03' Vader conversion?

[Noyl Wendor]

I recently aquired a MR Darth Vader made in 03. The sound board is dying/dead, the swing and clash sensors are failing, and the blade has a horrible "wobble" in the hilt. Whom ever owned it prior was kind enough to replace the original speaker with a Radio Shack speaker :) I may get one good swing with contact before it ended the piece.
I also recently converted my own Vader 07',(cause I'm funny like that) using TCSS parts and the tut. (Awsome btw) I wanted to do the same with this one, but I can already tell that it will be more interesting. The switch location is different, and the batterys are different (6 instead of 3).
Has anyone attempted a convert with this model? Succesfully?
Here's what I'm thinking. New guts, SB has to be replaced anyhow. Go get new guts from a friend, (05/07 Vader SB chassis, battery pack), new clamp. Re-assemble it with the kit Tim has. In theroy sounds good :).
But wait there's more....
Instead of turning it back to Vader, rebuild it as Anikins AOTC saber. I like that idea, just wanted some input. Any thoughts?

[FenderBender]

Depends on if it is an EL bladed Vader or an LED string blade. If you're lucky and it's the string blade, Tim's Vader kit wont fit so good. Your hilt has a bigger I.D. and shorter length for the blade holder. I did one, and I had to knurl Tim's holder to fit more snug and cut an angle off the top to fit the profile of the Vader emitter shroud. The sensors on the board can be replaced easy enough with ones from the store. You may want to hunt around on eBay for a replacement battery pack.

Or....you can go crazy and replace the entire guts with a PC with Darkmeat from the store, a custom battery pack, and premium speaker and have a really awesome Vader conversion.

[Noyl Wendor]

Or....you can go crazy and replace the entire guts with a PC with Darkmeat from the store, a custom battery pack, and premium speaker and have a really awesome Vader conversion.
That may not be a bad idea, I have'nt broken it down yet so hard to tell if its EL, or LED string. I was hesitant to do so until I could figure out what to do with it. My mind got made up this morning so I may break it down in the next week or so. I'm pretty sure Tim's BH won't fit, this one is lighter than my 07' (beast heavy btw). So I'm going based just off that, the ID's are different.
Thanks for the heads up and suggestion Fender always appreaciated. :)

[Jay-gon Jinn]

you won't need to take it apart to tell if it's EL or not...just turn it on, if it's working at all. If the blade extends/retracts, it's LED. If it simply comes on and looks pink, it's EL.

[Noyl Wendor]

Well extends and retracts......sometimes :). Others it just turns on (flashes alot then is "on"). Pretty sure its LED string. Thats what kind of lead me to believe the SB is a mess, along with the fact the motion sensors are off. More so than is typical with this model.

[Noyl Wendor]

Well I figured out my debacle. Its parts now :). Still not certian the SB is good, looks like there is some dark spots on one side and corrosion like an exploded battery on the other. Going to do some testing. I have to say the clash/swing sensor set up is interesting.