Klax Refurbish

[bleemus]

A few months back, I obtained an old Track & Field cabinet that had been converted to Klax.  Klax had always been one of my favorite games, so I jumped on it at $50.

Original Pics:



I wanted to keep this machine Klax and just refurbish it to keep costs down.  My Mario Bros MAME project ended up running pretty high, so I want to take it easy on this one...

[bleemus]

I noticed that the monitor has some pretty severe "bars" on the left side, so I bought a cap kit for around 13 bucks and had a friend that has a steady solder hand help me install it.

Before:


After:


Quite an improvement for $13 bucks!  There is quite a bit of burnin on the screen, so it won't be useful for anything else other than klax more than likely.

[bleemus]

Took off the control panel to see how things were going to progress from that end.  Damn thing was like swiss cheese after I removed the plexi and the black vinyl that was stuck on it.  Looks like there might be too many holes to salvage it.

I'm going to call some local sheet metal places and figure out how much it will cost to get a blank made.

I'm not sure what the brick pattern is from... but is sure isn't pretty...

One joystick removed:


All controls, plexi, and vinyl removed:

[IG-88]

That improvment from the cap kit is amazing! I wish I had the balls to try doing one myself.

[CheffoJeffo]

That improvment from the cap kit is amazing! I wish I had the balls to try doing one myself.

Do it.

I hemmed and hawed for months before doing my first one and it turns out I was intimidated for no reason.

It is easy and bleemus' pictures show the value.

bleemus: If you can't get an affordable CP blank, I have used a metal epoxy in the past to fill holes like that (not on a CP yet) and it was cheap to do. I would expect that Bondo would work if you had a backing surface on the bottom of the panel.

Cheers

[bleemus]

That improvment from the cap kit is amazing! I wish I had the balls to try doing one myself.

Do it.

I agree, it wasn't that difficult if you have someone that knows how to solder decent, just practice a little on a blank circuit board or something and you'll be good enough in no time.

If you can't get an affordable CP blank, I have used a metal epoxy in the past to fill holes like that (not on a CP yet) and it was cheap to do. I would expect that Bondo would work if you had a backing surface on the bottom of the panel.

That is plan B... although I'm still just not sure how drilling through bondo and the epoxied sheet metal on the bottom will do.  If I end up going that route, I'll be sure to hit the boards up for some advice.

[bleemus]

Scored 3 Klax side arts in pretty nice condition off ebay for $21.99 after shipping.

Woot.

[Q*Bert_OP]

Scored 3 Klax side arts in pretty nice condition off ebay for $21.99 after shipping.

Woot.

lucky! do you need all 3? Would you mind selling me one if you don't need 3?

[leapinlew]

Scored 3 Klax side arts in pretty nice condition off ebay for $21.99 after shipping.

Woot.

lucky! do you need all 3? Would you mind selling me one if you don't need 3?

I think it is lucky. Putting side art is pretty scary business to us uninitiated folks. This way he'll have a spare. Kinda weird he'd have 3 side arts in an auction, but you have to admit the price was right.

Don't forget to include pics of applying the side art!

[TOK]

That brick CP overlay is from Rush'N Attack.
Looks like whatever knuckle head did your conversion put it on upside down, the barbed wire is supposed to be at the top. 



Since the sticks and everything are backwards, I'm guessing he was real confused.

[leapinlew]

That brick CP overlay is from Rush'N Attack.
Looks like whatever knuckle head did your conversion put it on upside down, the barbed wire is supposed to be at the top. 



Since the sticks and everything are backwards, I'm guessing he was real confused.

Ahh! Nice eye. Thats awesome. I loved Rush'n Attack.

[bleemus]

A couple updates:

1) Side art came in.  It looks great.  The size is going to be nice too, IMO; not too big, not too small.  I taped it on there to get a general idea of how it will fit.

2) I was starting to strip the cabinet when I noticed a ridge around where the side art was.  Looks like the old Track & Field side art was still under there!

I threw some paint stripper on a small portion to see what it would do, and it ended up pulling the side art up with it.  After that small portion, I was able to get a razor blade under it and peel it away.  It is a prestine white underneath where the art was.

Now, I just will need to either strip or scrape the rest of the paint off the sides and sand it down real good.  After some bondo work, of course.

[bleemus]

Some painful pictures to look at.

Whoever repaired this last time use wood filler for some pretty large repairs.  It was coming off on all the corners it was used on, so I chiseled off all of it and will patch the corners with bondo.  Chances are I will just use the corner protectors for the bottom since the damage is so severe.  We'll see once I get into bondo-ing.





I also stripped the paint off.  There was 3-4 layers of paint on there, had to use the stripper twice to get down to where the side art was down to.



I also gutted the beast.  Nice and light to move around now that heavy monitor is out of there.