amsvette
Member
My kids and I are having our 4th annual Halloween party and I get the great idea to try and get as many of my machines working as possible. My Ms Pacman has been partially disassembled for months. Figured she'd be a great place to start. When I got her, she had her sides stripped, sanded, and stained yet they left the faded kick panel art. Odd. She also had a crappy microswitch 8-way joystick and microswitch buttons installed. Damn near impossible to play! The control panel had been painted gloss black and had portions of a CPO cut out and stuck under some plexi.
I bought a complete Super Pacman control panel cheap for the joystick, bought a Namco copywrite CPO from a fellow KLOVer, and welded up the extra holes in the control panel from the crappy 8-way joystick. Found a place local to me that said they'd blast and powder coat the control panel for $45. Seemed high, but they came recommended. By the time I got ready to start the project they appeared to have gone out of business. Bummer! Found another local place who said they could blast and coat for $30 and have it back in two days.
Now the bummer news...
Picked up the control panel today. It's ok, but it's all orange peel. To top it off there's either rust pits or fish eyes along the top edge. Don't recall it being rusty, but after looking through the original hardware it very well could've been rusty. No big deal, I can live with it. Went to install my new CPO and the ink came off the polycarbonate layer in a couple big spots. What the hell?!!! And all the hardware I bought a year ago, I bought the wrong size. Grrr... Had to chuck the original hardware in my drill and polish it up. With that in mind, should the hardware be chrome or black?
To top off the craptacular project, the Super Pacman joystick top is not recessed for a dust washer like my two Pacman joysticks are. Ended up putting a washer and nut on before the joystick. Still need to find where I put the wire harness for the control panel.
Oh well, still looks far better than what it did and it should play better. Just pissed I threw away money on this crappy CPO and subpar powder coating. I'll probably redo it again when I finally repaint her down the road.
Anyone suggest where I can get a Midway copywrite CPO?
Thanks for listening to my rant.
I bought a complete Super Pacman control panel cheap for the joystick, bought a Namco copywrite CPO from a fellow KLOVer, and welded up the extra holes in the control panel from the crappy 8-way joystick. Found a place local to me that said they'd blast and powder coat the control panel for $45. Seemed high, but they came recommended. By the time I got ready to start the project they appeared to have gone out of business. Bummer! Found another local place who said they could blast and coat for $30 and have it back in two days.
Now the bummer news...
Picked up the control panel today. It's ok, but it's all orange peel. To top it off there's either rust pits or fish eyes along the top edge. Don't recall it being rusty, but after looking through the original hardware it very well could've been rusty. No big deal, I can live with it. Went to install my new CPO and the ink came off the polycarbonate layer in a couple big spots. What the hell?!!! And all the hardware I bought a year ago, I bought the wrong size. Grrr... Had to chuck the original hardware in my drill and polish it up. With that in mind, should the hardware be chrome or black?
To top off the craptacular project, the Super Pacman joystick top is not recessed for a dust washer like my two Pacman joysticks are. Ended up putting a washer and nut on before the joystick. Still need to find where I put the wire harness for the control panel.
Oh well, still looks far better than what it did and it should play better. Just pissed I threw away money on this crappy CPO and subpar powder coating. I'll probably redo it again when I finally repaint her down the road.
Anyone suggest where I can get a Midway copywrite CPO?
Thanks for listening to my rant.
