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Author Topic: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration  (Read 8202 times)

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vwalbridge

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Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« on: March 21, 2016, 12:18:53 pm »
I obtained up one of my so called "grails" recently. A Dedicated Mario Bros. Wide Body. It was hand delivered to me from a fellow KLOV member in Albuquerque. Allegedly, I'm only the 3rd owner. I have always wanted one of these and the dedicated Wide Body was the way to go. The control panel height is taller than a standard Nintendo cabinet. And it is also wider obviously. Having the control panel taller and wider make for a much more comfortable 2 player experience.  The game itself is similar to that of Joust or Balloon Fight. Another 2 great games. There is tons of replay value to this game and some very cool strategy to playing it. Especially 2 player.

I've been looking for about 2 years or so but they have always been too damaged for my liking or snatched up too quickly on Craigslist. So I was very happy to capitalize on this opportunity to get one that needed a little work, but was still in good shape. The cabinet works 100%. Game plays fine, sound is good, and monitor doesn't appear to need capping...for now.

Since this is one of my of my favorite games, I will be trying to restore it as "new" as possible. So here is the list:

- New CPO DONE!
- New Side Art
- Rebuild joysticks DONE!
- Polish ball tops and buttons DONE!
- Obtain 1 original orange Nintendo button (this is a grail search in and of itself   :laugh: ) DONE!
- Repair lock bar holes
- Polish Bezel and Marquee plastic DONE!
- New T-Molding
- Touch up paint here and there
- Braze's High Score Save Kit

Here are some pictures. I am particularly pleased with how clean the inside is. I seriously wonder if the back door was every removed it's so clean inside.











« Last Edit: April 11, 2016, 03:55:07 pm by vwalbridge »
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n3wt0n

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2016, 07:51:23 am »
Wow, that looks pretty good already. It must feel great to find a game you have wanted for so long in such good condition. Best of luck with the restore!

Token

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2016, 08:34:40 am »


Aside from the serious case of wrist-rub, that is a very nice condition Marios Bros.! Love the bezel on that cab.


vwalbridge

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2016, 03:37:22 pm »
Wow, that looks pretty good already. It must feel great to find a game you have wanted for so long in such good condition. Best of luck with the restore!

Yes, I'm very happy to have it in such great condition. I've got enough "projects" already so this one had to be playable. :)

Aside from the serious case of wrist-rub, that is a very nice condition Marios Bros.! Love the bezel on that cab.

Yes, this doesn't really qualify as a restoration. It's more of a "tune-up". However, I think there are enough things I can highlight while bringing it back to factory condition.

It occurred to me today, that I never looked at the coin counter. So I went outside and snapped a photo. It has 33,686 plays on it. Not sure if that is high or low. But if you do the math, that means this machine made about $8,400. (If you assume all those plays were paid for)

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vwalbridge

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #4 on: April 04, 2016, 02:40:55 pm »
Sine I was already polishing my DK bezel and marquee, it was a good time to do it for my Mario Bros as well.

Purchased a drill buffing pad set from Amazon and went with PlastX again for the scratches. PlastX works pretty good. Just keep the drill spinning at a low speed so that the PlastX doesn't dry out.


Before and after of the marquee. This is a difficult thing to capture on camera but many of the light scratches and hazing/clouding are totally gone.


Same process for the bezel.


Got some good results on the bezel. The heavy swirl marks are gone and the splotchy clouding are eliminated as well.
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yotsuya

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #5 on: April 04, 2016, 04:10:46 pm »
Just bring your kit to ZapCon. We'll set up a table for you.
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

ChanceKJ

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« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2016, 05:50:26 pm »
.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2021, 02:57:19 am by ChanceKJ »

8BitMonk

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2016, 12:06:30 am »
Man that looks in amazing shape already, congrats! Are you spraying the back of the marquee with some kind of clear coat to preserve it from flaking?
Games: Asteroids Deluxe | Atomiswave | Centipede | Championship Sprint | Defender | Donkey Kong | Dig Dug | Frogger | Ikari Warriors | Missile Command | Pac-Man | Pole Position | Robotron | Spy Hunter | Tempest | Super Mario Strikers

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2016, 08:43:57 am »
Wow! Nice work on the Marquee and bezel!

And I think that cab is in better shape now than some of mine after I get finished "restoring" them!

vwalbridge

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2016, 02:08:50 pm »
Wow! Nice work on the Marquee and bezel!

And I think that cab is in better shape now than some of mine after I get finished "restoring" them!

Yes, it's definitely the best looking machine I have right now by a long shot. I still glance at the inside of it and wonder how it stayed so clean in there. The rest of my cabs look and smell like a dead pregnant mouse was locked up inside with a wet used bar rag and splatter of old stale beer.

