Repairing a metal CP

[dcsgguy]

Hello all.  Today I was going to start filling in the holes in my existing CP so I can reuse it.  The problem is that I can not find the metal plugs anywhere.  Neither Lowe's or Home Depot knew what I was talking about.  Anyone know where else I could look?  Any alternative ideas for fixing the holes?

[johnvv]

Check rgvac.com for some details and pics how to do this.

I've glued thin pieces of metal over the holes (inside of CP) and then filled the holes with either Bondo or JB Weld.  Sand and prime and you'll be fine.  If you are going to powdercoat your CP, use JB Weld as Bondo will melt under high temperatures.

[CheffoJeffo]

wiki

[KagatoAMV]

Whenever I installed a kit into a cabinet with a metal control panel, I'd tape a piece of cardboard over any holes that needed to be filled, then apply bondo in the hole on the underside.

Once dried, removed the cardboard and sanded down the bondo until it was flush with the cp. The the cp overlay goes over the metal, and lexan sheet over that.

On more than one occasion I'd get a game from another store where a kit was installed and they didn't fill the unused holes up. So of course customers punched through the cp overlay eventually.

I know some of the repairs I did wouldn't really stand up to what you're looking at for a collector.

[ArtMAME]

I just repaired a metal CP by epoxying a 3/4" piece of plywood to the underside, patching the top with Bondo, then drilling out the holes that I needed.  I thought about using sheet metal from the side of an old PC case, but I was using leaf switches and I did not have the correct button holders to use on a metal control panel.  I am attaching the leaf switches Williams style, using a counterbored hole and a PAL nut right up to the wood.

[dcsgguy]

well I partially fixed it last night.  I bought some jweld and these metal strips that weren't as small as the plugs but they should work.  I attached those to the back then bondo'd the front.  I'm going to sand it today and see how it came out.

[Crowquill]

http://www.multigame.com/cp.html

This is the best Info I've found on patching metal panels. I don't know why it doesn't come up more often. It seems most of the emulator cabinet crowd just wants to replace it with wood and the people doing restorations either aren't talking or just buy a new panel.

When I was patching mine I found a variation on this tutorial that I followed. I used epoxy to attach some metal plates that you find in the same aisle as the electrical boxes and outlets at the hardware store. After that, just fill with your choice of materials. I actually filled mine with Elmer's wood filler. Strange as it sounds, it actually lists metal as one of the materials it can fill. Probably not hard enough for a game that would be on location, but for my home use it's fine (and cheaper and easier to work with than bondo).

[Tailgunner]

I've filled extra holes in my metal panels by grinding fender washers to fit and then TIG welding them in place. I used to fill the 3/16" bolt hole in them with bondo, nowadays I'll back it up with a piece of copper bar and weld the hole up.

If you go that route and all you can find are zinc plated washers, you can eat the zinc off with muratic acid leaving a plain steel washer. You can buy small quantities of muratic acid in the tile section of building supply places, it's used for cleaning tile grout. Wear gloves/goggles, it's not super strong acid but it will burn you if you get it on your skin.