Second Attempt With Bondo

OK, after a somewhat long delay due to the weather, I was finally able to make a little more progress. I enlisted the help of my daughter who has really taken an interest in arcade machines (I think she just likes hanging out with her dad) and she inspected the side that I first filled and sanded. She noticed several imperfections by running her fingers over the surface which she circled with a pencil (thanks Bella!). Then I applied some additional bondo in those spots and sanded everything smooth.

I was pretty satisfied with the results so I did the exact same thing on the other side panel. As you can see in some of the pictures there were several spots along the back edge that needed to be filled in so I clamped a piece of scrap wood behind the panel in order to apply the bondo. Before applying the bondo I wrapped the scrap wood (which was actually fireplace kindling) in plastic so the bondo wouldn't stick to it.

It seems to have worked - I'm not sure how strong it will be but I don't envision that area taking a beating or anything so I think I'll be OK. The tricky part is getting a nice clean edge along the back - I think that would be noticeable if it wasn't exactly straight.

This part sure is taking forever. I still have to go over the entire cab one more time at least (probably 2) filling in the small imperfections with bondo and sanding it smooth. Once that is finished I'm going to go over everything with 220 grit sandpaper to get it ready for the primer. What a pain!

More later.

Respect

Damn. I have a whole new appreciation for people who take on these restoration projects. Getting the bondo just right is very difficult. I haven't even started painting yet and I've already put in about 5 times as much time as I thought this would take. The edges are especially tricky and smoothing out the rough spots sounds easy in theory but getting it *perfect* is not a quick job.

I've made some progress but it's more of the same (filling, sanding, filling, sanding, etc.) so I'm not sure pictures will make a difference...

More later.

First Attempt With Bondo

Last Saturday I tried working outside like I had planned but it was really really windy out and it was also pretty cold (46 degrees). After about 30 minutes my hands started to go numb and I realized I wasn't having any fun (which is the whole point) so I decided to hold off until warmer weather. Of course on Sunday it was 65 degrees but I had other things to do...

Anyway, here are some pictures showing the small bit of progress I made. I laid the cab down on its side to make it easier to work on. I sanded the entire surface using 100 grit sandpaper just to rough it up so the bondo would have something to stick to. Then I started patching the holes and dings. I had to work fast because after mixing the hardener there's only about 4-5 minutes before it sets.

Here are a couple of close-ups so you can see how sloppy I was. The edges were a mess in some spots but I'll just sand it all smooth and no one will ever know.

I used this type of bondo (there are several differnet brands/types to choose from):

It was easy enough to work with - the real challenge in making it look nice will be in the sanding and painting.

I hope to get out this coming Saturday but it looks like it might rain.

More later.

The Control Panel

I am finally in a position to start recreating the control panel! The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend and more importantly, I got my hands on an original control panel to copy - huge thanks to Bender over at BYOAC!!! He sent me his control panel all the way from Maine!

Here is what the top looks like:

As you can see, the top is actually laminated because the control panel overlay does not completely cover the plywood. You can see the outline of where the control panel overlay used to be. The two holes on the right and left sides in the middle hold the control panel strikes in place underneath (they allow the control panel to be locked into place). Someone also drilled an extra hole in this thing for god knows what.

Here are a couple of shots from underneath:

Nothing crazy here - the area by the joystick was routed out so the joystick mounting plate could sit flush with the top. I'll be recreating that as well.

I am actually quite surprised how well it has held up considering it is 25+ years old. The edges on all 4 sides are still very crisp and it should be easy to copy it with a pattern bit and my router. I'll also use it to place the 8 holes for the screws which hold down the overlay. Once that is in place I'll be able to exactly drill out the 3 button holes and the hole for the joystick.

I need to find a piece of black laminate or something to cover the plywood with too. Hopefully Home Depot has something I can use.

More later.

Some Interior Shots

Time for the camera dump! Here are a few interior shots for those who are interested. It was pretty dirty inside and there were leaves, nails and staples all over the place. I cleaned it out pretty good but this is what it used to look like:

The last shot above shows where the original Donkey Kong board sat inside the cabinet. It was mounted vertically on the shelf.

The next shot is from behind looking up - you can see the metal bar which is used to secure the bezel in place. I'm glad this thing came with the cabinet - it is expensive to replace.

This last shot shows the back of the coin box. The holes on the top are where the quarters drop down into the box. There is a drawer on the front which pulls out so the box can be emptied. I'm not sure what to do here - the drawer works just fine but it is a little banged up. I think I'm just going to leave it as is since it would be a lot of work to rebuild something no one will see - plus it is original right now. I' ll post a bunch of pictures of the coin box eventually.

Overall things are in decent shape. I should be able to start filling the holes all over the cabinet and putting on a couple of coats of primer this weekend.

More later

Some Parts Are Here!

Last night when I got home from work there was a package waiting for me from Mike's Arcade containing the buttons, CP strikes, top marquee retainer and the control panel bolts. Here are some pointless pictures of my loot:

The buttons are actually pretty neat. They aren't the standard "Happ" buttons that I'm used to working with - they are actually called Nintendo buttons which is fitting I suppose...

Nothing like fresh metal, eh? I can't believe I had to shell out $17 for this... Oh well, I want to keep it authentic so spray painting an L-bracket just wasn't going to do it.

The next order I place will probably be for the side art, marquee and bezel but I'm going to wait until I actually begin painting.

More later.

Removing The Side Art

I finally started work on this thing! Yesterday it warmed up to about 55 degrees (after snowing the day before!) so I decided to start working on the Donkey Kong. The first thing I did was remove the side art. This was very very time-consuming. The existing side art came off in about an hour per side but it took twice as long to get the glue off - what a pain!

This is what I started with:

Even though the art was mostly peeled off of this side there was still leftover glue all over the place which had to come off.

After reading some threads over at BYOAC, I realized there were several different ways to go about this. Some people use a belt sander with 80 grit sandpaper and just let it eat through the art down to the wood. Other people spray/brush on some chemicals like paint stripper or something and then scrape the art off. I decided to try the third option I read about - a heat gun and lots of patience. It seems to be the least messy way of cleaning up the sides.

I don't have a heat gun but I do have a hair dryer (well, my wife does ) so used that. It worked quite well. I put the hair dryer on "hot" and turned it all the way up. This melted the glue just enough for the art to be peeled off. I started of by gently scraping with the end of a flat head screwdriver and when I got enough of the art up to grab onto I started peeling. It didn't come off all at once - there were lots and lots (and lots) of little pieces to pull off.

After removing the side art it was time to remove all of the excess glue. There was an outline on each side where the side art used to be:

My wife suggested trying Goo Gone which I had never used before. It worked but it took a lot of elbow grease to get rid of all of the glue. The process was spray on the Goo Gone, let it sit for 5 minutes and then rub it off with a cotton rag. This was the key - for some reason paper towels weren't working - at all. Once I switched to the cotton rags I noticed an improvement right away.

If you look close you can see all the glue balled up - this stuff was extremely sticky and was tough to get off of my hands even with a towel. I was constantly running inside the house to wash my hands and then continue (I had to pick up the glue balls with my fingers to get them off of the cabinet). Once I thought everything looked nice, I washed the entire side using soapy water (per the Goo Gone instructions). This was the finishing touch - everything came off!

Here are some final shots of the sides - it doesn't look like much but this was after about 6 hours worth of work.

Nice and clean! Next up - using some bondo to fill all the holes and imperfections. More later.