#4908741
**Update: reposting all images with Imgur to see if the results are better than photobucket**

Hey all, I finally was able to transfer and organize the pictures from my phone to my computer so I could make this thread. I never planned on doing anything like this when I started modding my Spirit pack so I don't have pictures of everything I did but I'll do my best to explain what I did and how. I also want to say thank you to all the members on this board who have helped me by answering questions on the boards and in PM's. This board is a wealth of information and I've spent hours upon hours (at the cost of annoying my wife) searching and reading thread after thread on builds and wiring and lighting etc. I've used a lot of the tricks and tips people have put in their build threads so hopefully I can pay that back and help someone out with tips or ideas in mine! I'll also be updating this as I build my 80% Ben of Kent wand, the GBFans wand kit should be arriving tomorrow so I'll be able to update everyone on the fit. All that said, let me start from the beginning...

Most everyone has seen the Spirit pack so no need to post a starting picture, but I'll start with after I had stripped all the stickers and taped off everything in prep for paint.
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I didn't bother covering the green tubing because I had bought Spongeface's cosmetic kit so I knew it was getting covered, same witht he tubing on the Ion arm. Before paint I used hot glue to make some "welds" around the pack.
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After I had done all that I hit it with some Rustoleum flat black paint and primer that bonds to plastic.
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Here's where I made my first mistake. I didn't think ahead about the speaker hole and plug it right from the get go, I ended up doing it later on after I had started weathering the pack and that made it a bit of a pain to do. So if you know you're going to fill it, do it before you paint haha!
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A couple shots of the "welds" post paint.
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After I let the paint dry I started dry brushing the pack trying to give it that aged and weathered look. I watched some videos on youtube on how to do it learned a couple cool techniques. It's definitely something that takes time so be patient as you're doing it and dont be afraid to screw up. I was using a water based paint and if I did too much or didnt like it you could wipe it off pretty quickly. Since I was going for a GB1 style pack I wanted to make it look like it was 30+ years old and had seen some action.
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After I was satisfied with all the weathering I moved on to getting the frame all set up. But I'll start a new comment for that so that one post doesnt scroll for days.
Last edited by JWils23 on September 15th, 2018, 2:26 pm, edited 5 times in total.
NickFame13, twmedford23, Kingpin and 2 others liked this
#4908743
I've had the frame for a while, I realize I'm building a GB1 pack and it's an LC-2 frame but I got it for free from a friend who had an extra from building his pack so I wasn't going to complain. I figure it's a 30+ year old pack, things have probably been replaced and updated over time haha! I hit it with a fresh coat of paint to get it completely black as it hadn't been painted for a long time.
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While the paint was drying I went to work on cutting out the mother board. I bought some 1/4" MDF board from Home Depot for $2.50 and traced the pack out and then cut it with the jig saw. I then sanded things down to get more precise and smooth dimensions.
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Omce the paint was dry on the frame I started positioning it on the motherboard to find the right mounting point. I looked at a lot of other builds to see how people mounted them and but it's tougher when the spirit pack is smaller so I couldn't use their measurements and had to eyeball it and get it close.
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When I was satisifed with where it was I drilled it out and mounted it using 3 carriage bolts.
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I initally had used 1" nylon spacers but because the pack is smaller it just seemed like I had too much air space between pack and frame, it didn't seem proportionate so I dropped it down to 1/2" and personally I like that better. I also used the wing nuts on the outside so I could quickly seperate pack from frame.
