neo geo restore, side art-check, t-molding-check

[wana10]

so i've got this 1 slot neo-geo mvs on route to my house and as you can see from the picture the thing is in need of a little tlc.
i want to make the cp nice and pretty again so i've ordered some new joysticks (sanwa jlf), and new pushbuttons (happ horizontal concave). once it arrives i'll take some measurements and get some new plexi as well. as you might be able to pick out from the picture there is an unfilled hole near the top of the cp, hmm i wonder what i'm going to do with that...hello multi slot!
the entire reason i got a neo-geo over other cabs was because i practically grew up with one(the quarters i shoved into that bust a move cabinet...) so there is no way i'm going to let that black paint job stay. sides and front are going to get stripped, holes on the front filled, sanded, primed, and then the whole thing is going to get bathed in that standard neo-geo red. then some decals for the side and front and i'll be good to go. speaking of which, the only side art i've managed to find for neo-geo cabs doesn't have the mvs logo between the neo-geo and the snk logo, does anyone know of a place selling sideart with all 3?
finally, the interior. plans are currently to remove the one slot and drop a six slot in there. depending on what i find inside after i open 'er up this may or may not mean it will be getting a new psu as well. i'm ordering a mvs harness to rewire everything and make sure it's all nice and shipshape as well.
and should i manage to find time between playing the thing to accomplish any of the above i'll be a pretty happy camper and ready to go...well except for buying the carts as well
more pics to come as i get underway.

[Jeff AMN]

I love to see the Neos get some love. I have a 4-slot machine in my home arcade and I play it a ton. If you have any specific restoration questions, just ask away.

Keep the pics coming!

[JezGreen]

does anyone know of a place selling sideart with all 3?

I'm pretty sure I saw some on mamemarque.com - under sideart obviously.

Hoping to get a Neo Cab myself one day..if I can ever find one in depths of England

[CheffoJeffo]

There is a BYOACer (haven't seen him post in a while, though) who does NG sideart.

Link to one of his auctions

[wana10]

well...i've been having quite a few problems with the seller of the cab, and today was the straw that broke the camels back. unless i get a response tomorrow that removes all the doubt and dread that has managed to creep into me i'm gonna pull out of the deal, get a charge back on my cc, and switch my future views to plan 2 (hopefully it goes better )
as for plan 2, i currently have boxes laying all around the house with buttons, joysticks, mvs pcb, mvs carts, harnesses, and all sorts of other good things that were going to be part of the restore but are now going to furnish a brand new cab. rough current plans are looking towards something thats a mutant lovechild between a pac-island neogeo 4/6-slot and golfboyusa's amazing laid back design. stealing the spacious cp from golfboy and adding a kick harness to the neo geo buttons will be a top priority, as will be figuring out how to place a dreamcast in the cab.

more info to come when i come down from my rage and think through things with a slightly clearer head (and a tape measure )

[Malenko]

I got mine from eccs19

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72841.0



Where do you live? I have another 2 slot machine in the regular sized 2 slot cab that Im looking to get rid of. Im near the MD/DE/PA line

[wana10]

so to make a long story short, the cabinet arrived.


and i unwrapped it and tested it quickly finding, with help from some people at neo-geo.com, that i needed a new width coil as the core seemed to be missing from mine...


but seeing as i didn't have one at the moment i went ahead with other things.
first stripping the cabinet of anything and everything

and promptly finding that the only thing holding the top corners on was the old beat up t-molding



so i gave the sides a good sanding and now i'm going to fill holes with bondo...never used the stuff before so i'm starting with a small section before i dive right in.


letting that cure while posting this and hopefully it all goes well. with any luck i'll have the first coat of primer on by the end of today. more pics to come later as other things get done.

edit* bondo is amazing. slathered up the rest of that side of the cab. running out of sandpaper though so i'll have to get more tomorrow or later tonight. this means primer put off until tomorrow as well

[MK3FAN]

this means primer put off until tomorrow as well

Trust me...taking our time is worth it in the long run. It may seem like you can't wait to get it done, but the extra time and effort you throw at it will make it all worth while. Looks to me from viewing the first pic in the thread that your damaged corners got that way during shipping. They look intact in the first pic and then broken in the later ones after you got the machine. Just an observation.

[wana10]

Trust me...taking our time is worth it in the long run. It may seem like you can't wait to get it done, but the extra time and effort you throw at it will make it all worth while. Looks to me from viewing the first pic in the thread that your damaged corners got that way during shipping. They look intact in the first pic and then broken in the later ones after you got the machine. Just an observation.

yeah...mentally i know that taking my time with the thing will give me a better final product...but i wanna play the dang thing!
as for the corners...i noticed that as well but at this point i'm just happy to have it in my possession, and my rebuild attempts turned out pretty good.
and as long as i'm here...
primer coats are finished and i put the first coat of red on today. hopefully i'll get eccs19's excellent decals applied by early next week!

[patrickl]

Looks nice. Bad luck with the corners, but nice repair work.

[wana10]

red is on and looking good. couldn't help but take a picture at this point even though i am going to give it another thin coat and it needs a little touch-up in the corners...
also put in an order to mame marquees for a new cpo, called three different local printing places and none of them had ever even heard of polycarbonate laminate(of course, neither had i until i started the project )
t-molding arrived today and the home stretch is in sight! just got to keep reminding myself, take your time. don't rush and screw it up now.

[Kaytrim]

Looks like you forgot to route the corners for the t-moulding.  Better do that before you do your paint touch up.  The router may end up scratching the paint.

Looking Good 

Kaytrim

[wana10]

Looks like you forgot to route the corners for the t-moulding.  Better do that before you do your paint touch up.  The router may end up scratching the paint.

Looking Good 

Kaytrim

shhhhh! don't tell me that now!

[wana10]

so i seem to be cursed, as soon as i plan to do something on the cab life steps in and delays it...

eh...oh well. got the corners routed and finished the painting. then for the decals and the t-molding. the 25ft poker table special from t-molding.com gave me more than enough to line the cab and that went on a lot easier then i thought. i had the whole thing psyched up in my mind but it was a cakewalk. the decals for the sides i got from eccs19 and they look great. some of the smaller parts didn't want to come off of the backing (those darn registered trademark symbols ) but i convinced them in the end.
now to replace everything i ripped out at the beginning!

[CheffoJeffo]

That looks AWESOME -- I love the paint and decals !

 

[eccs19]

Ya. Sometimes you've got to really rub the hell out of those smaller ones to make them stick, but once down, your good to go.

Looking good!

[Malenko]

looks fantastic!

if you get a multislot, get a 4slot or 6 ; the 2 slots dont have hook ups for the external mem card reader or phone jacks. Speaking of, once I get my new CP in the mail I'll have a spare memory card reader and cables you're welcome to for the cost of shipping (so long as the new ones work, lol)

What MVS carts do you have?

[wana10]

@cheffo: thanks! hammering in the last bit of t-molding and stepping back to see it all was a moment i wont soon forget, well, at least until i drop the first quarter in!

@eccs19: your decals are amazing! i'm so glad at this point that malenko pointed me your way, the repro square sideart that isee floating around wouldn't have looked nearly as good.

@malenko: i found a 4slot for a good price so i went with that and if you're offering up a mem-card reader of course i'll take it! luckily my cab used to house a mv-1 pcb, the only 1slot board with mem-card support, so my cp won't require any work to take the reader. as for my carts i've only got 4 at the moment. kof2000 came with it and i've picked up metal slug x, puzzle bobble, and samsho 2. these things are like an addiction though so i'll probably be adding more soon...every time i wander into the neo-geo.com b/s/t forum i can feel my hands start to shake.