Are you spraying the back of the marquee with some kind of clear coat to preserve it from flaking?

I didn't think about doing that but it sounds like a good preservation technique. Is this something that guys have done?
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8BitMonk

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2016, 02:42:51 pm »
I didn't think about doing that but it sounds like a good preservation technique. Is this something that guys have done?

I've seen it mentioned on pr0k's Restoration Essentials page as well as for the back glass on the pinrepair.com site here. Says to use Krylon Triple Thick. Haven't tried it yet.

I'm definitely trying your PlasticX + drill pads polishing technique. There are some great plastic polishing techniques in this restore thread on Arcade Otaku, check this . More hard to find materials and complicated though.

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vwalbridge

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2016, 02:54:44 pm »
I didn't think about doing that but it sounds like a good preservation technique. Is this something that guys have done?

I've seen it mentioned on pr0k's Restoration Essentials page as well as for the back glass on the pinrepair.com site here. Says to use Krylon Triple Thick. Haven't tried it yet.

I'm definitely trying your PlasticX + drill pads polishing technique. There are some great plastic polishing techniques in this restore thread on Arcade Otaku, check this . More hard to find materials and complicated though.

Those are some great tips. Thanks man! I'm going to try the "tripple thick" on my DK marquee. It's already starting to flake off near the edges and I'd love to stop it.
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8BitMonk

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2016, 03:51:18 pm »
I'm going to try the "tripple thick" on my DK marquee. It's already starting to flake off near the edges and I'd love to stop it.

Interested to see how it goes.

You may also want to pick up a tumbler if you don't have one. It's blown my mind, great for shiny-ing up all those little PITA bits and pieces and pretty cheap. Throw rusted metal screws, washers, bolts, latches etc. in for a couple days and they're almost like new. I got this tumbler with this media that I saw used on a Johns Arcade episode.
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vwalbridge

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2016, 04:14:50 pm »
I'm going to try the "tripple thick" on my DK marquee. It's already starting to flake off near the edges and I'd love to stop it.

Interested to see how it goes.

You may also want to pick up a tumbler if you don't have one. It's blown my mind, great for shiny-ing up all those little PITA bits and pieces and pretty cheap. Throw rusted metal screws, washers, bolts, latches etc. in for a couple days and they're almost like new. I got this tumbler with this media that I saw used on a Johns Arcade episode.

Man, it's like you read my mind. I've been eyeballing one of those tumblers for quite some time. It is amazing how many corroded nuts/screws/brackets are in an arcade machine. I have enough projects now that I could justify one. You might have just pushed me over the edge.  ;)
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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2016, 04:44:52 pm »
Do it. ;D

« Last Edit: August 07, 2017, 07:52:28 pm by 8BitMonk »
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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #15 on: April 08, 2016, 07:42:34 pm »

vwalbridge

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #16 on: April 11, 2016, 03:14:37 pm »
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vwalbridge

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #17 on: April 11, 2016, 03:31:20 pm »
Took me a couple of weeks to fully restore the control panel. There are many different steps that all have to be done in order.


I started by completely disassembling, cleaning each part of the joysticks.


Each little metal part got a soak in some simple green.


One of the joysticks wasn’t moving very well and here is why.


Tool the joysticks outside and sprayed all the garbage out of the ball joint with some Brake Cleaner. (Awesome stuff)


Then lubricated the ball joint with some white lithium grease. I love this stuff. Virtually no odor. Doesn’t run and doesn’t attract dust.


Polished the plastic dust washers, plates and ball tops. Then reassembled the sticks.


I used my crappy heat gun from Harbor Freight to remove the old decal.


It gave in pretty easily with my scraper.


Nothing beats the smell of 30-year-old burning plastic and adhesive.


So as it turns out, removing the CPO was actually the easy part. The really hard part had just begun. Upon closer inspection, I realized that a very THICK layer of freakishly strong adhesive was still adhered to the panel.


So I took it outside and socked it with some Goo Gone and did a little scraping. Barley made a dent in it.


Then hit it with my heat gun on high with the scraper. Got a little more off. Mmmm….the lovely smell of smoldering adhesive.


Used my palm sander and got some more off. It’s putting up a very good fight.


Then went back to the Goo Gone and a razor blade. This is when it started to give up.


I then buffed it with some acetone to get it squeaky clean. (I snuck in a huff when nobody was looking)
Also, *Pro-tip*: use you kids' socks as rags...kids never keep their socks on anyway.


Here it is all perfectly smooth and ready for the new decal to take hold.


I ordered my new CPO from QuarterArcade.com. I’m very happy with it. It’s a faithful reproduction, right down to the tiny green “comic-book” dimples on the turtle’s nose and shell.

First step: Line it up the die-cut holes and use one of the existing bolts to hold it in place.


