My Last Action Hero Restoration Part 1

Cary Hardy·video·14m 33s·analyzed·Dec 2, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.015

TL;DR

Last Action Hero restoration assessment: damage evaluation and project planning.

Summary

Cary Hardy documents the early-stage restoration assessment of a Last Action Hero pinball machine that was displayed at Texas Pinball Festival 2019. The video covers cabinet inspection, damage identification, and planning for powder coating, side rail removal, and back box restoration, establishing the scope of work for a comprehensive restoration project.

Key Claims

Last Action Hero was displayed at Texas Pinball Festival and sustained wear damage (scraped decals from concrete contact)
high confidence · Direct observation and audience reference: 'A lot of you out there have played my last action hero at the most recent Texas Pinball Festival'
The machine escalated from a simple shop job to a full comprehensive restoration
high confidence · Speaker's explicit statement about decision-making process in opening narrative
Using duct tape as temporary color mockup is an effective pre-investment decision tool for powder coating color selection
high confidence · Detailed methodology explanation: 'This is just to give me an idea of the color that I'm thinking about putting on this machine without having to spend all the money and time'
Data East side rails use double-sided tape adhesive that is difficult and risky to remove without damage
high confidence · Technical observation and cautionary statement: 'These side rails do not come off with ease because they've got double-sided tape underneath them and the chances of you damaging the cabinet as well as the side rails is very high'
Back box damage on this machine was minimal, with only a few bondo-requiring areas
high confidence · Restoration work observation: 'I think I only had one little area right there and that was it on this side this side was actually pretty good'

Notable Quotes

“The following content in this video series is actual footage that was recorded at the beginning of this year of 2019...I have since then changed my mind...this is actually going to show you my thought process whenever I first decided to dive in and get this machine cleaned up.”
Cary Hardy@ 1:03 — Establishes the documentary format and historical context of the footage being shared
“I'm ultra sensitive on any type of like wear or scratch or anything and I hate being so anal retentive on that kind of crap. I wish I didn't notice it, but I do, and it aggravates me.”
Cary Hardy@ 4:43 — Reveals the restoration enthusiast mindset of noticing and addressing even minor cosmetic imperfections
“These side rails do not come off with ease because they've got double-sided tape underneath them and the chances of you damaging the cabinet as well as the side rails is very high.”
Cary Hardy@ 7:48 — Key technical warning for Data East machines regarding side rail removal procedures
“I'm going to attempt something very difficult and that is to remove data East side rails and not just Data East this goes for any manufacturer that decided to use double tape underneath their side rails.”
Cary Hardy@ 10:46 — Identifies a widespread manufacturing practice across multiple manufacturers affecting restoration difficulty
“The joy of a one man show. Oh my god, I'm removing this shit.”
Cary Hardy@ 13:08 — Comedic commentary reflecting the practical challenges of solo restoration work

Entities

Cary Hardyperson Last Action Herogame Texas Pinball FestivaleventData EastcompanyStraight Down the Middleorganization

Signals

?
community_signal: Texas Pinball Festival serves as venue for machine exposure and gameplay community event
high · Reference to audience having played the machine at the event: 'A lot of you out there have played my last action hero at the most recent Texas Pinball Festival'
?
design_philosophy: Data East manufacturing practice of using double-sided tape adhesive under side rails creates significant restoration friction and potential damage risk
high · Technical observation that this practice affects 'not just Data East this goes for any manufacturer that decided to use double tape underneath their side rails'
?
technology_signal: Use of temporary duct tape mockups and Photoshop visualization as decision-making tools for powder coating color selection before committing to professional work
high · Detailed explanation of methodology for testing color options without financial commitment

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.044

0:00

What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button down below. A lot of you out there have played my last action hero at the most recent Texas Pinball Festival, so seeing the finished product is not supposed to be a big surprise or an oh my gosh moment. The following content in this video series is actual footage that was recorded at the beginning of this year of 2019. It was footage that I essentially was just going to scrap in the end and didn't think I was going to utilize it, at least the part where I'm going over the machine and deciding to do full restoration on. I have since then changed my mind. I have done other videos with this machine and that includes like the leg bolts and cabinet bracers. I think I've done some other stuff utilizing it. I can't think of it off the top of my head, but this is actually going to show you my thought process whenever I first decided to dive in and get this machine cleaned up. So for me to take it from a machine that is in pretty good shape and was just going to do a shop job, some cleanup on, and to see it slowly escalate into one of the best looking last action hero pinball machines that I've ever seen. Now part of the reason why I was going to scrap this was because I don't have a lot of footage that I wish I did have because something else that happened towards the beginning of the year was my computer took a nosedive and I ended up losing a lot of footage. This may be only a two to three part series but a part of the footage that I have is showing you how to install cabinet decals and that will more than likely be going to the straight down the middle YouTube channel. So without further ado guys here you go. All right let's take a tour of Last Action Hero. We'll start from the rear. So as of right now I can already tell these have been scraped pretty damn far down more than likely from last year's event going across the concrete. I might be able to clean that up though. That might be all right.

