A Nintendo Red Tent - My First Original Cab

Arcade Collecting > Restorations & repair

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meyer980:
I continue to wait for my large pieces to be finished powder coating (I'm told this week or next, whew) so thought I'd share two things I've done in the meantime - things that really speak to the BYOAC-ness in me.

First, some coin plates. The two "plates" that hold the coin acceptor and reject buttons on my machine were scratched and painted red in some places. I cleaned and polished them as best I could, but there's only so much I could do. I figured there must be a way to replicate them, so gave it my best by drawing them up in Illustrator and have them cut out.

Some things to know: The originals seem to be either aluminum or stainless steel (I think steel because of their weight) and then either chrome or nickel plated. The Nintendo logo is, from best I can tell, etched or carbon printed on. It's not engraved or ink. So, that's what I'm trying to replicate.

No matter what I did, I'm not quite getting an exact shine match and I probably won't unless I spend mucho dollars to nickel plate them. Which of the 3 do you guys prefer?
1. Original but scratched and marked?
2. New Stainless Steel?
3. New Aluminum?

In that same vein, my machine came with only 1 of the tinted plexi pieces. I couldn't just cut a replacement myself, because it uses rounded corners to fit a special bezel they have built for it. No problem, the Internet has it all. I measured the corner radius and ordered two new pieces. Why two? I couldn't quite match the tint perfectly so wanted them to match. The photo shows the difference quite obviously, but in real life they appear much closer.

Mike A:
Keep the original coin plate that looks good for sure.

I know a member that might be able to tell you how to save the one that looks bad.

I will get him to respond here.

bperkins01:
The scratches on the stainless can come out.. The issue is the logo because it's in the way.
Removing scratches is really about 'sanding' them out with a low grit paper to make all of them uniform.. then using the next grit of paper to remove the last set of scratches. and so on.. finally you get to a point where you can use a buffing wheel and compound to polish up the final finish.

The second part is using silicon carbide sandpaper (easy to find) - the grit has to be harder than the material you are sanding to cut the metal.
Your 'new' stainless part can be polished with a buffing wheel and compound pretty easily.. Getting the logo back on is the tricky part.
Not sure if that helps of not.

meyer980:
Powder coated pieces are in the house! I couldn't resist putting one of the CPOs on, man do they look slick.

Mike A:
Very nice. :cheers:

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