Coin Door Restoration Tips?

[Jdurg]

A few weeks ago on E-Bay I was fortunate enough to win an over/under coin door for a mere $30.00 with shipping included.  The door arrived about a week ago and I've begun the process of cleaning it up and restoring it to like new condition.  I went down to my Home Depot store to pick up some paint, some locks, and replacement screws to take care of the rusted ones that are present on the coin mechs and the door. 

The Mechs are from Coin Controls Incorporated and are the gold plated metal mechs.  There were some spots were the plating had worn away and some rust was starting to show.  I went and cleaned them up with a rust remover, but sadly that rust remover has removed the gold plating as well!  The metal parts are now bare steel and although they are nice and clean now, I'm a bit concerned that they will quickly rust if water gets in contact with them.

The door itself is in good shape with minor dents around the lock areas.  Nothing that some hammering and beating with a flat block can't flatten.  I bought a can of Hammered Flat Black RustOLeum(sp?) paint to repaint the door once the weather warms up.  I'll first be stripping off the current paint/powder-coat in order to make sure that the new paint job sticks well.

My big concern is the formally gold plated metal pieces.  Will those be okay without any "covering", or should I zinc plate them for some added protection, or paint them with grill paint that can withsand abuse and high heat?  What would you suggest?  (I know I can buy replacement mechs pretty cheaply, but there's just some sense of satisfaction if i restore this completely by myself).

[Ken Layton]

Coin Controls were never very good as a manufacturer. All their products just oozed of cheapness.

Here is what I have done when I encounter these badly rusted mechs:

Disassemble them and clean the metal parts in a solution of 20% C.L.R. (Calcium-Lime-Rust) remover and 80% hot water. Scrub with a brass bristed "detail" brush. Rinse and dry with an air compressor or a hair dryer. Now to protect the metal, make it look nice, and make coins run through likety split, get out some rags and some BRASSO polish. It'll take some elbow grease, but boy will those mechs shine like chrome, plus the BRASSO will protect the metal from corossion.

[Jdurg]

Coin Controls were never very good as a manufacturer. All their products just oozed of cheapness.

Here is what I have done when I encounter these badly rusted mechs:

Disassemble them and clean the metal parts in a solution of 20% C.L.R. (Calcium-Lime-Rust) remover and 80% hot water. Scrub with a brass bristed "detail" brush. Rinse and dry with an air compressor or a hair dryer. Now to protect the metal, make it look nice, and make coins run through likety split, get out some rags and some BRASSO polish. It'll take some elbow grease, but boy will those mechs shine like chrome, plus the BRASSO will protect the metal from corossion.

Perfect!  I've already removed the rust and cheap gold plating using a rust remover solution.  I had planned on taking a dremel with some wire brushes to remove the rest of the "junk" that refuses to come off.  I can easily get the BRASSO and that's much simpler than trying to re-plate these parts.  Thanks!!!

[Jdurg]

Another thing I'm happy about is that I disassembled both of the coin door assembly pieces when I first got the door in the mail, but never documented how they go back together.     Thankfully, I found the Crystal Castles user manual online and that game used the same style coin door that I have so I have detailed instructions about how it goes together PLUS I have all of the replacement part numbers!   

[shardian]

Coin Controls were never very good as a manufacturer. All their products just oozed of cheapness.

Here is what I have done when I encounter these badly rusted mechs:

Disassemble them and clean the metal parts in a solution of 20% C.L.R. (Calcium-Lime-Rust) remover and 80% hot water. Scrub with a brass bristed "detail" brush. Rinse and dry with an air compressor or a hair dryer. Now to protect the metal, make it look nice, and make coins run through likety split, get out some rags and some BRASSO polish. It'll take some elbow grease, but boy will those mechs shine like chrome, plus the BRASSO will protect the metal from corossion.

Perfect!  I've already removed the rust and cheap gold plating using a rust remover solution.  I had planned on taking a dremel with some wire brushes to remove the rest of the "junk" that refuses to come off.  I can easily get the BRASSO and that's much simpler than trying to re-plate these parts.  Thanks!!!

