Soul's Refurbracade!

[Soulcon]

Well I have built my BabyCade which went well. I am currently working on my website so as to have a nice write up on what I did. You can go here for the List on the forums though.

Soul's Babycade

Also incase you do not want to go questing for a story and just want to see the finished product here is what it looked like in the end .



Please excuse the date on the picture the batteries fell out on the day of the party and my date got messed up .

Now onto my current quests!

Paigeoliver waas extremely kind in letting me purchase a few old arcade cabs from him. This made me extremely happy but also made me get lost in a bunch of ideas .

Here is my selection to work with .



And here are my ideas and questions. I will split it up into each arcade as to hopefully not get lost .

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Millipede = REFURBRISH to Brand New ofcourse Duh!

However I have a few question since I am not the wood guru nor the stripper guru (Not that kind of stripper you pixelated horn balls).

1. What stripper can I use to get the rest of the black paint off of the side art? with out damaging the actual side art in the process?

2. Is the Millipede artwork a complete sticker or is it all painted? because I have some corner damage and I am afraid if I repair it it will look funny with sticker covering some of it and paint on the corners.

3. Where is a good place to find stuff liek original CP and components at?

This is going to be my pride and joy in restoration because I alwayss thought it to be a beautiful cab.

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Atari Basketball = MameCab

This is an old black in white game that is just dying to become beautiful again. Its also mighty huge I can easly make it two player with trackball if I want on the control panel it has. So not really to shabby!

1. What is probably the largest TV I could fit in the cab? The designs say it took a 23 inch black in white. But with it being so huge it seems likea waste to let all that space go un-used.

2. Should I franken panel it or just utilize the panel space that exists?

3. Innards of this one is near perfect so I will just do some wood saving repairs and some preventive to make this last awhile.  

4. Is it wrong that I got in a fight over keeping the attached ashtray with my wife? She says it will say to people it is ok to smoke in the house. I think it is just ul;timatly cool that it even exists. Your opinions?

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Space Invaders (Japan Cocktail) Brown = Pacman cab for the wife

This one is actually the wondering stone for me for a few simple facts.

1. Is it that tough to replace the glass over the monitor or should I just learn to live with the blue tinted glass? Remeber this was a black and white cab and they colored the glass to give the screen color.

2. I would like to have the Control panels in a horizotal format but also keeping the corrent look of the control panel. Any suggestions?

3. Best way to wire in the exsisting coin slots to a CPU?

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Funky other Cocktail = Mame Cocktail

I think I have this one planned out it will just be rough since everything is metal. When I get to this one I will let you all know whats going on .

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Mystery Build = ?

I am also building another cab from scrath but will wait till I get it a little further along to show or tell you about that one .

Thanks for any help you guys give and again thanks.

-Soul

[paigeoliver]

What I normally do about funky corners is to bondo them up, paint them to roughly match, and then cover them over with corner protectors. Both the uprights you got from me are going to need that treatment on the bottom corners. The Basketball also needs leg levels.

I actually almost took the ashtray off as I was pulling the wiring harness, but I quit smoking a long time ago, and thus had no use for it.

I would keep the basketball panel the same size, and either go with 23" TV keeping the inner cardboard bezel, or 25" arcade monitor without it.

3M safest stripper is what I had been using on that cabinet.

As for the invader panels. I would leave those as is. The invaders games are easy to play on a vertical panel. I would also leave the overlays, and simply set up a mame list that has nothing but various invaders versions.

For the other one you can probably lean the control panels in to get a 45 degree angle fairly easily. If you are using 4-way sticks they are almost a drop in, all you have to do is drill 2 new mounting holes in the base (lined up with the iL if you are using ms galapac sticks), as the existing joy bolts are the same distance apart as the happ pattern in one dimension, just not in the other.

[Soulcon]

Do the corners still look somewhat original when you use the bondo? and corner protectors?

Also I think I will go with a 25 incher and use a piece of grey smoked plexi I had pre cut for something else. It just so happens it was the perfect size for what I needed .  Also since I am having issues with that Cardboard insert I might have to remake one of my own or something if I really want to keep that look. Dang if Dew doesn't ruin cardboard in a heartbeat.

Since you know the cades better How would suggest keeping the Funky Cocktails side closed? The Nail will just not do for my plans. I am thinking of maybe installing a circular lock but was un aware of how they kept it closed initially?

-Soul

[paigeoliver]

That side was on my list of things to do later. I believe it is supposed to have some sort of lock on it.

Games look fine with corner protectors on them.

I would at minimum keep the Atari Basketball plexi, even if you don't use the inner cardboard bezel. That cabinet does need some attention at the bottom area, I would turn it on its side now and fix up the bottom before doing anything else.

[Soulcon]

It is actually sitting in my basement on its side onto of a couple of Saw Horses . I wanted to get the Atari Basketball Cab atleast ready for inards by next week. But I also have been looking around for some old Atari bits and pieces to get things rolling on the millipede cab.

Oh on the millipede cab is it a giant sticker or is it painted on? if its painted on I bet I could save the cornes back to brand new with replcemnet wood. But if its a sticker would it be easier just to rebuild the two sides and order a new Sticker for each? Just wondering.

-Soul

[paigeoliver]

It isn't paint nor sticker. Those atari cabinets are silk screened. They silk screen the entire cabinet. Someone might make a sticker repro though, I know they make stickers for Centipede.

[Bloinkxp]

On of the best things to strip paint is heavy duty citrus cleaner.  I have had excellent luck using it to remove graffiti from brick and paint from the garage floor...oh yeah it rules when you remove wall-paper.

Good luck with all of those excellent cabinets!

-d