Project UpdateSorry for the lack of actual photos in this update, but I have some time and wanted to update on the status of the cab. I'll add the pictures in later where appropriate.
Coin Door Restore(See before, after, and 'hanging sprayer setup' below)The coin door has been restored. I did a light sanding with some steel wool to remove a bit of the paint and flatten out the few gashes in the paint that were present. For paint, I used a Black Satin Finish Krylon Enamel. I hung the door from a coat hanger on a plant hanger, which I covered/protected with some trash bags. Total number of coats is approximately 8-10, and I spent the better portion of last Saturday applying the paint to the door, a few misc. bolts, and handles for the back door of the cab.
Overall, I'm extremely happy withe the results and I hope that the paint doesn't scratch/nick/etc. easily. I'm not clear coating it as there's a good number of paint layers and it's enamel so it should dry hard. Hopefully.
Cab Back DoorI used some wood filler to level/fill in small holes in the back door. The holes were no more than 1/4inch, so Bondo seemed overkill. I also used a bit to fill smaller nicks on the side/corners of the back door. Using a Random Orbital Sander I then sanded down the door (it had a weird bumpy texture) and spray painted it. Here's where things got interesting. I tried a satin finish, and it looked way too shiney. I then went back and redid it with a flat paint (spray paint) of the same finish/type that I used for inside the cab. Looks much better and allows me to do touch-ups (which has become very important) and retain the exact same finish.
Once the door was painted on both sides and looking decent, I started working on how to have the door attached. I wanted something that would eliminate the need for a lock on the back door, since I think it's unnecessary for a home cab and just makes things more difficult. So, I picked up two types of cabinet 'catches' hoping one would work. The first was a friction catch. I installed one, and it seemed to work well. I then installed the second - and it didn't catch at all. The retention was minimal and the door actually fell off the back (to my horror) when I tapped on it from the front of the cab. (This induced my wife to come in saying 'That sounded like a disaster just happened'). If nothing else, I know that tilting the door forward until it falls out of the cab won't rip apart the tongue/groove on the bottom of the door.
So, with this failing, I went to my backup plan. I also purchased double magnet catches (similar to the normal magnetic catches in cabinets, but two of them in one housing and two metal plates). Originally I was going to use the friction catches at the top of the door and then the magnets in the middle as I figured the friction catches would hold better than the magnetic ones. I removed the friction catches completely, and installed the magnet catches in their place. The magnets were placed on the cab, the plates on the door. Testing this out, even just ONE magnet catch (one side of the cab) held better than both friction catches. I knocked the cab around a bit trying to make the door fall off, but it didn't budge.
I then went on and installed two smaller size trunk type handles onto the back of the door. I wanted recessed handles originally, but the ones I saw looked a bit crappy or too 'industrial' and I didn't want to pay something nuts online for handles that were just there to make it easier to remove the back door and would never be seen. So, I painted these black as well (when I did the coin door) and installed them at about the same level as the magnetic catches. (I actually installed the handles first - it would have been hard to remove the door without them once the magnets were in place). I put the lock (which I have no key to) back in for aesthetics and put the door on and am very happy with how it looks. I'm now doing some touchup and coverup of the magnets units with black paint just to make everything uniform. If I end up being able to use the Omega Race back art (planets), this won't matter but I'd still rather have it all painted up and nice and completed when everythings accessible than wait until later.
LightingSo, the Omega Race cabinet has two marquees and three 'lights'. The top marquee is lit by a series of 7 bulbs in 194 type bases. The bottom marquee & the blacklight in the cabinet itself are 18" T8 flourescent fixtures. There's also the coin door lights, two bayonet style fixtures. I wanted to use as much of the original hardware as possible, so I decided to replace/get working all of these items as they were all there and looking decent.
For the top marquee, I picked up a bunch of the WLED-W's from here:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/bulb_specs.htm . They are 120 angle and fit into the 194 housing, so I was hoping they would be perfect replacements. I've since installed them and tested them by running them off a PC PSU. They look good, and light up the marquee if I hold it in front of them...but I think they may end up being a bit too dim. I may have to find some kind of brighter replacements...but I'm going to get everything connected and back together first and see how it looks on the rebuilt cab before I do that. To help with light reflection, I also painted the entire fixture in metallic silver - which hopefully will help more light be directed to the marquee itself.
(See picture of 'silvered' LED holder/marquee light below.)For the fluorescent fixtures, I had to locate some new starters...which was fun. 15W starters (T2 I believe they are called...or F2 or whatever) were nearly impossible to find. The fourth hardware store I went to finally had them - 2 for $2. Prob. ended up costing me more in gas then it did for the actual starters. I tested both fixtures, running them off the AC section of the cabs original power supply, and found out both the original bulbs still work (which is great...and leaves me with two bulbs I need to return!
). I'm going to do a comparison of the old vs. new bulbs to see which work better before returning however.
I ordered a few bayonet style bulbs (white) from SuperBrightLeds as well. They both looked good when run off a PC PSU, but I'm not sure if they'll light the coin door sufficiently. I may need to make some kind of 'reflector' from them out of foil or other shiney material...or order red versions of them. I won't be able to tell until I get the coin door back together (which I'm waiting on two new acrylic 25 cent signs and the metal Midway front plate for before reassembling).
New IssuesThe biggest new issue is that I just realized I either need an amp or I need replacement speakers for the speakers in the cab. This wasn't something I'd considered before and realized it last night when I tested them. Also, the cab PSU is something I don't think I'm going to be able to use for a few reasons. First, it's freakin' huge. Second, it goes through a number of steps to get clean DC power, which I shouldn't need since I'm already putting a PC PSU into the cab. I have more than one PC PSU available, so I can even toss two of them into the cab - one for DC lighting/LEDs and one for the actual computer. The only other thing is that I'm going to need to do the actual AC wiring of the fluorescent lights to a plug now. While not hard, I've never done it and it freaks me out a bit because of the possible danger. I've wired up new lights/fixtures, but this just makes me a bit wary since I'm putting a switch inline (on the hot wire, as I now know!). I picked up a wiring book from Home Depot for $10, so hopefully that'll keep me from killing myself, burning down the house, etc. And it's a useful reference for other house wiring anyway.
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Topic: Omega MAME: Revenge of Omega Race [COMPLETED! - Work on alt. CP's ongoing!] (Read 10766 times)