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Then the mother board and hardware got a nice coat of black paint as well.
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While I waited for the motherboard to dry I started assembling the pack straps and foam neck pad. I bought 3/4" foam pip insulation from Home Depot that had sealing adhesive. If I remember correctly it was $6 or $7 for 6' so I knew if I screwed up I'd have extra. I cut a notch in the back above the center brace so that the foam can move with the shoulder straps. I plan on wrapping that in black tape to look more like the GB1 packs but I just haven't gotten to it yet. I added an LC-1 kidney pad, waist straps and I'm still looking for some LC-1 straps but so far I've only been able to acquire a left so I used these for now.
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Last edited by JWils23 on September 15th, 2018, 2:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
twmedford23 liked this
#4908748
Once everything was dry I started working on munting the shell to the motherboard. I decided to make my own bracket for the 4 mounts. I used a typical L bracket that you can get at home depot and the used JB Weld to put a nut on the inside so I could thread the screws in. I used .5" brackets on the top and then the lower brackets are 2" on the left and 1.5" on the right, I'll explain why lower.
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I mounted the brackets to the board and then measured from the bottom to center point of the hole on the bracket and drilled the shell in that spot.
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The top brackets are mounted with 1/4" socket caps screws and washers.
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Originally I had planned to but the bottom mounts at the base like the screen used packs but on the Spirit pack you can't space them out correctly because the loom for the wand comes out where you'd need to put a screw. I could have done one dead center on the bottom but I didn't like the idea of only 3 mounting points. I knew that I was going to grind off the plastic screw on the bumper and replace it with two screws, so I came up with the idea of using those screws as my bottom anchor points. I dremel'd off the fake screw and then drilled holes on both sides for the new screws and mounting point. To that note, the plastic screws on the spirit pack are .5" higher on the left side than they are on the right side, hence why I used a 2" bracket on the left and 1.5" on the right. I used 1/4" socket caps again and brass washers, the top screw is a dummy secured with a nut on the inside and the bottom threads into the bracket. I'm not sure if the brass washers are GB1 specific, I could never really find an answer as it seems some have them and some don't. Maybe someone can chime in and confirm or deny that.
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I also added socket cap screws in other areas, it's a cheap and easy way to add some more authenticity to the Spirit pack.
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Last edited by JWils23 on September 15th, 2018, 2:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
twmedford23 liked this
#4908750
Next I started working on the cosmetic changes to the pack. I glued in the red cyclotron acrylic and then I ordered some blue acrylic from amazon ($8 for a 12"x12" sheet) and worked on scoring it into the right size for the power cell.
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I popped out the Spirit one and cleaned out all the hot glue, then did a little sanding on the acrylic for the perfect fit. A little hot glue in the corners to hold it in place and that was that.
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Another member on here pointed me towards Fincher Technologies for a GB1 ribbon cable that I had been searching for and it did not disappoint. It's heavy duty and the colors really make it pop, I always liked these over the GB2 cables. Because it's bigger than the spirit cable I had to grind out the ribbon cable clamp to make room. It's not the prettiest grind but once the cable is in no one is the wiser. See you can see I had to open it up quite a bit though to make the cable fit. I also grinded out the whole the cable goes into up top to make more room for the bigger cable.
