With the door ready to go it was time to find replacement carriage bolts. I didn’t have the 1 inch 10-24 black carriage bolts on hand, but I had a plain steel version. A common problem with new carriage bolts is they tend to have raised lettering on the top. Not something you want displayed on your newly restored control panel as the original hardware was smooth. This door used 12 carriage bolts, ugh. Plus the control panel has a bunch in the same size. I took a batch out to the garage and used the bench grinder to remove the lettering. I followed that up with a course and then fine grit sandpaper step to smooth out the rough marks made by the grinder. I didn’t do this by hand; I put each bolt into my cordless drill and spun it at the maximum speed. It worked well. To paint them I stuck the bolts into the edge of a scrap piece of cardboard. I lightly primed, then painted with black Rustoleum with a final clear coat for durability. Overall this was a pain and I will be ordering some carriage bolts for next time!

The coin mech assembly was simple, but had some parts that couldn’t be disassembled completely. I was able to rotate a few parts around on their rivets and did my best to clean everything using a toothbrush and some simple green. Lots of crud came loose. After drying everything completely, I used a product called Never Dull metal polish on the chrome and any easily accessible metal surfaces.

Never Dull is sold in a small metal can and looks like a big roll of cotton wadding. Most automotive stores sell it or some variation of it. It smells, but it sure does take the dirt and grime off metal parts. A shame the big chrome components aren’t visible from the outside as they turned out great. The return buttons were corroded and polishing them by hand would be a pain. I loaded them into my cordless drill and spun them at high speed, this made the cleaning and polishing quick and easy. I couldn’t get all the pitting out, but they looked better than before. The exterior coin return chutes were plastic and cleaned up with soap and water, so did a pair of “brownie” style .900 token mechanisms that I’ll use to replace the metal quarter mechs. Once it was all dry, I put the door back together. Here is the result.

The next step in this project is to finish putting the control panel back together and then putting everything back in the cabinet. The basement water issue has delayed my progress on this, but I hope to have it back up and running by the end of this month.

The game had some water damage on the bottom few inches of the cabinet and overall looked like crap. Since I planned to keep this one, I figured I could spend a lot of time trying to clean and restore the cab, or I could remake the cabinet and just re-use all the metal parts. Essentially I would have a brand new Ms. Pac-Man CT. It was time to practice my woodworking skills. First part was to break down the cabinet so I could reproduce the parts. Then I jumped into making the blanks out of birch veneer plywood. A bit more expensive than standard plywood, but it has a much smoother finish and would take the laminate well. I used the original panels to route exact duplicates from the blanks I had made. I then laminated the pieces with a standard grade laminate I found at Home Depot (long since discontinued). I routed out the openings and trimmed the pieces flush before starting to assemble the cabinet.

The cabinet was shaping up nicely. I still had to make the “door” that swings with the top, the control panel sides and the top itself. I purchased new control panel parts from Arcade Shop, it was easier. I used the original panels on the second CT I made. Yes, I made two at the same time. I had to buy full sheets of material and ended up with enough to make two complete CT’s, with some repro parts from Arcade Shop added into the mix.

After assembling the cabinet, it was time to make the top. I used the original as a template and cut two new pieces. I couldn’t find 1″ thick plywood, so I laminated two pieces of 1/2″ thick plywood together to create the correct thickness. I didn’t have a nice router table, just a plunge router and some hardwood pieces to guide my cuts. I did the best I could and it turned out just fine.

With the tops completed I could paint them black and continue with assembly. I have been painting any cabinet edges black that I felt might be seen if not properly covered with t-molding. It just made sense to paint before assembly as the CT had a somewhat difficult construction. With the tops attached I started the process of rebuilding the interior, attaching the control panels, installing the new Happ Vison Pro monitor and installing the coin door. It was shaping up nicely.

