Advice on my Ms. Pac

[icyjones]

Hello all. I'm very excited to have my first cab be a Ms. Pac-Man. It may be very popular, but it was always my favorite growing up. I found her in Cinci on craigslist, where I went to check this listing, and one for Capt. America and the Avengers 4 player. The monitor and price wasn't right for Ol' Cap, but i was really excited to see that Ms. Pac was in such good condition. I live in Louisville, KY, so the 2 hour drive home was painful with each bump, and the snow for the last 20 minutes, but she made it into my basement no worse for the wear.

I'll be posting my progress on her, but I have three main questions first.

The biggest is, how much restoration would you guys do on this cab? The vast majority of the paint is in good shape, and there is just a little hand wear.

The next two involve locks. I don't have a key to the back panel. I know I could drill it out, but does anyone else have any ideas? I read in the Popeye thread that you can pop the vents off and try to get to the lock that way. Also, the op of the Popeye thread mentioned he was able to get a key for his cab, how would I do this? I have checked in the cab, around the coin door, and around the coin box for the key, but it is nowhere to be found.

As you can see in the pics, the coin door doesn't have a lock. Would you guys just suggest getting one that fits from a hardware store?

Thanks a lot for looking. I'm excited to be active in the forums as well.

[opt2not]

Where are you people finding such good conditioned cabinets?? That's two posts today!

Your sideart looks great. I'd touch it up with a small paint brush, then cover it up (painters tape- delicate) and give the blue a fresh coat of paint. Replace the t-molding, drill out the locks and order new proper cam locks from bobroberts or Arcadeshop. The hardware store might not have proper cams. I'd personally try to restore this to it's original condition as best I could.
While youre at it, get new rubber grommets from bob too. The joysticks for pacs are vital to be in great working condition.

Also, do a search on the manual and schematics and become familiar with it's internals. Always one of the first things you should do when starting a restore.

Good luck, welcome to the forum, and I look forward to your progress.

[kampcool]

Shes a BEAUT!  Congrats on that find.  Looks like you are already playing, Im jealous........