720 - front panel replacement

joeycuda

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I luckily found a 720 cabinet in pretty good original shape, EXCEPT the front panel was bashed in and long gone. It did come with a replacement cut out of some plywood and covered in a vinyl to use as a template for what I planned to do.

The big problem was that this thing was made with dowels, so no way to reassemble it how it came apart. The bigger problem was that with the front missing and only 4 levelers on it, it had so much weight on the front edge of the bottom, that it had bent upward some. Before unloading it, I had removed the 4 levelers and put 6 very heavy duty casters on it to spread the load - back, middle, and front pair. To put a front on, you'd have to push the cabinet bottom downwards and realign everything.

I chose to use the method Atari often used previously - 3/4" blocking.

I started at the top and installed 3/4" blocking, cut precisely to fit between each "shelf" and the top and bottom. I used narrow crown staples and Titebond glue, locking everything into alignment, with the bottom pieces last:

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Here you see one of the original bottom strips still loosely in place. I removed these and replaced them with beefier wood (seen in later pic):

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I figured from the back of the cabinet the correct distance for this bottom most brace/blocking. I had to push the bottom downwards to get it into place:

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All new blocking, incl bottom most pieces, installed:

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New plywood panel cut to size, with coin door cutout from template traced onto it:

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Applying matte black formica laminate, before flush trimmed:

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New piece all trimmed with coin door cutout:

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I had to make sure this thing was aligned just right before glue and staples. I locked it in place with clamps and made sure it fit well with the control panel:

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Not quite there.. turned out the plywood panel wasn't cut square on the factory edge, had to fix it..

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I then used glue and staples from the backside of the blocking to install the panel. Here I'm checking how the coin door fits:

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A stock one would also have a hole at center just under the lip of the control panel for a carriage or security bolt to thread into the well on the control panel. It doesn't need it though and will look better without.
 
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