And I'm Back: A Red Tent, a PC10, and a side of Hantavirus

[nerdygrrl]

You really did transform the inside of that cabinet.
Didn't know about the peroxide and baking soda trick!

If you roll the paint on the nap and overall quality of the roller is critical.
That and the thing needs to dry for a week to harden up enough to sand out nicely.
Extra irritating if it is getting cold too I imagine.

It's wild to see it work when placed out in the sun, the stuff just bubbles up. You could smell this cab 15-20 feet away. Not a hint of odor now.

 

[nerdygrrl]

The first time that I had to remove hair from a marquee. This was pretty gnarly. It's always stressful trying to clean these while not lifting any of the silkscreen. All in all not too bad. It polished up nicely.

 

[Mattspad]

Are the nintendo buttons specific to Nintendo? Mikes Arcade sells "Nintendo buttons" but I would prefer not to spend $8 a button.

If you want oem style buttons you will pay the 8$.

I should also add that supporting Mike is a no brainer. He has done more for the Nintendo collecting community than just about anybody out there. He puts a lot of time and resources into sourcing and manufacturing Nintendo replacement parts. Without him we would really be lost.

Mike is single-handedly keeping nintendo cabinets alive with outstanding reproduction parts. I built a dk junior from scratch a few months back and let's just say Mike made a lot of money! But I got amazing quality reproductions of everything from the complete control panel, to coin door, and even a wiring harness. Wouldn't be possible without mikesarcade. Mike and security001 are absolute treasures. Truly honorable men.

 

[nerdygrrl]

Mike is single-handedly keeping nintendo cabinets alive with outstanding reproduction parts. I built a dk junior from scratch a few months back and let's just say Mike made a lot of money! But I got amazing quality reproductions of everything from the complete control panel, to coin door, and even a wiring harness. Wouldn't be possible without mikesarcade. Mike and security001 are absolute treasures. Truly honorable men.

100% this. Folks new to this hobby just don't get how lucky they are these days. It's wild what folks concern themselves with $$ wise in this hobby.

I did a full TZ PF tear down for a friend, and he was concerned about spending $60 to rebuild his flippers. I'm like mate you dropped $200+ on led's that do nothing to improve the quality of gameplay for your 8K game. After that I made it a policy that if you weren't going to let me do it right, I wouldn't take your job.

 

[nerdygrrl]

That lipstick make that piggy look good. Not my best painting job and thanks to the terrible lighting you can't tell. Totally fine for a short term fix.

And of course I knocked the top loading it up.

 

[SNESNESCUBE64]

Excellent work so far.

I'll also just go ahead and talk nice about Mike, he's the best. He's helped me with some restores even if it was just asking oddball questions. I hope to be as cool as he is one day...

 

[nerdygrrl]

Excellent work so far.

I'll also just go ahead and talk nice about Mike, he's the best. He's helped me with some restores even if it was just asking oddball questions. I hope to be as cool as he is one day...

Mike's Nintendo knowledge is just next level and like you said he is the BEST. A+++ human.

 

[nerdygrrl]

So many sticks, and buttons, and sticks. As discussed above the price of these things can get out of hand. When I picked up the red tent I did not intend to spend what I did on parts for it right out of the gate. The same with the PC10. I had envisioned these as more long term projects. Their status and needing to get them to the point where the damage and deterioration could be neutralized took a lot of time and $$.

That was a very long winded way of me stating that I could not at the moment drop $32 on new buttons for the PC10. The original CP had the wrong buttons and they were toast. So I poached some from my red tent. They got a nice warm water and soap bath and then some Novus 2 love.

The sticks were all soaked in simple green (boy do I miss my ultrasonic cleaner), all of the old grease removed, and new synthetic grease installed. 5 out of 6 are working great. The one PC-10 stick has seen some things, the collar is bent to heck on it so it doesn't move as smoothly. Eventually it will get replaced.

 

[nerdygrrl]

This piggy loves lipstick....no before photos of the CP for whatever reason. Removing the old CPO as we all know is never fun so maybe I just did not want to relive that trauma on here.

Art installation like painting is not my strongest skillset. This was by far the hardest CPO install that I have done. There was not a ton of room for error and I swear to god as soon as I started the process my office building's heat went up 75 degrees.