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Once that was done I twisted the cable and positioned it close as I could to the movie, clamped it and put the zip ties on. I put the bottom portion in the ribbon clamp first and then I just rolled it like you would wringing out a chamois for washing a car. Rolled it as tight as I could and then fed it through up top. The fit was so snug on both ends I ended up not even glueing them. I also began cutting out the new replacement stickers and applying them, painted and weathered the rod and cap on the Ion Arm and painted the crank knob gray.
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Last edited by JWils23 on September 15th, 2018, 2:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#4908751
Now to the fun stuff, the lights and sound. I had intially planned to use Sponge's upgraded lights, but then my wife surprised me with an 80% wand and my plans changed. Knowing I was going to ditch the stock wand I gutted all the spirit electronics and ordered the GB Fans soundboard, cyclotron/powercell lights and wand kit. The only modification I had to do was on the power cell, I had to grind and file in between an 1/8" and 1/4" top and bottom to fit all the lights of the bigger power cell. Obviously you dont have to do this if you don't want to, you'll just miss the very top and bottom lights. I wouldn't recommend using a dremel for this as there's very little room for error, my top was done with a dremel and you can see it isn't perfect. The bottom I did by hand with a file and it came out much better.
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Personally I didn't like how defined each light was and close up you could cleary see the PCB. I know in the movie you can see each light but I don't think they're as defined and they seemed to be a little lighter blue. Of course we're comparing modern LED's to the incandescent lights originally used so it's not apples to apples. In one of the build threads I read, someone mentioned that they thought the same thing and that they used sand paper to rough up the acryclic and distort the lights. I didn't want to sand the cover piece and have the scratches visible so I scored another piece of acrylic and then sanded it and placed it behind the original piece. I thought it made an awesome difference. It also keeps you from being able to see the board behind the acrylic.
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For the cyclotron lights I'd seen people using the dixie cup trick or using 3D printers to print cones, I realized the little "red solo cup" shot glasses would be a perfect fit and be a little more rugged than a dixie cup. You can find these at BevMo, grocery stores, amazon etc for cheap. Plus they give me exactly enough room for a 4" speaker to be mouted dead center.
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I painted them black, drilled a center hole with a 7/32 bit and that lets the LED's pop right in and not move and hot glued them in place.. This picture is just a test fitting so please ignore the sloppy wires and the fact that LED's are in the cups.
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I ordered some PCB standoffs from amazon to mount the power cell and sound board. I used the middle compartment for the power cell (3/8") and the sound board is combination of two to get me just over 1" of height, enough room to be able to adjust the volume knob if needed.
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The power cell and lights are all on the shell, while the soundboard is mounted on the motherboard. Power cell glued in and cyclotron lights placed and wires temporarily routed.
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All lit up, it makes me feel like a kid again!
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Quick video of the light sequence running
https://youtu.be/S1nJRODsIxw
Last edited by JWils23 on September 15th, 2018, 2:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Kingpin liked this
#4908758
tobycj wrote: September 15th, 2018, 4:24 am Looks great! I can only see about half the photos though :( imgur is a bit better for hosting than photobucket so you could try that?
It’s so weird, when I view the thread on my computer every picture shows up. But then I just checked on my phone and only the last few do. Thanks for the tip Toby, when I get home a little later I’ll try it again with imgur!
tobycj liked this
#4908774
JWils23 wrote: September 15th, 2018, 9:23 am
tobycj wrote: September 15th, 2018, 4:24 am Looks great! I can only see about half the photos though :( imgur is a bit better for hosting than photobucket so you could try that?
It’s so weird, when I view the thread on my computer every picture shows up. But then I just checked on my phone and only the last few do. Thanks for the tip Toby, when I get home a little later I’ll try it again with imgur!

