So, I have had this Sega Model 2A / Virtua Fighter 2 board sitting in a generic cabinet for a while and it really deserves a proper home. To my suprise, an empty VF2 Cabinet with coin door, control panel and glass went up on craigslist.
Being several hours away from the seller, I asked a friend who lived near the seller and just so happened to be headed my way the next day, to pick up the cabinet for me. I could tell by the pictures on craigslist there was some damage to the bottom, no big deal or so I thought. If I would have had the chance to inspect the cabinet before purchase, I likely would have changed my mind as there was pretty bad water damage to the back and bottom of the side panels.
Upon receiving the cabinet I had thoughts as to just scrap it, but it was already in my possession so we might as well break out the tools and see what we can do.
The bottom was practically falling apart, as well as the back of the cabinet. There was also numerous chips to the laminate around the edges of the cabinet.
First I peeled off the side art to see what kind of discoloration I was dealing with. Basically a totally different shade of gray. The art wasn't in too bad of shape but had cigarette burns and other tears so it was scrapped.
Time to start on fixing the bottom of the side panels. The 'wood' practically crumbled off, but I used a saw anyways. Cut off 4 inches from the bottom of each side panel.
The bottom panel was attached to the side with 'Dadoes' - So I broke out the router and cut a groove in the new 4" strips I cut to repair the sides.
The new pieces were attached with wooden dowels and glue, as well as a support piece I cut from a spare board that was screwed to the inside of the top and bottom of the seam. Here is what it looked like when I finished that.
The access panel on the back was completely shot, as well as the bottom piece of the back. I could have put my hand through the wood it was so soft. I wanted to add a hinged access panel anyhow so I basically made a whole new back, excluding the upper piece.
This was also attached with 'Dado's' so I had to route out another groove for the bottom piece as well as cut slots for the wheels to fit in. It would have been a simple job for a flush trim bit on the router but the part I was replacing was so bloated it was impossible, so I just cut it by hand.
The cabinet was given a sanding with 80 grit to remove some existing paint on the top back panel as well as to give the existing laminate a bit of a rough surface for the paint to stick better. One coat of "Gripper" primer has been put on, which adheres to the laminate quite well and doesn't seem to scratch.
After the primer dried, I filled all of the countersunk screw holes and chipped edges with 'plastic wood' filler, which I have never used before, but seems to work quite well.
I am going to let the filler cure overnight, give it another sanding and coat of primer then decide what to do from there. I have put in a few requests to people who claim to be able to get Virtua Fighter 2 NOS side art, but if that proves to be too expensive the cabinet will get a coat of black paint and probably end up as a Mame cab with a theme I haven't quite decided on yet.
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Topic: Virtua Arcade 2 (Read 2744 times)
