Galaxian No. 815

[Level42]

Well, I recovered from a really bad attack on my lungs...had some serious dope to cure it and I feel much much better know. Regretfully I had to cancel last saturday's visit I had planned to Darth Nuno's Lair because of this, but we''ll catch up later...

Anyway, I have done some work yesterday because I was tired of doing nothing as well.....

Finished the paint job on the upper insides. I think it turned out OK. I'm happy with it anyway...check out the pics....

3rd pic: Mmmm, gotta touch up the edges near the top...

4th pic.......oops !!!!

[Level42]

After the paint had dried, I installed the T-molding:

[Level42]

Some more....

In the factury they used U-shape nails (tacks) to secure both edges of the T-molding. You have to get rid of them. I drove them into the wood using a screwdriver and hammer. Didn't succeed on one spot so I cut out a small part of the "beard" of the T-molding there (just like on the sharp outter corners).

The T-molding went in pretty easily, I used a soft plastic hammer and a towel to hammer it in the groove. Stayed in very well even at the ends, but I used the glue gun to secure the ends.

[Level42]

The cab was on it's backside for the first time, you can guess how it looked:

Time for the good old Dasty and scrub-sponge


Yeah, that's better. I'll leave the two "slides" under the cab for now, it's easier to move around while working with it. Will install proper legs later....

[Level42]

Removed the coin door frame.......ahhhhh more work for Dasty !!!!

[csa3d]

After the paint had dried, I installed the T-molding:

Now is this T-molding the original stuff you removed or did you purchase reproduction leather textured stuff?  If so, from where.  I'm considering going with new myself, but don't want baby butt smooth stuff.  Great job on the cleanup!  I'm continually amazed at how white you end up getting this thing with that cleaner!

[Level42]

After the paint had dried, I installed the T-molding:

Now is this T-molding the original stuff you removed or did you purchase reproduction leather textured stuff?  If so, from where.  I'm considering going with new myself, but don't want baby butt smooth stuff.  Great job on the cleanup!  I'm continually amazed at how white you end up getting this thing with that cleaner!

That's brand new T-molding. Came from arcadeshop, but almost "everyone" can deliver it, like www.t-molding.com etc. I think your cab will need the Galaxian-green T-molding !!! (Also available).

Thanks...

[Level42]

O guys, I forgot....remember that bad CPO ?

OK, www.arcadeshop.com refunded me the money for the CPO. All clear....

[SithMaster]

I was hoping that would work out for you congrats.

I saw the dragonlair topic before this one and both have me thinking i should use mdf for my monitor as well.  I acquired a galaxian as well but it was stripped down to the wood, missing the back door, coin door, and one marquee retainer.  I was going to use a board of oak and make two supports for the monitor at the ends (both double thick since they sellem 8 feet here and i can cut 4 supports at 2 feet) but i was curious as to how well your monitor holds up with the frame design and being mdf?

The cross supports is easier for me to do but if i have to i can get a jugsaw to cut a window in a board.

But i have to say good job so far and thanks for the pics they are really going to come in handy when i finally start working on mine.  (was going to be a pac but then saw it said gal on the side really faded out.  galaxian is more fun than pac man so...)

[Level42]

Hey Sithmaster,

Thanks ! The MDF is excellent ! It's VERY strong and sturdy. There's absolutely no noticable difference between the original wood-laminate and the MDF replacement in matter of strength. I feared a bit that by cutting out such a big hole for the CRT it would become less stable, but it's very rigid. It's also lighter and not the least important a LOT cheaper then anything else. Also very easy to saw/drill, but do be careful with the dust. (Wear a dust mask and work outside). I had my MDF sheet sawed at the DIY shop for free to the exact size. I only had to do the drilling and jigsawing for the CRT. I used 18 mm thick MDF. There are several standardized thicknesses here.

Dathnuno (Dragonlair) inspired me on both replacing the monitor with a TV-set using SCART, and re-creating the bezel. I love his site ! Did you see the Galaxian to Pac Man restoration he did ? Fantastic job ! http://www.dragonslairfans.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=195

If needed, you can get a complete new (painted !) backdoor at www.thisoldgame.com (Look under Misc Parts, scroll all the way down).
The marquee retainers are available here (repro's): http://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=MBRACKETSET
The coindoor will be more of a problem I guess, e-bay is your best bet here i think.

www.mamemarquees.com and www.thisoldgame.com offer Galaxian art now !!

