Wanted: textured / structured vinyl

[Superully]

i've been looking everywhere and i've been to every single home depot i can imagine - without success. do you guys know where i can get hold of textured /structured vinyl like the one you can see in the pictures. i need black, white and blue. there should be a shop out there which carries that kind of stuff, but all i can find is smooth vinyl.

HELP ME!!! 

[Superully]

i might have found something here: http://www.happcontrols.com/vending/acesor/49057200.htm

however, when i want to place my order, they give me an email address in the uk and tell me to contact a happ controls representative there to order. somehow, this seems quite strange. has anyone around here ever ordered from happcontrols.com and had the same problem?

man, this vinyl quest is killing me. getting the right stuff to restore games is more difficult than getting the games themselves   

[level42]

Ully, I can get _almost_ everything from Happ through Suzo's headquarters here near where I live.

As you know Happ and Suzo merged and the rep's told me I could order everything that Happ carries.....that was.......untill I asked if I could order Vision Pro CRT monitors which would be much to big and heavy because all stuff is air-shipped.

Give me some part numbers and I'll drop them a mail.......I'm looking for GOOD vinyl too

[Maverick]

getting the right stuff to restore games is more difficult than getting the games themselves   

Holy words,

not to talk about the time to spend to make them match perfect

Maverick

[Superully]

Ully, I can get _almost_ everything from Happ through Suzo's headquarters here near where I live.

Thx André! I'm already in contact with someone from Suzo. They've ordered some black vinyl samples for the states which I should have within the next 14 days. I'll keep you posted 

[Superully]

UPDATE: found the black vinyl which is a perfect match for my toobin, but also good for system 1 games (my marble madness will be happy  ). it's called BLACK PICA and can indeed be ordered through "the english outpost" of happcontrols.com.

i've just placed my order 

as for the white vinyl: i have 7 different colours of white with the PERFECT structure, but unfortunately not the perfect match. some are really close, but not 100 per cent. i guess it won't be possible to get THE perfect match because the vinyl on the Toobin' machine has possibly changed colour / faded out over the years. i'll try putting the vinyl samples in the sun  for a couple of days and see what happens - perhaps they'll adapt ...



as for the blue vinyl: 4 different blues with a nice structure match, but not even close in colour. the search continues ...

[level42]

Wow, looking nice ! Esp. all those white one's. How "thick" is this vinyl ? Do you have a macro on your camera Ully, so we can see the structure of the white vinyl ? I know Rich from ThisOldGame has been looking for a good white vinyl to print Galaxian art on. His current stuff is way too smooth.

I wouldn't be _too_ picky over the white color. No-one will notice when it's done. Take a shade of white that is just a tad-bit whiter than the current stuff. Shame about the blue but still quite a number of shades !!

How's the structure of the black vinyl. Does it match f.i. the Centipede vinyl (on the top) ? If so, I guess it will be good for my SW cockpit too. May I ask what you had to pay ?

I'm not sure if it's cheaper to buy through Suzo, or order with Ponyboy (on BYOAC forum). He get's a good discount at Happ and buying in dollars can sometimes be cheaper, even with shipping it over. They do have to declare a bit different value though or you'll get some import duties if it's worth much money....

[Superully]

Wow, looking nice ! Esp. all those white one's. How "thick" is this vinyl ? Do you have a macro on your camera Ully, so we can see the structure of the white vinyl ? I know Rich from ThisOldGame has been looking for a good white vinyl to print Galaxian art on. His current stuff is way too smooth.

i do have a macro and i can take pictures, but i was told that the white vinyl is very expensive. i don't know how much it costs yet because i've only ordered free samples, but when i know i'll tell you!

How's the structure of the black vinyl. Does it match f.i. the Centipede vinyl (on the top) ? If so, I guess it will be good for my SW cockpit too. May I ask what you had to pay ?

i will also take a picture of the black vinyl tomorrow. don't know whether it machtes the centipede vinyl though because my machine is still in storage and i'd have to go there first to check.
as for the price, they carry two different width: one with around 102 cm and one with around 125 cm. strangely enough, the wider one costs less: €3,30 per foot compared to €4,05. i've placed my order on the wider one because when you cut the 125 cms in half you have two halves which are both still good enough to cover the front of e.g. system 1 games.

[level42]

So, why don't I find this stuff on the Happ site ?
I can only find the black vinyls here:

http://happcontrols.com/vending/acesor/49057200.htm

Only black/grey and only one size (40" which is about 1 meter).
From that picture, I think D (Black Pica Vinyl) best matches what's on the SW:


Since they have all those blue's I bet they have more colors too ?

