Restoring a PacMan...

[APFelon]

A some of you may have read already, I just picked up a cab at a local auction. It is a Kageki converted from a Midway cab. AQt first I thought it was a Galaxian because of the white paint under the T-molding, but I used fine grain sandpaper on a section on the back of the cabinet and... woila! Judging by the color, I have yet ANOTHER old Pac machine. I am optomistic that the side art is in decent shape under the paint, because 1) Kageki is from 1988, which probably means the last time it was painted was in 1988, 2) since it has a layer of paint below that, it was probably painted a few years prior to 1988, so the sideart would have been only a few years old at the time of the first paint job.

The original art is covered with two layers of paint, one a boring, nasty blue color that has grit and dirt dried into it, and the next layer is white. Both are oil based paint. Question #1- Is there a way to strip the oil based paint without damaging the sideart / kickplate art (some sort of chemical solvant)?

Question #2- There are a few things odd about the cabinet that doesn't jive with a usual Pac cab. The first is that it has a raised piece of wood on the front kick plate about 3 inches high, and the coin door has plastic coin inserts instead of the usual metal insert. Also, the coin door logo is different than a usual Pac door (it has a cluster of red boxes instead of the vectorlike angles on my other Pac door). The new Pac has a lower serial # than my old cab, but I am not aware of any anomolies between Pac machines. A new coin door installed, perhaps?

Thanks for reading this long post and helping me out (TIA).

APf

[SirPoonga]

Pics?

It could be a different coin coor.
I doubt with paint on sideart it would be worth saving.
There is sideart?

[APFelon]

I'll get a pic up when I have one... My digital camera doesn't exactly do Kodak proud.

As of right now, there is no sideart. But I'd bet that there is under the oil-based paint. That's why I want to know if there is a safe way of removing it without damaging the original paint... I am probably overly optomistic, but hey...

APf

[Ghoward]

I think your going to have a really hard time trying to save the side art as soon as you start to strip the top layers of paint off it's going to take the side art with it. Paint stripper is not picky about what it removes.

Even if you were able to find another way I can't see it looking as good as it did before someone took a paint brush to it.

Gary

[SirPeale]

I've read about this, but not actually tried it, so you might want to ask this question in RGVAC or better yet, groups.google.com for it, as it comes up pretty often.

3M Safest Stripper is what most people swear by.  Apply a bit at a time, nd strip down slowly.

I don't think you'll be able to get away with saving the art, exactly.  More like you'll get most of it, and have to touch up.  Liquid masking tape will come in handy for this.

That's pretty much it.  Just go slowly, and TAKE YOUR TIME.  Otherwise, you'll screw it up.

As for the coin door, some Midways had plastic coin inserts.  I couldn't believe it myself when I found them, but that seems to be the case.  Nothing you can do about it, save trying to replace them with parts from a donor door, or replacing the door altogether.  AFAIK you can't get new replacement parts for the old Midway style doors.

[DarkKobold]

OSCAR just did something like this... For his sinstar cab. I tried to ask him how he managed to get the paint of. He hasn't responded yet, so maybe if he sees this, he can fill us in.

[OSCAR]

OSCAR just did something like this... For his sinstar cab. I tried to ask him how he managed to get the paint of. He hasn't responded yet, so maybe if he sees this, he can fill us in.

I must have completely missed that question.  Sorry about that, I wan't ignoring you, I'm just brain-dead sometimes.  


Anyway, what I found worked better than anything was Goof-Off and a nylon brush like you would use for scrubbing tires.  I just poured the Goof-Off on the side of the cab (had the cab lying down) and let it soak for a couple of minutes, then hit it with the brush.  The newer paint came right off and it didn't even touch the original artwork.  BTW, don't even think you will use the brush for anything else after you are done doing this, it will be beyond saving.

Here you can see some of the original artwork that I saved.  None of the artwork has been touched up yet, the blue, red, and silver are totally original.
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/sinistar/side1.jpg

I tried the 3M Safest Stripper, but I didn't like it very well.  It took too long and was a lot of effort for very little results, IMO.

