Cabinet materials/restoration

[csg]

Hey gang,

I recently bought a Pit Fighter cabinet as my first attempt at this fine hobby.  It's in pretty good condition overall, but I want to restore it to top form.  I purchased the Project Arcade book and have searched through some posts, but still am not comfortable that I have a full understanding...

1. What materials are generally used on original arcade cabinets?  This one appears to be some sort of thin layer of material (laminate?) over wood.

2. What is the best way to restore the cabinet to a reasonably authentic state? Paint it? Pull off whatever that layer of material is and redo that? Also, there's some chipping on the edges of the boards near the t-molding - would I just use wood filler/sanding to fix that?

Thanks for any answers or direction to relevant posts I may have missed.

Chris

[AKA Kaytrim]

Please keep in mind that I have not done anything like your are planning to do.  Everything I am about to tell you is based on what I have read on the boards here.

Restore jobs can be anywhere from fill-sand-paint (wood filler for small spots and bondo for larger areas) to full electronics troubleshoot and cap kits for the monitors.  Cap kits involve replacing all the capacitors on the boards of the monitor.  These are not for the faint of heart, some of those have large killing voltages if not handled properly, mainly the monitor. 

First lets look at the guts of the machine.  Does it turn on and play or are there problems with burn in (seeing an image on the screen without power) do the controls work as they are supposed to?  If the machine boots up but the controls don't respond then this could be an easy fix.  This could be as simple as reconnecting the controls to replacement.  If the monitor is dim then you probably need a cap kit.  If the internals are shot then you might want to consider gutting the whole thing and put in a computer with MAME.


Now for the exterior, leave the layer of stuff on but try to locate a new sticker set for the artwork.  Take off the old artwork if it is a sticker then fix any blemishes to the woodwork and sand the whole cabinet and wipe off the dust with a wet rag until is comes off clean.  Just sand enough to roughen up the coating and smooth out the wood putty / bondo.  Then prime, wet sand 400 grit, prime wet sand 400, paint wet sand 600, paint.  You could go another coat of paint if you feel it needs it just wet sand again prior to painting but don't sand after the final coat.  Make sure you wipe down the cab each time you sand.  You should get a decent paint job from all that work.

Now to restore the control panel depending on the current condition of the joys and buttons you could clean them up or replace them.  If you want/need to replace check out GrovyGameGear or Ultimarc they have good prices on their parts.  Another good place to look is eBay but be careful of the auctions there, look for sellers that have high feedback numbers and close to 100% positive feedback.  They will even have an eBay store and almost exclusively sell arcade parts.  You can get Happ controls quite a bit cheaper there then direct from Happ.  You can also get lucky on the individual sellers with low feedback if you are careful.  Set up a PayPal account if you are new to eBay because that adds a layer of protection to  you the buyer.  I recently got a hardly used Happ Translucent Blue 3 inch trackball for $56 at auction from an individual seller.

  I have rambled on long enough.  Get some pics of the cabinet as it sits now, both inside and out and post them here.  That should get some attention from the regulars sooner than later.  Good Luck on your restore.

TTFN 
Kaytrim

[johnvv]

The following site is an excellent place to start:

http://www.rgvac.com/restoration.asp

Good explanations and pics - all from a very experienced restorer.

[CheffoJeffo]

First question you need to ask is "Is it an original dedicated cabinet ?". If it isn't, then you don't need to spend loads of time restoring the cabinet.

I'm not that familiar with Pit Fighter, but have seen it in generic Dynamo cabinets that are painted black with sticker side art. ClassicArcadeGrafix used to have the artwork:

http://www.classicarcadegrafix.com/

Pit Fighter info can be found on Killer List Of Video Games (aka KLOV):

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=P&game_id=9034

Capping a monitor is not as big a deal as folks make it, once you get past the discharging issue. Once you discharge the tube, it is basic soldering.

Regarding controls, Pit FIghter uses basic controls, so replacements won't be a problem. Looking at the icture on KLOV, I might guess that it used Happs Supers, but I coud be completely wrong (as AKA Kaytrim mentions, don't order directly from Happs, use Ponyboy, divemaster or a local reseller).

pr0k's restoration pages (rgvac.com) are great and there are other restoration links in the wiki:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Restoration

Before going much further, we would need to know what condition your machine is in (is it working ? screen crisp and clear ?). Pics are worth 1000s of words.

Cheers

[csg]

Thanks for the replies.

After dismantling the cabinet, I determined that it is built of melamine-covered particle board.  After a thorough cleaning, I primed with an oil-based gray-tinted primer.  Then I took a fine steel wool to it.  Then a coat of black satin Rustoleum enamel.  Another round of steel wool sanding.  Then a second coat of Rustoleum.

It's not quite as smooth a finish as I was hoping for, but I'm pretty happy and the enamel should provide some protection (which is nice because I never discovered any way to repair the chipped melamine edges).

I ordered new t-molding yesterday and am going to look into getting some new side art.  That should about do it in terms of restoring the cabinet since the coin door, marquee, and bezel are all in good shape.  I do want to replace the single-speaker panel with a 2-speaker board.

So onto controls, computer, and interfaces next.  I have some questions on that stuff too, but I'll post separately.

Hopefully the login functionality will work soon so I can add this to the project board as well as start contributing to others' threads...

Thanks again!
Chris