The new Happ Vision Pro monitor would really make this project shine. While I had the old monitor, the screen burn just didn’t make me think “new cab”, plus Happ is local to me and I waited for a sale! With the monitor in place I could start wiring up the cab using Bob Roberts handy wiring guide. If you’ve never wired up a cabinet before, his guide makes it pretty easy. Once you wire up one, the rest are easy. The mounting brackets are from Kerry Stair, another local. He was making lots of cabinets at one point and had these custom made.

With the monitor in place I finished up the cabinet wiring, the control panel wiring and installed my Ms. Pac-Man pcb. This pcb has Clay’s 24 in 1 kit installed, so I also picked up some multi pac man artwork for under the glass. It adds a nice touch. The game has played flawlessly ever since I finished it up and always seems to get played during parties or when ever family or friends come over.

Some of the pictures are pretty large, sorry for those still on dial up! If you’d like to build your own cocktail game, check out the free plans on my resource page. Good luck!

I’ll let the assembly set up over night to make sure it dries completely. While it was drying I started filling in the gaps between the new and old panel. Brian Jones of gamestencils recommended Evercoat brand filler products for use with vinyl. I ordered the metal glaze product online and gave it a shot. It has a much cleaner application than Bondo, that’s for sure, but it is difficult to apply on a vertical surface. It sands easier and provides a smooth finish, but the dry times are very fast. If you’ve never used a filler before, try bondo first, it’s a little more forgiving. Next time I will use bondo for deep gaps and initial filling, followed by a finish layer of Evercoat. Should be a winning combo.

I ended up doing a few coats of filler in order to get the joint to look seamless. After the final sanding, I flipped the cabinet and tackled the damaged control panel section. I cut off the bad area using my circular saw and the saw board. I cleaned up the cut off area with a chisel and sandpaper, then used my joiner to cut a slot for a biscuit. I laminated a small replacement piece with leftover white and black vinyl and glued it into place. Once dry I positioned the router template I made previously, and cut the block to the correct shape. I just need to cut the slot for the t molding, but I prefer to do that after any filler work. I didn’t have to do as much filler work on this side as the seam was better, not necessarily a good sign as the cab may not be square, I’ll check it later.

After everything was dry and sanded, I stood the cab up and did a few final repairs before starting to prep the cab for paint. I glued down a raised chunk on the top of the cabinet, and replaced a badly offset piece of blocking where the bezel would sit. I let that stuff dry and then started to mask off the sides and internal parts of the cab. I gave the existing black laminate on the front a good light sanding so it would take the paint and then wiped everything down to remove dust.

With the prep work complete I mixed up some semi gloss black enamel from Rustoleum. I mixed it with a little mineral spirits to thin the paint and allow a nice flow through the HVLP paint gun. The first coat went on perfect, no bugs! I wheeled it into the garage and allowed it to dry for two days.

With the black nice and dry I removed the masking and started the prep work necessary to paint the white sides. Another KLOV’er had contacted me and asked for a scan of the side art. He’d been on the hunt for Vectorbeam Space War art for a few years and was willing to produce his own with a scan. Since I had to re-mask the artwork anyway, I decided to make the effort and scan the art. Here you can see my laptop and HP window scanner making quick work of the job. I sent off the scans and also provided a copy to gamestencils in case Brian chooses to make the artwork available. Limited demand I’m sure, but drop him a line if you need the artwork.

I then mixed up the white paint and sprayed a nice light first layer. I allowed it to dry (4hrs), lightly sanded and hit it with a final coat. Amazing how much better it looks with bright white sides.

I let the cabinet dry for another two days and then got it ready for t-molding. Its looking good so far. Any areas that I missed with the router got hit with the slot cutting bit. I positioned the cab on my work horses so I could remove the furniture dolly I had attached to the base. I also attached the two “runners” on the bottom. The original bottom did not have leg levelers, just unfinished hardwood runners. They would take all the abuse from moving the game around. Next it was on to the t-molding which went smoothly. I notch my corners and just hammer the molding in place with a rubber mallet. I don’t use hot glue unless the slot is too loose to hold the molding.

Here she is, with all the restoration work complete to the cabinet itself. Now I just need to put the game back together.