Oddly I can see them all now, so not sure if you've changed them or photobucket decided to behave instead!

I repainted the legris elbows on my spirit pack grey (until I get round to replacing them with replicas) and think they look a lot better than being silver, as a tip :)
JWils23 liked this
#4908814
tobycj wrote: September 15th, 2018, 7:38 pm
JWils23 wrote: September 15th, 2018, 9:23 am

It’s so weird, when I view the thread on my computer every picture shows up. But then I just checked on my phone and only the last few do. Thanks for the tip Toby, when I get home a little later I’ll try it again with imgur!

Oddly I can see them all now, so not sure if you've changed them or photobucket decided to behave instead!

I repainted the legris elbows on my spirit pack grey (until I get round to replacing them with replicas) and think they look a lot better than being silver, as a tip :)
I reposted them all with Imgur and they worked! That’s a good idea, I may steal that one from you since I have had a chance to do the Legris fitting yet.
#4908815
Kingpin wrote: September 16th, 2018, 10:23 am A beautiful conversion, I can only hope mine's half as good as this. :)
Thanks Kingpin! It’s definitely a labor of love so I tried to be as detailed as possible, even sometimes when I didn’t want to be! I just hope this thread can help others the way other threads have helped me.
#4908816
Also an update for everyone that was asking, the GBfans wand kit looks like it will fit in an 80% wand with modification. You have to do some dremel work and it seems the board will only fit mounted at an angle. I’ll try and post some pictures in the next day or two. I know Ben of Kent does 80% and 84% wands, if you know you’re going to do the wand kit I would order the 84%. If anything it will save a little dremel work.
NickFame13, tobycj liked this
#4908830
JWils23 wrote: September 16th, 2018, 7:27 pm Also an update for everyone that was asking, the GBfans wand kit looks like it will fit in an 80% wand with modification. You have to do some dremel work and it seems the board will only fit mounted at an angle. I’ll try and post some pictures in the next day or two. I know Ben of Kent does 80% and 84% wands, if you know you’re going to do the wand kit I would order the 84%. If anything it will save a little dremel work.
That's useful to know. Someone on the BOK facebook page said the GBfans wand kit didn't fit in his 80% wand, so he used a Jupiter Electronics kit, but their kit is pretty expensive, so I was a little reluctant to go down that route if I could avoid it!
#4908835
JWils23 wrote: September 16th, 2018, 7:27 pm Also an update for everyone that was asking, the GBfans wand kit looks like it will fit in an 80% wand with modification. You have to do some dremel work and it seems the board will only fit mounted at an angle. I’ll try and post some pictures in the next day or two. I know Ben of Kent does 80% and 84% wands, if you know you’re going to do the wand kit I would order the 84%. If anything it will save a little dremel work.
I figured on a little dremel work and some bondo, i wonder if is possible to just run long cabling for the switches and led's, a long cable for the bar graph, through the loom and mount the board in the pack.
#4908851
tobycj wrote: September 17th, 2018, 3:22 am
JWils23 wrote: September 16th, 2018, 7:27 pm Also an update for everyone that was asking, the GBfans wand kit looks like it will fit in an 80% wand with modification. You have to do some dremel work and it seems the board will only fit mounted at an angle. I’ll try and post some pictures in the next day or two. I know Ben of Kent does 80% and 84% wands, if you know you’re going to do the wand kit I would order the 84%. If anything it will save a little dremel work.
That's useful to know. Someone on the BOK facebook page said the GBfans wand kit didn't fit in his 80% wand, so he used a Jupiter Electronics kit, but their kit is pretty expensive, so I was a little reluctant to go down that route if I could avoid it!
That would make sense because they are correct, it won’t fit right out of the box. The board is the exact length of the body at 80% so you can’t mount it like you would normally on a full size wand. What I did was grind down a channel in opposite corners and then you can slot the board in diagonally. It’s obviously not ideal but the fit is nice and snug so I’m not worried about it moving around. The bar graph also needs to be a little larger but that was expected. I won’t be able to do it today but hopefully tomorrow I’ll have a chance to take some pictures and load them on here.
tobycj liked this
#4908852
floorofataxicab wrote: September 17th, 2018, 7:44 am
JWils23 wrote: September 16th, 2018, 7:27 pm Also an update for everyone that was asking, the GBfans wand kit looks like it will fit in an 80% wand with modification. You have to do some dremel work and it seems the board will only fit mounted at an angle. I’ll try and post some pictures in the next day or two. I know Ben of Kent does 80% and 84% wands, if you know you’re going to do the wand kit I would order the 84%. If anything it will save a little dremel work.
I figured on a little dremel work and some bondo, i wonder if is possible to just run long cabling for the switches and led's, a long cable for the bar graph, through the loom and mount the board in the pack.
I feel like I’ve read this mentioned in another thread but I don’t know if the person actually did it or not. The switches you could definitely do but the bar graph isn’t connected to the board in the same way the switches are. You may be able to get a longer strip for that, but that’s above my minimal level of expertise haha
#4908854
JWils23 wrote: September 17th, 2018, 1:37 pm
tobycj wrote: September 17th, 2018, 3:22 am

That's useful to know. Someone on the BOK facebook page said the GBfans wand kit didn't fit in his 80% wand, so he used a Jupiter Electronics kit, but their kit is pretty expensive, so I was a little reluctant to go down that route if I could avoid it!
That would make sense because they are correct, it won’t fit right out of the box. The board is the exact length of the body at 80% so you can’t mount it like you would normally on a full size wand. What I did was grind down a channel in opposite corners and then you can slot the board in diagonally. It’s obviously not ideal but the fit is nice and snug so I’m not worried about it moving around. The bar graph also needs to be a little larger but that was expected. I won’t be able to do it today but hopefully tomorrow I’ll have a chance to take some pictures and load them on here.