2:26

Those might clean up all right, but I might get new ones. I'll put a maybe on that. Okay, so going around the back of the machine, overall looks pretty good. My topper should be pretty damn good good condition of course it could use a good little dusting um going around when it comes to the paint on this machine there are little touch-ups that do need to be made but uh nothing major let me just do a little pan over right here i don't have any giant scuffs out of my cabinet or anything like that but it's definitely not what I would like it to be.

6:02

I can either, one, put it into Photoshop and figure out whether or not I like it, or two, I can just figure out a way to temporarily make it pretty close to the color that I'm looking at and make my decision on whether or not that's something that I want to commit to. I think any kind of way that you can do to give you an idea what you're looking at without having to spend a bunch of money is the best thing to do when it comes to something like this when it got powder coating can be reversed but it's just money out of pocket now this is actually a pretty damn good job of me rattle can wise that's not powder coating this is just me getting bored one day knowing eventually I was going to get powder cutting done professionally but I wanted to see how it looked so just did this with a rattle can a couple of coats and some clear coat got it all nice and sanded all nice and cleaned up so it actually looks pretty damn decent but it's not the exact shade of yellow that I want it to be but you can get an idea of what I going for when it comes to the color that I want to do in this machine Now the main question is is what all is going to need to be done I've gotten some footage into Photoshop that's going to give me a better idea of what I'm going to need to do. A little bit of tape residue, son of a bitch. It was almost on there perfect. Now what I'm not looking forward to doing, and those of you who have done this before know, is getting these side rails off. These side rails do not come off with ease because they've got double-sided tape underneath them and the chances of you damaging the cabinet as well as the side rails is very high so extra precaution is going to need to be taken when removing these side rails in order to get them powder coated so yay all right so we have got the we're skipping a few steps here guys but I've got the back box completely removed from the machine obviously as you can tell the remains are sitting right there and we'll get to that eventually but right now I'm going to be getting this thing all cleaned off because look at this disgusting yeah that's what happens after a year of gathering up dust and so I've got okay Okay, so let me pick that up. That's the grounding metal shield for inside the back box. That's been completely removed. So everything has been removed from this back box. So now I'm going to get it cleaned up. I'm going to be going over this in the areas that need some bondoing and I'm going to be doing some scanning as well. I'm going to be scanning this artwork in just to make sure that I've got a good backup copy of it. and then we're gonna go from there got some bondo work going wasn't actually that many bad spots on this box guys I mean yeah one area right here where it was kind of bad well divot area right here that no one would actually see but I want to hang I'm gonna feel it anyways obviously and then back here there is an area that was pretty loose so I think I only had one little area right there and that was it on this side this side was actually pretty good just let it dry some more and then we'll do some sanding all right so we've got the bondo all sanded and cleaned up so the areas in question are now nice and smooth and flattened out so now there's no more low areas or there might still be some high areas somewhere along here but that's not gonna be a big deal to deal with right now all right all right so we're going to attempt something very difficult and that is to remove data East side rails and not just Data East this goes for any manufacturer that decided to use double tape underneath their side rails. So what I'm going to do in order to even attempt to do this without damaging my cabinet or the side rails is I have to remove a few things. And that's going to be this Phillips head screw, my flipper button and this bolt right here that has a nut on the other side inside of the cabinet. Once I remove those three restrictions, then I need to be able to pry up underneath this without damaging anything. which I'm nervous about but I'm going to try something also I'm going to get out a heat gun and I'm going to try that to see if it helps out loosen the adhesive to see if that makes it any easier I'm nervous because I don't want to have to buy new side rails it's just an extra cost that I don't want to have to have to worry about Alright, so let's get this stuff out of my way so I can try to remove it.