3 Year Joust Restoration Nears Completion

Phetishboy

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My God, has it really been 3 years since I got this cabinet from old Chris? Well, not quite, but it's been at least 2 and a half, so let's just round up for fun. This cabinet came to me covered in red contact cement. It had been completely covered in counter top laminate at one time. Here is one of the earliest pics I have of the machine, hiding behind my Sinistar:

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You can see the awesome CP the game came with. Well, it took me a while, but I finally stripped all of that red shit off with brake cleaner. Here is a pic of it hiding behind my Burgertime:

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Here is a cropped, close-up pic of the cab when I had the cement half stripped from one side:

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Here's a pic of it hiding behind my R-Type:

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Here's a pic of it behind my Tempest:

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Are you noticing a theme here? Just like that dude who no one knows that jumps into the background of every picture you take at the bar, this cab was always hiding behind somebody, waiting for me to finally give it some attention and bring it into the spotlight.
 
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Don't feel too bad. Here's mine-it's been sitting, moved for a bit, up for sale as a MultiWilliams project and back to sitting. I really want to get this done this summer... I'd love to do the Joust 2 stenciling colors too.

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Now I had originally thought I could save the paint as it looked complete from a distance. The more I looked at it though, the more I saw crackling, wear spots and blemishes that just couldn't be fixed without a complete stripping and cabinet restoration. Nearly all 4 bottom corners were angled off at a 45, and that needed to be fixed as well. So I began the process of stripping the paint, bondoing the cab and repainting. Here are some pics during the paint stripping process:

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Now I had originally thought that I was seeing gray primer under the brown paint. Later I realized that it was the silver paint of a Robotron repaint cab. This was a factory conversion from Robotron to Joust. I shoulda known from the cabinet profile, but sometimes I miss the obvious. Here was after one side was stripped:

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I hand painted an entire Joust cabinet a few years ago. What a lot of work that was.

Since it turned out to be a robotron cabinet, why not make it into a Robotron instead?
 
I hand painted an entire Joust cabinet a few years ago. What a lot of work that was.

Since it turned out to be a robotron cabinet, why not make it into a Robotron instead?
I had the same thought, but if it came from Midway at a Joust, that's what I'd consider it to be.
 
So I rolled on the first coats of paint, and realized the brown was all wrong:

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Well that sucks. So I went to Sherwin Williams, grabbed about 50 paint swatches in the browns and began color matching. I got one that was pretty damn close and went with it. For the 'correct' brown, I decided to use my HVLP sprayer.
 
Love the new base you made for that cab. Looks good, Ace.
 
Now That I had the brown right, and learned how to use my sprayer, I was all excited. I did get a little more pebbling texture than I expected, but for my first spray job, I couldn't really worry about it too much. The next trouble I had was the paint edges breaking when I pulled the stencil. Now I used Rustoleum 2x coverage spray paints. I really think the paint, (by it's very nature) laid on too thick, not using a light primer coat hurt me, and I waited too long to pull them. This was also an all-color-in-one-layer stencil, which I did not like at all. Pics of the damages:

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prOk made it right for me by cutting me a whole new set of stencils, with each paint color having it's own layer. The other side turned out much better:


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I was able to fix the other side with prOk's new stencils and a little hand painting around some of the colored edges. After the repairs, I decided to fill the gun hopper with Satin poly cut with 1/3 mineral spirits and hit the whole cab. I sprayed the top, sides, front and back with 2 coats of the mixture. Man did that even everything out. You can still detect a few of the repairs if you stick your nose up to the cabinet, but overall I am very happy that I averted total disaster and a complete re-do. Here's where she stands today, before a waxing, buffing and before everything gets installed:

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The bad/damaged stencil side is in the first pic.
 
man, shawn. that is really looking beautiful. it's hard to tell from all the pics, but is this complete partswise, or do you need a monitor and boards and whatnot?
 
Some of the details. I fixed the 2 front corners with new 3/4 inch lumber, then used bondo to smooth the transition. The back corners were not as bad and were just rebuilt with reinforced bondo. I used Rustoleum semi-gloss oil-based paint on the front, back and roof, and Sherwin Williams all-surface enamel for the brown. I think the name was 'Coffee' something or other. I used the Rustoleum 2x coverage spray paints for the colored layers. I'll get the official color names when I get home. I had the coindoors and all marquee and bezel brackets powdercoated. They will be installed this week.
 
man, shawn. that is really looking beautiful. it's hard to tell from all the pics, but is this complete partswise, or do you need a monitor and boards and whatnot?

It came to me empty. No marquee, no bezel, no boards, no monitor, no wiring and an incomplete, beat and painted over CP. I have about 10 rebuilt or new monitors to choose from, a replacement marquee, new bezel, fully loaded jamma harness and a jrOk board.
 
It came to me empty. No marquee, no bezel, no boards, no monitor, no wiring and an incomplete, beat and painted over CP. I have about 10 rebuilt or new monitors to choose from, a replacement marquee, new bezel, fully loaded jamma harness and a jrOk board.

I wish your webstore was up an running. I really need a few things...
 
It does look nice.

Do you prefer spraying or rolling now?

Spraying is easier, that's for sure. I am new at it though, so most of my rolled restorations look smoother than my recent sprayed ones. I'll dial it in as I go. Spraying is also a little more nerve wracking than rolling.
 
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