Do you know a serial no. of your cab, and what T-molding does it have ?

__________________________________________________________
Some updates:

1)
I went over to the company who does powdercoating. I showed him all the stuff and he suggested that I did all the "rough" sanding myself. If he would sandblast the parts, he might go through it (!!!!) or at least warp the parts. He normaly does a bit thicker metal things )
It would also take him a lot of time (=money). So to save that (he mentioned €200,-) I will sand myself with an excentric sander as he suggested, just rougly. He will do the finishing/hard-to reach parts sandblasting.

I also showed him the coin door, and we found a RAL color that is almost exactly (you never know from a plastic example) the same and he said he could easily recreate the "bubble" effect.

2)
I won a bezel (plexi) on e-bay (thanks to the help of Negetavicreep0) and it arrived a couple of days ago. Of course it's not mint, but it's not bad either....take a look at the pics.....

[Level42]

Also I'm currently a bit in doubt where to order my CPO art from.

There are two options:

www.mamemarquees.com

He is well-known here, everyone seems to be positive about him and I also had good communication. However, the material used is not exactly the same as the original (but close) and he uses ink-jet printing as far as I know.

The alternative is www.thisoldgame.com

He's doing real silkscreen printing and promises the exact same material. Communications via e-mail with Richard is great, he's answered ALL my questions promptly and clearly.

I think I prefer the silk-screening. What do you guys think ?

[WaRpEd]

Hey galaxian
I didn't see price on the web site but since your doing a Hardcore restore
I'd pay the extra bucks and get the silk-screened bezel it looks excellent in the photos.
Cheers Bob

[Level42]

Hey it's Level42 here (although I understand the confusion ).

Well the CPO's are $29,- at both mamemarquees.com and thisoldgame.com

The bezel has no price yet at thisoldgame.com. I e-mailed Richard to ask about when they will be ready and the price, and how they are made/applied....

[Level42]

Done some hard work today !!

I sanded all the metal parts of the Galaxian (and the Mario Bros.) that I want powder coated.
I used an excentric sander, this works very quickly but it eats sanding discs like nuts ! I even did some joystick parts, since they were pretty rusty too.

The only thing still to do is the CP. Gotta remove the rests of the original overlay first.

When that's sanded and done I can get all the parts to the powdercoater. He will do the little "left-overs" that I coulnd't sand by sandblasting and then get a nice powdercoating job.

[SithMaster]

Good to know for the monitor frame that mdf will hold up well.  Next time to drop by the local supplier ill take a look.

My cab doesnt have tmolding and the metal sign on the back is there but covered with a beige paint.  I was considering using paint thinner or acetone to remove the top coat but im going to research so i dont remove the lettering on the plate. (edit it does have textured black molding and i am going to check the inside for a sticker).  For some reason i thought the number was on the metal sign but its not so ill have a look see later and get back to you.

Back when i had wood shop in high school (last year) i made a new back door from plywood though its lacking the bottom air vents.

Yep thats the restore i saw earlier looks great and makes me wish i had a scart tv but then id want the pcbs for the game.

[csa3d]

Nice job with that sanding!  Interesting that your coin door has one slot and mine has two.  Did they start making the dual slot later in production do you know?  How much were you quoted for that powdercoat job?  When I was pricing out that stuff, they were price gauging the crap out me.

Keep 'em coming!

-csa

[Level42]

Nice job with that sanding!  Interesting that your coin door has one slot and mine has two.  Did they start making the dual slot later in production do you know?  How much were you quoted for that powdercoat job?  When I was pricing out that stuff, they were price gauging the crap out me.

Keep 'em coming!

-csa

Yeah, I wondered about the single slot as well. Maybe it was a European market thing ?
Most I've seen have two. He mentioned €70,- ( about $90,-) total for all the Galaxian and Mario Bros. parts. I think it's worth it. It includes paint and sandblasting the little spots I couldn't reach.

If he would have done all the sanding it would have been a lot more, and I can now understand why....it took quite some time, even with the excentric sander. Had to do some parts by hand.

