Farb's Donkey Kong Restore *COMPLETED*

[BUCKETHEAD]

Awesome!!!

[Farb]

Mmm... pretty sticker 

[jimkirk]

Thanks! I will say that spraying hasn't been the easiest thing and I've had some challenges in getting the right amount of overlap between paint strokes (this is my first time with a spray gun). I already had a compressor from finishing my basement, so my only investment was a $60 spray gun and painter's plastic that I stapled to my unfinished storage room's ceiling joists to create a make-shift spray booth. I'm pretty stoked with how it came out and can only imagine how good it would look if someone who knew what they were doing had done it

What kind of paint gun did you use. Did you use latex or oil based paint,also did you have to thin the paint. If so how much.

[Farb]

I used a non-HPLV gun I picked up at Home Depot. The paint was an oil-based Sherwin Williams enamel (I posted the formula on the first page). I thinned the paint to 12 seconds.

[Farb]

So, I cleaned the monitor and removed all the adhesive residue around the perimeter that was holding the black paper on. Although I didn't notice it when I was playing originally, there's a fair amount of burn-in in the monitor (you can see the barrel level in the monitor). I'm guessing that between the dirt and the darkened bezel window, the burn-in was minimized. I hope that continues to be the case! 

[Farb]

Stripped and repainted the marquee retainers and sanded/repainted the control panel...

[Farb]

JeepMonkey,

Here's a pic of the bezels side-by-side (original on the right, arcadeshop on the left)

[Farb]

The right side art has been applied. Man, I remember the stress of putting those little water release decals on plastic models as a kid... the stress of applying a $26 piece of vinyl after spending a week painting is WAY worse! 

[JeepMonkey]

JeepMonkey,
Here's a pic of the bezels side-by-side (original on the right, arcadeshop on the left)

Thanks Farb.

I see the colors are a bit different.  Is it that the old bezel is just faded, or are the colors just different in places?

Do the dimensions match exactly?

Just curious, why did you go with arcadeshop?  I know there are other companies that make repro DK bezels.

[Wade]

I'm pretty sure that ALL the silkscreened DK repro artwork came from the same place.  So it's mostly a matter of finding the best price between Phoenixarcade, Arcadeshop, and Mike's Arcade.

Wade

[Farb]

JeepMonkey,
Here's a pic of the bezels side-by-side (original on the right, arcadeshop on the left)

Thanks Farb.

I see the colors are a bit different.  Is it that the old bezel is just faded, or are the colors just different in places?

Do the dimensions match exactly?

Just curious, why did you go with arcadeshop?  I know there are other companies that make repro DK bezels.

Yes, the old bezel is quite faded. The colors are way more vibrant on the repro, although I've found a problem with the paint having bled onto the window which appears to be a defect when the repro was made. I have an e-mail into arcadeshop to see if there's a way to fix it or replace it. The dimensions seem to match exactly although, as someone mentioned earlier, it's slightly thinner than the original.

I don't recall why I picked arcadeshop over the others... it was probably that their price seemed reasonable and I had read good things about their stuff. My side art was from quarterarcade.com (which I got from a forum member at a slight discount).

[hatrick]

The right side art has been applied. Man, I remember the stress of putting those little water release decals on plastic models as a kid... the stress of applying a $26 piece of vinyl after spending a week painting is WAY worse! 

Looks Good!
Funny, I just ordered my side art last week and although I'm excited for it to arrive, I'm a bit nervous for the same exact reason you stated above. One screw up on the side art can ruin the look of the whole cab and all the work I've put into it.

[Farb]

Doing the second side wasn't nearly as difficult as the first. What I did was put a piece of tape along the top and right side to use for alignment. Make sure that your tape is parallel with the edge of the cabinet. I originally thought I should make the piece of tape level but then realized the cabinet wasn't level! Then just peel back enough of the artwork backing on the top to stick it along the edge of the tape. I used the edge of a slimine CD jewel case as a burnishing tool and worked the vinyl from center outwards, top to bottom. The one place I screwed up on the first side was in the small section where I worked from edge to center and wound up with a little air bubble. The second side came out perfect after I learned from my mistake.

[Farb]

Here is the coin door front stripped of all powder coating and the back part of the pushbutton hole covered with fiberglass cloth.

[Farb]

Here are some pics of the painted coin door and it re-installed in the cabinet. The paint is Rustoleum hammered black -- not particularly crazy about it.

[Jdurg]

Yeah, I tried the hammered black paint as well on my coin door, and I found that it doesn't really hold up to abuse well at all, and it's a bit too glossy.  If I had the motivation to re-do the coin door, I'd wind up using the truck bed liner paint and putting that on the door since it's VERY durable and has the right texture and gloss to it.

[WunderCade]

Curious as to why you chose "hammered" for a DK Coin Door. The finish in your pics would be perfect on a Ms. Pac coin door though.

In looking a my DK and DK Jr. cabs....there is slight texture but it is soo slight I think a non-textured flat finish would be a better choice - for me anyway.

Nonetheless...good work.

Edit: Did you just use Bondo on that fiber-mesh to fill that hole? How'd it work out for ya?

[Farb]

I didn't realize the hammered had quite so much texture to it. I may redo it at some point. The truck bed liner paint idea is an interesting one.

I actually used fiberglass on both sides of the hole and sanded the front side flat which left a slight depression. I used bondo to even out the depression. It seems plenty strong and you'd never know there was a hole there.

On another note, has anyone come up with a good way to restore the face of the coin plates? Mine are pretty scratched and I know spray paint won't be durable enough. Special polish or electroplating?

[Level42]

Or buy a new mech.


http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=62884.msg852340#msg852340

[Farb]

Wow, nice find! Did you ever find a distributor that wasn't in Indonesia? :-)

Here's a pic of the old coin mechs after cleaning and new sticker...

[Farb]

Here's one more with the new bezel installed. As indicated in an earlier post, the replica bezel is thinner than the original. The metal bracket that was attached along the bottom of the original bezel was REALLY stuck and difficult to get off. Since I had to repaint the bracket anyway, I took a hammer to it and straightened out some of the warping and also made the channel a bit thinner so the new bezel fit snugly.

Only t-molding to go and it's done!!

[Farb]

WOOHOO! Completed 

[WunderCade]

WOW!! Minty looking. LOVE IT!!!

[CheeseSndwch]

Looks great Farb.

[Wade]

Very Nice!!!

Wade

[JeepMonkey]

That is a good looking machine!  It makes me want to get my stuff and get to work.

I may have missed it, but where did you get your t-molding?

[Farb]

Thanks for the kind words, guys!

The tmolding is from mikesarcade.com.

[Level42]

Note that Mikesarade has TWO versions of nintendo white t-molding. One is flatter than the other, but it's still not 100% like the original. (For the mr.perfects that is).

Also check out this thread that discusses the Nintendo T-molding:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=80837.0



B.t.w. What a louzy restoration. Looks like ---Cleveland steamer---.




Seriously: Fantastic job 

[hatrick]

Very Nice. Mine is done as of last weekend, except for the back door. Still need to build one.

[BUCKETHEAD]

Excellent job !

Looks very good!

Im jealous, You can get your backdoor on!  lol.

I got my t-molding from www.twistedquarter.com

Based in florida. Order from the guy all the time! He's super fast!!!

Again, great job !

[Level42]

Never mind....