Centipede Restoration

[SirPeale]

Personally I would never hose down a monitor. WAY too risky ! You never know where that water stays....

Not risky at all once it's dried.  I pop mine into an oven at the lowest setting (~200 F) for an hour.

[Spyridon]

I pop mine into an oven at the lowest setting (~200 F) for an hour.

I left mine in the hot sun all day.  Dried it out nicely.

[Level42]

There's too many water absorbing parts in there for my taste. Pots, trimmers,coils, yoke, you name it. Great if it works for you, I just keep to using the best of a vacuum cleaning and some paper towel and cleaning agent at the spots I think it's safe and I can reach.

[WunderCade]

How do you guys keep water out of the anode hole in the tube? I've never inspected that hole closely so I don't know how deep it is or if it is sealed off on the inside.

[Spyridon]

How do you guys keep water out of the anode hole in the tube? I've never inspected that hole closely so I don't know how deep it is or if it is sealed off on the inside.

That was a concern of mine, and I kept the anode cup in place, however, I did see a post recently over at KLOV on this and they hosed it down completely including inside the anode hole.  It is sealed off so water won't get inside. 

[Spyridon]

Getting ready to start the side art application.  Since I had the cab on its side, now was a good time to replace the legs with nylon legs



Was able to replace three of them, but the t-nut on the fourth is shot.  I'll need to replace it.  I need to pick up one for my Gauntlet anyway.

[Wade]

As the owner of an Irish Centi (and having seen both other Irish and US Centi's) I'm telling you there is a difference. There were also differences in the marquee and side-art, why would something "simple" as a blue color shade not be different ?

In fact, the "brighter" blue on the Irish CPO matches the blue on the Irish bezel. Like the US CPO blue matches the US bezel.

Personally I would never hose down a monitor. WAY too risky ! You never know where that water stays....

Level42, what you've seen doesn't mean much for someone in the US.  I've seen TWO types of US Centipede sideart, marquees, and I believe I've seen two different shades of blue in the bezels and control panels.  The bezels and CP's might just be a matter of the cameras used (both Centipedes I've had have a bright blue bezel that looks just like yours only missing the reds).  I'm not sure if the CP's came in different shades in the US or not but I'd prefer for the overlay to match the bezel if possible.

So it's possible the US Centipedes you've seen had the darker blues.  That would mean that it's possible that your Irish blue is the same as the "other" US Centipedes.  Know what I mean?

As far as monitors, I've hosed at least a dozen, never had a problem.  Not too risky if you allow them to dry.  I've also dishwashed at least 100 PCB's and only had one failure, which was on a boardset that fails frequently (washing or not).

Wade

[Spyridon]

Picked up some t-nuts today to replace the bad one.  It's good to know people in the nuts and bolts industry.  My cost $0.04 each. 
\

Really easy to install.  Just hammer into place



and insert leg


Since I purchased these nylon casters for all my games, if I find any nuts that give me any kind of  problem, I'll just replace it with these low cost new ones.  Makes adjusting the height really easy as the legs turn fluidly.

[SirPeale]

You're going to want to shore that t nut up a bit.  Because the wood there is already a bit chewed likely it won't bite as well as a fresh installation.  A couple of 1" screws will secure it nicely.

[Spyridon]

You're going to want to shore that t nut up a bit.  Because the wood there is already a bit chewed likely it won't bite as well as a fresh installation.  A couple of 1" screws will secure it nicely.

It's in there pretty solid, but since I've got it on its side, I may as well add the screws as you suggested.

[Level42]

Picked up some t-nuts today to replace the bad one.  It's good to know people in the nuts and bolts industry.  My cost $0.04 each. 

You should ask if the guy you know in nuts and bolts can supply the nylon casters

[Spyridon]

Picked up some t-nuts today to replace the bad one.  It's good to know people in the nuts and bolts industry.  My cost $0.04 each. 

You should ask if the guy you know in nuts and bolts can supply the nylon casters

Yeah, I thought of that too late.  Already got my shipment in.

