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Buying old cab

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Neverending Project:

Keep an eye out for the condition of the cab, and the style too. You will be using this thing, so you want the overall look to be one that you can look at every day.

Make sure you look near the edges of the cab, and pay attention to any damage - chipping, water damage, holes - this is all stuff that will take time to repair.

And like it was stated above, look for something that will fit your ideal control panel. Some cabs have "wings", in between which the CP size is fixed. These tend to only support a fixed width CP unless you plan on cutting the wings off (more work). Other cabs have bolt on CPs, which may be best for bolting on a new, larger CP.

Unless the cab is somewhat unique, you will most likely be replacing the controls. Although some controls are hard to find (e.g. Star Wars yoke or Tron joystick), buttons and basic joysticks will most likely be replaced.

Oh, and finally, while it may seem that it is much less work to convert a cab than to start from scratch, I have found that the conversion is a lot of work too! Considering all the retro fitting, repairing and supports you will be adding, it turns out to be quite a bit of work.

Keep us posted!

Lutus:

Try to get all 10.   ;)

Chewy27:

Thanks for all your great feedback guys.  Lets see if I can answer some of your questions.

DeLuSioNal29: I would love to, the problem is that I have to drive almost 3 hours to see them, so I am going to just buy one as soon as I see it.  That is one of the reasons I am working to get prepared before I get there.

TelcoLou: Great looking cab man.  Keep up the good work.

Daniel B: Great idea Daniel.  So get an idea in my head of the size/layout of my cp so I have that ready as I am walking around looking at the cabs.

brock.sampson: Great points man.  One of the problems in living in the Great White North is that the nearest point that exists on Craigslist is 3 hours away.  :)

Neverending Project: Good plan on the "wings" thing.  I am sure it will end up being a lot of work in the long run but I am trying to do something to get this project kick started.

Lutus: Sounds like a plan man, you float me a loan for $1000?   :)

The only other info I am kinda looking for is on the monitor front.  Is there a specific kind I should be looking for or avoiding like the plague. 

Thanks a lot of for all the amazing feedback guys.  I knew this was the place to come to ask the question. 

Chewy

CheffoJeffo:


--- Quote from: Chewy27 on February 22, 2008, 06:20:24 pm ---brock.sampson: Great points man.  One of the problems in living in the Great White North is that the nearest point that exists on Craigslist is 3 hours away.  :)

--- End quote ---

Chewy -- where are you ?

Being in the GWN is not a limitation in it's own -- hell, the biggest nexus for coin-op in Canada is a two-hour drive from here and I'm 15 minutes away from the biggest coin-op company in the country.

Where are you ? Maybe we can help ... or point you in the right direction ...

Or steal any classics from your source before anybody has a chance to do something bad to them ...

gatordad:


--- Quote from: Chewy27 on February 22, 2008, 06:20:24 pm ---

The only other info I am kinda looking for is on the monitor front.  Is there a specific kind I should be looking for or avoiding like the plague. 

Thanks a lot of for all the amazing feedback guys.  I knew this was the place to come to ask the question. 

Chewy

--- End quote ---

When looking for tv's you will want one with component (the red green and blue connections) not composite or s-video as they are less desirable solutions delivering only decent quality at best. On a TV component is it (best quality). You would also want something that has a auto on after power off feature, so if you hook your tv up to a power strip you can kill the power to the strip and when the power is restored to the power strip the tv comes back on, another feature to look for is if it will remember the last input when powering back on so you don't have to fuss with a remote or menu selections.

If you have access to tv with a scart (difficult to find in the US) connection you basically have a arcade monitor but you would have to make your own custom cable according to the pinouts in order to accomplish this.

I agree that Midway cabs are very flexable you can see my converted Blitz project in the link in my signature

Good Luck
GD

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