Think I'll order the 84% wand in that case!
#4908874
If I decided to just get another GB Fans proton wand kit is there anywhere that I can find a cable long enough to extend from the pack, through the tube, and into the proton gun for the Bar Graph? If I can do that then I will just extend all of the wires for the light and get it going that way, that way the chips themselves are in the main pack with the power supply
#4908910
GBDRE760 wrote: September 17th, 2018, 5:49 pm If I decided to just get another GB Fans proton wand kit is there anywhere that I can find a cable long enough to extend from the pack, through the tube, and into the proton gun for the Bar Graph? If I can do that then I will just extend all of the wires for the light and get it going that way, that way the chips themselves are in the main pack with the power supply
I'd page spongeface to the thread, they're his designs, but the fpc connector is a flat connection, the only way I can think of extending it would be using a pair of fpc to pcb prototyping boards you can solder to and then solder on a 16 pin connection, then build a 16 cable connection , about 8 feet of cable,to the other pcb, have another fpc connector soldered to it, and one end is inside your pack, connected to the board, the other is inside the gunbox connected to the bar graph...or extend the gunbox with a project box and some reworking.
#4908938
randomZERO wrote: September 17th, 2018, 10:14 pm In the last pic of your first post, what size are those for screws?
Are you talking about the screws in the ribbon clamp? Those are the ones that came in Sponge’s cosmetic upgrade kit, they’re just small socket cap screws, I can’t remember the exact size off the top of my head. I’d have to go back and look at the directions to see if it mentioned the size.
#4908948
randomZERO wrote: September 18th, 2018, 1:09 pm If you are looking head on at the pack, the top right is round and has pegs. It has 4 allen head bolts in it.
Oh I gotcha, yea those are just 1/4”-20 x 1/2” socket head screws. I just drilled out the 4 spots where they should go and screwed them in. If you look at the actual packs you can see the caps sit above the surface.
#4909021
Just a quick update on things, I haven't had the time to work on my pack much this week between work and school. I'm actually typing this quick reply up at school. As far as the GBFans wand kit goes, it's taking a lot of dremel work to make it fit so I wanted to throw out an FYI for the few people who were contemplating going that route. If you're not comfortable doing a lot of dremel work or having to do some customization to make things fit properly you might want to go with the Jupiter kit (I believe they sell a 75% or 80% kit) for the wand. Or if you haven't ordered a wand yet maybe think of going for a full size wand if the GBFans kit is a must. I'm not sure if it would look out of place, but my buddy just got TC's full size kit for his spirit pack and asked if I'd help him assemble (in my miniscule amount of spare time haha) so I'll update on how that looks too! I just didnt want to leave anyone hanging as to whats going on since I probably won't get to really work on the wand again until Saturday night or Sunday.
tobycj liked this
#4909461
Just throwing in some update pics. I've probably had a total of about an hour and a half of free time in the last two weeks to work on my pack so progress has been VERY slow. But I was able to do a little here and there and get a little accomplished.
I realized I missed this picture in my first posts and people have been asking in other threads what the standoff's looked like for the power cell so here's what I used.
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Then I was able to add a couple Clippard fittings to the pack, the stock ones just pop out with the exception of one that has a screw holding it in. Drilled out the hole and they threaded in nice and tight.
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I just removed that plate and then the screw was easy access
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Then I cut the hole for the speaker and mounted the soundboard in a spot where it would fit nicely in the shell and gave the the motherboard and hardware a fresh coat of black paint.
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Here is everything mounted and in place, I used 3M double sided adhesive tape to secure the battery. I've seen it recommended in other build threads and guys have said it lasts for years before needing to be replaced. Also, unfortunately on the last hole I was drilling for the speaker the drill slipped and split the MDF board so I only have 3 screws holding in the speaker, very annoying! That being said though, that speaker is in there very snug with those 3.
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Then I mounted everything up to make sure there weren't any adjustments to be made positioning wise and to see how heavy it was going to be.
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Still some more to do like re-doing the injector tubes to have both red and blue tubing, hopefully swap out the rest of the fittings for the correct ones, add a few more stickers and drill out the N-filter but it's getting there! Now if only I could get a nice chunk of time to finish working on the thrower!
tobycj liked this

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