Restoration Disappointment?

I've done many restores in the past 33 years of collecting and even though I'm happy with all of the restoration work, there is ALWAYS SOMETHING that others may not see, but I KNOW is there on any of the games I've restored. Whether it's something I did incorrectly, or messed up, or took a minor shortcut, etc.

I guess I'm my own worst critic!
 
I've experienced this in some degree with almost every restore and I've sold games that I couldn't look at anymore because of it. I've chipped clear coat on new pinball playfields (devastating) and I've had wood grain vinyl peel right off because the prep surface was too smooth. In my early days, I painted a couple of Nintendo cabs with latex. The games looked very presentable, but I lost some brand new side art that wouldn't adhere to the latex. It's funny though, I've had buyers almost in tears buying games because of how in awe they were over the condition, especially with full pinball restorations. And I'm thinking: "but did you see that little bit of rust or the patch of bondo showing through the paint?" Maybe perfectionist problems, so I've learned to never be afraid to re-do work if you're on the fence, and I have definitely embraced the patina of original games. Highly recommend laminate as others have said. It seems intimidating at first, but the results are just so good, especially when weighed against the labor of all that painting and sanding.
 
This topic took me to one place: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/media/noice-crystal-castles-moppet.22624/

Don't remember if Noice was disappointed or not . . .

I'm pretty sure he responded like this:

"Feel free to call me a snob, I can take it. :) But I can honestly say I've never disappointed myself. I'm extremely satisfied with all of my restores.

I don't cut corners.
I don't get lazy.
I don't hold myself to some arbitrary budget.

And the most important thing...I don't rush anything. I only restore one or 2 games a year and I pour myself into each one to get them perfect.

I just don't even start working on anything unless I know that I will do it 100%."


😆
 
I'm pretty sure he responded like this:

"Feel free to call me a snob, I can take it. :) But I can honestly say I've never disappointed myself. I'm extremely satisfied with all of my restores.

I don't cut corners.
I don't get lazy.
I don't hold myself to some arbitrary budget.

And the most important thing...I don't rush anything. I only restore one or 2 games a year and I pour myself into each one to get them perfect.

I just don't even start working on anything unless I know that I will do it 100%."


😆
Noice was before my time here.

Don't associate me with that hot garbage.
 
Proper restorations take time. It is challenging mentally to spend hours preparing a cabinet for 20-30 minutes of painting with a HPLV gun or to apply sideart. All the short cuts show in the final product and they are very difficult and costly to fix after the fact. However, there is a middle ground as not everything needs to look showroom new. My Pacland, Track & Field and Punchout look amazing but took forever to restore. My latest Time Pilot cabinet clearly was in the hands of a crackhead and it would add months to my restoration time line for it to be restored to museum quality. Therefore, I am doing a 9 to 5 restoration...meaning the cabinet will look like a 9 from 5 feet away. I have to live with that fact if I ever want to play the game. I made my peace.

Restoration is part of the hobby for many of us. However, having playable games is more important for some titles than having a perfectly restored game...at least for me. To the OP, live and learn. Move to the next restoration with those lessons learned...and maybe circle back to that cabinet to fix the imperfections years from now if you still feel it is necessary.
 
Finishing up a restore, some final buttoning up to do. It came out alright, not as striking as I hoped it would be but it's ok.

That being said, has anyone ever had restoration disappointment? If so what game and why?

As someone who has seen all of the work you have posted publicly and a few things you've personally shown me in private, I can confidently say that you are taking this a bit too close to heart. Your restores so far have been great.

I've done dozens of restores; many of which I've never posted here on KLOV. Some of them are simple cleanups and others are huge undertakings. During COVID alone I did nearly 20 restorations and conversions from multiple arcades in my state. I don't think I've ever been truly happy with a single restore I've ever done but the more I continue doing them, the more I begin to let that feeling go and work on them with the understanding that they will be clean, stable and playable.
 
My first pinball playfield clearcoat, many years ago, done successfully. Many weeks later I started re-populating the playfield. In the process, I did a screwdriver tool flip, and I missed. I got to now see a little "cross" on the middle playfield for life.
 
I seem to be making more mistakes lately. I get in hurry to get games done. Plus my shop is a mess. I am in the process of building a much larger arcade space but its taking forever. in the mean time my shop is over flowing
 
Finishing up a restore, some final buttoning up to do. It came out alright, not as striking as I hoped it would be but it's ok.

That being said, has anyone ever had restoration disappointment? If so what game and why?
Literally today I ripped the antenna off Centipede's head trying to apply side art to my cabaret.

I then proceeded to misalign it to match the other aide. After fixing that for 30 minutes I went back to the other side, felt fell off my squeegee and I gouged a nice straight line down the bottom in a diagonal pattern. Proceeding to think a Magic Eraser might do literally anything, I took it to the blue on the bottom and smudged nice and white. Then I tried to very lightly spray blue paint to that circle and it went over the mushroom. Rinse and repeat on very lightly trying to fix it, turned out decent but that blotch on the bottom in the blue is still there plus the faint scratch line.

Such is life. I still love the way it looks. I just laugh at it.IMG_7496.jpeg
IMG_7497.jpeg

It's my first restore so that's all I have to contribute lol.
 
The cutout around the art on the left side is pretty far off. Did it arrive that way from the printer? (if it was a known and discounted second, then understandable)
Trust me, it's just lighting. Phoenix's art was spot on.
 
Proper restorations take time. It is challenging mentally to spend hours preparing a cabinet for 20-30 minutes of painting with a HPLV gun or to apply sideart. All the short cuts show in the final product and they are very difficult and costly to fix after the fact. However, there is a middle ground as not everything needs to look showroom new. My Pacland, Track & Field and Punchout look amazing but took forever to restore. My latest Time Pilot cabinet clearly was in the hands of a crackhead and it would add months to my restoration time line for it to be restored to museum quality. Therefore, I am doing a 9 to 5 restoration...meaning the cabinet will look like a 9 from 5 feet away. I have to live with that fact if I ever want to play the game. I made my peace.

Restoration is part of the hobby for many of us. However, having playable games is more important for some titles than having a perfectly restored game...at least for me. To the OP, live and learn. Move to the next restoration with those lessons learned...and maybe circle back to that cabinet to fix the imperfections years from now if you still feel it is necessary.
I'll always be a player first. The only reason I'm actually diving into restoration is because the Centipede I'm doing was a $100 barn find forgotten cabinet. I'm patina first 10,000%. All of my 26 games are not restorations. All working. All in good condition. All there for me to PLAY, not just to LOOK at. These games were kicked around, in commercial use, they were abused. Yeah I don't want a garbage can. I want the game to look "good". But the story there, the years written all over the original art, CPO, etc. is highly desirable for me.
 
I trust my eyes! It sure looks like the edge on the right side of the left cabinet art is misaligned. Even got part of the antennae cut off.
Oh, THAT. Yes, that's slightly misaligned. I'm not very bothered by it.
 
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