About the white stuff being expensive: As my uncle always says: better expensive than not for sale. And it's not like we need 10's of meters.....the white stuff seems to carry Chinese characters....if we could google the source ......

The price for the black stuff seems to be a good match to the US prices. Big advantage to get it from a European source is no import duties worries. If Suzo UK has this stuff, Suzo headquarters can deliver it too. I once ordered T-molding from them and that stuff had to come from the UK as well.....

I just checked, the SW cockpit is only 64,1 cm.wide, so that 1,25 maybe "just" wide enough to cut in half too for that machine, since you have to deduct two side panels on each side

[Superully]

So, why don't I find this stuff on the Happ site ?
I can only find the black vinyls

easy answer: you can only find the black vinyl on the happ site because that's the only colour they have   the white one comes from a different source. once the black vinyl arrives, i can include a sample of it in my package to you, ok?

now on to the white, first of all here's a macro photo of its structure:

About the white stuff being expensive: As my uncle always says: better expensive than not for sale. And it's not like we need 10's of meters.....the white stuff seems to carry Chinese characters....if we could google the source ......

no need to google the source, the manufacturer of the white (and blue) vinyl is 3M - they have an incredible amount of different colours. the exact product name is DI-NOC SINGLE COLOR and you can check out some of the products here http://catalog.dinocfilm.com/

you're right, andré, better expensive than not for sale, but this stuff seems to be expensive.

UPDATE: i've just called the shop carrying the white vinyl, it costs €29,99 per square meter!  

[level42]

Ouch....yes that's pretty expensive....

Still, a great find !

That structure looks a lot more like the Galaxian, but I'm working now so can't compare it to the real thing. Will do ASAP when I come home. I wonder if this will be (screen) printable ?

Samples would be _sweet_ !
I've contacted 3M Netherlands for sales adresses over here....

So, your source for the black stuff was still Happ I guess ?

Cheers, Andre

[level42]

Ully, just got a quote from Suzo headquarters for €3,80 per foot for the wide pica........mmmmmm why is there 50 cents difference between Suzo UK price and Suzo headquarters price......Gonna ask them business is business

I just learned that Happ ships their vinyl FOLDED (to someone who is a "middle man" on the BYOAC forum for Happ stuff. He doesn't sell it anymore now since his customers were very unhappy about it. I sure hope they will ROLL it up for you !

€3,80 is pretty high. With the current euro-dollar rate (1.42, it just keeps getting better for us ) the $3.75 that Happ ass translates to €2,63

For a foot, that doesn't matter much, but when ordering a decent amount, it can make a difference....but then threre's the shipping costs of course...

[Superully]

I just learned that Happ ships their vinyl FOLDED (to someone who is a "middle man" on the BYOAC forum for Happ stuff. He doesn't sell it anymore now since his customers were very unhappy about it. I sure hope they will ROLL it up for you !

FOLDED?  if they send it this way it will be completely useless - i've never heard of anyone folding up vinyl, sure hope they don't!!!

you said you could pick up yours in person, i guess this wouldn't be folded then, would it? after all, they're cutting it off a roll, don't they?

man, i really hope this folding thingy is an urban legend ... 

[level42]

It's not, I just forwarded you the e-mail. He says they fold it up like a table cloth !!!!

The seller is Divemaster. He sells Happ parts for a lot cheaper then Happ's own prices plus he has reasonable shipping instead of insane shipping costs. I've ordered one time from him, worked fine.

You can find him here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=47066.0


Keep in mind that Suzo doesn't carry this stuff themselves. They simply order it from Happ. They have regular shipments from Happ to Suzo (and the other way around I guess) so this goes with a "bulk" order. Suzo headquarters quoted me a 2 week delivery time.

I think I will definitly order from Suzo now. If it arrives folded, I can refuse it right away at the counter.

It is insane, how stupid can they be ? Of course the vinyl comes from rolls. Maybe they fold it because they were short length orders ?

Anyway, I will be ordering 20 feet from Suzo here. I will need 13 feet alone for the SW !! (half width, but still). 20" will give me plenty for any other cabs/projects on stock

[level42]

I ended up ordering it from Suzo's headyquarters overhere and I mentioned the fold-up thing and that I wouldn't accept it if it would be like that. My rep found that it would be very strange of them to send it like that since it of course comes on rolls.

Anyway, due to bad economy, I decided to order 10' only (till still leave me 7' spare for other cabs).

The total incl. tax was 42 Euro's, so it's 4.20 per foot for me. Not too bad, and of course no shipping costs.
Still, it's expensive stuff for "just" the back/top of a cab, but in the case of a SW cockpit, the topside is pretty visible often.

They expected it to be in by the end of the week/beginning next week....will keep you posted !