Yet another Donkey Kong restoration

[ASmig]

Since I had no real interest in my Donkey Kong arcade I have for sale I decided I might as well keep it for myself since I have some free time now.  Anyway I figured I'd post up a to do list on the things that need done and ask for opinions on which way to go with the project.

I already capped, degaussed and fixed the convergence of the monitor. End result Of course now I'll have to pull the whole thing out in order to do the painting 

By now if you checked any of my links you'd notice that its a Donkey Kong Jr. in my cab. I'm thinking about sending the board out to have the Double Donkey Kong upgrade. I really enjoy both games and figured why not, but I'm still debating if its worth the $160 dollar price tag. 

The to do list:
1. Remove the old laminate  Its actually in very good shape considering its age. This and this is about the extent of the damage to the laminate and cab. I wish that I could just fill and airbrush the damaged areas, but I just don't see myself being able to get an exact match on the color and you can't blend the repairs since paint doesn't like laminate. So it looks like I'll have to peel the stuff off and paint the whole cab 

2. Fix the control panel. I'm fortunate to have an overlay that is nearly mint All that is required on it is to clean/buff the plastic and get a new set of bolts.
The player start buttons have discolored and will need replaced.
The joystick will also get replaced, best deal I have found for a replacement Nintendo joystick is 28 bucks at Mike's arcade
The instruction card and underlay will get replaced too. I think Arcade Shop has the best prices on the cards, art, and bezel.

3. Replace the bezel. Although it doesn't show up in the pictures the bezel has some long scratches through the art. Way to ruin an otherwise perfect bezel, vandals. My other option would have been to airbrush in the damage, but I think that it would cost me more in paint and time than to just buy a reproduction.

4. Replace the T molding. Mine has actually turned yellow somewhere along the line. Its probably the worst looking part of the whole cab right now. I've seen it for about ten bucks for a whole cab, is there any difference in quality between the different retailers or are they all selling the same stuff?

5. Replace the marquee light. Pretty self explanatory. I am once again lucky that I don't need to replace the marquee itself. Just a clean and polish is in order.

6. Replace the missing coin mechs and fix the hole where someone put in a "free play" button. Ugh, why do people feel the need to hack stuff up? This is probably the worst aspect I'm facing now. Arcade Shop has repro Nintendo coin assemblies but at 45 bucks a pop they are too rich for my blood. I think I'll keep checking eBay and here for a whole coin door.

So that in a nutshell is what I have planned out so far. My biggest issue is trying to find the best deals I can on the parts that I need. Please, if any of you know some great deal or where a best price is on something, let me know. I'll do my best to keep updating this thread and posting lots of pics.

Once last pic, just can't resist.

[spacies]

Good luck with your project.

I have built a ton of machines but I think the Donkey Kong is one of the best looking cabs out there!

[melarky]

I got my sideart from CAG (http://classicarcadegrafix.com/).  I was pretty darn impressed with them, and they seemed cheaper than other places I had looked at (and they also sized them down for me so they would fit my cab better, I'm finishing building a 2/3 size donkey kong cab to match the Donkey Kong lamp I made earlier this year: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=55628.0).

I am almost done with my cab and will probably post a pic of it when it's finished in this forum with some pics (I just finally got the smoked plexi yesterday, took a month for the local glass place to sort it all out, they ordered and cut the wrong piece 2 times before they finally got it right).

I know you didn't mention side art in your post above, but I think it really dresses up the machine and finishes it off nicely.  I think you should at least consider it and get a few price quotes from various places (like CAG, MameMarquees, Emdkay, not sure if I spelled that last one right, but you get the picture).

I love the look of these cabinets (which is why I choose to make this one), they are great and have a fun color scheme and great art.  Good luck on your project, and keep us updated.

[ASmig]

11/3/06 Began teardown.

Got the boards, most of the wiring, and power supply out. Also pulled the coin door and T moulding. Think I'll wait until I have two sets of hands to yank the monitor.

Bagged and tagged everything I removed.

Looks like the only way to pull the power cord is to remove the plug itself. Any idea what the original plugs looked like since I don't think this is the original plug.

It also never fails to find some unseen problems when digging into new projects. This fine wiring fix for example. No, its not even soldered either. One of the pins on the connector snapped off at some point. Anyone know what kind I need?

Anyone need one of those Atari buttons? I found this little gem behind it. I think I've seen cleaner bullet holes. At least they left the rest of the wiring mostly intact.

Has anyone who has restored a Nintendo cab have a way to stop this from happening again? I'm thinking a small wire cable to limit how far the door opens should do the trick.

One cool find was one of the old operator's tags on the board. Looks like this machine hasn't traveled very far over its life.

Well that was somewhat productive. Probably would have got more done if I didn't keep playing it before I took it apart.

[melarky]

I just posted some pics of my finished 2/3 scale Donkey Kong cabinet:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=60545.0

You can see the side art etc... in those pics.