Jess' Arcade Restoration

Wow, I have a lot to update since the last time I posted. Just this past weekend, I've been learning a lot about arcade collection and restoration from veteran arcade collectors and enthusiasts. It is crazy!

I signed up as a member of the Video Arcade Preservation Society (VAPS) and, in turn, joined the Killer List of Video Games (KLOV) forum. To make an analogy, KLOV is basically the IMDB of video arcade games. Just recently, VAPS joined KLOV (a division of the International Arcade Museum). I have to say, I've never been a part of a forum where the veteran members were so helpful and welcoming (Thanks Taylor!). It's really an online community where people can share their love for arcade games, collections, and restorations. VAPS is definitely the place to go if someone wants to start collecting or restoring arcade games. Here is My VAPS Entry.

Now to update you on my restoration. With the little time I had over the weekend, I...

1. Removed side bolts, side art remnants, and T-molding from cabinet.



2. Removed and cleaned control panel parts including joystick.



3. "Bondo-ed" broken front left corner of control panel.



4. Sanded and repainted control panel (beautiful).



5. Acquired new replacement leaf switch buttons from Mike's Arcade. Great customer service and fast shipping!



6. I noticed that with all the little pieces I was cleaning, it was really hard for me to sand and get in the cracks. I was at T.J. Maxx with my wife and found a 30-piece Black & Decker Rotary Set on clearance for $15. I know B&D is not the best of brands that will last a lifetime, but I'm short on cash and it was a great deal. Most of all, the rotary works like a charm! I used it to sand/clean/polish a lot of the control panel parts. I'll also be using it to clean out some dried up glue in the T-molding slots and finishing corners and edges.



I also realized that I'm going to have to do some electrical wiring work and I don't want to be messy and just twist bare wires together. A friend of mine let me use his Kronus heavy-duty automatic wire cutter/crimper to do some household wiring and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Instead of manually having to size a wire through little holes, you simply place any size wire (10-24) in the end, squeeze, and voila! you have a perfectly cut end. I picked mine up at Radioshack.



My next few tasks are going to be:

1. Removing insides of the cabinet (Monitor, Power Supply, Wiring, etc.) and coin door to prepare for sanding and painting.

2. Thoroughly clean inside of cabinet (not looking forward to this).

3. Bondo holes and damage on the cabinet.

4. Sand, sand, and sand.

As far as building my collection, I don't really have the money to acquire anything new, but I'm hoping to pick up a Nintendo VS. DualSystem Cabinet (Red Tent) sometime this week. A very generous person has offered it to me for dirt cheap so I can have another project to get me going in this crazy world of arcade games. Hopefully, I'll have it up on my next update.