I should have known myself better than to buy a cabinet to convert.

Tighe

Well-known member
Joined
May 25, 2009
Messages
20,797
Reaction score
825
Location
Richmondville, New York
I should have known myself better than to buy a cabinet to convert.

So if you have seen my recent threads:

You know that I recently got a Galaga '88 board, and I don't really care of the Atari cabinet, so I planned to get a Midway cabinet and put the Japanese flyer artwork on it as side art. I also have a Galaga and Gaplus and have been thinking about making a Galaxian/Galaga/Gaplus/Galaga '88/Namco Collection Vol 1. row.

So FF to this weekend doon and I go out to Timiskander's to pick up said cabinet. turns out it is a plywood Galaxian cabinet in really good shape, just with about 5 coats of paint on it!

Oh no! You know what that means! Yes today I am off to Wal★Mart to get some citristrip. If you look at the photos below you can see that at least where the paint has flaked and scrapped off (by me) the Galaxian vinyl looks to be in good shape.

So my plans are to get the paint off and assess the state of the side art. Anyone want to give me advice on stripping the paint without damaging the vinyl? I know that Streezking ran into a little difficulty when the citristip got under the vinyl. How long do I leave it on etc.?

If the the side art is in good shape then I will be restoring it and will be looking for a cabinet of the '88. Jeez what was I thinking?!?! I guess I hoped it was a painted up Ms. Pac. But even then would I have been able to convert it? I think I might have to get a Dynamo HS-1 (anything higher and I might want to put my Street Fighter II board in it.) That or make a replica Midway cabinet.

So I have what looks like a painted Ms Pac control panel, if anyone wants to trade it for a Galaxian control panel PM me.

The cabinet:


Here you can see the vinyl:


Ms Pac CP:
 
Last edited:
I have a complete Galaxian CP you can have if you pay shipping. It came from the barn-find Galaxian here :

http://arcade-revival.blogspot.com/2010/03/this-just-in.html

it would need some clean up. The harness is intact and looks good. It's all there.

Wow! Much appreciated! I would be interested in the harness too! What else do you still have from it? Marquee? Bezel? I just hope that the side art on mine is good, I really don't relish the idea of spending $200 for replacement side art.
 
Wow! Much appreciated! I would be interested in the harness too! What else do you still have from it? Marquee? Bezel? I just hope that the side art is good, I really don't relish the idea of spending $200 for replacement side art.

I would have to look. I have so much stuff in my garage that it's not easy to locate stuff but I did just go look at the CP. It might take me a few days to find stuff out there lol. Don't remember what condition the bezel was in, or the marquee, that game was under a leak in the roof and was pretty bad. Ironically, the overlay on the cp is 98% intact and you could almost get away with taping it off and painting around it.
 
I would have to look. I have so much stuff in my garage that it's not easy to locate stuff but I did just go look at the CP. It might take me a few days to find stuff out there lol. Don't remember what condition the bezel was in, or the marquee, that game was under a leak in the roof and was pretty bad. Ironically, the overlay on the cp is 98% intact and you could almost get away with taping it off and painting around it.

I know the feeling, don't we all fill up out garages/basements so that you can't walk? :D I can wait since this is going to be a longer term project, all I have currently is the cabinet, that Ms Pac CP, a power supply, isolation transformer (got to take it out of a cab that has a monitor that doesn't use it) and a monitor. I don't even have a Galaxian board set.
 
I use citristrip for the first big peel and then I switch to the #4 or #5 Mötsenböcker's Lift Off paint remover to clean up. As for how long, you will need to test small sections to see how thick a coat and how long to leave it on.

If there are any holes or scratches in the vinyl that go to the wood- avoid using citristip on these areas and use the lift off and a scraper for those areas.

Expect to do some fairly extensive paint retouches, especially to the black outlines. But I feel theres something special to restoring the original art and worth the effort if you can do it.

Oh had to add: and no matter how bad you want to, don't use goof off for any of doing this. It will seem like a good idea at first as it does clean the goop up well- but it's so strong that it will kill the original paint very quickly.
 
Last edited:
I use citristrip for the first big peel and then I switch to the #4 or #5 Mötsenböcker's Lift Off paint remover to clean up. As for how long, you will need to test small sections to see how thick a coat and how long to leave it on.

If there are any holes or scratches in the vinyl that go to the wood- avoid using citristip on these areas and use the lift off and a scraper for those areas.

Expect to do some fairly extensive paint retouches, especially to the black outlines. But I feel theres something special to restoring the original art and worth the effort if you can do it.

