Yet another DK restore...Finished.

[EvilNuff]

Just got the DK from my parents house and I plan to restore it.  Overall it is in pretty good shape, fully functional, all controls work, no monitor burn in.  Oh, this will be kept as a DK by the way.

I plan on cleaning the sticker off the marquee.  Replacing all the artwork and the bezel (which is scratched).  Cleaning the joystick and buttons.  Replacing the coin mechs and cabinet door lock.  Replacing the tmolding of course.  My big question is what are people's thoughts on the cab sides.  The laminate material is scratched and beat up in several places, should I leave it as is, attempt to touch up with paint, or just repaint the whole cab?  Any suggestions appreciated.

[EvilNuff]

I started just cleaning the cabinet, that might take a while, heh. 

So far my list to buy:
side art
new bezel
instruction art under the bezel
cpo & underlay (not really needed but as long as I am doing the rest i might as well put new of this as well)
coin sticker
2 coin doors
cabinet lock

That's all so far.  I am going to see how it cleans up but I am leaning towards leaving the sides as they are now.

Has anyone got any opinions on the DK high score save kits?
Also playing it some, it turns out the boards in it are the "hard rom" version.  Does anyone know which eproms I would have to change to revert back to the normal us rev 1 or 2 versions?

[ChanceKJ]

Cool beans,

I'll add this restore to the thread.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,144583.0.html



I'm a bit of a stickler for factory fresh, i'd give the whole thing a good bit of paint work.   Some painters tape, pick your matching blue from the list in the thread, some gloss black, some matte black, and a stack of old news papers.

...dont forget to paint the inside of that speaker grill edges black

[SlammedNiss]

What are yer plans for the bezel? Are you gonna buy a pre-printed piece of plexi or buy clear plexi then the artwork separate?

[EvilNuff]

What are yer plans for the bezel? Are you gonna buy a pre-printed piece of plexi or buy clear plexi then the artwork separate?

I had intended to buy a pre-printed.  My original bezel on it has some scratches across the middle so they may be able to be polished out but I wanted a replacement before I started messing with it.

[EvilNuff]

Recieved most of the parts and art that I ordered.  I have to say both mikesarcade and arcadeshop.com were extremely quick in shipping my orders out!  I have been stripping down the cabinet and trying to get a paint match.  I grabbed some of the codes from another thread but that was lighter than my cabinet so I have 2 more samples ordered.  Amusingly the 8oz behr sample paints cost me $4 in store and $2 online, with free shipping to my home...so strange!

Anyways, I have the base glued up for repair.  One corner has some wood splintered off so I may bondo that before sanding and repainting the entire base of the cab.


Stripping off the damaged artwork:


I took apart the cp and joystick completely.  I am in the process of cleaning out and polishing all the metal parts of the stick (kind of a crappy picture, I should have taken some before pics of the parts of the joystick oh well!:


Up next is finish polishing up the stick, re-lubricate and re-assemble it.  Then put the whole CP back together with the new artwork.  In a week when my paint samples come in keep trying to find a good match for the DK blue.  I really want to just touch up the vinyl rather than re-paint the whole thing!

[EvilNuff]

Progress update:

I have cleaned off all the old damaged artwork.  Goo gone and a plastic scraper (for removing car panels undamaged) are a great combination for sticky residue!  I patched the few areas where there was damage with bondo.  I also filled in the unused 6 monitor bolt holes.  As far as I can determine next is to do the touch up paint and the black paint on the back of the cab.  I want to do the paint before artwork just in case I hate how it looks and decide to sand and paint the whole cab exterior.

[EvilNuff]

Finished the restore!  I touched up the paint where it was damaged.  Replaced the artwork and T-Molding.  I have to say the new T-Molding is probably the biggest change visually to my eye.




Also I added some switches to the coin mechs.  Both mechs are still fully functional but you can now press the coin return for credits as well.  I used existing holes in the mechs and used added wiring without damaging the existing wiring at all.  The entire change is removable.

[ChanceKJ]

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[EvilNuff]

No, I just made them out of some scrap wood.

[ChanceKJ]

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[EvilNuff]

Just cherry with boiled linseed oil applied.  Here's another picture before I sanded or put finish on them:

[ChanceKJ]

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[EvilNuff]

That's likely because the picture shows mostly the end grain and Cherry can look quite blotchy unless pre-treated.  I just slapped on some BLO and called it done.

[ChanceKJ]

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[EvilNuff]

Thanks, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Not sure if maybe I should lubricate the joystick more or not, it almost feels like it sticks when pressed into the corners.  That's the only thing I feel like tweaking.

[ChanceKJ]

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[EvilNuff]

I used silicon spray for the ball joint and it moves extremely smoothly.  I did replace the spring with a new one.  Hmm I wonder if maybe the black washer between the CPO and joystick is sticking, maybe that circle is too tight.

[vwalbridge]

Great restore and great looking cab. Hope mine looks 1/2 that good when I'm done. I think I must have missed it but where did you get your side art?

I'm curious, it looks good.

[EvilNuff]

Replacement art and bezel were from http://arcadeshop.com/  Kind of annoying that you have to phone in orders but the quality was pretty fantastic.