With my Subway restore nearing completion, (see https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/i-just-took-a-subway-to-restore-city ) just waiting for the playfield to be finished being cleared, I decided to start on a project that has been sitting in my garage for quite a few months now.. Maybe its been sitting because I have been contemplating if I have actually bitten off more than I can chew on this one or im really not that terribly interested in getting this thing completed, but whatever the reason I have decided to at least try and see if I can; #1 get the thing in a running state, then and only then #2 get the cabinet restored back to original status.

This thing as you will see in the pics is a complete basket case. The cabinet is actually sound, but inside the internals have been Frankensteined, but its a pretty simple machine so i may actually get it working. The game originally used a Cousino endless loop tape drive system. These tape drives were rare and not very reliable from what I can tell. There are a few on Ebay at the moment but im not even sure of the exact model I would need,and they dont come with tapes so I would need to source them in addition to a drive. Instead of the original tape system, someone rewired it to use a Walkman cassette tape player. Its actually pretty ingenious how they got it to work like that actually. They used a motor on a drive shaft with a metal finger that would turn on a switch that would provide power to the Walkman when a coin was inserted, then as it looped around it would cut power off again. its kind of interesting but not something I intend to keep at all.. Instead I may actually used a Arduino to provide the power and the music.. but time will tell on that.. One thing is for certain, i do not have the schematics for it and there are many cut and rewired wires in this thing so im not sure what goes where yet.

The outside of the cabinet like I said is pretty solid, however someone added ugly paneling and molding to the outside so this will need to be redone as well. also a new backglass is in order. looks like Shay has them..The actually Peppy doll is in decent shape just needs to be cleaned up. Actually the entire machine needs a good cleaning as well. I have the circus backgrounds as well,and they are in decent shape.

So here I stand with this Peppy that Im hoping I can get going and restored back to original status. It is actually quite a interesting piece of Americana dating back to the 1950s.

Ive gotten a lot of good information from this guys restore..http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/peppy.htm

Thanks for reading and I will update as I get further a long. If anyone has a Peppy or knows about them please feel free to share any information. More Info I could get the better.

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That is some great info on the Peppy player.. I subed mikes youtube channel awhile ago as I think his restos are amazing.. I will reach out to him soon. I have a friend ( who sold me the peppy) with a working Bimbo the Clown with a digital player in it, he is going to see if he can get me the setup so I can copy it. Thank you for the info and I will keep posting as I move along.

thanksa for the kudos on the Subway, my wife feels the same way about the Peppy as you do haha

So.. for those of you that care , I have a small update as work continues slowly but steadily on Peppy. I managed to get the entire cabinet stripped down to bare wood. All electrical parts have been taken out and stored for later. Here are some pics.

Work commences...IMG_6340 (resized).JPGIMG_6341 (resized).JPG plexi taken out IMG_6342 (resized).JPG striping the paneling off the sides was a joy.. sarcasm of course, but with a little luck and a heat gun and putty knife, it came off eventually. IMG_6346 (resized).JPG look at all that glue.. ugh IMG_6347 (resized).JPGIMG_6350 (resized).JPG I first tried sanding the glue off straight away with my ROS but it proved even too much for 60 grit, so I used stripper to get the glue layer off first before sanding, made the job much easier.. Yes im using the heavy duty stuff very sparingly, IMG_6383 (resized).JPGIMG_6384 (resized).JPG After the glue was off I was able to rough sand it. IMG_6385 (resized).JPGIMG_6386 (resized).JPGIMG_6393 (resized).JPG Paneling off the control panel I see the original instruction sticker peeking through.. this is gonna get redone anyway so not worried about destroying it. IMG_6400 (resized).JPG Front door stripped and sanded.IMG_6401 (resized).JPG

Ok so next up is bondo, sand, prime, rinse repeat and see where im at, also need to fix the broken wood holes with fiberglass, stay tuned..

PS, I built a Arduino setup to play the songs and energize the system, i am currently finishing it up, I will post pics and maybe a video of how it works.. but it seems to work perfectly in testing phase

Hey all, made some progress this week on my Peppy, just thought I would share..

Started Bondo and sanding.. IMG_6449 (resized).JPG
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All the legs were busted up, IMG_6454 (resized).JPG First coat of primer, ( Kills original in the can) This is the first time I ever used a roll on application but I figured I would give it a try since the final paint will be a texture look anyway.. IMG_6458 (resized).JPGIMG_6460 (resized).JPG Final sanding and last coat of Primer.. came out good I think.. IMG_6461 (resized).JPG Next up is the con door and the back door. Once that is done I will start final paint coats.. Im still deciding what paint to use, As I look at pics of Peppy on the interwebs I see a lot of different restore colors. Im partial to a Purple and yellow, however I may keep it more original and tone down the colors a bit. Clays guide on his Peppy restore recommends the Fleck Stone series of paint for this. I may have to check this out. Also, received my BG from Shay last week. Its in decent shape. A few little imperfections but considering this is the last one around most likely I think it was a score.. IMG_6447 (resized).JPG

On another note I already have my Arduino completed that will play the music and provide power to the system. I will post pics and a video of this later on..