[APFelon]

AWESOME. Thanks for all the great advice, guys. I have a small flask of Goof Off in the pantry. I'll have to see how it works on two layers of paint on a small section of the cab.

Great! I just hope the sideart isn't in dismal condition.

APf

[spidermonkey]

Yep Goof-Off  Rules !  Thats what I used to get the paint off the side art on my Asteroids that some clown sprayed over.  Now all I have to do is err a.. get it working
       

[Tailgunner]

If you want to save a bit of $$$, Goof Off is 95% xylene and 5%  denatured alcohol. You can buy a gallon of xylene at Home Depot or Lowes for little more that you'll pay for a quart of Goof Off. They have the alcohol as well, personally I wouldn't bother with it.

[Lilwolf]

Oscar...

btw, where are all your cabs at?

I saw the pacman machine in your living room... And your devil / fire / red one downstairs.  

Did you have an arcade room and didn't show me?

(I was hoping to get a look at your bar top... but forgot to ask when I came over)

[OSCAR]

Oscar...

btw, where are all your cabs at?

I saw the pacman machine in your living room... And your devil / fire / red one downstairs.  

Did you have an arcade room and didn't show me?

(I was hoping to get a look at your bar top... but forgot to ask when I came over)

Heh, no I wasn't hiding them from you.  Some were in storage and I just picked up a couple more since you stopped by.  

They are all downstairs where my MAME upright was when you were over, although the room looks a bit different now.

[paigeoliver]

As far as the coin door goes. The standard Midway coin door came out sometime in the 60s and there were MANY variations on it (first saw use on EM games). My Pac cabinet, my Galaxian cabinet, my Amazing Maze, and my Checkmate all had the midway coin door, but all 4 of them were different in subtle ways.

So basically, it is quite possible that the door was replaced on your game, possibly with an older door.

Also, Williams painted artwork is ALOT more durable than Pac-Man artwork. So your results may be mixed, and that is if the artwork is even still there.

But even if it is gone, a plain yellow Pac still looks pretty darn nice. You can always cram it in between a couple of other games.

[APFelon]

Well, here is what is happening:

I applied a generous amount of Goof-Off to the front kick plate (about where Pac is eyeballing a ghost). I let it set for a minute or two and scrubbed.

It seemed as though the blue paint turned back into paint. It was a friggin' mess. I scrubbed for a while, wiping as I went, and got down to a layer of white paint.

I applied another squirt of Goof-Off, let it set and went at it again. I few brush strokes, and whaddyaknow. There was Mr. Pac Man in all of his glory. The original paint didn't budge under heavy scrubbing. Cool!

However, the artwork is in good shape, but it seems that the heavy coat of blue paint that went over the original art trapped in moisture (or something) which resulted in hairline cracks that trapped in the blue and white paint. I tried getting it out, but to no avail.

So I don't know whether it'd be worth my time and money to Goof-Off the entire cab. The newer paint job is pretty thourough; even the back door is coated in thick black paint.

I'll keep working at it and post the results (and maybe pics if I can get a good shot) in the announcemnts forum.

Wish me luck.

APf

[SirPoonga]

Maybe you'd want to get pacman stencils and repaint the whole thing?

[APFelon]

A complete "authentic looking" paintjob is cost prohibitive. I was just hoping to give it a scrub so it'd look like a real arcader instead of a MAME machine. I don't like PacMan, but it'd have been a nice addition to the game room for aesthetic reasons.

Y'know, I might just give it the Goof-Off bath just for kicks after I get done with my second cabinet.

[SirPeale]

You can always touch up the artwork.  It's pretty easy, if you have a steady hand.

[paigeoliver]

Goof off the entire thing, even if it comes out terrible, you can still recreate all the artwork with masking tape and spray paint. Much cheaper than stencils (just really time consuming).