Galaga restoration

[DanoND]

Well, the second coat of paint went like crap. I used a 1/4" nap roller to lay it down and it is ram-packed full of fuzzies, so I'll let it dry, sand again, and never use that !@$##!#@ kind of roller again.

While it's drying, I helped Dad resurrect the power supply which is back to providing proper voltage again. I almost went with a switcher, but there's something really cool about having the old PS doing the work. You can see the burn stains from a previous life!

 

[knight rider]

what did you change on the power supply or was there a kit to give it new life once again?

 

[joeycuda]

If any of the connector pins are burnt, make sure you replace not only the pins in the housing, but also the header pins on the board. They tend to burn. Probably good idea to replace all the caps on the power supply as well.

 

[Mike Doyle]

You can actually get a great finish with rollers, the key is to de-lint them before using.

Put the roller on the roller frame and put that in a vise. Then take a 2" wide piece of masking tape about two feet long, and run it across the roller by stretching it between your hands, until it fills with lint and loses it's tackyness.

Repeat the process 4 or 5 times until you notice no lint is coming off on the tape. At that point, the roller should be ready to use, and you won't have stray lint in the finish coat.

Here's one I painted with a roller last summer:

 

[DanoND]

If any of the connector pins are burnt, make sure you replace not only the pins in the housing, but also the header pins on the board. They tend to burn. Probably good idea to replace all the caps on the power supply as well.

Connector pins are great, header pins on the board are also great (board is not the original one). Caps in the power supply appear to be OK.

The diodes had caught fire or just cooked really well once before and had been replaced, but had been hacked in. The traces had burned up and had lifted off the board. We pulled the diodes, removed the ends of the traces and used diodes with long leads and soldered them further along the traces.

Not sure what happened to this one before, but it's doing what it's supposed to do now. I can get 5v and 7.2v no sweat.

My Dad's the electronics whiz. I make 'em look good!

 

[DanoND]

Got the transformer board or whatever it's called cleaned up and painted today. Installed it, but no pix of that yet.

 

[DanoND]

You can actually get a great finish with rollers, the key is to de-lint them before using.

Put the roller on the roller frame and put that in a vise. Then take a 2" wide piece of masking tape about two feet long, and run it across the roller by stretching it between your hands, until it fills with lint and loses it's tackyness.

Repeat the process 4 or 5 times until you notice no lint is coming off on the tape. At that point, the roller should be ready to use, and you won't have stray lint in the finish coat.

I will do that with the next one. Good idea.

I did my Mario Bros WB with a foam roller and it turned out really bitchin. I don't know why I turned into a moron with this one. I guess the third time hand-sanding the #$!@# thing might be the charm

 

[DanoND]

Got the first coat of paint on the cabinet after sanding the original attempt off. It's amazing what patience will do with black paint. Sigh. With the first try I was in a hurry to get done in one pass. Lesson learned (until next time)!

Next is to lightly scuff this second coat smooth then lay down the finish coat. After a day or so of drying then it'll end up down in the basement for a final cure. I'm sure my wife will be pleased with the smell.

I used duct tape to remove the fuzz from the roller, that worked great. I ran fresh tape across the roller 3 times and it picked up lint every time. After the third I tried picking lint out of the roller with my fingers and I couldn't. The paint doesn't show any fuzzies so it worked well.

All I have left on the monitor is to replace the horizontal width coil and it'll be ready to put back into the game.

Exciting!

 

[WadeLanham]

A smooth "foam" roller will have no lint and ultimately will give a flatter finish. With some care these can work VERY well.

Wade

 

[DanoND]

95%... Just need to get the board back, put the leg plates/legs on and the kick plate, then play!

The foam roller turned out freakin' awesome, I think.

 

[FlavaDave]

Re:

Awesome job, I'm envious!

 

[delroy666]

Looks great! I hope mine turns out that nice.

 

[ChaosJohn]

I restored two of these a couple of years ago. I didn't quite go to your level of detail in taking the cabinet apart, but most of the same stuff -- lots of bondo repairs, building a back door, rebuilding power supplies, got one board working, bought a board for the other, priming, paint, new CPOs, new art. They both came out pretty darn sweet. I sold the better one off for $800 and the other is still in my garage.

I wish I had documented the process like you did. Nice job. Gives some of the newer people in the hobby an idea of how much you've gotta go through to make a game look really great (and at the same time, how possible it is to convert a beat up trashy cab into a work of art).

 

[ZEN]

Nice job, good tip on the roller lint, I just about shat em the other day when I saw a second coat going on one of my cabs, having to-re-sand sux, thx and good luck on the finished product.....

 

[DanoND]

Thanks guys. I'll post a better pic of it lit up and running when I get the board back on Friday!

Hey how did you guys mount your bottom kick panels? Mine had staples, but I don't own a staple gun.

 

[mecha]

very nice progress! glad I don't have to go butchering panels out of my Nintendo cab I need to eventually restore... really just have a ton of bondo work to do on it.

glad to see Galaga getting some love.

 

[bryan95502]

Thanks guys. I'll post a better pic of it lit up and running when I get the board back on Friday!

Hey how did you guys mount your bottom kick panels? Mine had staples, but I don't own a staple gun.

Try some contact adhesive like the stuff they sell for putting on laminate tops. Brush on cabinet and kick plate

Great work so far!