[Spyridon]

Still haven't had a chance to install the side art, but I did start to reassemble the internals

Here is what it looked like when I got it:


And now...

[hatrick]

You do very nice work. Your attention to detail is incredible. I thoroughly enjoy reading all of your resto threads. 

[Spyridon]

Installed the coin door wire harness onto the coin door.  Nothing was labled on the connections so I had to go pull out the pin out to determine what goes where (the loose wires are for the lock out coils which weren't present on this coin door)

While I was in there, I replaced the two coin door bulbs with new ones.

Then installed the marquee, coin door and control panel onto the cab.


I picked up a NOS back door sheet a while ago, but I never unpacked it until today.  Looks really nice.  Nice bright white and in great shape.

Installed on the back door:


I also assembled the Arcadeshop reproduction bezel.  It came shipped in two pieces

It connects together by an ahesive on two of the tabs.  Just pull off the paper and stick it together


First side done

Second side done:


Just setting it in place to see what it looks like.  Need to figure out which end is the top?  I won't staple it in place until the monitor is back in.


Can anyone tell me if Centipede used smooth or textured t-molding?

[Superully]

the t-molding on mine is smooth!

[hatrick]

the t-molding on mine is smooth!

Mine has smooth t-molding as well.

[Spyridon]

Okay, smooth it is.

[Level42]

Yes very smooth 

[SirPeale]

Interesting...it's textured on my mini.

[Wade]

Interesting...it's textured on my mini.

Not interesting.  Completely different cabinet.

My regular upright is smooth as well.

Wade

[StuDaBaker]

I picked up an original Centipede upright about a year ago, mine has smooth T-molding as well. The previous owner did replace the CP overlay and it looks nice, but did a kind of shotty job with the left side art decal and there's no right side art at all. Overall, the cabinet is in pretty good shape, and reading this thread has got me really wanting to go through with a full restoration. When I get it going I'm sure I'll need some advice and will start a new thread, and although you're in the home stretch on wrapping this up, if you need any pics for a cross reference or something, I'll do what I can to help.

[Spyridon]

I'm having people over this weekend on Halloween and we will most likely end up in the arcade at some point so I wanted to get Centipede playable.  I've got some extra new Vision Pro's sitting around so I decided to throw one in the cab.  I'm still going to do the cap kit on the G07 monitor, but I probably won't put it back into this game until I need a monitor for a different game.  The G07 has some screen burn but isn't too bad when the game is on.  It's still good and will get used again.


Monitor installed and blue bezel put into place:


Glass bezel installed:


And the current state of the game:


Remaining items to do:
Install side art
Install new t-molding

The picture on the monitor is beautiful, except when I turn the cab 90 degrees and slide it into the row.  Major degaussing problem as the upper left corner turns blue instead of red/green.  Monitor does not have a degauss button.  Any suggestions on how to clear this up?  If I rotate the game, picture is fine.

[2600]

Looks good.

You need a manual degausser to solve your degauss problem.

[Level42]

Maybe, maybe not. I've experienced that it will go away after some time (turning on off every now and then). Providing the automatic degauss works OK.

[2600]

True you don't need a degaussing coil.  You can try turning it on and off a few times, get a corded drill and see if that will deguass it,  or put lots of magnets around it so that it's blue everywhere.

Personally, a degaussing coil didn't seem like a bad investment and I spent the $20 for one.

[SirPeale]

I made mine.  One from an old TV, looped to a figure eight shape then doubled onto itself.  I still need to wire it to a switch, but it works perfectly.

[Mauzy]

I made mine.  One from an old TV, looped to a figure eight shape then doubled onto itself.  I still need to wire it to a switch, but it works perfectly.

+1. Works great, I use one on a surge protector as a switch on a regular basis.

(I think I've plus one-d this idea every time I've seen it... )

[Wade]

Your monitor will try to degauss when it starts up cold.  Usually after a few attempts many monitors will clear up on their own.  I'd just wait it out.

Wade