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Author Topic: Midway Cocktail restoration  (Read 9857 times)

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Tithis

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Midway Cocktail restoration
« on: September 27, 2015, 11:42:22 pm »
Picked up a Midway cocktail cabinet yesterday that I will probably end up putting an ArcadeSD board in after restoring it cosmetically as a Galaga.

The cab was listed as-is, the guy on craigslist was trying to sell it for his mother who had it in her apartment being used as a makeup table. Funny part is the cocktail was originally a Gorf and converted with a bootleg Donkey Kong Jr board and art that looks like it was taken out of an advertisement flyer.

After some cleaning the cab I was able to get the game working. The pinout adapter somebody made had a scorched pad that turned out to be the 5v+ line. After sanding it with some fine sandpaper and testing the switching power supply I put the board back in and bingo, it works. Only exception is the jump sound.. Monitor will need a cap kit and probably a new tube. I have a tube that could be used with a yoke swap, but I think I'd rather move the 19" k7000 I built last month in there instead. Not sure if I'll sell the g07, rebuilt it and sell it, or just keep it.

Also unsure what to do with the bootleg. Besides the fact it give non-inverted video and has a built in amplifier I can't see any differences from pictures of an authentic boardset. Will either keep it around for monitor testing or sell it after I get an arcadeSD board, until then I'll just keep it in the cabinet so it's useful.

I'll post a few pictures of it later.

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2015, 11:34:29 am »
So last week I went about fixing up the coindoor. Stripped it with citristrip and used a wirewheel to get off the surface rust. There were no scratches or dings to speak of so I'm quite pleased with the results



Also replaced the g07 monitor with a k7000 I rebuilt a few months back. It still needs a width cap change, but I'll be waiting until the final PCB is in. The bootleg works fairly well, only thing not working is the jumping noises and it has some sparkles in sprites before it warms up.

And after considering different options I've decided I'm going to re-laminate the cabinet. Homedepot has a decent selection and for 70$ I can get a sheet more than big enough, cheaper than vinyl, more original plus better looking and more durable. I was considering cover the old laminate with some paper backed veneer, but figured the durability would be crap. Ordered a heatgun, straight cutting bit and trimming bit for my router. Plan is to cut off the damaged bottom portion of the cab with the straight cutting bit to avoid taking the WHOLE thing apart. Cut and dowel replacement wood in and them apply new walnut laminate after stripping the old stuff off with help from the heatgun.

yotsuya

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2015, 11:52:03 am »
I have a cocktail that needs the same treatment, so I'm going to keep an eye on your re-lamination treatment.
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2015, 06:11:30 pm »
I had read mixed reports on successfully removing the laminate from one of these, some saying it would be near impossible without tearing up the wood underneath and others saying a heat gun would release the contact cement.

Boy am I glad it was the later.

So after I got the heatgun I ordered I tried remove the laminate from one of the control panel sides. Hardest part is getting it started, might end up getting a utility knife for when I do the whole cabinet. It was fairly easy to remove the whole thing in one piece.



I might try and delaminate more of it this weekend, but it will probably have to wait till next weekend. Once thats done I'll cut out the damaged portion and replace it.

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2015, 04:50:45 pm »
I got carried away




Also first real picture of how eaten up the corners are. You'd be forgiven for thinking they were supposed to be rounded.


So looks like next weekend will be the repair weekend.

behrmr

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2015, 02:46:33 pm »
How are you planning on re-laminating the cabinet?  Are you going to completely disassemble it?  If not how are you going to make the cuts needed to get a clean look?   If that came off so easily seems like some sanding, bondo, and primer would be a good base for vinyl laminate.

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2015, 03:23:24 pm »
I picked up a good trim bit for my router (or at least I hear freud is good) That should handle the outer sides and control panel sides. Inner sides I'm simply going to have to measure really well. From what I heard if you score the laminate you can snap it like you would plexiglass, they sell knifes specifically for this purpose. I suppose I might be able to use the removed laminate as a guide too.

Laminate I'm planning to use is Wilsonarts Montana Walnut. Seems like the best match and from some what I've found many at klov agree, here is a picture of a midway cocktail relaminated with it. A 4x8 sheet is $73 at homedepot.

I considered a vinyl laminate but decided against it, from what I hear the durability isn't nearly as good and it can be quite expensive.


I still need to delaminate one piece, the top half the the outer side that connects to the monitor. Going to have to take the monitor out for that one so I'm saving it for later, I'd prefer to get the wood repairs done first.

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #7 on: November 17, 2015, 11:23:24 am »
Looks like it's gonna be a bit longer before I can laminate this. Ordered the laminate at homedepot and was supposed to pick it up tomorrow. Got a call at work today saying it arrived with a crack in the middle  :angry: Gotta check to out at the store before they will re-order it for me. Might bring the old laminate for the front of the cab to see if it might still work.

