Arcade Cabinets and security bars.

[Cobolisdead]

I recently got a haul of arcade games to fix up(2 Ms Pacmans, WWF Wrestlefest, and a Donkey Kong JR), as they are all in various states of disrepair. Now, they were all on location, so they all have the security bars across the front of them. Personally, I don't mind them, but I was curious as to what you guys thought of them.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I hate the look of them.  But some are more obnoxious than others...  It really depends I guess on what shape the cabinet is in.

If I need to restore and re-paint:  Then I'm taking those suckers off.  I usually fill in the hole with a glued dowel, then I fill the rest with bondo and sand it smooth before priming and painting.

But generally speaking.  I take them off.

D

[BadMouth]

I don't like them, but if removed it has to look like they were never there.
Having the bolts still there without the bars looks worse than the bars.

[vwalbridge]

The security bar would be the first thing I'd remove on a cabinet restore.

Lucky you on that nice haul btw.

[Malenko]

unless its going to go back on location, I dont see a reason to keep the bars. I dowel/bondo the big holes, and just bondo the little ones.

[Cobolisdead]

So the general consensus is to remove them and paint the cabinet to make it look like they were never there. Gotcha! Thanks folks!

Lucky you on that nice haul btw.

Thanks! It kind of just fell into my lap recently. I will try to get some pics posted as soon as I get to working on them.

[DK1105]

I leave them because I like my cabinets to have an arcade used look rather than perfect and new.

[yotsuya]

I take them off and bondo the holes. I've never seen a security bar that looked good on a cab.

[Ginsu Victim]

I leave them because I like my cabinets to have an arcade used look rather than perfect and new.

Do you put cigarette burns on the CP and jam gum in the coin slots?

[keilmillerjr]

My neo geo has one and it wore paint off the coin door. :/

[yotsuya]

I leave them because I like my cabinets to have an arcade used look rather than perfect and new.

Do you put cigarette burns on the CP and jam gum in the coin slots?

 

[Vigo]

Depending on the cab, i often don't mind plugging the holes with carriage bolts, but that is about my limit. Since I used to empty cabs out of coin for one of my college jobs, I learned to loathe security bars.

[Malenko]

Depending on the cab, i often don't mind plugging the holes with carriage bolts, but that is about my limit. Since I used to empty cabs out of coin for one of my college jobs, I learned to loathe security bars.

Sounds like you were an arcade manager for 14 years, you must be an expert in everything arcade related!

[Vigo]

Hey, shucking quarters and putting up out-of-order signs up is the only qualification needed to understand video game theory, the sciences behind the arcade cabinet industry standards, and what every video game programmer ever intended when creating arcade cabinets. One time, I was mopping popcorn off the floor next to a Gauntlet and I immediately gained full understanding as to why proprietary atari joysticks were chosen over wicos.

[eds1275]

Hey, shucking quarters and putting up out-of-order signs up is the only qualification needed to understand video game theory, the sciences behind the arcade cabinet industry standards, and what every video game programmer ever intended when creating arcade cabinets.

Truer words were never spoken.