Dr Mario burned cab

[Pondscum]

Looking for advice on repairing burned areas of cab, Donkey Kong Jr. converted to Dr. Mario.
Interior appears okay, will need to replace power cord for further testing.
For the burn damage I am thinking of scraping the charcoal off to see what is left, any suggestions on filling and repairing the sides?
This was NOT part of a PSNW fire sale, my parents bought it near El Dorado KS about 25 years ago.

 

[andrewb]

It's on the back. Just leave it and push it in a row. It's part of the cab's story.

Done.

 

[DonPanetta]

Agree with andrewb here. It tells a hell of a story.

But if you absolutely want to restore this then you need to examine the charred edges to see just how much of that is gone and you might need to get to some good wood before you begin a plan of attack on how to restore that.

 

[andrewb]

Also, if you actually want to preserve the char, the product you want is Wood Hardener. You can get it at any Home Depot.

It's sort of like very thin/diluted liquid crazy glue. It will seep into any soft or porous material, then harden up when it dries. Then you can sand/paint/seal the surface like any other wood, if you want. (Or leave it as is.) I've used it on water-damaged particleboard cabs, which were basically just crumbling sawdust.

But honestly, in this case it might just be more trouble than it's worth. Unless the char is really falling apart, and you want something to hold it together.

This is one of those situations where if you start to try to 'fix' it, you may end up doing a lot more work than you expected, and realize you'd have been better off just leaving it as it was.

 

[vintagegamer]

You could always leave it and just call it Dr. CHARR-io!

I'll be here all week! Try the veal!

 

[ccie38296]

This is one of those situations where if you start to try to 'fix' it, you may end up doing a lot more work than you expected, and realize you'd have been better off just leaving it as it was.

You just described just about every restoration project I start on…

 

[Mattspad]

Would also have to agree with andrewb here. I don't see the that cab is structurally compromised in any way, just grazed really by flame. If you must repair it, on the laminate take a magic eraser and see if it takes the char off otherwise you'll be painting which you'll need to do a little anyways. On the back door and bottom back of the cab use a shit load of strong wood hardener in there and let it set to give it some strength. Some people would use bondo but I'd use wood repair putty for big gaps and holes in homes siding and then fill in all those charred and hardened areas. You can also use the wood putty to build up the some of the lost material from the side of the cabinet. Sand it smooth and paint it black for the back and blue for the side. If you do it right you can make a pretty clean repair.

 

[Pondscum]

Thank you Andy and Matt, I believe I will just leave it alone. I do have some wood hardener I may put on the back below the door.

 

[gumby1109]

I would also leave it alone, I always end up going down the rabbit hole. I would fix that area, then see how nice it looks compared to the rest of the cabinet and then "Bam" I'm down the rabbit hole, fixing every blemish. Ask yourself if in six months will that matter? Probably not.

 

[Phetishboy]

If it were me, I'd be breaking out the magic erasers and water. Work on the soot in the lower area for a few minutes to see what happens. If the black starts to come off, you'll probably expose most of the blue underneath. That looks like the US-manufactured particle board cabinet, which means you've got laminate. If you're able to expose the blue all the way to where those chunks are missing, you've done good.

 

[ZaxxonBoner]

I think it's cool AF.
Leave it

Any idea how the fire happened?

 

[SCUBA King]

I agree with @ZaxxonBoner, cool AF.
Part of the story of the cab.

You have BBQ Dr. Mario cab.

My buddies know the story of one of my nintendo cabs, we called her the dogshit-dead-body cab.

Always good to have some history.

 

[Pondscum]

The (known) history of this cab for whoever gets it when I am gone: It has tax stamps from Nebraska from '83, '93, & '95. My parents bought it in a small town near El Dorado KS. about 25 years ago. It has been stored in a metal building sitting until a few years ago when I got in the hobby they decided to clean it up and bring it in their house. I recapped the monitor and cleaned the joysticks, dad got a repro bezel and side art. In February they told me since they were approaching 80 years old and the grandkids weren't playing it I could come get it. In March wildfires swept through the county burning everything except for the metal building (Dr. Mario was the only thing damaged inside).
They had insurance (most did not in this area) and are rebuilding.

 

[Pondscum]

Replaced the power cord and it is mostly working. Resets after 15-30seconds and no audio.

 

[Mattspad]

Check your power supply, wouldn't be surprised if it has some cold joints. If you have the ability take a multimeter and connect it to an axial capacitor to get the voltage on the pcb while it's running, if you see the voltage drop when the game resets you likely have a power supply issue. Audio is probably a bad amp on the 20ez sound board, prone to failure but could be as simple as you need to adjust the audio up or the speaker is shot.

 

[andrewb]

The (known) history of this cab for whoever gets it when I am gone: It has tax stamps from Nebraska from '83, '93, & '95. My parents bought it in a small town near El Dorado KS. about 25 years ago. It has been stored in a metal building sitting until a few years ago when I got in the hobby they decided to clean it up and bring it in their house. I recapped the monitor and cleaned the joysticks, dad got a repro bezel and side art. In February they told me since they were approaching 80 years old and the grandkids weren't playing it I could come get it. In March wildfires swept through the county burning everything except for the metal building (Dr. Mario was the only thing damaged inside).
They had insurance (most did not in this area) and are rebuilding.

That's a hell of a picture. (In a beautiful but tragic way.) And I say that as someone who has had a house fire.

I hope someone saved that bank. That would be a fun little restore.

 

[ZaxxonBoner]

Oof. Glad your parents are ok!!!
That sounds devastating, especially at that age.
What a special project, and folks here will help you get it sorted out however you envision it.

One of my favorite games, and glad you're putting some love into it! Here's one I built and stupidly sold years back.

Would love to have another someday.

Yours has an amazing story and glad it survived!

 

[Phetishboy]

I regret selling mine as well, but it's nice to see everybody using my bezel graphic from about 16-17 years ago. Kind of wish I would've monetized that somehow. Might've been able to buy my kids lunch at McDonald's. By the way, I always wish I would've got the second revision uploaded to localArcade before everyone started printing that first version that really wasn't finished. The final version comes with the more DK-like trapezoidal viewing window:

 

[Phetishboy]

I even had a matching CPO designed. I need to get off my ass and get these things professionally printed.

 

[Pondscum]

Cleaned the edges on the pcb and filter board, measured 5.0v at filter, hasn't reset since. I will keep looking into the sound issue, recapped the amp a couple of years ago.
The bank was saved.