Afterburner Restoration

mgreen

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Donor 2012
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Started on an Afterburner restoration and wanted to post on the progress. Cabinet was in good shape but needed some overall TLC. Probably a 4.5-5 to start with but fully working including the shaker motor.

Posting some prepics then will update with 1 week later
 

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Last edited:
Pre pictures continued...
 

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pre pics cont....
 

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Last of the pre pics
 

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1 Week later

The first thing I did was break down and perform a complete clean and lube on the cyclic assembly and thrust assembly.

The thruster is taped up for painting right now.
 

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1 Week

Then Bondo and sand; and repeat...
 

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1 Week

The CP panel was broken badly at the thruster attachment. I glued the area together as best as possible and clamped for 24 hours. I then applied a wood hardener and when dry bondo'd the area to get a flat surface.
 

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Next came stripping the old battered vinyl on the bottom and black paint from the cabinet. This was the first time I used the citrus strip. THIS STUFF IS FLAT OUT AWESOME! Fair warning however do not leave it on the paint if vinyl is underlying for more than 5-10 minute or it will strip the vinyl if you intend to keep whats underneath.

My first intention was to simply strip to bare wood; but then I saw the condition of the vinyl on the side access door (which was detaching due to a 30 minute set) and decided to try stripping only the paint since there are other cabinets I need to do this to. The results on the first side look great and now I am in a quandry on leaving the vinyl or stripping and going with model masters water based metal paint to bring back the aluminum finish instead.
 

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And the last of the week was to pull the side kickplates and sand them down due to tons of scratching and some nasty gunk stuck on them. Went from 100 grit to 1000 grit wet sanding then polished up. Still need to buff these to a high shine with some polishing compound.
 

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And the last of the week was to pull the side kickplates and sand them down due to tons of scratching and some nasty gunk stuck on them. Went from 100 grit to 1000 grit wet sanding then polished up. Still need to buff these to a high shine with some polishing compound.

Are those stainless? Would you rather polish them to a mirror shine or "regrain" them, as is often done with pinball side rails? For that, you'd basically sand in one direction, a straight line, with 400ish grit I think.
 
They started out with a mirror finish between the scratches and gunk. I am going to try and get it back to the same way. I'm OK with the way they look now but I always go the extra mile to be satisfied. I believe that yes they are stainless because they were so hard to sand down.
 
Easiest/best way to polish stainless is with a bench or stand mounted buffer.

I had to polish a bunch of stainless trim for a car restoration. Think of the roughness as scratches..you have to first abrade the surface with a rough 'polish' to even the surface down, removing the scratches, but leaving it covered with micro scratches all over, like a haze. You then use progressively finer polish to make it shine.

The method I used, which worked well for me:

1) use a sisal wheel, with black emery compound. The sisal wheel is rough and has a cutting action that will get rid of the scratches, but leave a haze over the metal. You will buff until the scratches that you first saw are gone and there is a uniform haze over the surface from the sisal/emery:

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2) Buff with a spiral-sewn wheel and tripoli or stainless steel compound

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3)
 
Any other advice out there please give it to me. Joeycuda thanks for preventing me from having to learn the process of polishing on my own.

I am starting on arcades and it means electronics, software, woodworking, plastics, glass, metal working, painting/stripping... It's hard to start the hobby and know it all.
 
General restore question

What is the controversy, (or is there one), about what to do about the inside wood on a cabinet? Paint it the same as outside, Polyurethane it, sand it lightly to brighten its appearance or simply don't touch it? Obviously if I have a lot of bondo in an area I HAVE to paint but what about the rest of it?
 
Any other advice out there please give it to me. Joeycuda thanks for preventing me from having to learn the process of polishing on my own.

I am starting on arcades and it means electronics, software, woodworking, plastics, glass, metal working, painting/stripping... It's hard to start the hobby and know it all.

The Eastwood Company website/catalog is great for learning..in that it's so descriptive that you can figure out what you'd need to get started in metal polishing, metal buffing, they have a rust strippers, etc.. You can buy a cheaper buffer at Lowes or maybe even Harbor Freight, but I'd recommend ordering the buffing wheels and compounds from Eastwood. If you don't use the proper material wheel with the proper polish (ex: starting with sisal wheel/emery compound on stainless), then you'll just waste a LOT of time, effort and money.
 
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