Revisting my first ever build, and finally beginning its restoration and new lif

[aldub516]

Hey guys, and thanks again for looking. As youll see in another post in here, im finally getting around to posting up pictures and progress on things im working on. Here id like to show off my FIRST EVER experience in the world of arcade building. This was about 5 years ago. I found a cabinet on craigslist for 50 dollars. I went and picked it up, and it was a heap of crap. Someone already converted it to a mame machine with a tank stick. This thing was BUTCHERED. There was like what seemed like 2 inches of orange paint over everything. The inside was incredibly crudely built to house whatever he put in there. Also a horrible cut out for a keyboard..the pics do justice. While my first thought was, leave it in the garbage, i thought it would be fun to go ahead and restore it as much as i can. I began by removing the paint... which wasnt terrible. Hours of scraping, but i do remember peeling off large patches of the paint which i NOW realize i was probably peeling of original artwork under it. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT CABINET THIS WAS AND WOULD LOVE INPUT ON IT!!!.. The only thing I can help with is say it came with a centuri coin door. Anyways moving on. Me and my father ended up putting together a decent machine. I dabbled with my first control panel EVER as well as my first large format art print for the cp. Basically EVERYTHING was new, but im damn happy how it came out! Sadly it never made it super close to completion. I had a POS Pc in there that i had laying around. Ripped a crt monitor out and mounted it which eventually looked horrible. Marquee was never full installed nor was the bezel.. Basically, what you see is what got done.. Had mamewah somewhat running with a mess of rom set. So now i am committed to rehabbing this bad boy to a beautiful new machine. I know it looks super rough, but its fixable. I took it all apart. A lot of the wood was crap inside, or replaced by the guy with like, cardboard wood. So my first mission was simply take apart the cabinet, and basically trace all the wood components, copy them and re-build the cabinet. Alot of the edges look real bad, but ive decided im going to saw them off about 1/4 inch, As well as use metal L rails as a finish as its worked nicely on other builds. So yes, im fully confident this machine can be brought back to full life with minimal work. Here are picture of the day i got it, and whatever pictures i have of what i ended up with. This post will be important as i will be looking for a lot of advice on restoration, so people can use this as a reference.  Here i give to you, my FIRST EVER attempt at a mame arcade...

The day i got it... Any thoughts on what this couldve been? The fact that the cp was butchered off im sure doesnt help....







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This is the earlier progress, basically stripped it down, and painted it.. t molding, basically just quick cheap rehab.













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BEGINNING OF CP WORK







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The cp with art, and basically done. I was SHOCKED at not only how clear and beautiful the print came out using high res images, but using my ridiculous methods of measuring buttons, the artwork layout came out pretty damn close to what I wanted.. Completely winged all of this with minimal experience.










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And thats it kids! My first every attempt at a custom arcade cabinet. This rehab will be a fun process and i have INCREDIBLE ideas for this. For anyone suggesting i ditch the crap cabinet and just start new ( basically on the sides are usable), i also have a little connection to this machine. It was the last project me and my father did before he moved to another country so i love it particularly. thanks for looking!

[aldub516]

I can go ahead and name all the mistakes, mainly the 4 player size cp for only 2 players.. Hey, beginners intuition, Bigger is better right? My first move to rebuilding this is lop off like 12" off each side of the CP

[yotsuya]

That was a Konami cab at one time.

The Burgertime in the corner of the CP threw me off, especially with the Mortal Kombat characters on the bottom.

[aldub516]

Yea as I said it was my first run and I just wanted to throw a touch of stuff i liked in there. I've seen worse   truth is I had no idea the print would even come out so nice for some reason so I guess I just didn't think I could achieve better at the time. someone suggested it was a track and field arcade

[yotsuya]

Yea as I said it was my first run and I just wanted to throw a touch of stuff i liked in there. I've seen worse   truth is I had no idea the print would even come out so nice for some reason so I guess I just didn't think I could achieve better at the time. someone suggested it was a track and field arcade

That was me.

[aldub516]

Just a little update.. I trimmed about 1/2" off the back of the side pieces to clean it up. I also sanded down the sides to get the black off. Seems there was still laminate or some sort of smooth material under the black paint still adhered to the wood which made a nice easy sand and also left me with a very smooth surface. Still lots of bondo to do, but as u can see, a big difference! Also cut most of the wood pieces ill need to put the cabinet back together and from there, i begin bondo and cleaning up the body.










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[aldub516]

A little update.. for only 3 sessions of work, this baby is shaping up! I also trimmed down my 4 player sized 2 player panel a few inches on each side.. gonna trace it and make a new layout. Hope you all enjoy thus far.. A question for opinions... that flat square piece at the base where the front 3 panels are on top of.. after these pictures, i trimmed down a few inches off of that giant outhang..and was considering keeping the square shape. Cover it in diamond plate and aluminum trim around it. It would provide stability, and a pretty cool look.










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[aldub516]

SUPER quick mock up of what im talking about, as far as the square base. What do you think. Keep it? or cut out the angled panel and keep the shape. I kind of like it with that square. Adds a little extra dimension and "bling" touch.

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[yotsuya]

I thought you were going smaller with this build? Looks like you're going bigger.

[Jigenjuke]

Looks like an old Track and Field Cabinet to me.

