I picked up a non-working and beat up Mars God of War. It's still non-working but I wanted to get the playfield worked out before it got too cold in my garage. This is before the clear coat. Every time I look at it I find something that still needs attention. It's going to be tough to make the decision to clear it.

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Thanks. It took a magnifying glass to repaint the little spaceship.

Oh yeah that backglass setup is a recipe for disaster even with the factory setup! Mine is (both) in perfect condition and I plan on taking it out once and putting it back in once

I did some repairs on the power supply, but today I pulled the CPU and found battery damage, not extensive but looks like enough to be a problem (original battery from 1980). Friggin' tiny components too! fortunately Great Plains has repair kits, which is awesome.

Yeah I came across your blog when I started to research my game (it Googles well). Looking forward to see how yours turns out. Too bad the replacement boards are so expensive! I'm going to give repairing it a shot. I have $150 into mine at this point.

Thanks Blownfuse, and good luck on yours. I think I'll look into the Black Hole backglass mounts too.

It looks like I'll just do a little touch up on the cab, fortunately it's in pretty good shape. Actually, most of the machine is in good shape just the playfield was chewed up. I've seen no evidence of wax anywhere, which is probably why the thing looked like it had been through a meteor shower.

I ordered a battery corrosion repair kit from Great Plains so I can hopefully get it running. The month of clear curing time should give plenty of room for procrastination on that part of the project

I have three coats of clear on it so far. I did some more touchups between 2-3. I really like this Varathane ( http://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-Varathane-200081-Polyurethane-Water-Based/dp/B0002YQ4OK ) it dries very hard in 24 hrs, other urethanes I've used are still a bit soft at that time and make sanding nearly impossible. I lightly sanded with 400 and 600 grit paper. I glued a piece of each to a small rigid foam block.

Looks like I'll be doing seven coats which will probably equal a little over 2 cans of Varathane. The rattle can method is working out quite well for me. I have the playfield level and am spraying light coats that have spread well so far. With three cans and shipping it should only cost about $40. I think the finish will be very durable.

How many coats do you usually put on? Yeah, I had to order the third can last night. I'm figuring that each coat I'll do a little thicker and sand a little more. 3 coats and I can still see faint ball swirls.

I've had some progress: I let the clear coat cure for a few weeks and started sanding and polishing from the lower PF up. Once I got to the pop bumpers I found that it wasn't quite dry yet so I had to stop. Maybe you can't see in the pics but a layer of Varathane turned out a bit hazy, I'm not sure what I did wrong. It has improved some from a couple weeks ago so it might clear up. I also found that black is a lot harder to match then I had thought. It looked like a fine match until I clear coated it (also more apparent in person).

It isn't perfect but a hell of a lot better than the condition I bought it in. The ball should fly across the playfield! And it should really extend the life.

I still have a lot of work to do but it's coming along. Looks like I'll be picking up an all-in-one board since I've given up on repairing the existing boards for the time being (very little freetime). Maybe I'll fix them right and put them in something else.

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Yeah that one in the pic doesn't fit quite right New rubber and balls are coming. I wish I could buy some new plastics, they're a mess. I have glued the center one back together out of 4 pieces that I found in the cab. I'm going to have to cut pieces to place under many of them to protect against further damage. Plus, the ones that aren't broken are warped from heat.

Thanks guys,

Yeah I'm looking forward to it.

That backglass setup is a recipe for disaster!

I don't know, I picked it up from a guy in norther Indiana just a couple months ago. He said he only had it for two weeks.

I wouldn't have thought that. But I'll keep that in mind if I do another. I think my main problem is a lack a patience, I just might not have the personality to do this type of job right.

I almost stripped it all off to start over when I saw the cloudiness, but fortunately my wife stopped me because it has gotten better. Once in my gameroom with the dim lighting it wasn't noticeable at all

Yeah, I did finally get this machine running. It took a while to get the all-in-one board, but other than replacing the caps on the sound board, I plugged it in and started playing.

I put LEDs under the inserts and and kept incandescents everywhere else and it looks sweet.

What a fun game! A perfect addition to my small collection. Kids seem to be drawn to it more that my JP or BSD. I thought I'd find to the 4 flipper setup to be annoying, but it isn't, it's a nice setup for the PF shots and it works well with the wide body. It's a great game.

The Janin board is really sweet and added a ball save.

Unfortunately, the Varathane didn't clear up completely But I've gotten over it. It's in my dark arcade and looks awesome.

Yeah I guess I mentioned my board issues in another post. But anyway, I couldn't get my old boards to work. So I got an all-in-one: http://www.flippp.fr/pi80.php?lg=en

I'll post some pics soon.