Pacman 34,462 Restoration tale.....

Zork2

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I picked up one ugly Pacman cab about a month ago.
Pacman #34,462. I got it from a Craigslist ad for a good price. It was complete, the Marquee was a Ms Pac, it had a ugly "turbo" hack, the bezel was toast, the PCB has multiple glitches, and it was painted a nasty white color from head to toe......
This is the story of its return to its former glory!!!!
BACKSTORY......
Bought it from a couple that had it upstairs in their house. The woman said her husband got it from a construction site about 10 years ago. It had sat in their spare room ever since. They were selling their house and moving to ISRAEL of all places and just wanted it gone....

Enjoy!!
 

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In honor of it's return to glory I'm giving away $20 cash to the most worthy person.......
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=192368
I have spent about a MONTH doing the body work on this cab. First, ALL the white paint was sanded off. I'm not sure what kind of paint was on there but let me tell you it was a PAIN IN THE A$$ getting it all off! Once that was done, It was bondo-ed, sanded, bondo-ed, sanded, bondo-ed, sanded, bondo-ed sanded......
I got EVERY corner sharp, and all holes filled.....
The bottoms were REALLY trashed, It took a lot of Bondo to get it all filled.....
 

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Good luck with the restore. Always nice to see one of these returned from the dead. Check the link in my signature for my Pac-man restore if you need any pictures to refer to.
 
Are go going to try to salvage that imprinted serial number on the wood? I'd love to know how you plan on doing that.
I'm just going to put a fresh coat of paint over it, I think it will turn out nice.....

I was able to put in a few hours on the control panel today. It was in pretty nasty shape. I stripped off the old CPO, sanded down the entire thing to bare metal.
I filled the hole for the "turbo" button with bondo, and sanded it smooth, To do this first I super-glued a thin piece of plastic to the back side of the control panel. This acted as a backer for the bondo.
I put on a coat of rattle can primer, then sanded it down with steel wool making it nice and smooth. Then I put on a few coats of Rust-oleum's Appliance Epoxy paint......It is a favorite of mine for control panels, it seems to really hold up well.
Once dry, it was time for a brand new CPO...... it turned out NICE!!!!
Here are the before pics....
 

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And here is the progress and the AFTER.....
 

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Lookin good. That turbo button was a crime!

Are you gonna stencil or go with pre-printed artwork?
 
I Love seeing Pacman restore threads. I am trying to save #23005 that had been converted into a Playchoice. I have tracked down all of the parts except for a new CPO and bezel glass. I started the stripping process today.

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Good luck on the project.
 
I Love seeing Pacman restore threads. I am trying to save #23005 that had been converted into a Playchoice. I have tracked down all of the parts except for a new CPO and bezel glass.
Good luck on the project.
AWESOME! Good luck! That is pretty much the same condition mine was in! Painted T-molding and the whole nice yards.....
I spent about a month doing body work on mine, I did more bondo-ing and sanding than I care to admit!

ckasek, I WANTED to do stencils, BUT, I don't own a compressor yet, and I just didn't want to roll stencils....So I opted for the the silk screened side art that Phoenix arcade sells.....
I got it in the other day, I must say it looks nice.......
Oh and yes, that turbo button WAS a crime! , thank goodness you'd never even know it was there.
No work done today on Pacman, spend 12 hours at work......
 
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AWESOME! Good luck! That is pretty much the same condition mine was in! Painted T-molding and the whole nice yards.....
I spent about a month doing body work on mine, I did more bondo-ing and sanding than I care to admit!

ckasek, I WANTED to do stencils, BUT, I don't own a compressor yet, and I just didn't want to roll stencils....So I opted for the the silk screened side art that Phoenix arcade sells.....
I got it in the other day, I must say it looks nice.......
Oh and yes, that turo button WAS a crime! , thank goodness you'd never even know it was there.
No work done today on Pacman, spend 12 hours at work......

Must have more pictures! :)
 
Must have more pictures! :)
Here ya go..... ;)
Its not much progress but I was able to finish up the coin door today. I managed to squeeze a little bit of time in on it between getting up for work at 4:00am, working a 12hour shift, running 4 miles when I got home, and taking my wife to dinner....
:)
The most concerning thing was the 2 holes drilled in the side of the frame for a security bar.
The door was also not even close to square. I put a layer of black Racing tape on the back to act as a backer and then filled it with bondo and sanded down. I beat the thing square with a hammer, then I shined up the coin slots, polished the plastic quarter windows, added a thin coat of primer, then put a nice coat of Valspar Satin black on......
Here are the before and after shots.......
 

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I was feeling extra brave today so I decided to put on the side art!
I bought it from Phoenix arcade, and I must say it looks REALLY nice. My one and only complaint is that it doesn't have the blue speckles on it, other than that, it its quality stuff.
I have spend the last month or so getting that cab in good enough shape to take the artwork. All the corners are sharp, and it is as smooth as a babies butt!!
Here are a few before pics.....
 

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I started with the kickplate.....
I trimmed it down to a more manageable size. I used the old artwork to line it up and started at the bottom and worked my way up......
 

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I then continued with the left side......
Again trimming it down, then started at the top and worked my way down peeling slowly and working from the middle outward.
Then I folded the edges over and trimmed them down....
 

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I would take a piece of the kick plate art that you cut off to your local paint center and have them match the paint. This way you have a perfect match when you paint the back and top of the cab.


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You are going to paint the top and back right?
 
I took and hour or so off and painted the top of the cab and let it dry......
 

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And lastly the right hand side.......
 

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I put on the freshly painted coin door and..... TA DA!!! It looks like PACMAN AGAIN!!!!
 

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