Recommend someone in SF Bay Area who restores arcades?

olePigeon

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Recommend someone in SF Bay Area who restores arcades?

Howdy,

Been a while. I'm up to three arcades now. :D I think I have "the bug." Defender, Joust, and soon this weekend, Centipede.

My Defender and Centipede look great. Defender just needs some work on the joystick. Doesn't look like Centipede needs any work. All original, still working. :)


My Joust, on the hand, needs a lot of cosmetic work. The original artwork was painted over with no chance of restoring it. I'm OK with a soldering iron and some basic electronics or mechanical work. However, when it coms to the cosmetic issues, I'm a complete newbie. I know I'll bodge it up.

I plan on buying the Joust stencils online, but I'd like to pay someone to sand, putty, sand, paint, sand, paint, and then apply the stencils. Can anyone here recommend someone in the San Francisco Bay Area that restores arcade machines? I'm in the South Bay (Milpitas), but I have a pickup, so I can deliver the arcade to wherever it needs to go.

Thanks,

Doug
 
Man, watching these restoration videos. Maybe I should try it. I dunno. Have to start somewhere, and I don't think my Joust will look any worse. :p
 
The problem with paying someone is that a repair like this, while not difficult, can take a lot of time (bondo drying, paint drying, sanding, etc). Not to mention the hassle of taking the heavy cab somewhere.

The money you would wind up paying someone to restore one cab would cover the cost of all the tools you would need to do it yourself (sander, shop vac, etc.) And if you are into the hobby then you'll need to do this more than once eventually.

But here's the real reason: Restoration is so much fun! It's really one of the best parts of this hobby. Extremely satisfying when you finish working on a cab after 3 weeks or 3 months and it looks 100% better than it did when you got it.

Go for it.
 
The problem with paying someone is that a repair like this, while not difficult, can take a lot of time (bondo drying, paint drying, sanding, etc). Not to mention the hassle of taking the heavy cab somewhere.

The money you would wind up paying someone to restore one cab would cover the cost of all the tools you would need to do it yourself (sander, shop vac, etc.) And if you are into the hobby then you'll need to do this more than once eventually.

But here's the real reason: Restoration is so much fun! It's really one of the best parts of this hobby. Extremely satisfying when you finish working on a cab after 3 weeks or 3 months and it looks 100% better than it did when you got it.

Go for it.

A cosmetic restoration for me usually requires about 40 hours plus or minus. If it's something with a complicated set of controls like a spy hunter, that figure is closer to 60 hours. Do the math.
 
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