Mortal Kombat restoration (done & new pix 8/30/14)

[Malenko]

Picked up an original Mortal Kombat cab over on KLOV for $300. Ended up costing closer to $425 after tolls and gas. Just going to restore it, no plans to make it a moving cockpit.
Here are the pictures from the for sale thread, aka the BEFORE pix:




The flash makes the sides look white, but its from the flash. sides are painted black:

[Malenko]

Here is the top corner before any paint is removed:


and here's a layer off:


They obviously left the control panel on while painting:


Quick fun fact. They spray painted, then rolled on paint, then spray painted again. I finally get to see *some* of the side art:

Its pretty beat up and faded, and will eventually need to be replaced.

Bottom doesn't look much better:


The funniest part of this is how great the tiny little piece near cage's hand looks, the part that was covered by the CP:


Most of the paint off:


pretty decent sized gouge:

[Malenko]

Paint is almost completely off this side:


Here is the CP BEFORE:

Not seen is the 7th hole drilled above the block buttons for both players.

EVERY SINGLE WIRE on the loom was cut , twisted, and taped. EVERY WIRE:

Will obviously be replaced by a new loom.

They even spliced the wiring from the power supply. They ran a tiny piece of yellow, tied it to red, then ran the 2 wires up to the light fixture that was glued in.

Looks like something Fire Marshall Bill would do.

This looks better to me:


Temp mounted the PCB, for now:

[MK3FAN]

Sweet! Good progress so far. Btw, your LP/LK harness is plugged onto the wrong header pins. Needs to be on the Player 3 connection.

[Malenko]

Sweet! Good progress so far. Btw, your LP/LK harness is plugged onto the wrong header pins. Needs to be on the Player 3 connection.

HAHA yeah, its just in there to keep it in a specific place so I wont lose it.  Do you have any pictures of where and how the MK1 board is SUPPOSED to be mounted?

Also, you can use any and all pictures on your facebook page if you want.

[MK3FAN]

Cool, well, from the factory, the main board's Jamma edge faced towards the front of the machine so when you slid the board out through the access, the Jamma harness and all the board's connections were right there and you didn't have to slide the board all the way out. Does that make sense?

[Malenko]

yeap 

Don't have any MK1 art just laying around do ya?

[MK3FAN]

Nope. What art do you need? This is where I'd get all your art if you need some...

http://www.thisoldgame.com/products/mortal-kombat-side-art

http://www.thisoldgame.com/products/mortal-kombat-control-panel-box-art-set

http://www.thisoldgame.com/products/utom-mortal-kombat-cpo

[error-]

Isn't there a normal MK1 CPO without the run buttons?
Also, the text version, not the stick figures.

[Malenko]

I dont mind the stick figures, but text is preferred; and yes, no run button.  I'll be putting plexi over the top even though MK1 didnt have plexi from the factory.

[error-]

I just got an email from Rich (ThisOldGame).

He said that the screen printed box art is out of stock and he doesn't know when they'll be printing them again.

I guess if enough people ask him, he'll have no choice but to make it.

I'm in the market for a set.





 

[Malenko]

Started the other side a couple days ago. All the arcade monitors and PCBs and cabs in the picture are just me Xhowing Off.

This is pretty much how it started:


and a ton of elbow grease later, You can see the dragon starting to pop through:


Quan Chi is impressed with how its going:


But for some reason, the side art looks better in the pictures than it does in person:


started getting the top part clean:


Johnny must have fallen and scraped his knee:


And even though there is some black paint on the sides still, Im not removing anymore. Ive inhaled enough chemicals and abused my putty knife enough for a cab who's art will eventually be replaced.


I started rewiring the JAMMA loom, sound, video, and power are all ran. and the loom is zip tied and separated into player 1, player 2, power, video, coins/service, and sound. So really all thats left is to wire up the CP.

[MK3FAN]

Lookin' good!

[FullmetalHeart]

What remover did you use on the paint?

[Malenko]

What remover did you use on the paint?

I used kleen paint stripper, the 30 minute kind. I spread it on, then scraped it off about 10 minutes later. That's enough to get the top layer off without damaging the art.
Then I used this stuff:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Motsenbockers-22-oz-Latex-Based-Paint-Remover-Lift-Off-5-413-01/100047250

basically spray it on, then scrape it off. The trick I invented was to spray it on, then lay either paper towels or shop towels on it, then spray them. Let it sit for 30 to 45 minutes, then scrape, then wipe with the paper towels (thats why you see paper towels on the cab in some of the pictures) I came up with that technique about 5 years ago when removing the paint from my KI cab: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,88688.0.html

[Malenko]

ok, so heres the cab with video and power hooked up:

Cool, well, from the factory, the main board's Jamma edge faced towards the front of the machine so when you slid the board out through the access, the Jamma harness and all the board's connections were right there and you didn't have to slide the board all the way out. Does that make sense?

Rotated the PCB and JAMMA loom wiring to match this:

might remove the volume pot, I have it turned all the way down and its still SUPER loud.

