Category: Wacko

After reinstalling the speakers, grills, t-molding, and coin bucket, the original light fixture was replaced with an LED fixture.  It really makes the colors in the marquee pop.  We replace all lights in our arcade restores with LEDs which reduces power load and heat saving the marquee art from damage.

The coin door was stripped and a new textured finish was applied like original.  All the hardware was polished and a new nameplate with lock was installed.  It looks brand new!

The metal of the control panel and wood front edge were in great condition.  All of the dips and depressions from the factory were filled with bondo so the control panel overlay won’t sag and crack in those areas later on.  After the primer and 2 coats of paint cured, the new cpo was installed which look amazing!

The joysticks were a rusted mess.  The joystick shafts had rusted solid to the rubber grommets so the old grommets had to be cut off.  All parts of the joysticks were cleaned and new grommets installed.  The control panel wiring harness also had to be repaired as a lot of wiring was pulled loose and the wire tabs on the leaf switches were bent up.  It now looks factory new!  The original bezel was installed along with the new artwork under the control panel.

After all the hours and hours of body, work had been finished, we cut a t-molding slot on both sides which turned out perfect.  The first coat of oil-based primer was applied which showed us any areas on the cabinet that needed a little more work.  Once those areas were addressed, the primer was sanded down, and the second coat was applied.  After drying, that last layer was sanded down as smooth as glass.

Three coats of black were sprayed on the top, back, back door, viewing area, and the side wings on the bottom with sanding in between.

The blue on the cabinet was colored matched to the blue on the side art.  Four coats of dark blue were applied with a light sanding.  Paint going back on the cabinet after all the hours in repairing and prepping the cabinet is so satisfying!

While the paint was drying, the control panel brackets were stripped, smoothed, painted, and installed.  Every nut, bolt, screw, and bracket will have been cleaned, polished, and painted by the time Wacko is finished.

Once everything was stripped away we were really able to see all the dents and holes that were being hidden by the thick paint. The top of the cabinet also showed signs of water damage which threatened the integrity of the wood. The edges of the cabinet where the t-molding is was badly damaged from moisture, wear, and some terrible corrections. You can see in the pictures in our first post, Wacky Cabinet, the t-molding was “fixed” by adding several long drywall screws. This just damaged the cabinet even more. It was truly screwed up!

It took nearly half a can of Bondo, more than a dozen sheets of sandpaper, and too many working hours (if we counted them, it would just take the fun out of it) but we finally got all the holes filled and the edges rebuilt. For the top, the water damage wasn’t too bad so all that was needed was a good sanding and some wood hardener to give the wood back its strength. Pretty soon all the terrible things that happened to this game will be wiped away and we’ll have a nice clean surface.

Now that we know what we have and have pulled all the major electronics out, we can strip out the rest of the wiring harness and remove anything that isn’t part of the cabinet. Everything has to be pulled to prepare for the next process, including the coin door, speakers, t-molding, marquee light, etc. The cabinet will have to be flipped and turned throughout the process and exposed to chemicals and sawdust that could damage any of these components.

When the cabinet was converted it was painted with an exiting shade of black. The paint that was used was an extremely thick water-based paint that covered a lot of damage to the wood.  It took a few weeks to remove the paint but we were able to get it down to the point where we could repair major damage such as dents and holes. Sometimes original art is left under the paint of converted cabinets but, unfortunately, not in this case.