Well its been almost two months since I last updated this post. I think its time to share where I am right now with this project.. So now that Subway is complete I have really had a chance to dive in and push this forward to completion. Im happy to say I have really gotten so much done that I think this post deserves a update for those that are interested..

If I remember correctly I left off just before the final painting of the cab.. Here is pics of the final paint.. as you can see its not exactly the same as the original but I really thought the original was a bit drab.. I decided to go with more of a glitter or sparkle look to the paint. This i felt would really bring out the circus theme and give it some pizzazz..!! Also, Im not really going for original anyway since im using a Arduino to power the system, keeping it all original wasent even a option for me.. IMG_6628 (resized).JPGIMG_6577 (resized).JPGIMG_6622 (resized).JPG This paint and glitter process was not for the faint of heart and to be perfectly honest I wound up repainting the cab 3 times until I was able to get the desired look. Working with rattle can metallic paint and then glitter paint over that was a process that I just never want to repeat again.,. More trouble than its worth, at least for my skill level.. Its still not perfect but its good enough for me.. IMG_6632 (resized).JPG

Moving on.. Scrubbing down the main motor was a real pita, this thing had so much gunk and dirt from years and year of use, but in the end it came out decent. Times like this I wish I had a ultrasonic cleaner.. IMG_6668 (resized).JPG IMG_6670 (resized).JPGIMG_6717 (resized).JPG

Lets move on to electronics.. Before I tore down my Peppy to start the restore I studied how it worked.. Originally if you recall above I posted pics of what the guts were using to work the system. Someone had wired in a old Walkman in lieu of the original tape player. The Walkman was powered by a switch that would get turned on by a slow spinning wheel when the user inserted a dime, then as the wheel came around again, it would turn the Walkman player off via the same switch.. It worked im sure for what they were trying to accomplish, however it was not even gonna be close for my OCD and making this thing act just like the original did..

Well with modern times comes modern technology and in comes Arduino.. TBH I never worked with a Arduino board, but there was a few things I knew it needed to do.. 1) was to play each song in succession when a switch was closed, 2) while the song played, it needed to close a circuit to let power flow, 3) after the song was over it needed to open the circuit to interrupt power and standby for the next input to play the next song.

I had to learn how to program a Arduino, to use a MP3 player and a 120v relay .. Easy right? wrong.. but I cheated a bit. I was able to download some code that was already built to play each song when a button was pressed. I had to modify it a bit to include a wait timer of 3 seconds before the song is played but not really much more.. the 3 seconds simulates the tape player powering up as Im sure it wasent instantaneous. It also give the user time to look up and get ready to push those buttons!!!!!

my bigger concern was getting a relay to close only when the song is played.. This was actually pretty easy since the mini DF mp3 player has a control pin that powers 5v only when turned on. Wiring this pin to the relay worked like a charm! Also, I added a 10w amplifier since the built in amp on the df player is pretty weak at 3w.. Im certainly not a expert in any of this but I knew enough about coding to make it work. These first pics are of my prototype.. notice im using a Arduino Uno R3. This worked well but I wasent happy with the messy wires, even after I wired the daughter board on top. IMG_6407 (resized).JPG IMG_6408 (resized).JPGIMG_6409 (resized).JPG

I have since moved from the R3 to a Arduino Nano soldered to a PCB hiding as much wiring as possible under the PCB. This is my final design, IMG_6737 (resized).JPG
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And now here it all sits wired in the cab really to start buttoning things back up.. IMG_6721 (resized).JPGIMG_6722 (resized).JPGIMG_6724 (resized).JPGIMG_6728 (resized).JPGIMG_6727 (resized).JPGIMG_6727 (resized).JPGIMG_6735 (resized).JPGIMG_6736 (resized).JPGIMG_6735 (resized).JPG

Tomorrow I start sanding and staining the molding and then I need to get the control panel worked out.. I hope you enjoyed this little update and I will keep this updated as I make some more news worthy progress.. Cant wait to share videos when its complete..

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steambc
Hey I'm so sorry for not replying to you sooner. Never saw this post. However here are new pics of my finished Peppy. To answer your question, a friend of mine who has a CNC machine cut me perfect stencils. So I was able to use those to do the paint. Also, all the art on the inside of the machine was reproduced my an artist and then I took it to a local print shop and had it printed then applied that to poster board and cut out. It came out absolutely perfect. As far as the innards go, I reproduced the Cusino tape player by using a custom Arduino, MP3,player, Amplifier, and 5v to 24v relay. It actually works absolutely perfectly. Plays all 9 songs, starts and stops to the music, etc. I'm very happy with the results., I'm sorry I cant give you many tips really. Let me know how yours comes out.

As far as the Stencils go, I forgot to mention, before my friend made me them, I was working with Pinball Pimp to create them. I know he finished them up right after my friend made them so you may want to ask him about it. I gave him all the measurements and everything and I remember him saying they were ready to go. He doesn't list them on his web site so I would talk to him directly if you are interested.
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