Well isn't that a b#tch!

amsvette

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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.
 

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Man, that is some orange peel. Good thing it's usually in a dark room and nobody will notice or care. The hardware for the CP should be polished. I forget where I got mine but they sell the whole set. It might have been Bob Roberts. At least she's playing.
 
Just curious, if you peeled (the cpo) back off, or it just came that way. i tried to reposition a cpo once, and that was the result i had.
 
Nope, she's not playing yet. I have to find my control panel wire harness and solder it back on. Then she'll be good enough for now. I'd like to get all 10 of my games working, then I'll start some restorations.
 
I lined up the CPO, taped 1/2 down, and peel backing off the other 1/2. Really started to flake when I tried to do the 2nd side. Not like I exerted any pressure on it or folded it in any way. Just think it was a crappy CPO. Didn't really want a Namco copywrite CPO on it anyway.
 
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