3 KOAM Z Back (Could really use your help)

[jmcginley]

I just purchased a 3 KOAM Z Back yesterday. Currently it's a 9-Ball Shootout, although the machine does not power on. Tried flipping a switch located inside the coin door, but nothing happens.


At this point I'm leaning towards making it a Street Fighter 2: CE cabinet, but I'm not married to that idea yet. Maybe a NeoGeo. I've been looking up NeoGeos in Z-backs and I'm not sure how I feel about it.


What I do know is that I want to fix the condition of the cabinet and and get a bigger corner cut control panel.


I want the cabinet to be red, but the vinyl that's currently on the cabinet is peeling pretty badly at the bottom. I'm trying to decide on painting versus putting on new laminate. A few questions on this:


1) What is the best place to get laminate?
2) Which is typically easier to do?
3) Which looks better?


I've read through Malenko's NeoGeo restore thread and the painting looks amazing, I'm just not sure if it would look so amazing with a novice like me doing the work.


Here are a couple pics to show what I'm working with:

[harveybirdman]

I laminated mine, but you can paint it easily enough.   You'll want to prime it first though since it's particle board and keep it away from moist environments.

Getting the existing vinyl off is a pain, I just used a heat gun and a scraper.  If yours is like mine you probably have some damage at the bottom corners.  If I had it to do over again I'd just have used bondo instead of cutting the damage out.

Are you going back with Mame or original hardware?  If you mame it I'd go SF2, if you stuck to original hardware I'd go multi slot Neo Geo.

[harveybirdman]

Also don't  get a cut corner, that panel you got was probably ergonomically motivated.  The angle on the cut corner is bad to cause wrist fatigue.

[Slippyblade]

I love the cut-corner CP.  Then again, of all my arcade time logged the bulk of it was on cut-corners.

[acvieluf]

Oh my goodness, that joystick is awesome!

Sent from my Atari 2600

[Malenko]

I'm flattered you reference my paint job


If you take your time, get everything smooth, and sand between coats I'm sure the paint would turn out great. The only way to get better is to keep working at it.

[jmcginley]

I laminated mine, but you can paint it easily enough.   You'll want to prime it first though since it's particle board and keep it away from moist environments.

Getting the existing vinyl off is a pain, I just used a heat gun and a scraper.  If yours is like mine you probably have some damage at the bottom corners.  If I had it to do over again I'd just have used bondo instead of cutting the damage out.

Are you going back with Mame or original hardware?  If you mame it I'd go SF2, if you stuck to original hardware I'd go multi slot Neo Geo.

Thanks for the tips. I will be sure to pickup a heat gun. I tried peeling off some small pieces of the vinyl in a few places and it really is a pain.


There is definitely some damage at the bottom corners. I've never worked with bondo before, but I've watched a lot of tutorials on it. It will be interesting trying that out for the first time.


I'm kind of unsure what I want to do with this one. The thing is, I've got a 4 player machine in the works as well. I was thinking possibly make this in the SF layout with the 6 buttons (running all the CAPCOM and maybe NEO GEO games via MAME), and then I could cut the 4 player machine down to 4 buttons for P1 and P2 instead of 6.

[harveybirdman]

Thanks for the tips. I will be sure to pickup a heat gun. I tried peeling off some small pieces of the vinyl in a few places and it really is a pain.


There is definitely some damage at the bottom corners. I've never worked with bondo before, but I've watched a lot of tutorials on it. It will be interesting trying that out for the first time.


I'm kind of unsure what I want to do with this one. The thing is, I've got a 4 player machine in the works as well. I was thinking possibly make this in the SF layout with the 6 buttons (running all the CAPCOM and maybe NEO GEO games via MAME), and then I could cut the 4 player machine down to 4 buttons for P1 and P2 instead of 6.

I used a heat gun, but it was still a pain to get off and it does leave some adhesive remnants, so before you go buying one just want to make sure you know it sucks even with it.

Bondo is fun, but do it outside.... I made the mistake of doing it inside once and once is enough.

Also be careful with the kickplate and speaker panels should you need to take them off, 3KOAM really never intended them to be removed.  And just to be safe, I'd only use one CP clip.... or make for damn sure the glass is in the right place before snapping them shut!

[jmcginley]

So I got the heat gun,  but haven't gotten around to stripping off the sides yet.


I did replace the power supply and it fired up! Going to need a cap kit and a new flyback. It's exciting because as crappy as this cab/game is, it's the first working arcade machine I've ever owned!





There are a few new things I'm working through right now. The new power supply does not completely fill the giant hole in the back where the other one was. Is there an easy way for me to "pass through" the old power supply to the new one? So I can keep the old one installed in the cab to keep the hole covered?

Also, there is a lot of blue in the picture on the screen. I turned it all the way down and the green and red up quite a bit, it gets a better by doing this, but the blue is still a lot more overpowering. Will a flyback/cap kit fix this issue, or is there something else going on?

[harveybirdman]

With regard to the failed power supply, I ended up removing mine, squaring the teardrop shaped hole, and screwing in a plate with a power socket from twisted quarter mounted within.

Now to your question about passing through the current, I know it can be done, because that's precisely what had been done on mine when I first got it.  They failed supply was still passing the 110 to a Happ supply on the PCB rack.  However that arrangement failed on me eventually.  I wouldn't recommend going that route if it were me.

[jmcginley]

With regard to the failed power supply, I ended up removing mine, squaring the teardrop shaped hole, and screwing in a plate with a power socket from twisted quarter mounted within.

Now to your question about passing through the current, I know it can be done, because that's precisely what had been done on mine when I first got it.  They failed supply was still passing the 110 to a Happ supply on the PCB rack.  However that arrangement failed on me eventually.  I wouldn't recommend going that route if it were me.

That sounds like a pretty good option. I was sort of thinking the broken PSU might cause some issues with the good PSU. Guess I'll get to have some more fun with the bondo!