TZ Piano mod how-to

My friend wanted me to build a few mods for his Twilight Zone. He found these hanging piano ornaments, I'm not sure where though. They are a sort of like low density fibreboard. As you can see I already started the modding before I decided to document it. Seems to be a pattern with me :)

Disassembly isn't too difficult as its held together with wood glue. Yank the plastic pieces out and use a razor to score along joints so the fibreboard doesn't flake and tear.

Since the piano needs to squeeze under the clock we need to know how much room we have. Looks like we have an inch and a quarter at the biggest height.

...and we can go inwards up to about 3 inches.

More disassembly. I'm leaving the rightmost piece attached though as it should not need to be trimmed.

Here I'm trying out a good balance of height overall and a good looking fit for the keyboard tray. Basically I want as much of the mantle at full height as possible yet make the keyboard feel believable.

Clock mount plate removed showing the lamps that will need to be relocated as well.

Lamps removed. See the little stamped loacating bumps? Those will be filed down flush to allow the piano to slide in.

The piano we are using is a model of a spinet. What we want is a player type to match the playfield art. As it so happens I make a line of way cool color bumper post sleeves. Of the 9 colors one of them is white. How convenient! :) Using my trusty single edged razor I slice a profile out that I feel will model the player pin drum effectively.

Like so...

I just want the smaller of the two sections and I'll sand the cut side down smooth and even.

Test fit for appearance. Looks darn good to me! I'll sand those pressed-in whoop-de-doos later to allow the drum to sit a little higher.

I decided on a 2-3/4" depth so marking it out here for cutting.

The lamps too determine our keyboard tray height. Mark this.

Drilling out for one lamp with a 3/8" brad point drill. This bit keeps shredding to a minimum. A tapered reamer helps get the fit just right.

Pops right in from behind, but...

...doesn't stick through far enough. The lower lamp would be hidden by the right side panel.

Lower hole drilled and we see that the webbing between the holes is practically non-existent. May as well sand or file it out into a nicer looking oval.

Better! Even with the sockets sticking all the way into the piano body that lower lamp is still fairly hidden. However, a test layup in the game shows that it's inclined enough towards the player to be completely visible. Yay!

Now we just need to bend those lamp socket tabs down to the piano body for mounting.

Use pliers to bend the tab back over on itself...

...like this. The yellow versus original on the red. Now do the same on the red one.

Perfecto. Now mark and pilot drill for #4 or #6 by 1/4" wood or sheetmetal screws

NICE!