The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Arcade Collecting => Restorations & repair => Topic started by: matman on November 30, 2009, 02:07:00 pm
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Hey everyone. Being completely new to arcade restoration, I thought I would take a moment to write up what's going on with my Ms. Pac-Man restoration.
March 2009 - I bought this somewhat beat up cab for myself for my birthday ;) It was on EBay and said "does not power up". It was local to me and I thought to myself "Man this would be cool to fix up!" So I bought it.
Here is what I got:
Doesn't turn on - Turns out the kill switch was doing its job. Also a new fuse was needed. I had it up and running within a couple hours.
Control Panel - needs cleaning, needs new buttons, joystick needs fixing (possible rewire as well). I wish I could find NOS artwork for it. The panel itself could use a paint job. Luckily there aren't any random holes that need filling.
No Sound - (required a new speaker)
Monitor(G07) quality - severe magnetization and poor color quality. I tried a cap kit and replaced some transistors on the neck but no luck. I've replaced it with a vision pro and might look to get the Electrohome rejuvenated.
Bezel - the glass bezel inside is in fair condition. The artwork is mostly there, but the glass itself is very scratched up.
CRT Plastic Bezel - the crt bezel is in pretty good shape, but it is warped on one side. I need to investigate a way to get it back to straight or get a new one.
Gray Plexi - this thing is warped like crazy. I may need to purchase a new one.
Marquee lighting not working - needed a new starter. That was easy!
Marquee artwork - very good condition. (One minor scratch in the artwork.)
Coin Door - The mechs work, but the door is a mess. I will restore it.
Cabinet itself - the cabinet has a lot of drilled holes in it but for the most part is in good shape. The paint job is very poor..someone tried to hand paint over it, but it looks horrible. The top layer of the top piece is peeling off so i might strip it off and put a new piece of laminate or do nothing. I'm contemplating painting with stencils...contemplating.
Misc - i need to put on some new leg levelers.
Here is a recap of what I have done to this point:
1. Got it to power up
2. Stripped off most the parts to see what needs replacing
3. performed a cap kit on the monitor (no luck)
4. replaced the speaker and starter for light
5. performed a coin door restoration
6. replaced the monitor with a Vision Pro (it looks awesome!)
I, as many, am struggling with the "keep original vs. make it look like new" dilemma. I really would like to repaint it..and since the cab has things carved into it and someone already somewhat ruined the paint job by attempting to paint over it...it makes me feel a little better about it...hmmm
attached is a pic of the cab when I got it.
My next step is to get the control panel working and cleaned up.
If anyone has any leads on CPO (not twobits), please let me know. :)
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Cabinet itself - the cabinet has a lot of drilled holes in it but for the most part is in good shape. The paint job is very poor..someone tried to hand point over it, but it looks horrible. The top layer of the top piece is peeling off so i might strip it off and put a new piece of laminate or do nothing. I'm contemplating painting with stencils...contemplating.
Do it. Stencils are fun...and the results can be amazing.
I, as many, am struggling with the "keep original vs. make it look like new" dilemma. I really would like to repaint it..and since the cab has things carved into it and someone already somewhat ruined the paint job by attempting to paint over it...it makes me feel a little better about it...hmmm
Nothing to struggle about on this one. Go ahead and repaint it.
Good luck. That can be turned back into a real nice cab.
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Nothing to struggle about on this one. Go ahead and repaint it.
Agreed.
Good luck with your project. My first project was a Ms Pac as well. I had a couple of the same problems as you did.
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Oh yeah. Considering your Swiss cheese front panel you have there, I would bondo that baby up and get to work on some stencils!
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I have 2 questions about the joystick.
1. Does this look right to you? Up near the red ball, it looks kinda weird especially compared to what shows in the manual.
2. I need the little nylon sleeve (Stop spacer) that goes over the joystick. anyone know where that might be available?
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I finally found some time to work on the cabinet. This weekend I spent some time stripping the old paint. After getting all the parts out of the cabinet I began on the paint. There were multiple layers and it didn't go as easy as I had hoped. I stripped as much as i could with citristrip and then sanded off the rest with 60grit discs. I still have the front, back and top to do, but hopefully those go a little easier. Man this cabinet is in bad shape.
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Bondo is your friend! That stuff is awesome. I used it to restore a paint job on a MAME cab that I build and I never turned back. Don't worry, it won't look great at first but when you're done you won't believe it's the same cabinet!
Good luck!
DeLuSioNaL29
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Man, I haven't updated this in a while. Between work and other stuff, I haven't had that much time to work on it. Although this past couple weekends I finally got all the paint off the Ms. Pacman and it is ready for the structural fixes (bondo, etc...) Part of what is slowing me down is the Robotron cabinet I'm doing in parallel. I'm thinking two machines at once might be more efficient since i'll have all the tools/chemicals/etc.. out at the same time.
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wow, it's like robotron season right now!