Any way to 'touch up' woodgrain?

mhkohne

Well-known member

Donor 13 years: 2013-2025
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
2,306
Reaction score
43
Location
North Wales, Pennsylvania
I bought a Neo-Geo 2-slot at the Harrisburg auction and it's got a number of chunks out of it (it works fine, it's just that the cab is beat up). I can certainly learn to use bondo to touch up the missing chunks, but I was wondering if there was anything sensible I can do about the damaged woodgrain laminate? I've got some areas as much as 3"x3" where a chunk is out, and the laminate is gone, and I don't really want to re-laminate the whole cabinet.

Have I got any options? I suppose I could just bondo the bad sections and then paint them brown so they don't stand out too much. Are there any other ways to deal with this?
 
Woodgrain looks like ass. Bondo then paint the entire cab another color.

Hmmm. Not impossible - I'm sure I could match the red from the bigger Neo Geo cabs. But I'm not sure I want to deviate from the original. I'm not real fond of woodgrain either, but I also have a tendency to want to 'restore' rather than 'improve' things.

It sure bears thinking about. Perhaps I'll take some pictures, photoshop it and see what it looks like...

Has anyone else done this?
 
Last edited:
Find a friend or college student willing to do the needed touch-up. It's just a matter of matching a few shades of brown, and then blending the pattern together. It'll never look perfect, but will not be immediately noticeable... At least that's what I would try. If that fails, then you can fall back to the paint method.

I like woodgrain. Reminds me of the old arcade machines... Which is pretty much why we all collect these damn things. :D
 
patch it then get a roll of parts express woodgrain vinyl laminate. Even if you have to have a seam near the back, it will look 10 times better than what you have.
 
my congo bongo was also missing a chunk (pic 1), so i ordered a lot of different woodgrain samples (pic 2), cut and filled the "wound" to make the "operation" easier (pic 3) and finally inserted a piece which matched color and structure the best (pic 4). although it doesn't look perfect on the picture (because of the flash), it is ALMOST invisible in reality and so much better than before!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0640.jpg
    IMG_0640.jpg
    88.7 KB · Views: 40
  • IMG_0642.jpg
    IMG_0642.jpg
    96.2 KB · Views: 41
  • IMG_0690.jpg
    IMG_0690.jpg
    80.7 KB · Views: 46
  • IMG_0715.jpg
    IMG_0715.jpg
    84.7 KB · Views: 60
my congo bongo was also missing a chunk (pic 1), so i ordered a lot of different woodgrain samples (pic 2), cut and filled the "wound" to make the "operation" easier (pic 3) and finally inserted a piece which matched color and structure the best (pic 4). although it doesn't look perfect on the picture (because of the flash), it is ALMOST invisible in reality and so much better than before!

Where'd you get your samples from, if I may ask?
 
Where'd you get your samples from, if I may ask?

from germany ;) to be a little bit more precise: they come from different manufacturers, but most of them are from 3M who carry TONS of woodgrain stuff. i've got a sample book here showing all their products (on very tiny samples), i choose whichever i think is close to the original from there, send them an email asking for bigger sample cards and a couple of days later i can check them out "live"!
 
Hmmmm....

Any chance you would give more info out? The atari cabaret cabs are all wood grain, and my MC needs new vinyl badly. I'd sure like to hear where I could buy one of those books...and who exactly I could email for sizes/samples.

Unless it's a secret source or something!
 
my congo bongo was also missing a chunk (pic 1), so i ordered a lot of different woodgrain samples (pic 2), cut and filled the "wound" to make the "operation" easier (pic 3) and finally inserted a piece which matched color and structure the best (pic 4). although it doesn't look perfect on the picture (because of the flash), it is ALMOST invisible in reality and so much better than before![/QUOT

good work, that looks great!!
 
Back
Top Bottom