Build Thread: New Life Into An Old Z-Back

[MikMan48]

Hi everyone, this is only my second thread on the site so I hope I posted in the correct area. Last fall I had asked for suggestions on a multicade build and I have taken pictures along the way as I have been putting it together. This has been my first arcade machine project and I walked in knowing almost nothing. I have read hours of threads, links, posts and suggestions from this site which has taught me a ton and helped guide me thru this, however I have learned a lot even after certain steps were finished which maybe I can use if I find another machine. Everyone said this project would be the gateway to starting in this hobby, and now I find myself reading everyone's restorations here and watching for other complete machines near by. I am not sure if there will be any interest here on this project but I wanted to share what i could

I started off by purchasing this Z-Back off of marketplace on my birthday. My Dad has a few pins that I grew up with and I always wanted an arcade cab, so when I saw this come up I liked the Mario Bros theme as well as the shape of the cab. This is what it looked like once it came home







I started off by seeing what I had to work with and stripping what was left of the original pieces out of the cab. The Marquee and Bezel were placed in storage where they wouldn't get hurt. The control panel had a lot of extra holes drilled and cut into it but I figured it was repairable

 

[MikMan48]

I started off by working with what I knew which is cleaning and painting steel components. The coin door was disassembled, cleaned, primed, and painted along with the marquee trim pieces. All the plastic pieces were washed and cleaned up with Mother's Back To Black and I purchased new locks and Happ coin mechanisms as mine were missing, along with the fun little keychains that I thought would look nice







Once the coin door was finished I turned my attention to the control panel. The hardest part was getting all of the adhesive off from the black covering a PO had installed. It took a mixture of PB Blaster, Brake Clean, adhesive remover, Varsol and a wire wheel on an angle grinder to remove everything and get it down to clean bare metal




Once it was clean I moved onto the repair step. I wish I had taken more pictures of it, but apparently I did not. I added 2 holes to the top left corner to but the Player 1 and Player 2 button as the original location would have been in the middle of the instructions for the Mario Bros CPO. To patch the existing holes I taped wax paper over the bottom side of the hole so it was pulled tight and then applied JB weld from the rear of the panel, making it slightly over sized in diameter to have a good bite on the existing metal. It may not look the prettiest from the reverse side, but with a little sanding you cannot tell from the front. The only progress picture I took was when I did the small holes as a test

 

[MikMan48]

Instead of having a custom CPO made I compared measurements and ordered one originally for a Wide Body Mario Bros. I was able to trim it to fit and it presents well. It is not perfect by any means, but it was a cost effective solution. Using clamps, magnets and a heat gun I was able to get it formed and adhered tightly to the control panel. I trimmed off the excess and corners using a razor blade




After I let it cure for a little bit I cut out the button holes and assembled the control panel. By many suggestions and reviews I had found here I purchased Industrias Lorenzo 8 Way Euro sticks as well as the IL Concave push buttons, all with Cherry Switches all purchased from Arcade Renovations. Being only 27 years old I was not around for the golden age of arcade games, but seeing how many here say they give a more authentic experience I purchased them. I chose the colours by comparing the button colours used on an actual Mario Bros cabinet and I am quite happy with the choice




For the rest of the guts I purchased a generic audio kit, Jamma + wiring harness, LED Marquee light and a Suzo Happ 130W Power supply also from Arcade Renovations/ T-Molding.com. I decided to use a Pandora's Box Saga DX5000 for the PCB which I purchased from PrairieDillo here on the forum that already came loaded with Pandory. He was awesome to purchase from!




Once everything was wired up I was able to test it. As recommended on here I did check the voltage coming out of the power supply before connecting it to the rest of the systems. Once I confirmed everything worked I mounted it all to the actual board for the control panel once that was painted also

 

[MikMan48]

While I was working on these parts in the house the cab was out in the shop. I was working a lot of hours so on days off I would warm up the shop and work on the cab, and in the mean time tinker in the house on the control panel

The cab wasn't in bad shape but definitely could use some love






Before this project I have never really done many wood working projects. I have restored tractors, equipment, coke machines, radios, but nothing like this. I dove into the cabinet repair forum here and after many hours of reading many different opinions, options and ways to do it I chose what I thought I was capable of. I see now for the large area along the bottom a much better method would have been to hot glue popsicle sticks to build up a framework for the bondo to adhere too, however hindsight is always 20/20. If there is an issue down the road I will redo it. My mentality going in was that this is my first attempt so as long as it didn't look worse than before I started then i would call it a win

All the corners and edges were sanded, degreased, and treated with wood hardener before I pounded in some nails to act as rebar and then framed it with the removed T-molding before applying the bondo-glass. I had never used bondo glass before, so naturally I applied it too high in many spots and caused myself some extra sanding

 

[MikMan48]

After all the sanding, shaping and a little bit of filler the repaired spots turned out pretty decent I would say. It doesn't look worse than it did so I called it a win!