I grabbed this from Mike's and the CPO is cut exactly to width with no real guides other than knowing the printed text blocks go on that flat front. So you really have to make sure that you have everything lined up and clamped correctly prior. I used these wood guides that helped a TON.

It's a fantastic quality CPO and the material was very easy to work with. You just need to take your time to set it up properly beforehand.

I clamped it in place and heated it a bit, and let it sit over night to let the shape take hold. I applied the CPO from the bottom to the top and everything was smooth sailing until I had to pull it up and onto the top shelf. I ended up with a couple of creases and bubbles which will drive me crazy, but it is what it is.

I am not sure if it would have made more sense to go from the top to the bottom. If that would have been an easier transition with the plateau. In hindsight it feels like it might have been. Perhaps I should have had another set of clams and wood in place. Still given my history with these things this came out pretty great.

 

[nerdygrrl]

I was hoping to make a celebratory post re this dumpster fire this weekend, alas... I re-capped the monitors, and mild improvement.

The OG top monitor has jail bars (inverter bypassed) and won't focus properly. It seemed in focus prior to being put back in the cab, but then yo no say. The bottom monitor is missing its red. I did the neck reflow, swap the transistors, etc to no avail.

At this point I just need to take a break from these two for a couple of days and will revisit them over the weekend. I'll do the B+ check, etc on both and go from there. I should have tested it when I had them on the table, but I just needed to pull the plug so to speak.

Worst case is that the OG lower monitor will need to be replaced. I can use that as a menu for the time being. We'll see what happens with the OG top monitor after I do some testing. It may need a new flyback which wouldn't surprise me given the amount of mouse urine that rained down onto it. It may not.

Before The Cap Kits




After The Cap Kits

 

[nerdygrrl]

Chapter Two: With the PC-10 in the timeout corner let us move onto the red tent. This little buddy popped up about 3 hours from me on FB Marketplace. I saw it within thirty minutes of posting and instantly wrote the seller stating that I would love to buy it and that I come out at his convenience. After the person in front of me ghosted the seller got back to me, his convenience was 7:30 pm.

I start my day at 4:00 am so 7:30 pm is like midnight for me, an additional minor detail is that I do not see very well at night, but it's a red tent...so I agree thinking highway driving won't be too bad. It turns out this was in Littleton, NH, and I live in Portland, ME and there was no highway driving. It's all winding, dark, poorly lit, steep mountain roads in legit moose country.

At one point in my drive there, as the sun was setting mind you I was driving directly into that blinding setting sun for the first leg of the trip-I got really excited because I thought I saw a mouse. I slowed down so I could take a pic. It turned out to be a guy in some Carhartt pants and a brown shirt. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement.

It also turns out that while a Nintendo red tent could slide/fit comfortably in my old Volvo V70 wagon, the same cannot be said for my newer Volvo XC70 wagon, but I will spare you the details on that. Who knew? I felt truly horrible for the seller because we had to work a little harder than we should have to get this mess loaded into my car.

Old Volvo: Look at all of that room.






New Volvo: I wasn't planning on trading it in anyway.

 

[nerdygrrl]

The seller was selling it for his op friend. As his FB marketplace ad stated, "this is a true barn fine". He has been trying to get his friend to unload his games for a while now, but we all know ops.

It's so sad, had this been pulled a year or two before it would have been so much much cleaner. The monitors on this are some of the best I have seen re burn.

 

[nerdygrrl]

What about that mouse nest the size of Texas that you previously mentioned?

That?

This thing was so tightly packed that it took me hours to pick it off the chassis.

 

[nerdygrrl]

And it wasn't just the chassis, this hay/grass was in everything. It has been almost two months and I have had the cab completely torn apart, and turned upside down every which way and I am still finding it.

In the cab, In between the hood and the black metal support bracket. in the flyback cover, in the yokes (RIP), in the power supply...

 

[nerdygrrl]

I have not a ton of time to work on these. Finally after a bunch of monitor work we are "running" on the PC-10. I need to find somebody to rejuvenate the top monitor for me. It's missing its red and it's definitely the tube. Neither chassis showed red. The upper and lower monitors are shifted to the left the vertical position pot does nothing to address this. I am leaving them as is for now

Buttoned it up today and the right hand cone buttons were not working. Traced that back to that weird pin connector for the player 2 harness.

Aside from the monitors all this cab needs now are coin doors and eventually a gun and holster.

A much bigger mess and time suck than anticipated.