Pac/Jr. Pac/Ms. Pac Amalgamation Restoration & Conversion to Pac-Man Plus (Pac-Man #6599)

Olexo2424

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Donor 2022, 2025
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Last night I picked up an original Pac-Man machine, #6599 to be exact, with painted black sides, some basic Ms. Pac-Man stickers crudely placed at the tops of the side panels, Jr. Pac-Man CPO and kick plate art, running a Ms. Pac-Man fast chip PCB with filter board.

Inside of the cabinet wasn't too bad, a Busch Light traveled far with it I'm sure. The board was literally hanging with a single screw securing the daughter card to the wood. Oof. It was kept by a couple for 15 years in the upstairs loft of their nice house. They never opened the back door and somehow never needed to. Before that a similar, climate controlled environment at another owner's house.

This was definitely a machine that provided a lot of fun for a lot of people through multiple Midway conversions. 72,730 quarters at least on the coin counter. Operator(s) must've kept squeezing every quarter out with the new Midway releases. I'm not quite sure the history of how it ended up with the Ms. Pac-Man daughter card before ending up at the seller's house but history for another time I suppose.

Looking under the pulled stickers reveals what looks to be Jr. Pac-Man conversion art. Additionally the 4600 monitor and tube are heavily Pac burned dominated by the Jr. Pac-Man attract mode. Game works but that board, oowee, needs some cleaning. Coin door looks nice actually and works. Cash box is there. Nice feeling joystick. I already took the Pac-Man glass bezel out before the pics. My daughter was also surveying the project as you can see, providing her views. She's the trusted advisor.

Since I have a Pac cabaret coming with the parts to convert it to a Jr. Pac, my plan for this one is to run a 96-in-1 Pac with Pac-Man Plus primarily and put a Pac-Man Plus marquee in. I want to track down the instruction decal and serial sticker that came with the conversion kit to complete the look. I already have dedicated Pac, Ms. Pac, and Pac-Mania cabinets and no room upstairs so this'll be the front door attraction perhaps lol.

First step will be to reveal the side art underneath and what we're working with!
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Removed the Jr. Pac CPO and fought an actual war against the original rubber grommet trying to free the joystick shaft from the panel in preparation for the Phoenix Arcade Pac CPO. Also replacing the red leaf start buttons with white as expected.

I used so much WD-40 Rust Penetrant on that thing and took a razor blade to it to get it free, took about actually 25 minutes. 😅

Started stripping the black paint on the cabinet's right panel and then saw the art was not salvageable so decided to sand it down and made some progress on half the panel. On the other panel I won't bother and just sand it all down. This is in preparation for Phoenix Arcade side art. Pics of that later.

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The past couple days, I've found time in mayhem to restore the control panel. It was already in good shape even having lived through Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Jr. Pac-Man in its life. A new CPO from Phoenix Arcade, new white buttons to replace the red that at one point replaced the original white, new Midway joystick shaft, new Midway joystick grommet, all nice and rebuilt stick with good shape original leaf switches. Didn't feel the need to grind the CP and felt it was #GoodEnough.

On the cabinet side of things, I was removing the black spray paint and saw the original side art was sadly in bad shape so Phoenix Arcade side art will go on both sides. Sanded down, saw the Jr. Pac stickers on the sides, sanded through those, Bondo'd some minor chipping and things on the bottoms and some areas of the side panels. I've found for me and my Bosch sander, 120 grit, 180 grit, 240 grit are the three levels I need for a smooth side. I prefer Bondo's actual wood filler as opposed to the "original filler". Overall though, the cabinet has definitely never seen water and no swelling thankfully so it was simply about making it cosmetically as good as possible.

With the sides sanded and the Bondo sanded, spray automotive filler primer went on and then Rustoleum latex satin black paint. This, for me, was simply for the purposes of filling, solidifying, sealing, and protecting the longevity of the wood. Since vinyl side art is going on and not stenciling (just…no thanks) just really cared about the adhesion too. Since Pac-Man final side art is cabinet sized, don't need laminate on this one for me.

Just gotta tackle the kick plate and remove the Jr. Pac art and start filling, Bondo, etc. down there too. Coin door stuff, monitor rebuild etc.

I also got my NOS Pac-Man Plus marquee in the mail and things are starting to look like they're coming together!

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Today it was back to more on the cabinet. Some great progress made.

Started by taking the heat gun to the Jr. Pac kick plate art. It was done well, just time for big man himself to come back center stage. Took a while but in the end it came off completely and showed some okaaaaay art left behind but we're renewing that alongside the side art.

With the sticker removed, it was time to wood fill Bondo the bottom of the cabinet kick plate like the sides yesterday. Same standard chipping and age, no moisture damage, very solid bottom.

