following my
FIVE IN A ROW BERLIN ROADTRIP where I picked up some fabulous classic games, I now have the time to restore those beauties to their former glory - one after another.
first off,
Wizard of Worthe good news is that the game is working, the bad news is that the condition of the cabinet and especially of the artwork is far from good.
first stop though: control panelhere's how it looks ...
closer ...
as you can see, the overlay is damaged and (as always) there's rust on the control panel itself. luckily, the screened front-artwork is in nice condition. some scratches here and there, but fortunately no rust. have a look
i'm removing the old overlay with the help of a heatgun, one of the best purchases this year by the way. i love that thing
the overlay completely removed
before sanding down, priming and repainting the panel, i'm protecting the front artwork. tricky, because the rust almost touches the art
after the "usual stuff" here's the panel's present condition. looking closely, one can see where the new paint has been applied, but it's way better than that rusty thing it was before. i don't want to apply a new overlay right now because i'm still waiting for maverick's plastic overlay spray thingy (whatever that is) to add an additional protective layer on top. for now, the control panel rests in peace
second stop: coin boxi was extremely impressed by the size of that thing when i first took it out of the arcade cabinet. it takes a lot of quarters to fill it up
inside the box, rust from where the coins once lay ...
you can almost see the currency that had been used ...
let's remove that rust!!!
i don't want to overdo work on the coin box, therefore i'm only straightening the edges of the box as good as possible, on top of that, i'm applying some layers of zinc spray to prevent the rust from "revisiting the coin box". stay off my land, you bastard
third stop: the cabinetas i've said before, both the cabinet and the artwork are pretty rough, that's why i've decided to strip down the machine completey and start from scratch. judging from the following pictures, i guess this is a good choice!
would you have decided against repainting?
although i'm still convinced that this is the right thing to do, it almost breaks my heart to remove the sideart
the wizard has fallen
you can see exactly where the old artwork was
i'm preparing the cabinet for "sanding it down to the bone"
before
during
after
ladies and gentlemen, our employee of the month
by the way, the day after this enormous sanding job, i went to the home depot to buy some protective goggles. you should see me
NOW ...
after using a lot of wood filler on all those scratches and dents, the cabinet is ready for the next step: repainting!
the tools of the day
while applying the wood primer, something strange happened to one side of the cabinet: a "bubble" started to form in the middle of the cabinet's right side with a diameter of approximately 15 centimeters. i guess the cabinet must have had some water damage at that special spot before and when it came in contact with the wet paint it started to swell. i have no other choice than to "cut off" the bubble and to remove the swollen wood. this leaves a deep hole in the wood
here's the wood i had to cut out
a lot of wood filler is needed to "close the wound", which in return means: the restoration process on the cabinet itself has to be halted!
to be continued ...