One of the rails that holds the back panel on was also cracked so I glued and clamped that as well as patched the hole in the bottom of the cab that can be seen in the first picture when it is laying in my truck.

Once the body work was finished I removed the stickers using a heat gun ( I could not believe how easy they peeled with no adhesive left over) and sanded the whole cabinet with 80 grit, 120 grit, and 220 grit. This cab will be out in my shop so I did not want to make it too perfect. I am sure it will get some bumps and bruises over the years so I left many of the surface imperfections as it would be painted with a roller and not sprayed. Here it is ready for paint




For paint I went to Home Depot and purchase Behr Cabinet Paint. The gentleman there suggested it as it was wear resistant, he was curious on what cupboard/cabinets in my house I was painting "Inferno" as it is an odd colour choice so I had to explain it was not my kitchen cabinet. The colours used were Gloss Black and Inferno for the orange. After 4 coats with a 10mm roller this was the end result

 

[MikMan48]

I left the cab to cure for a week or 2 as I was gone on vacation and then began assembly. I forgot to take a picture but the marquee light board was painted in gloss white before install the light bar up top as well as the speakers. I was able to fire up the light for the first time and I was happy to see it all starting to take shape. I replaced the 4 feet underneath with General Purpose 450T Tempest black glides from Gabriel Glides

The coin door was installed with part of the lock bar that came with it (mainly to plug the hole). I also found silicon plugs for the round holes below the control panel but they weren't installed when the picture was taken





This brings us up to the current condition of the cab. Still on my to do list is

-Cut out a plate to cover the original power supply hole to mount my power plug to
-Tape off and paint the inside edges black near the front panel (PO had covered them orange with lazy painting and taping)

And I am sure you're wondering, wait where is the monitor?

A couple weeks back I made a trip 8 hours away to visit my grade school best friend and on the way stumbled across a great gentleman selling arcade parts. He sold me an excellent condition 25" Pentranic Visual Displays 1425 that displayed really well except for one corner was a little funky, so it needs a cap kit. It was a great monitor and was in my price range so I couldn't be happier. I already purchased a cap kit as well as a B+ cap from Arcade Parts and Repair so I am just needing to sit down and recap the monitor. I am reading many thing online that says you do not need an isolation transformer for this monitor (and to be honest even with reading on here, I am not 100% sure what that is or does) but I was wondering if anyone here may confirm that? I am also not entirely sure what all needs to be hooked up from my power supply/ Jamma harness to the monitor as I don't want to do any harm. I was hoping for a little guidance.




I also just finished a better cart to place the machine on as my temporary one was fine for the empty cab, however when in use and with the monitor/Control panel it would be far too tippy

 

[MikMan48]

Made a little bit more progress

Hard to tell in the picture as it's black velcro on a black background, however I took a suggestion here and installed a strip of the non-hook side of velcro with an adhesive backing across the top of the control panel so it won't directly touch the bezel when installed



I also taped off and painted the black strips on the inside of the front cabinet facing the coil door and installed new white 3/4 inch T molding from T-Molding.com




Now that the game is up on a new cart I can start working towards installing the monitor

 

[MikMan48]

With the cool fall weather here this project has taken a back burner as prep for winter around the farm has taken hold. I did fully assemble it to see how it all looked. Where I moved the player buttons it made the 1 latch not be able to close for the control panel (oversight on my part) but 2 is more than enough holding it.



I did remove the chassis and when the weather turns sour I will recap it with the awesome kit from Arcade Parts and Repair. I still have the side art to install as well and then this will be done hopefully!

 

[MikMan48]

A few weeks back on a rainy day my Dad and I sat down and recapped it as he had done them before, this was my first time doing it

My connectors arrived so we cripped it together and we have life! I've never set up a monitor before so I will have to do some reading on here to see how to get everything adjusted correctly! If anyone has an suggestions or recommendations I'd appreciate it

 

[MikMan48]

It's in one piece and ready to play! I will have to borrow a degaussing coil to clean up the picture a little bit however it all went together well. When I purchased the monitor the coil on the back of the monitor (thanks Justin for telling me the correct name) was about an inch away from the monitor, once I slid it back into position the colors went funky but the picture was much more clear

Using Bub on both sides of the screen shows the difference



I installed the monitor into the cabinet after cleaning the pots as the vertical hold was a bit twitchy



And then I had a friend cut me out a plate to mount the filter and power switch to cover the old hole in the back of the cabinet. I had a piece of plywood hanging around that I used as a back door as well, leave a gap for air (as well as it was the size I had handy) but I may replace it later on

 

[SillyB]

Great build! It looks really nice, and it's especially impressive that this was your first build. I did some janky mame cabinets when I got started!!

 

[MikMan48]

Great build! It looks really nice, and it's especially impressive that this was your first build. I did some janky mame cabinets when I got started!!

Thank you for the kind words! It was a really fun project and I enjoyed it. As always I learned a few things I could do better on the next one but I am happy with it. A lot of tips and tricks I learned from reading here! This one I tried to make it look somewhat OEM to the average joe and I think it turned out well!