I prefer leaving cabinets original as long as there is no structural damage, or a large proportion of paint fade or loss. This cabinet was very good except for the backglass surround. Compared to the rest of the game, it was unacceptable. The decision was made not to repaint the entire cabinet, but to make an improvement on the backglass surround.
Here is the damaged areas ;
The inside of the head was fine. I removed the game specific cards (carefully) and sent the scans off to Peter (Inkochnito), as he did not have them on file. All the boards are removed to be rebuilt and tested.
I repaired the damage and masked off all the areas I didn't want to paint.
I used an Acrylic primer / filler and then sanded ready for the topcoat. For the topcoat, I used Automotive Acrylic lacquer. I had the paint color matched by a professional, with a view to matching the darkened worn area of the head rather than the original color, which was inside the head and was a "cleaner" version of the yellow. This means I matched the years of exposure to the original color, which would have been noticeable if I didn't. The end result was a perfect color match to the cabinet "as is". If I was going to fully repaint the cabinet, then I would match the original factory color. Thankfully, I had one day of sunshine to finish this off !
Looks slightly "lighter" in this picture, but that was because the area behind the surround was "in the shadow". It is a good match, and a massive improvement. Will look better once the backglass is mounted.
Here's the inside of the head after reassembly. The aluminum backing has been polished, along with the board mounting brackets. Everything was dismantled and cleaned. A new backbox lock was installed as the original barrel was broken.
The tilt mechanism was rewired correctly. One of many "hacks" on this game. Polished and cleaned, it WILL tilt if the player gets too excited ! There's a problem with this picture. The ground strap was severed at some stage. Not good ! Will need to be fixed.
Earlier on, I mentioned some serious wiring issues. The original EMI filter was removed, as was the varistor. So I've wired in a new power cord, varistor and EMI filter correctly.
Front door was in VERY good condition. Straight and didn't have any dints, dings or rust.
Dismantled, cleaned and polished. Rewired correctly.
Here's the game as it is today. The boards are currently being rebuilt and "bulletproofed". Playfield progress updates shortly