Moved to the left lock bar hole that was left behind when the lock bar was removed some time over the cabinet's 45 year life. Filled that hole and went to the right hole that still had the rusted bolt head that was pressed into and through the wood. Lovely. Pried it off with a flat head screwdriver and the damage wasn't half bad to fill that hole regularly too. The kick plate is now completely ready for sanding, priming, and painting. We'll see when I get to that.

The coin door's in great shape. Missing a second chute but I'm unbothered. The coin up works on both already. All I did was replace the sprayed black bezels with new silver ones and replace the sprayed black lock with a new silver ones. Easy, peasy. I'll leave the coin returns black. I like the juxtaposition I guess. Anyway, it's ready to go back on when the new art is on!
 
Man I feel like I'm on a roll. Just an uncharacteristically good amount of time on my hands the last two days and took full advantage. Sanded, primed, and painted the kick plate following today's earlier Jr. Pac sticker removal and Bondo'ing!

I also shamelessly just flat out spray enameled the already decently fine back door with Rustoleum Sunburst Yellow as well as the top of the cabinet. Turned out good enough for me!

It's getting to that exciting time to apply the side art here soon and I'm waiting for the paint on both sides and kick plate to cure a bit first.

With the coin door and control panel completely ready, it's not too much longer now!
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The most important part of the project right here! That's only half a joke. Feel like it can't be Pac-Man Plus fully without the marquee and bezel decal. The NOS Pac-Man Plus bezel decal I got is now affixed to the top left of the original glass bezel as directed by Bally/Midway's official conversion kit manual. Took a large helping of glass cleaner to both sides and absolutely covered paper towels in decades of dust and soot.

I'm still trying to track down whatever they meant by the serial sticker to place at the bottom right corner but it seems near impossible. I think it was a transparentish sticker talking about the official nature of the conversion and its serialed, legal inclusion in the original Pac cabinet. Lots of illegal bootlegs as the Plus story goes.

The original bezel has tiny, tiiiiiiiiny flaking at the corners but completely solid and barely noticeable with the whole cabinet put together. It's original once and I'm glad to be able to save it and keep it with the cabinet.

I reeeeeeally, really debated back and forth about deviating from official guidance and placing it over the original Pac instructions on the bottom left. It fit perfectly there and didn't obstruct Pac and the ghost but I listened to the manual. 🙄

Onward.

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Well, I absolutely butchered the left side art application so bad with creasing, bubbles, and tearing that I just ripped it completely off and trashed it. Gonna have to go back to the drawing board on that one. Wasted that cash, have to move on from it. Not going to settle for anything.
 
Well, I absolutely butchered the left side art application so bad with creasing, bubbles, and tearing that I just ripped it completely off and trashed it. Gonna have to go back to the drawing board on that one. Wasted that cash, have to move on from it. Not going to settle for anything.
Stencil it. You seem to have some paint skills. Pac looks strange with decals.
 
Alright decided to full send. I'll have to find some other…use or something for the vinyl kick plate and remaining side art. Picked up the Pac-Man stencil package from arcadestencils.com and got some Formica chrome yellow laminate sheets. Saw Rustoleum satin poppy red, satin oasis blue, and satin canyon black sprays and decided on those for the stenciling. We'll how things go when all the stuff gets here.
 
Cab is fully re-primed and ready for the ease of dealing with laminate. Just wanted to seal and prepare the particle board for contact cement coming soon. For the best the vinyl didn't work out honestly. Now I don't have to sand, prime, sand, paint, sand into oblivion.

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Well…lmao…the cabinet is definitely mine now. 🤣 Had some mishaps trying to cut into the coin door area after adhering the laminate. Cut a littttttttle too far into the actual kickplate itself without realizing until it was too late. But…I'm here to document everything, including the boneheaded moves. Sigh, I sealed it and all I could think to do was mask off everything around it and spray it Rustoleum sunburst yellow. 🤷‍♂️ It's got character? I guess lol. But the kick plate is now laminated at least….Went back over after the photos and cleaned up some of that obvious routing you definitely see in the pics needed going back over. I am no pro lol.

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Anybody think of a sticker, decal, something that would've gone in the area beneath the coin door with the gouge? Kinda wanna play into it. "For Amusement Only" or something Bally/Midway or something. "Don't Kick the Coin Door" lol
 
Man this one just has not gone my way, but I'm pressing onward.

The left side is laminated. You can see the hack job I did on the coin door that thankfully the coin door itself covers up 99% of.

But I cut too close on the back and the left side of the back door is basically naked on its own but the door still closes…lmao man. Thankfully the front, top, etc. went much better. It passes. Now to do the right side. Just need more laminate…
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