If you count in paint etc. I think it's a good deal, and I know he does excellent work. He's done  some work for me before on drum-rings, removing all the chrome and replacing it with an excellent layer of black coat. I think the powder coating will be much more resistant to human sweat than anything else....especialy nice for the CP !

[Level42]

OK, got the CP done....I decided to try my hot-air gun on the rests of the CPO and I should have done that earlier ! The good parts were coming off great, complete clean sections....If I had done this right away I think I could have taken the CPO off in one go (or about)....

Another lesson learned

Also sanded the CP and it's nice and shiny....

Some pics...

1st and 2nd : Inside BEFORE, yuckie rust...

3rd: The tool....ready to eat some paint and rust !

[Level42]

The result:

Maybe not perfect, but that's not needed....the powdercoating will do the finishing touch....

Now I gotta find some time to bring it all to him !

[am_monkee]

wow-you're doing an amazing job. thanks for being so thorough in your write-up...i'm getting so many ideas.

keep on keep on...

[Level42]

Thanks !!! It's great if I insipre others...I've been inspired by others as well !

That's what this forum is all about IMHO

Current status is that I've gotta do some extra sanding on the Nintendo Mario Bros. Coin door. It was hard to do with the sanding machine, so I will have to do some serious hand-sanding....else it would cost me another €50,- at the powdercoater.....

I may also include the marquee retainers of the Centipede I recently bought. They're not bad, but if it goes in "the bunch" for no or little extra charge, it's surely worth it.

I've ordered a new CPO at www.thisoldgame.com. It's on it's way from the US to here now. I'm hoping that it's better than the one I had before, but I'm pretty sure. Thisoldgame.com was a LOT more responsive to a whole series of e-mails I bugged him with. Every question was answered. I even pointed Richard to a mistake on his CPO file for Galaxian (copyright year was 1978, that was because it actualy LOOKED like 1978 on his original !). He was glad I found that one !

It is silk-screened so I keep my fingers crossed....

He also includes a small piece of the vinyl that he prints the kick-art as per his own suggestion, so I could judge if I like it or not. I call that thinking with your customers and I really like that

If the CPO's arrived and the powder-coating done then it's assembling everything back and I would be ready !!!

[HoopstarsGarage]

Awesome restoration..!!   


A couple of things I thought I could add:

With regards to the cigarette burn marks on the bezel - I have restored a plastic bezel with exactly the same problem.  I used 800 grit wet/dry sand paper, then 1000, then 1500, then 2000.  I then used Meguiars plastic polish which is designed to remove the fine swirl marks from the sanding and those already there as you see in your pictures.  You will be incredibly surprised by the results as they come up looking like new.

Secondly, I have recently restored a Midway coin door for my Galaga Scratch build and had the coin door sand blasted without any troubles...

I went from this:




to this:

 


to this:



The sandblaster did both sides of the door and the frame and worked really well at getting into all the tight and hard to get to areas.

anyhow.. I hope that helps a little.  Keep up the great restoration and great thread.


Hoops

[Level42]

Wow Hoops, that looks great ! I checked out your Galaga repro: 
Wow I wouldn't have thought about actualy sanding plexi ! Great idea... I'll have to google to find out what Meguiars plastic polish is but I guess I can get a simular product here. I guess you did hand-sanding on it ? Do you have any pics from that restored bezel ?

I've read that you also sanded the joystick ball, another great idea, Maybe I will get mine a bit more White that way. There's also a really deep sscratch in it...don't think I can entirely remove that.

That joystick on the Galaga panel is exactly the same as the one on my Galaxian. Where did you get new rubbers for it ? Did you install "regular" new leafs on it ? Does yours have a lot of up/down movement as well ?

I wonder why the sanding work is so expensive here. My powdercoater told me he included 10 minutes of sandblasting into the job price (which is still not bad, €70,- for the whole bunch of parts) but he said it would increase by €50,- just by sandblasting the Mario Bros. coin door alone...

You did a fantastic job on the Galaga ! Only one minor question,( seeing your great eye for detail) Why didn't you get repro-marquee retainers ?

And another thing, that original "Engineered by Namco" simply doesn't fit on that cabinet....it should be mounted on an original Bally/Nacmo cabinet like uhmmmmm.... Galaxian No.815  

Just kidding of course, I still wonder why there isn't a plaque like that on my cab. There are no marks either, so my guess is it was never on it....weird !