Here is how she sits now.  The art on the front is trashed, there's a black button blank where they drilled another button above the high attacks, its gonna stay that way until I can order a new CPO. I'll fill in the holes with dowel rods and remove the gaps with bondo. Before all that, I'll put the dustwashers between the wood and metal CPO. Also, it'll get the plexi-glass cover too, oh and new tmolding.

The monitor is pretty much perfect. There is an ever so slight AM2 burn in on the bottom right, that you simply cannot see when the monitor is on, and theres a very minor degauss issue on the bottom left.

[MK3FAN]

Great job! I'll wait until you're all done and post all the pics on the FB page.

[Gatsu]

  looking good man. Can't wait till I get mine all up and running.

[Malenko]

wh00ps, forgot a picture:



The game is 100% playable. I left the run buttons there just to plug the hole. I think I'll just get a new marquee and CPO for now, the rest of the art can wait till after the wedding

[yotsuya]

Looking good so far!

[Gatsu]

got a question for you. I've got 2 extra button holes drilled on my MK1 panel for each player. Apparently it was converted to a Street Fighter cab at some point.

Anyways. I was thinking of going the route you suggested and using dowel rods and bondo to fill in the extra holes. would you do that to just the wood portion of the panel? Or use the bondo on the metal surface as well? I ask because since mine was converted to a Street Fighter cab, those extra holes in the metal at least seem like they are gonna be a b*tch to fix.

And, worst case scenario...is there anyone out there that makes & sells the metal portion of the panel for the mk 1 cabs?

[Malenko]

welp, Im going to put dowels in, then smooth it out to the metal. basically means I can never take the metal off the wood CPO. In addition to that Im going to put plexi over top the art like MK2 and up, just to protect the art

[error-]

got a question for you. I've got 2 extra button holes drilled on my MK1 panel for each player.
Anyways. I was thinking of going the route you suggested and using dowel rods and bondo to fill in the extra holes. would you do that to just the wood portion of the panel? Or use the bondo on the metal surface as well?

welp, Im going to put dowels in, then smooth it out to the metal. basically means I can never take the metal off the wood CPO. In addition to that Im going to put plexi over top the art like MK2 and up, just to protect the art

I have the same problem.
Have run buttons on my MK1 as well.
I'm going to have to fill in the holes as well.
I'm not in such a big rush to complete it, once I have the funds to order new CP artwork and the PCB I'll start filling up the holes.
Hopefully by then you already did it, so I can learn from you. 

[shawn28341]

Just trying to see what you are doing here.  So the cabinet came with ultimate mk3 board?  And you are converting it back to the original MK1. I have a MK 3 in my collection and am looking for ultimate pcb board.   What is your plans with the board?  My mk3 plays perfect,  been housing a 512 In 1 just like to get scorpion into the mix.  :0)

[Malenko]

got low balled and sold it anyway. Theres almost always one for sale over on KLOV

[MK3FAN]

Just trying to see what you are doing here.  So the cabinet came with ultimate mk3 board?  And you are converting it back to the original MK1. I have a MK 3 in my collection and am looking for ultimate pcb board.   What is your plans with the board?  My mk3 plays perfect,  been housing a 512 In 1 just like to get scorpion into the mix.  :0)

I've got an "s-ton" of UMK3 security chips so if you can find any of the Wolf Unit pcbs, I can convert it to UMK3 for you. Might save you some $.

[Malenko]

MK3FAN is good peeps he'll hook you up!

[Gatsu]

Had a question for you Malenko.

The front of your cab, around the coin door. Is it painted black? Or is that vinyl?

I'm curious because mine is vinyl and I was wondering if painting over it would be best or sanding and replacing the vinyl?

[Malenko]

well I know my MK3 has a thin layer of vinyl, cause its peeling; Im pretty sure MK1 is the same stuff.  I plan to strip the vinyl on MK3 , get it smooth and paint it; not replacing the vinyl.

[Malenko]

Long time,  no post.

So here is how we last saw the control panel:


Now I have a marquee (custom redesign, very close to the original)


And now my front art is installed, I still need to apply the CPO, and MIDWAY side pieces:


and yes, I *LOVE* the yellow t-molding. It really makes the machine pop!

[Cobolisdead]

That looks so awesome!  Makes me very nostalgic for the days when I was a little kid playing that game.

[Malenko]

So I got midway sides printed up ( I made the choice to drop the ®)


first shot has the old CPO, second shot has the new CPO

And I put the CP overlay on:



going to go ahead and consider this one done.

[MK3FAN]

Pretty sweet!

[Gatsu]

Looks really good man! Really digging the yellow t-molding.

So what did you end up doing for that extra button hole on the CP?

[Malenko]

filled the wood with a dowel and then used a spare MKII metal CP

[Gatsu]

ah. do you have any pics of that by chance?

[Malenko]

Sorry didn't take any pix of that.  Same process as shown above for the 2 inch hole.  Just get a dowel rod that fits cut it to length cover with bondo

[Malenko]

one last shot, added a repro instruction card