Replacement coin mechs are dirt cheap. I have plenty left that don't have mounting pegs if you need some.

[BASS!]

Man, I bought a lot of 10 a while back (lol) for $20 off ebay a couple months ago. Ill have these for a long time to come.

[LoyalistRevolt]

How would you even go about installing the coin thing..?

[SirPeale]

http://www.pealefamily.net/tech/newmame/coindoor/

[Jdurg]

http://www.pealefamily.net/tech/newmame/coindoor/

Cool.  Thanks for the link.

[ChadTower]

I like Strypeeze.  Totally biodegradable.

[Jdurg]

Brasso is my new best friend.  WOW!  Amazing stuff.  The ammonia kind of took me back a bit, but it really cleaned out the crap on the coin mechs and coin door parts.  They are all a nice shiny steel color and will hopefully not rust out.  If they do, it's cheap to get standard mechs on a standard coin door like this.  Now if only the cold air, snow, and crap would go away so that I can strip the metal door and frame and paint it with some hammered black Rustoleum paint.

[Jdurg]

Hey Ken.  Just wanted to say "THANK YOU" for your advice on cleaning up this coin door and restoring it to a useable shape.  I have now thoroughly cleaned both coin mechs and they are SPARKLING!  The CLR and Brasso brought them all to a like-new shine.  I fully disassembled both coin mechs, cleaned them out, and found out that a convection oven at 170 degrees will get rid of any water in the mechs no matter how far down it has soaked.  I now use that oven to dry all my parts after cleaning them and rinsing them. 

It's a major shame that I didn't take any photos of this thing prior to my restoration started.  Going through E-Bay I picked up replacement bezels and reject buttons for the ones on my door that looked pretty poor.  I was also able to find some other replacement parts such as microswitches and replacement ms covers that my door was missing.  Basically, for less than $25 I was able to replace the missing and poor-shape parts for my door.  Total, the door will be like brand new for a mere $50.  Not bad. 

I have also gone and stripped the paint off of the coin doors and frames.  The paint came off easily and revealed a bit of rust underneath it.  I have gotten my dremel out along with some CLR to remove the rust and leftover paint.  I now need to hammer out some of the dents and straighten out parts of the doors, then when the weather warms up I will use Rustoleum hammered finish paint and re-paint the doors and frame.  I will also put a protective layer of paint on the metal coin box that houses the coin collector on the bottom half of the door. 

I'm going to need to figure out how to hook up the coin counter as well.  It has a harness with a simple + and - connector on there, so I think that when a coin goes through the mech (Like they do now.  Cleaning out the mechs has made them work FLAWLESSLY now.    )  I will want to set the counter to zero, then hook it up to the coin switches so when they activate the counter increases by one. 

The final nice thing is that the coin door came with a bracket that houses two smal buttons and two potentiometers.  (Service Mode button, Service Coin button, and Left Volume and Right Volume).  I will be hooking up the Service Mode and Service Coin buttons to my keyboard encoder (F2 and 9 respectively) since it will be very realistic that way, and will feel pretty neat hitting the service mode button in the coin door to enter service mode in the applicable games.   

[CrazyKongFan]

The final nice thing is that the coin door came with a bracket that houses two smal buttons and two potentiometers.  (Service Mode button, Service Coin button, and Left Volume and Right Volume).  I will be hooking up the Service Mode and Service Coin buttons to my keyboard encoder (F2 and 9 respectively) since it will be very realistic that way, and will feel pretty neat hitting the service mode button in the coin door to enter service mode in the applicable games.   

I did this on mine too, although the original door came with a double throw switch with one momentary and one not, I replaced it with one that was momentary on both throws. I don't hold F2 when I'm going into service mode or F3 when resetting it, so I figured momentary would be better. 

[Ken Layton]

I am updating this old thread. For those of you who have a Coin Controls brand coin door, you can still buy brand new parts for it at Happ Controls and other distributors. I made up a parts picture identification guide to help you when ordering parts:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=325061&highlight=coin+controls+door+parts