Second step: Peel back the top edge and cut off the backing


Third step: Use a felt squeegee to push it into place.


Fourth step: Totally freak out because the decal is not holding on the corners and then breathe a sigh of relief when you realize you have an extra bottle of Contact Cement that will get the decal to take hold of the corners.


Moral of the story: QuarterArcade’s CPO is printed on very ridged plastic. Either use a hair dryer to get it to relax around corners, or use contact cement. It will NOT hold on its own under a significant bend.


Here are the final results, with PlastX polished buttons in place:






« Last Edit: April 11, 2016, 03:51:48 pm by vwalbridge »
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Cobolisdead

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #18 on: April 11, 2016, 03:51:08 pm »
 :applaud:

Nice Job!

bplail

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #19 on: April 11, 2016, 09:47:22 pm »
The control panel has come up real nice!!!  :applaud:
Can't wait to see it finished!
Have you considered making some plans at all for anyone wanting to build a widebody? (hint hint  ;) ;))

harveybirdman

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #20 on: April 11, 2016, 10:32:00 pm »
You don't have to be in this hobby long to learn to ---smurfing--- hate adhesive residue.

Nice job bruh,  great pro tip on the kids socks!!!

Cobolisdead

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #21 on: April 12, 2016, 08:45:37 am »
You don't have to be in this hobby long to learn to ---smurfing--- hate adhesive residue.

 :cheers:

You dang right!

8BitMonk

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #22 on: April 12, 2016, 10:34:13 am »
Nice work, looks great!

I feel your pain on the adhesive removal, just got done doing this myself for my Joust. I tried several things including Goo Gone and WD40. Someone on the forums swore by Methyl Ethyl Ketone so I picked some of that up to try but it didn't work great for me. In the end there was no magic bullet, just several rounds of applying whatever remover, scraping, applying more remover, more scraping.
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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #23 on: April 12, 2016, 10:45:21 am »
Sine I was already polishing my DK bezel and marquee, it was a good time to do it for my Mario Bros as well.

Purchased a drill buffing pad set from Amazon and went with PlastX again for the scratches. PlastX works pretty good. Just keep the drill spinning at a low speed so that the PlastX doesn't dry out.


Before and after of the marquee. This is a difficult thing to capture on camera but many of the light scratches and hazing/clouding are totally gone.


Same process for the bezel.


Got some good results on the bezel. The heavy swirl marks are gone and the splotchy clouding are eliminated as well.


I just ordered this buffer for a couple of projects that I am working on! Thanks for posting the link!

vwalbridge

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #24 on: April 12, 2016, 12:03:46 pm »
Thanks for the compliments everyone. I'm truly relieved that the decal took hold. It was $60 decal that would have been a shame to throw away. The contact cement is still holding nicely after about 3 days. Another person suggested that the decal is clamped on to the control panel for 24 hours first to allow it to relax and take form around the corners. Not a bad idea, but that just means you need a dozen more clamps to put on a decal.


In the end there was no magic bullet, just several rounds of applying whatever remover, scraping, applying more remover, more scraping.

+1 CPO adhesive is some nasty and stubborn stuff. I tried a few other solvents as well and nothing would cut through it. In the end, it was good old fashioned elbow grease that got it done.

I'm tempted to try citri-strip next time. It's not made for this but it is also pretty agressive stuff.

Have you considered making some plans at all for anyone wanting to build a widebody? (hint hint  ;) ;))

I'm happy to take any measurements that anyone might need. However, there is a gentlemen out there putting together a really great collection of arcade game plans. Here is a link to his Mario Bros Wide Body plans.

http://www.classicarcadecabinets.com/mario-bros-widebody.html

(Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see a PDF link)
« Last Edit: April 12, 2016, 12:23:34 pm by vwalbridge »
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Cobolisdead

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #25 on: April 12, 2016, 12:10:20 pm »
On my Ms Pacman CPOs, I literally took a heavy metal scrapper and a heat gun on high setting and sat there until it was all gone. took about 30 minutes for each one of them.

8BitMonk

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #26 on: April 12, 2016, 04:45:56 pm »
On my Ms Pacman CPOs, I literally took a heavy metal scrapper and a heat gun on high setting and sat there until it was all gone. took about 30 minutes for each one of them.

That's one thing good with all metal CP's at least, Joust CP is all wood but the top plate so you can't over heat it or get too aggressive with the scraping.
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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #27 on: April 13, 2016, 02:13:57 am »
Your repeated attempts to remove the CPO adhesive had me laughing. This restore is looking great!  :applaud:

reptileink

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Re: Mario Bros. Wide Body - Minor restoration
« Reply #28 on: April 13, 2016, 02:53:19 pm »
Loving this thread! Nice work so far!  :applaud:

~Building Arcade Cabinets are like raising children, you always mess up your first~