JDFan

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #8 on: November 17, 2015, 12:18:09 pm »
Looks like it's gonna be a bit longer before I can laminate this. Ordered the laminate at homedepot and was supposed to pick it up tomorrow. Got a call at work today saying it arrived with a crack in the middle  :angry: Gotta check to out at the store before they will re-order it for me. Might bring the old laminate for the front of the cab to see if it might still work.

Hopefully you can work around the crack and get pieces that will work - Figure they might give you a nice discount on the defective piece.

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2015, 07:19:00 pm »
Looks like I'll be waiting till the end of the month. Supposedly it arrived at the store but NOBODY could find the damn thing  :banghead: So they reordered it. They said it should arrive on about the 30th.

I did cut away the damaged parts of the cabinet nice and clean. Fitting in the replacement plywood shouldn't too difficult. I'd take a picture but it's tucked away in a corner full of it's own parts. Should at least get it laminated before the end of the year. Probably just going to try selling the control panels since they have an 8 way midway joystick and most classic vertical games are 4 or 2 way. Think they would also match a Wizards of Wor cocktail.

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #10 on: November 24, 2015, 07:44:52 pm »
Laminate arrived earlier than expected




Might try and get something done this weekend with the cabinet, probably cutting in the new plywood. Should be able to get it laminated before it snows.

jtslade

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2016, 09:42:05 am »
Keeping it original, looks great so far.. Keeps the pics coming. 


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Ms. Pacman Original Cocktail with Non destructive mod to Groovy Arcade Linux with All 4way Vertical Cocktail capable 2 button or less games.


Neo Geo MVS Mame Cab Running Hyperspin, 25" Nanao Arcade Monitor, Mini-pac, ATI Radeon HD 4850 (ATOM-15), IL 8 Way Euro-Sticks from Paradise Arcade, Win XP 64bit, and tons of other junk.


Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #12 on: March 05, 2016, 07:35:03 pm »
Started working on this again a couple weeks ago.

So since my last update I've cut and installed the replacement wood on the front and rear panels.


Don't have updated picture, but they've been filed and bondo'd flush.



Got some experience cutting laminate to remedy a small issue. As the original panels were laminated on both sides and I only removed the front laminate the thickness of the panels don't quite match with the replacement pieces. On the front panel the difference was small and sanding, filing, bondoing was enough. On the rear the difference was far more noticeable . My solution was to cut a small L shaped piece from the old laminate and glue to onto the new piece of wood. With bondo and some black satin paint the seam is unnoticeable.




Additionally I've ordered quite a bit of stuff for it, mainy from twisted quarter.
So for I've gotten: New glass clips, new speaker grills, leg levelers, new CPs, red and galaga gold leaf buttons and leaf switches&holders, leather texture t-molding, bulb holders for CP lights and a jamma harness.


The original joysticks will not fit in the new CP. Mechanically they are good with nice grommets. I've cleaned them up a bit and will offer them up on KLOV soon. Standard 4-way midway stick besides that it uses 3 layer leaf switches (turns out it was originally a Wizard of Wor cabinet, not Gorf).

Today I just did a bit of touchup paint and bondo work. To replace the original joysticks I've ordered a pair of Pac-Pro sticks, figured with the midway theme and being 4-way leafs they're the best I could do. Also ordered some dinky little piece of plastic that holds the 2nd player coin switch. Cabinet simply didn't come with it, probably why the 2nd player quarter slot was taped off. Was surprised I was able to find one for sale.


Tomorrow I'm FINALLY looking to try re-laminating one of the sides, probably the front. We are moving in a couple of months so I'm trying to get this thing complete for when we do.

« Last Edit: March 05, 2016, 07:49:11 pm by Tithis »

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #13 on: March 12, 2016, 09:07:14 pm »
Took me long enough  8)

Peabo

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #14 on: March 13, 2016, 02:22:41 pm »
That looks awesome!  Any trouble trimming it?

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #15 on: March 21, 2016, 11:35:40 pm »
Didnt have any issue trimming it, just messy. I did have some issue cutting it until I ordered a better laminate scouring knife, homedepot one could hardly scratch it.


Anyways, IT LIVES. I put the monitor back in the other day and started rewiring the cabinet for Jamma. I still need to wire the controls and coindoor, but enough was done to test the Nebulous Bee board which came with a jamma adapter harness.

Only issue it seems to have is an odd ringing during boot. Last night it gave me some issues which point to a video ram problem, but it looks like it just needed to be reseated in its socket as I left the game on for an hour or so today without the colored lines coming back. Probably going to wire a new adapter for my DKJR bootleg so it can work in the new cab too.

