion.
I am also working on refinishing the flipper bats a color that is more appropriate for this game.
The bats are prepped,plastic etched and lightly primed since one was hand made and very rough.The upper in this case but they are all the same size..

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Working on the ramp also.It was quite rough.I have done this exact same thing before so I already knew the approach I would take which is just doing a much nicer job of finishing it out than was done during development.

The first step is straightening ,then finding the low spots through sanding then filling.

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Ramp is straight now and heavily primed to be further reworked prior to refinishing.

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I have reworked the ramp as well as possible.It was a multi part that was tab and stick welded together then they put some type of clay or filler in there to barely smooth it in followed by what seemed to be almost a rubberized undercoat type finish.
Once I primed it heavily and started smoothing it in it became obvious that the clay,or filler used was not as well finished in the hard to reach areas so I reworked them and then etch primed followed by refinishing.

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Ramp and bats now refinished.Ramp test fitted before making or adapting flaps.

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Playfield rebuild is just about complete now.John has done an incredible job making plastics and assembling.The reinterpretation of some things has really benefited from our joint effort.The game is looking more complete and polished than the ones I had done previously and the best part of it is that this was actually the roughest and least complete.
the Wacker Drive plastic was made,The Tiger stripe style plastic at the wireform center,the plastic above drop targets and the stack behind the VUK wireform .

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Now the playfield is back in the cabinet.

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I had to go with orange standards because they were soft enough to work.It isn't easy getting any on these things.
I tried heating up a set of yellow super bands and that worked but they got a bit too thin and transparent after they were installed so I went a different direction.

I have no idea what the owner's plans are for it but I seriously doubt it will be in storage..

Thank you.
The labor on something like this is intense and so is the stress/risk.
The upside is the parts bills are cheap since you can't buy hardly anything for it.I think this one has less than $400 in parts invested in it.

These will remain.I tried to maintain some of the more obvious build history but eliminate things that were simply rough or incomplete looking that did not reflect it as easily ..

We are just about done now.
This game has been a bit more troublesome on the tech side .Turns out the "special ROMs" were really just ROMs incorrectly installed and a couple of rough factory prototype floor build things had to be dealt to build the nicest game possible.Things like crappy wiring,poor assembly and evidence of numerous changes had to be sorted out but everything is now in order less getting the lower display glass properly seated so it does not continue to rub the glass .John is taking care of that. This is where we stand.The next update will be the final pictures.

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I am really happy with the new drop target decals that we came up with.These look much more correct and flow better than the previous ones.
Glass is in place just waiting for a display that doesn't rub it anymore.

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Thanks but I think this is as close as it will get

Yes these big flippers hit HARD!!!

A level of protection is always put in place for anything I know or think might be an issue.A little tougher to predict on games like these with less documented history but most of it is common sense.Mylar at the ball drops and a protector at the drop target bank seem like good ideas all implemented here.

It will take a while to get a link together for the final pictures but here are some of the highlights. Can't thank John enough for his help on this project.It really helped finish out what was a very incomplete but completely unique version of this already rare game.

Christopher Hutchins

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The back of the head and some playfield shots.

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Some more detailed pictures of the playfield.

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Center playfield.

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Upper playfield.

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Inside the cabinet.

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Lit up.

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Kong!

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Finally got the finished album together.
Thanks for all the positive comments.Makes it worth taking the time to document.

http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album551

Christopher Hutchins

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Here is the game play video.
I didn't have an opportunity to shoot more than one before final tweaks and shipment so there may be a glitch or adjustment to the game yet to be made at that point but it is pretty decent overall.Gives a feel for the way it plays with the bigger flippers,drop target bank and VUK.