Jigenjuke

Just my honest opinion, lose the front addition to the coin door, lose the 4 player monster .  The lines of the original cabinet are way too sexy to cover up.  If you need to add 4 player cabability do so with USB hacked stand alone controllers.

[aldub516]

Hey guys. I guess to address those replies..
I appreciate the feedback about the addition to the coin door base. I'll see how it feels. I can always just chop it right off. Also, these pictures don't reflect the chopped down CP. After the pictures,
I took off 4" inches off each side of the cp, and 3
Inches off the top, so it is much more proportional now! So the
4 player monster is gone.. As for going bigger..
It's somewhat of a trade off. I guess what I meant was id like to lose "wasted space". I lost a bunch of
Inches on the control panel, and brought the front out for the mk
Cabinet style base. I'm not particularly space constrained. I wanted smaller when I was looking at it with the
Giant 4 player cp, and no extending coin door. It just looked
Massive in the wrong places. After shortening the cp, I feel like I have a pretty solid cabinet shape.

[stigzler]

Looks like youre gonna have to get a cab to the screen! each to their own but that cp looks absolutely massive

[Generic Eric]

Less is more.

In fact, with the room that will take up, you could have more than one MAME machine.  Consider it.  Even if only briefly and or in private. 

MAME is the gateway to dedicated machines.  The road to the arcade has a Horizontal MAME machine, Vertical MAME machine, A Mortal Kombat Fighter MAME Machine, Six Button Fighter MAME machine. 

But the path to the Arcade is many.  Enjoy your Journey. 

[aldub516]

I chopped the hell out of the cp.. basically decided to scrap the old one and make a new.. i feel and hope it looks appropriate/proportionate.  thoughts? Obviously not done yet, i just cut the top and bottom piece.









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[dmckean]

It still looks huge, what is the width of your cabinet?

[Le Chuck]

Not a fan, lines are a bit wonk ya know, like you took two vastly different cab types and smooshed them together. 

[johnrt]

You know, this is also a 2-player control panel:


And it's no wider than 22.5 inches. You can fit 8 or 10 of these control panels on yours. I say: keep chopping that CP until it fits inside the cab. And loose that extra addition in the front.

[stigzler]

I think youre best just getting it how you want it. I would advise looking at lots of other cabs though before you chop/build to make sure you dont see one later and wish youd built it like that. End of the day, it aint for anyone but yourself.

[yotsuya]

Actually, the original cabinet is a two-player cab. So there's no need to extend the control panel unless you want to accommodate for extra controls (which presumably you are).

[aldub516]

im well aware that that is a 2 player control.. I also only see 2 joysticks and 2 buttons on that whole cp.. To be honest, I think this is where the non purist in me comes in, as far as not caring much to keep the flow of the original cabinet. The whole cabinet is approx 25" wide.. and the cp is 36" wide. My mame invaders pedestal was i believe 27 inches across, and was almost perfect, except wishing i had more shoulder room. The thing about this CP now is a few things.. 1, room is not a primary concern. Of course i dont want wasted room, but for something thats going to be an attraction in my entertainment living room, i dont mind it being a little more grand and majestic than necessary. I dont want to sound like im flip flopping on my size choice, but that first panel i had was indeed a massive waste of space. I cut that down significantly.  If you check out my pedestal you'd see im a big fan of lexan, artwork and other nice finishes, so in the case of this build, i see a lot of room for creativity and such. I 100% can understand and even agree that the cp could be smaller, even fit inside the cabinet, or only have a few inches sticking out.. But ive already chopped off about 7 inches off of each side, and about 3 inches off the top and bottom. Remember, i am going for a 2 player 6 button set up, with a 4 way joystick and 2 buttons as well, with a roller ball, spinner and admin buttons. Basically im mirroring my pedestal because i thought that was a perfect fit of controls without going frankenpanel. As for the 3 panel front base.. I just, like it i guess. To me it gives it a slightly more grand look, plus it lends a nod to the MK cabinet.  My next build, wheter a bartop or another regular cabinet, will be a little more "Politically correct" dare i say for an arcade build. I admire the small built in control panels of classic arcades, just as equal to my bigger CPs. In this case, im resurrecting my first ever build and would like to stay somewhat true to it. By all means i appreciate all your opinions, as they led me to chop the hell out of the cp as it was, so keep ideas and opinions coming. As of right now, minus a few adjustments, id like to say i am fairly comfortable with the shape, size and build though. As for the square base.. i havent decided but thats a matter of a 20 second jigsaw job if i change my mind. Hopefully soon i can have cleaner pics with some progress,and some graphic ideas to pull it together a little bit.

[winnydapoo]

At the risk of being beaten down by the more purist fans (disclaimer: I like the original cab in that track and field photo in it's original form, it is amazing), if you do really want to go with a bigger panel like that, have you considered building it around the cabinet a bit to make it look a bit less tacked on, more like it was part of the original design? If done well, it can mask the aircraft carrier look quite well.

Something like this but more carefully designed to match the lines in your own cab (ignoring the button layouts)



Although there is still a limit in terms of how big is too big...

[aldub516]

Thank you for the suggestion, and I'm still not set on the cp, so I will try a design that can fit into the cab like you said. I think once I have all the controls installed it will look proper for it size. I definitely agree and will try to blend it into the wood work more than a tacked on piece.