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #16 on: March 21, 2016, 11:55:15 pm »
Looks good!
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #17 on: December 17, 2021, 11:10:54 pm »
Alright, after dragging this machine and parts with me through 3 apartments moves and finally a move into our first house I'm actually gonna try and finish this thing.

Things that were done I never posted about.
  • Received the 4 way leaf joysticks and installed them

  • Got a new top glass, screen printed for Galaga, also set aside an Intel ITX setup for it.
  • Replaced old 25cent glass pieces for the door
  • Replaced lights with LEDs, red for the coindoor and white for the control panels
  • Replaced all the T-Molding

And just this week I received an I-PAC to finishing wiring the controls to. I've ordered a HD7770 GPU, PCIE mount for inside the cabinet, and an SSD. Gonna be at least a week for the GPU to arrive, so probably won't do much else to it besides wire the controls up and test them on my laptop.

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #18 on: December 30, 2021, 02:03:54 am »
Got the machine in a playable state.



Running Windows 7 with a HD 7770, although I seem to be having some possibly sync issues the crop up sometimes when starting games with Attract Mode.

javeryh

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #19 on: December 30, 2021, 06:23:49 pm »
Looks incredible.  I need to go back and read the whole thread but it came out really nice.   :cheers:

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #20 on: January 02, 2022, 12:26:05 am »
I'm pretty happy with how its turned out, not much left.




Sometime next week I'll be reinstalling with substrings iso. Having issues with attract mode freezing in videos that sounds like it might have been fixed.

javeryh

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #21 on: January 06, 2022, 03:13:58 pm »
Man, that is one pretty machine.  The Midway cocktail cabinet has been my holy grail ever since I started with this nonsense but I haven't built one yet or found one to restore (prices are insane).  I'm leaning towards this being my 2022 project.  I'm not sure but after seeing these pics I got a flood of nostalgia from when I was a kid and used to play on one of these all the time (Ms. Pac-Man).  I even think I could find a spot for it on the first floor in the office now that we have started to get rid of the kids' toys.  Hmmm...

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2022, 08:50:51 pm »
Great thread - thanks for coming back and picking it up after a few years.  I just picked up an empty Midway cabinet for fairly cheap and I知 planning on fixing it up.  I知 going to make it JAMMA with the plan to use a 20th reunion PCB for Galaga/MsPac. 

How did you glue the laminate?  I have a Home Depot nearby and they still sell that same pattern.

javeryh

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #23 on: January 18, 2022, 03:58:50 pm »
Great thread - thanks for coming back and picking it up after a few years.  I just picked up an empty Midway cabinet for fairly cheap and I知 planning on fixing it up.  I知 going to make it JAMMA with the plan to use a 20th reunion PCB for Galaga/MsPac. 

How did you glue the laminate?  I have a Home Depot nearby and they still sell that same pattern.

Where did you get your cocktail cabinet from?  I don't even know where to begin looking.  I'd love a kit but the ones I've seen are not exact copies.

For the laminate, you just need a roller and some contact cement.  Roll on the cement like paint on both surfaces and wait 20 minutes.  Then put the laminate down making sure you are as exact as possible because it bonds instantly.  Then use a j-roller or a rolling pin or whatever to apply pressure and get the air bubbles out, if any.  The excess hanging over the sides can be trimmed with a router.

Tithis

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Re: Midway Cocktail restoration
« Reply #24 on: January 20, 2022, 09:55:08 am »
Great thread - thanks for coming back and picking it up after a few years.  I just picked up an empty Midway cabinet for fairly cheap and I知 planning on fixing it up.  I知 going to make it JAMMA with the plan to use a 20th reunion PCB for Galaga/MsPac. 

How did you glue the laminate?  I have a Home Depot nearby and they still sell that same pattern.

Where did you get your cocktail cabinet from?  I don't even know where to begin looking.  I'd love a kit but the ones I've seen are not exact copies.

For the laminate, you just need a roller and some contact cement.  Roll on the cement like paint on both surfaces and wait 20 minutes.  Then put the laminate down making sure you are as exact as possible because it bonds instantly.  Then use a j-roller or a rolling pin or whatever to apply pressure and get the air bubbles out, if any.  The excess hanging over the sides can be trimmed with a router.

Only bit I'd add is also grab some long thin dowels. The two pieces of laminate on the players side of the cabinet have to largely pre-cut besides for the speaker holes and area for the control panel. When the contact cement is dry and you are ready to put the laminate on you put the dowels between the cab and new laminate. This way you can align the laminate perfectly up close before actually having them make contact and stick.