[Level42]

Just a small update about No.815:

First it was temporaraly stored in my shed in the garden because of my son's birthday (my wife wanted everything (except the Mame-cab of course) out the door for that weekend....) I took a picture when it was on it's way back in full sunlight (Pict.1)

The metal parts were finaly delivered at the powder coater today.....hope to have them back within a week. (I still had to sand the Mario Bros Coindoor as good as possible....not an easy job. Everything left over he has to sandblast and I'm going to pay for it because I'm completely fed-up with sanding ) (Pict.2)

The CPO from thisoldgame.com has some delay. Had some more mail contact with richard of thisoldgame.com about the white vinyl. He's sending me some samples as well....regretfully the sheets he uses are not large enough to cover the back-panel. I think I really will be re-newing the back in some way...it looks like sh_t.....

The Mame cab was endurance tested during my sons birthday (Pict.3)

[Luigi]

Hi André


You are doing an amazing job here 


And you inspired me to have a closer look at our Galaxian cab (http://www.thludwig.de/pics/arcade/halle/defekte_2.jpg

We didn't have the time to check it completely. The PCB is missing but except that it seems to be complete....in bad shape though

I won't have the time (and money) to do an equal restoration job but at least I want it to run again

[Level42]

Hi Luigi,

Yeah I am still very happy with the codition my cab was (is) in....yours would indeed need some work and new artwork.

I am always interested to hear what serial number your cab has....

[Luigi]

hehe.....maybe I can make it there this weekend.....I'll let you know


Concerning the artwork: we have several machines that we'd like to have running in our collection. It is not our goal to make them look like coming straight from the factory (most of them are more than 20 years old and they are allowed to have some scratches and bumps ) but to be able to play them. Of course, if there is time and opportunity (and last: $$) we will make them look a little more "new" but I'm afraid we are too lazy to resore complete sideart  Maybe when we retired 

[Level42]

Yeah, I've seen your site, very impressive "arcade" you guys got I guess I will have to make a visit some time to Germany

I guess my goal is a bit more quality then quantity, but if I would have that much space......

Went to the powdercoater today because he still had some questions. We settled on RAL 7031 for the color to use for the Midway coin door. That one came closest when compared on a color sample.

Check out the color here: http://www.timax.nl/ral.html#7000 (Scroll down to 7031)

I don't know what color systems are in use in the US and the rest of the world, but RAL is a standardised color system here in Europe.

I hope it will be as close to the original as the sample, you never know how it will work out on the real thing.....

I made some pictures of the original and repro Midway Coindoor plate. The original are out of real metal. When you bend it, it stays in that shape. The repro, although on thick material is not on real metal. This also makes it less shiny then the original. The art used is clearly not vectorized. All in all, the repro's are OK, but I'd like to see a run of real metal plates with vectorized artwork, and idealy with pre-drilled holes....or am I too anal about this all

[MaximRecoil]

I made some pictures of the original and repro Midway Coindoor plate. The original are out of real metal. When you bend it, it stays in that shape. The repro, although on thick material is not on real metal. This also makes it less shiny then the original. The art used is clearly not vectorized. All in all, the repro's are OK, but I'd like to see a run of real metal plates with vectorized artwork, and idealy with pre-drilled holes....or am I too anal about this all

I suppose you could have someone make you some stencils, then get a blank metal plate and make your own. 

[SithMaster]

My cabs serial is 29159.  Ive been meaning to let you know for awhile and finally checked the number.

Looking good so far.  If only i had good sideart on mine...

[SavannahLion]

I also showed him the coin door, and we found a RAL color that is almost exactly (you never know from a plastic example) the same and he said he could easily recreate the "bubble" effect.

You got my interest now. Did you remember to tell him to do that "bubble" effect?

How is that done anyways? It looks like some kind of orange peel effect, but with powder coat?

[Level42]

Hey Sithmaster thanks !!!! That's the highest serial nr. I've seen so far !!!!! Guess my estimate of 30.000 cabs built is about right......until a higher serial come along of course .

