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Author Topic: Gauntlet Resto!  (Read 3915 times)

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spacies

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Gauntlet Resto!
« on: November 24, 2008, 02:55:16 am »
1st up, you better make a coffee or grab a beer.

A few of you will know that I acquired a Gauntlet cab a while back.
I also have another here for restoration which is featured in this thread.

Here is a pic of them side by side:





As you can see they are very different.
Mine is on the left and it is a licensed Atari version made by Coin Cascade here in NZ in the 80's. The other, I suspect, is an operator made cabinet.

So this is what I started with:



It was originally black but along its journey the black was removed and it was repainted blue. The current owner painted the left hand side black and applied a few coats of gloss black acrylic house paint. The finish looks good in the pics but it is pretty poor and very textured. None of the holes and scratches had been filled before painting.

First mission was to get it back up and running. It was running sweet and the current owner had purchased an original Atari Bezel from the USA and wanted to install it. He used a bunch of washers to 'jack' out the screen to fit the bezel but didn't realize he had nicked the deguassing coil in the process. When he was happy he fired it up and it arced and blew the chassis. That was repaired and when he powered it up again his Game PCB was dead. He had a spare but didn't want to try anymore 'handywork' because of the last effort. He sent me an email and asked if I would give it a full restoration as well as get it back up and running.

The PCB swap was pretty straight forward except the someone had soldered all the wires to the little pins instead of using the correct plugs. I called him and told him it was working again and we talked for while about the cosmetic stuff on the cabinet. Basically he told me the budget and I put together a plan of attack.

So this is where the fun begins.

I was looking at a ton of reference photos the owner had collected and sent to me . So I emailed him and asked him if he wanted me to cut the sides the same shape as the USA ones since his didn't have it. He replied in seconds saying it would be TOTALLY AWESOME if I could do that. This his only arcade machine and it sits in his office. He said he has wished it had that kink in the back since he got it and constantly stared at visualizing the kink.

So first up was to remove the bottom panel:



I noticed all the slight indentations where the screws where located and dug out the filler and removed the screws.



Repeated both sides and in a short time:





So the next thing was to cut a template of the kink. The measurement where sent to me by a kind owner from the USA.



I traced the template onto the cab on both sides and made the cuts:







Next step was to draw out the internal layout of the new bits which were also sent to me:



Using the leftovers I remade the bottom rear and top:









Happy with the way it turned out I started on the paint preparation on the sides.
The blue was fairly straight forward. The paint was enamel and was nice and hard and feathered nicley. A quick scratch with the sander and it came up pretty good



Next step, the black side.

I had to remove the artwork that the owner had applied. It had all sorts of crap underneath it which was visible as lumps. I suspect the dry method :p





As I peeled back the old art I could see it was pulling off the old layer of blue paint and some of the MDF. Man I was gutted because I knew the amount of prep had just gone from 1 quick 10 minute sand, to a full day of building the paint up and blocking it smooth :cry

So I start sanding and thought ---fudgesicle--- this, it needs a rougher paper:



I remove the 120 grit and pulled out the 80. A few minutes later, goodbye paint, hello bare wood:



Now you can see what I have to work with:



:o :o :o

Once I had sanded both sides I knocked off the front panels and put in a single piece of MDF. This is getting brand new USA coin doors in the front like the originals.



My little dog loves helping:





So the cabinet now has a nice curvy butt and a new face. She sure is going to be pretty!

While it was lying down I also painted the base:



So next step is to blow some filler on her to seal her up and to highlight the imperfections I need to fix.





The right hand side came up pretty good but the side where the art had ripped off the MDF was very bad. I used about half a liter of filler trying to build it up. Each time I blocked it back it was still pretty rough. Then a funny thing happened.

I picked up the can of filler and went to shake it and the lid flew off and primer went everywhere :cry :o



Then I remembered something (insert light bulb here). Back in the early car production days, the guys in the paint department would actually roll on the primer over the really rough bit and block it back nice and flat. So out came the little roller and I used it to pick up the spilt primer and applied it to the cab. It also picked up all the crap off the workshop floor aa well :lol





I applied about a half litre onto that one side and let it harden.
Then I sanded it with the dual action sander to get it smooth and finished it off with some wet and dry. The finish is now dead flat but it was about 10 hours work. That doesn't sound like much but if you hate sanding, then it is a LONG TIME!!!! I don't recommend rolling the primer on if you don't have the correct tools and/or the willingness to block it back. Seriously!

