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My Donkey Kong restoration
More Cowbell:
Restoration might be a strong word considering I plan on running MAME in it. Back before Christmas I saw an ad on craigslist for a Mario Brothers that was originally a Donkey Kong for $40. Knowing how these things get snapped up pretty quickly, I emailed right away and said I would take it sight unseen. My boys and I drove the 20 or so miles and picked it up. It was in horrible condition so I set it aside while I worked on some of my other projects. There were several times where I almost dragged it out to the curb because I thought it was beyond me to fix. Fortunately, I sold the control panel and marquee on eBay and made back my investment so I didn't feel like I had to do something with it. See the pics... scratches, spray paint, busted front panel, gouges, back edge destroyed, side art half torn off, coin door dented in. Once I got through my other projects I decided to give it a try and see if it comes together.
More Cowbell:
I started by removing all of the guts and then trying to strip down anything I could. I removed the front panel since it was broken and did my best to clean up the back edges. I ended up having to cut off the back edge since it was just crushed beyond repair. I removed the rest of the sideart (what a pain) and just spackled and bondoed the hell out of the side to fill all of the gashes and holes. I sanded it all down and it actually started to come out ok, even the front and top edges looked pretty nice with a good sanding. I put on a new front panel and built a bottom stand. The bottom stand isn't held on just by those little brackets, I also screwed in through the bottom of the cab too.
More Cowbell:
I primed the whole thing and built a new control panel. I gave it the light blue treatment after finding it hard to find the right shade of red. The coin door was in pretty rough shape as well so I ordered some new coin slots and the difference is huge (one side is the new one and one is the old for comparison). I also bent the door back into shape as much as possible although it is still not perfect.
More Cowbell:
With the coin door in and the cab painted, it really started to come together. I ordered a plexi cpo for an extra $10 bucks or so and it was worth every penny over the sticky kind. It looks awesome. I had purchased a bezel several months ago on eBay. The marquee was ordered and received although I need to get a picture of the final product complete with system. I'm still trying to decide if the 19" computer monitor is enough (it's only 18" viewable). As it is, it barely fits so I doubt I would be able to get a full 20" or 21" in there. I have MALA set up to play all of the Donkey Kongs and Crazy Kongs as well as DK Jr. and DK3. It feels good to take this thing from landfill fodder to one of my nicer looking cabs.
javeryh:
:notworthy:
Amazing. I can't believe how great this cabinet looks considering what it started out as. Some questions: How did you apply the paint? Where did you order the sideart, bezel art and CPO from? How difficult was the stripping/bondo process? Do you just glop the stuff on, wait for it to dry and sand it smooth or is there some other magic involved?
It really came out great! I love it!