So far the highest I had seen was in the 27.000. So you are now the unofficial "highest" record holder, and I would probably be the "lowest"

Remember that the numbering of the serial production started with 101.

SavannahLion: Well, yeah he knows about the bubbles......I only regret not giving him a print-out of the picture I took before I sanded it.....I hope it will look a bit like it was originaly.

I have no clue how he will do it, all he said when I mentioned it and showed it on the door when it was not sanded yet was "no problem". He did mention that he had to finish it off with some clear coat because of this effect.

Another thing....the cost I mentioned earlier here in this thread was per color. Since I also had the other parts of the Galaxian and Mario Bros that needed to be done in black, the total cost doubled of course. I considered not having the Galaxian coindoor done because of this, but I figured that I could never get the quality this guy does/powder coating gives. It's logical that this price was per color since he needs to set-up eveything for another color.It's also his minimum cost and considering he's doing all kind of small parts as well, I think it's not a bad deal.

He said he would do it yesterday if he still had the time. He'll give me a call when they're ready.

Do I have to mention that I will put up pictures ASAP here when it's done ?

[theCoder]

Given how meticulous you are with this rebuild, spending €70 for the sanding & painting seems like a very small price to pay for the quality job you're getting.  You can't touch the thoroughness of a sandblast compared to sanding by hand.  Nice job on the restoration.

[Level42]

You're absolutely right.

And thanks !

[Level42]

Well about time for an update. First: I had planned to visit Darth Nuno this sunday, but to my utter regret, I had to cancel again. My back snapped into a really bad postition friday night when I was getting of our couch. If you've never experienced a nerve getting stuck, imagine someone sticking a knife into your spine. I actualy screamed it out.....
I was on the floor and unable to get up for on hour and a hald (my wife was getting muscle relaxers for me).....

To make a long story short: Doctor ordered me to either keep walking around (which I did !!!) or lie down. Sit as little as possible.....

So the 3 hour drive (one way) to Darth Nuno was impossible for me....but I was able to SLOWLY do some work on 815.

Just before this all happened I picked up the metal parts from the powder coater. It turned out that he didn't do the speckles/bubbles etc. which greatly disappointed me. I had forgotten to mention it when I finaly brought the sanded stuff so I guess it was more or less my fault.

Anyway, the black parts looked great, and I think the blue-grey color fot the coindoor was pretty well chosen. Maybe it's a bit lighter than the original, and it's certainly more (too) shiny. So, if you plan on having something like this done, talk through it in detail....
Anyway, we agreed on a good price and the quality of the coating itself is excellent, it is so sturdy looking and feeling.

So I went ahead and slowly re-assembled the coin-door and re-installed the marquee.

Check out the pics...

No.1 Galaxian CP and the closest to it are the Galaxian marquee brackets. The other two or from the Mario Bros.

No.2 Marquee brackets

No.3 Joystick base and some smaller parts. The rightmost part is holding the coin insert on the Galaxian door, so it should have been gray (my mistake) but luckely it's on the inside and the main reason for getting this part done is protecting it from rust

[Level42]

The coindoor....too shiny for sure.

And I also learned from this that I should have had someone do a better job of gettting the dents out....

[Level42]

#1: Had to get the rust of bolts that hold the coin input. I used the glass-fibre pen for this, worked pretty well.

#2 & #3: I wanted to have those rivets back in the Midway coindoor plate. So I had to make holes in the repro plate. But they had to be positioned exactly right. So I figured I would use the original plate as a mask. I taped the orignal on top of the repro (with the protective stuff still on it) really tight together.

Then I put it on a scrap piece of wood and carefully drilled the holes.

[Level42]

#1 & #2: The drilled holes in the repro, perfect

#3: The original rivets were obvously rusted. Got my Dremel (clone) and a wire brush and brought back that copper shine !

[Level42]

#1: Had to make the holes a little bigger again, that powder coating is pretty thick !

#2: Backside, first parts re-installed

#3: Coinmech. I cleaned most parts and rusty parts where either cleaned with the glass-fibre pen or 1200 sanding paper

[Level42]

#1: Everyrhing back in place, but the key-hook is missing.....I bet it will surface later

#2: Top look of the counter and coin slide

#3: Everything installed. Looks nice, even without the bubbles !

The lock is brand new from Suzo.