Right now the cab is outside. I have just applied some spray putty on a couple of tiny spots I missed.

That needs to dry for another hour and the I will re-prime and sand smooth with some 1200 grit ready for the final satin black.

Couple more pics. The green stuff is spray putty. This is for super fussy ---daisies--- like myself:





More wet and dry sanding with the 1200 grit:



Dirty bird ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on the dam cab:



Thats it! I am calling the prep done. See me in the reflection of the primer. Nice:



Black paint, here we come!

Enjoy the pics and sorry for the long write up, but some of you will find it helpful.

:)

« Last Edit: November 24, 2008, 03:04:44 am by spacies »

driph

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Re: Gauntlet Resto!
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2008, 03:51:35 pm »
Wow, a reflection in your primer, I can't wait to see what the final paint application is like!

High quality work, very nice.

spacies

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Re: Gauntlet Resto!
« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2008, 04:20:24 am »
Wow, a reflection in your primer, I can't wait to see what the final paint application is like!

High quality work, very nice.

Thanks.

It was a ton of sanding. I used to work in a Hot Rod shop so I got a bit carried away with the prep.

Well the wind died down enough to paint today.
5 coats of Satin Black Lacquer later and:







Crap pictures. The cab looks like it has been dipped on plastic. Done some assembly after the pics and played a few games. Stink by yourself though.

More pics tomorrow.

spacies

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Re: Gauntlet Resto!
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2008, 02:34:33 am »


Minor assembly today:















Still waiting for the new doors.
Then it is just the front and side art and she is good to go back home

:)

jono

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Re: Gauntlet Resto!
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2008, 03:05:51 am »
mate you do some nice work spacies seeing this and the stuff you sell on trade me awesome!! :notworthy:

i guess you'll be sad to see it go are you planing to do a similar thing to the kiwi cab or keep the wood veneer also do you get materials locally eg. t-moulding screens art work?
or order them in.

spacies

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Re: Gauntlet Resto!
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2008, 04:15:26 pm »
Hey Jono.

Thanks mate. Yeah I will be sad to see this go. Its come up real nice.

There are some differences in the 2 cabs but most of all the Kiwi one sits on a wooden plinth so it can't really have the kink in the back which I added to this one. I think I will refurb the Kiwi one and sell it because my keeper must have that same shape now that I have seen it.

Almost everything comes from overseas mate. I do design a lot of the art myself though.
Haven't had anything on TM for a while. Its pretty dead on there for selling top end stuff. Everyone is looking for a bargain which is fair enough but all my stuff is new, so I have to charge more.

What are you working on? Any projects?

jono

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Re: Gauntlet Resto!
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2008, 04:14:05 am »
hiya buddy

I've only started this hobby maybe 18 months ago and its pretty addictive and only because we've moved into a house with a man cave downstairs the first cab i got was a T2 (NZ version).i loved this game as a kid.

then i got the quartet which i mamed just the panel though i love the art work this cab had been mamed before so the board was gone and the loom cut up original panel drilled the usual thing that bad mamers do so this was the first mame project i made a few mistakes with the panel layout though. but i source a board, loom,panel and marquee off eBay for cheap with some outrageous shipping cost so i think this will return to original.

the others are on the to do list the candy cab i hope will be a vertical shooter  (mamed)daytona i got for a buck NZ and is mamed just need to setup the frontend fill the coin door with coin mechs. outrun 2006 is pretty cool.

and now have 2 spots left for pins maybe 1 old 1 new (well later model dot matrix?) I'm not allowed machines in any other part of the house so once the rooms full i will have to rotate them around eg buy one sell which is fine i have talked to a few guys in this hobby in Auckland and i get the impression that women hate them the amount of money spent and taking up space in the lounge which i found pretty funny ::)

as for your trade me stuff i can understand that especially with the economic climate at the mo still you do the best work that I've seen. here's a few snaps cheers.

« Last Edit: December 04, 2008, 01:02:44 am by jono »

drawfull

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Re: Gauntlet Resto!
« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2008, 04:09:57 am »
That looks sweet Spacies. On your control panel, the rubber round the edge (fat t-moulding) looks in really good condition. Did you replace it? If so, where did you get it? The stuff on my GL is shot.

 :cheers: