How many hours do you spend on a full restoration

chris25810

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I'm talking about a complete gutting of a cabinet and every bit of detail that it takes to make these things look new again whether you paint it, powder coat it, polish it it doesn't matter as long as everything (and i mean everything) has been apart. I'm asking cuz i'm on my 200th+ hour of restoration on a Journey machine and there's no end in sight.

I know i'm not the only anal so how much time are you spending.
 
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I've only restored 2 machines so I don't have all that much experience but my thinking is that I shouldn't put more hours into the restoration than I will spend playing it afterward. That might rule out doing a complete full restoration unless you count the time just admiring the machines. 200 hours seems like an awful lot, but if you enjoy it, what the hell.

Dave in Des Moines
 
my problem is im a perfectionist

i try not to spend more than the machine is worth
so its a tough balancing act and i usually fail, miserably
 
It all depends on the raw materials I have to work with. If the cabinet is in good shape I may not redo the side art. Yes, I am one of those people who think some dings and scrapes add character to arcade games. :)

The shortest time I have spent is about 2.5 hours getting the monitor tuned up and cleaning up the boards and fixing a blown fuse.

The longest time is about 200 hours on a Blackout pinball. That machine is going to be the death of me yet. It still doesn't work :(

ken
 
I'd say I average about 180-200 hours but I've spent as much as 250. Could you imagine what those things would cost if you were actually charging someone $30 an hour to do it for them.
 
Never paid attention but according to my wife I'm out there every night!!!

In all seriousness I think Q*bert took me close to 200 hours! Out there every night for close to two months for about 5 hours a night!
 
I spent a lot of time on my Tron, but I can't even fathom how anyone can spend 200 hours on a game. I would say Tron ran me about 40-60, which included stripping it all, replacing the wood bottom, repainting, all new artwork, etc. And it was my first game with no technical knowhow. I suppose it's like people saying they've seen Star Wars "at least a thousand times". Everyone likes to overestimate...either that or being really inefficient. Planning for things to do during "drying" and "setting" times is key. It's all about planning.
 
When I make this decision, I don't really care how long it takes. I may bitch about how long it is taking throughout the process until it is done, but when it is done all is forgotten.

My Baby Pac took 9 months, and it is only playable and not finished.

I have no problem walking away from a project, and coming back to it at a later date. I find it helps keep my frustration down to a minimum.
 
I'm talking about a complete gutting of a cabinet and every bit of detail that it takes to make these things look new again whether you paint it, powder coat it, polish it it doesn't matter as long as everything (and i mean everything) has been apart. I'm asking cuz i'm on my 200th+ hour of restoration on a Journey machine and there's no end in sight.

I know i'm not the only anal so how much time are you spending.

200 hours? Did you ride the short bus to school too? ;)

What I've seen of your restorations is in a completely different world then most others.

This goes back to the term "mint". People use it in many different ways. Same thing as "restoration".

To give you an example, my restoration of a Tapper was no where near what yours was. Is it considered restored? Yes. Like yours? No.

We've all seen DK's restored here. Who's is the best? Who considered it restored? New paint, art and call it good? Did they even touch the inside besides maybe a cap job?

Interesting thread. Love to see where it leads.
 
I think I figured I spent about 60 hours on my Punch-Out!. I really went nuts on that thing.

200 hours is madness. You sir, are MAD. Can't wait to see what it looks like, would love me some JOURNEY!
 
As long as I am satisfied in the way it looks and plays,I don't really care how much time I spent on it.I don't even keep track of the hours.
 
As long as I am satisfied in the way it looks and plays,I don't really care how much time I spent on it.I don't even keep track of the hours.

Same here.

Restoration is part of the fun, in my opinion.

Maybe it's just that I can't afford new art, or to make things look all "minty" but as long as it doesen't look like complete crap, and plays, I'm good
 
200 hours? Did you ride the short bus to school too? ;)

What I've seen of your restorations is in a completely different world then most others.

This goes back to the term "mint". People use it in many different ways. Same thing as "restoration".

To give you an example, my restoration of a Tapper was no where near what yours was. Is it considered restored? Yes. Like yours? No.

We've all seen DK's restored here. Who's is the best? Who considered it restored? New paint, art and call it good? Did they even touch the inside besides maybe a cap job?

Interesting thread. Love to see where it leads.


I saw your Tapper Krajkerjac, it looks great and is what I'm aiming for on my Tapper. Now I REALLY want to see Chris' Tapper. Can someone drirect me to pics?
 
I've easily hit 150 hours on certain restores depending on just how bad it was to start with. Sometimes fabricating new parts, sometimes just fussing with a finish until I have it right. Just never know but it's all about those little details and matching the original finishes wherever possible.. Kinda like bolt heads. Do you just paint them black or do you polish and blue? one's done in 30 seconds the other might take an hour just to mess with the bolts.
 
Restore

My last restore took 250+. It was a dragons lair.
You know what they say the devils in the details.
I'm trying to make all my games like they just came off the assembly line.
 
Bolt heads are one thing i don't get too anal about but because you've mentioned it a couple times Brian, i may try the blue method. If they were chrome/shiny to begin with, i try to stay along those lines but if they were black by the blue process i can live with a trip through the wire wheel and a nice satin spray with a shot of clear.

Something we all need to keep in mind is that in many cases factory finish left alot to be desired. Bad paint jobs, poor fit, sloppy installation of parts/artwork seems to be pretty typical with these things so do you really want a factory finish? Originality of the game is gone the second the first part of any game is repaired/replaced etc. so restoration goals at that point will really vary. We also need to remember that these things were built to make money not be show pieces. The Journey machine i'm working on was actually poorly assembled and the sideart from side to side varied 1" in placement.

Here's an example of my interpretation of making something look nice, does it look like the factory did it? No but it does at least look a bit better than what i started with. Cracking this thing open, taking everything out, cleaning/polishing/powder coating/etc. and putting it all back together was a 5 hour project.


Before: I know the date stamp is way off!

powersupplyfilthy.jpg


After:

finishedpowersupply-1.jpg


The frame, handles, and bottom pan are all powder coated and there's a few painted portions as well.
 
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Try the blue method, you'll be surprised how much different it looks! I used to paint mine for years until I found that gun blue stuff at Bass Pro and have never painted a bolt since. For shiny bolts I do the same thing, spin them in a drill then a quick steel wool spin and nice and shiny. When I restore i'm one of those that recreates the types of blemishes found from the factory and you're totally right, originally these things were cranked out as fast as possible so there were many differences and imperfections from machine to machine. My personal goal is usually to get it looking the way I remember it as a kid when it was new with nice sharp edges, nice tmolding, nice artwork.. and CLEAN :)
 
I've spent 50-100 hours on a few different games.

If you spend 200 hours on a restoration, you gotta ask yourself... why not just buy a near mint original? They are out there for just about every game, and don't usually cost that much, if you consider your time to have any value at all.

Then again, it's still a lot easier to fix up something you have than it is to dig around for weeks and buy from someone else. And it can even be enjoyable. I'm sure most of my games aren't worth nearly what I've invested in the time or dollar wise.

Wade
 
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