Warlords Cocktail Restoration about to begin

hisnice

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I just unwrapped it last night and it needs CPO's and the metal trim & legs could use a sanding and new black paint.

Any suggestions on what paint to use?

Any other general tips from those of you who have done a full restoration on these? I think this one's in good enough shape to only need a partial restoration.

Thanks!
 
I just unwrapped it last night and it needs CPO's and the metal trim & legs could use a sanding and new black paint.

Any suggestions on what paint to use?

Any other general tips from those of you who have done a full restoration on these? I think this one's in good enough shape to only need a partial restoration.

Thanks!

If you haven't seen Brent's nice Warlords restoration - Here's the link:
http://www.brentradio.com/WarlordsCocktailRestoration.htm
 
I would advise having all of the metal powder coated. I did that on one of my Atari Cocktails and will do it on all future cocktails. PC shops will take your pieces as they are, media blast them and then re coat them. I drop off all of my stuff after I have media blasted to shave a few dollars off of the price but I don't think most have access to a medai balst cabinet. Price isn't really that bad considering the quality of finish you get.

I had the legs which was 6 pieces, glass clips, and all of the bolts powder coated for around $35 dollars. One trick to do is to tell them you are not in a rush and that you can wait until they are doing a batch. Black is probably the most comon color they shoot so you won't have to wait long, I think I waited about 4 or 5 days.
 
Any suggestions on what paint to use?

I used Rustoleum satin black in shaker cans after sanding off the rust. They came out pretty nice. I have to finish that restoration, but I will probably have to wait until Spring to paint the control panels on mine

I would advise having all of the metal powder coated. PC shops will take your pieces as they are, media blast them and then re coat them. I drop off all of my stuff after I have media blasted to shave a few dollars off of the price but I don't think most have access to a medai balst cabinet. Price isn't really that bad considering the quality of finish you get.

What do you mean by media blasting? I didn't think power-coating was that economical
 
What do you mean by media blasting? I didn't think power-coating was that economical

Media blasting, Sand blasting, basically a method to take off all the crap, paint, etc on the metal.

Powder-Coating is economical depending on location, time, etc. I got a quote once for $150-$200 on a Midway Coin Door even after saying I wasn't in a rush or anything and already had it sand blasted by a friend. Obviously, I decided not to go there to get the Coin Door Powder Coated.
 
Yeah sorry media blasting is just a cabinet that shoots some type of "media" usually really fine glass, at least the ones I have used. The media is shot out of a gun using compressed air and then the media falls through the bottom of the cabinet to be recycled, so the media is constantly cycling through the gun.

Sand blasting is usually done outside and the sand isn't re-used after it is shot, at least the one I have works this way.

And $150-200 for a coin door! You have to be joking, my buddies drop off rims rusty as shit and pick them up sparkling all day long for less than $100 and that is for a set of (4) rims. Did you have the coin door with you? Seems like someone was trying to pull one over on you.

*edit here is a picture of a media blast cabinet similar to mine.

manual-blast-cabinet-24917.jpg
 
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And $150-200 for a coin door! You have to be joking, my buddies drop of rims rusty as shit and pick them up sparkling all day long for less than $100 and that is for a set of (4) rims. Did you have the coin door with you? Seems like someone was trying to pull one over on you.

No, I called a couple different places. All above $100. Didn't even discount if I had it blasted already.
 
I had always heard horror stories about the expenses of powder coating. Maybe I need to take every piece of black metal I own on every machine and bring them all in at the same to justify it.

There's a local place that I'll check prices on.

Any other tips and tricks? Common board or PS problems?

I also need to look up where to buy an atari cone button, since one is missing...

Thanks everyone!
 
That game would probably be one of the most fun games to play with 3 of your closest friends.
 
Looks like a hell of a starting point, as a whole the machine looks in great shape, a few cosmetic fixes and that will be a very nice Warlords.
 
There's a few powder coat places around here. Most want $85 or $100 minimum.

I found a place that will do a coin door and metal marquee brackets for 40 bucks. Turnaround is a couple weeks, but basically they toss my stuff in with another big batch to keep the price down.

Good guys and good work.
 
update on progress:

Got all the metal powder coated and it look very nice.

Bought new glass and CPO's and an atari cone button. Thanks everyone for the tips there.

Tested the boards in Takeman's machine (+1 for Takeman being a great guy and huge help). After replacing a RAM and a transistor, we're at 100% working boards on his machine.

Next up, the monitor is dim and blurry, so I'm thinking about dropping in a new 13" in there (flame away, purists). And I need to replace the CPO's and do some more cleaning inside.

I'll post more pics soon, when it's a little cleaner.
 
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