:: Je suis Circus Charlie :: RoadTrip to Paris!

[muddymusic]

Guess I better try again!

[DarthNuno]

It's an awesome game, and a beautiful cabinet. I think you've now got the second one in the whole of Europe 

Yes, Circus Charlie wasn't imported in Europe back then. And this is not what we can call a 'mainstream game' 
Whatever, here's the SN of my cabinet :



What's your?

Did you also have this sticker on your cabinet, quite cool   

[muddymusic]

Here's mine, someone decided to paint over it for some reason 

Number 43527, so our cabinets were made pretty close together.

[AusWoody]

Very nice

The cabinet looks like a hybrid of the other famous Centuri cabinets Gyruss and Track&Field. Gyruss profile with the T&F CP angles

[Arch]

Nice get! And you gotta love the Darthnuno roadtrip reports!

[DarthNuno]

....and back on this! 

Ok, this Circus Charlie is the last cabinet 'unrestored' inside my game room! It is like the black sheep in my collection...
First things first... let's have a close look to ... the cabinet damages!   



























Holy COinupWharehouse! I do not think I would have bought it if I had seen all these damages closely...
Massive work to come I'm afraid...

[Belike]

Serious wear indeed, but at least it is a worker
COW sucks

[Luigi]

Ouch...crossing fingers the cracks are only on the surface and do not go deeper 

[Andreas_AUT]

I think that is still fixable ( u should see my bad unrestored cabs in the garage ), but well, needs some work off course.

So after this restoration, the only job left is to keep the games running? Congratulations ! :-D

[DarthNuno]

...but at least it is a worker
COW sucks

Not really, monitor had issue and pcb not working (I had to buy an other one) 

Ouch...crossing fingers the cracks are only on the surface and do not go deeper 

Well, it's particle board. The laminate sheet suffered to the death 

I think that is still fixable ( u should see my bad unrestored cabs in the garage ), but well, needs some work off course.

Fixable yes, but it didn't expected so much work when I bought it.  But like always, challenge accepted! 

[DarthNuno]

Let continue the inspection...



Inside the paint is falling appart...





Particles board and laminate sheet... the worst combinaison when you have to fix damages like this!    



Surprisely the bottom is not as horrible as expected...  



OK... it's time to WIP!



Removing the crumbly particules board layer :



The question is... how to fix this "particles board/laminate sheet" combination?
The answer would be : fix the wood, and then apply a new white laminate sheet!
But the problem here is... I can't find laminate sheets like this?! I searched this in my area, but impossible to find it!

So, I'll try something else... not sure about the result, but I'll give it a try : to sand all these cracks, like this  

[DarthNuno]

finishing to sand this side...





I strengthen rotten wood with this :



...and use glue for damage like this :

[Andreas_AUT]

Glue, interesting - i thought you will need to take bondo for that. My centipede looks like your circus and is still waiting for restoration.

[DarthNuno]

Glue, interesting - i thought you will need to take bondo for that. My centipede looks like your circus and is still waiting for restoration.

On that specific area, the two parts 'of the trench' were too far apart, that why I've used glue first to join them as best as I can. Next step is of course 'bondo', yes 

[DarthNuno]

In addition of all the damage located on the bottom/edges of the cabinet due to water/humidity, there are also parts broken to fix 





Bondo times! 





Some zones require a lot of bondo, like this edge which have to be literally rebuild! 



For me, there's no better solution than using perspex to rebuild 'straight'!



Of course, to fill with so much bondo can't be done in one step... it requires few 'layers'... watch out, scary picture!