Thanks! That is very helpful! BTW in case anyone else was wondering where to buy Mötsenböcker's:

http://www.liftoffinc.com/where-to-buy.php
 
test the acetone in an inconspicuous spot, i had better luck with the acetone than with the Motsenbockers.

u can get it at home depot btw that's where i got mine :D

rewind back to my post of my rear cab door, and all that paint it took off :D
 
Last edited:
test the acetone in an inconspicuous spot, i had better luck with the acetone than with the Motsenbockers.

u can get it at home depot btw that's where i got mine :D

rewind back to my post of my rear cab door, and all that paint it took off :D

Acetone will remove everything if you aren't careful! Last resort in this case. I get mine at walmart nice and cheap.

Sent from my android phone
 
Strange that it looks like the same crap color of blue that mine was painted.


attachment.php


attachment.php
 
So is it your hope that you can strip off the paint and save the Galaxian sideart underneath or just to save the white vinyl? If you are hoping to save the Galaxian artwork itself, I don't mean to bust your bubble, but don't set your hopes to high. The Galaxian sideart is not the toughest stuff in the world. Nothing like Atari sideart. I don't believe you will be able to salvage it completely.

Attached are pics of how my Galaxian cab started out. I was able to strip the black paint off pretty good, however anywhere that I got a little 3M Safest Stripper on the artwork, it came off too.
 

Attachments

  • GalaxianLeft.jpg
    GalaxianLeft.jpg
    96.5 KB · Views: 104
  • GalaxianStrip01.jpg
    GalaxianStrip01.jpg
    99.9 KB · Views: 87
  • GalaxianStrip03.jpg
    GalaxianStrip03.jpg
    95.2 KB · Views: 91
  • GalaxianStrip04.jpg
    GalaxianStrip04.jpg
    94.2 KB · Views: 111
So is it your hope that you can strip off the paint and save the Galaxian sideart underneath or just to save the white vinyl? If you are hoping to save the Galaxian artwork itself, I don't mean to bust your bubble, but don't set your hopes to high. The Galaxian sideart is not the toughest stuff in the world. Nothing like Atari sideart. I don't believe you will be able to salvage it completely.

Attached are pics of how my Galaxian cab started out. I was able to strip the black paint off pretty good, however anywhere that I got a little 3M Safest Stripper on the artwork, it came off too.

I agree. I had a galaxian and was just giving the cab a thorough wipe down and ink was coming off. I'm not optimistic that it can be saved. But, that means you can use the cab for your original intended purpose.
 
Strange that it looks like the same crap color of blue that mine was painted.


attachment.php


attachment.php

So is it your hope that you can strip off the paint and save the Galaxian sideart underneath or just to save the white vinyl? If you are hoping to save the Galaxian artwork itself, I don't mean to bust your bubble, but don't set your hopes to high. The Galaxian sideart is not the toughest stuff in the world. Nothing like Atari sideart. I don't believe you will be able to salvage it completely.

Attached are pics of how my Galaxian cab started out. I was able to strip the black paint off pretty good, however anywhere that I got a little 3M Safest Stripper on the artwork, it came off too.


Hummm, The paint is flacking off and where it is the artwork looks good. I really need to think about how I am going to do this. How much does Galaxian artwork run?
 
Hummm, The paint is flacking off and where it is the artwork looks good. I really need to think about how I am going to do this. How much does Galaxian artwork run?

Rich sells the set for 150.
 
i got the acetone at wally world myself, but mostenbockers or w/e was procured from the depo.

The acetone didn't take off any of the black vinyl on my machine but i didn't soak it or anything, but definitely will remove paint if your not careful (you know this as your the one that gave me the idea) :D.

i wouldn't worry about the artwork untill you see a problem ;-)
 
Seems like you'll have a lot of work into that- and I don't think you'll be happy with the results. I'd opt for new side art.
 
Rich sells the set for 150.

That price isn't so bad! I could just sell off some of my rareer console games. :D

i got the acetone at wally world myself, but mostenbockers or w/e was procured from the depo.

The acetone didn't take off any of the black vinyl on my machine but i didn't soak it or anything, but definitely will remove paint if your not careful (you know this as your the one that gave me the idea) :D.

i wouldn't worry about the artwork untill you see a problem ;-)

I am just going to try the mildest stuff first, and actually I am going to see what I can remove without any solvent first. Big rubber mallet and a piece of particle board first.

Seems like you'll have a lot of work into that- and I don't think you'll be happy with the results. I'd opt for new side art.

Can't hurt to try first though. Repo art is reproduction, not the same. There is something to be said about the saving the original artwork. Yes I know it isn't the Mona Lisa. :D
 
So far

So I am trying citristrip, and looks like the ink on the vinyl is coming off with the paint. Switching to crudcutter.
 
Back
Top Bottom