So this cabinet has been sat in my garage for the best part of two years waiting for restoration work. To be fair, it’s been in a queue – things are getting stacked up out there in recent months. But with a week off work, I decided to try to make some progress recently, so here we are with part two of this restoration. If you’ve missed out on this cabinet’s history, read up on that here, and you can catch up on where we got to in part one of the restoration here.
So part one saw the control panel stripped, repaired and rebuilt, and the boards came back from repair. It’s now time to look at the cabinet itself.
For the most part, things are in pretty good shape. The cabinet is complete and stable. Everything is there!The monitor is a 19″ Hantarex model, and has light Robotron burn, but no chassisRemoving the bezels is required to get the thing outwell, this is what 30 years of arcade grime looks likeIt’s a combination of cigarette smoke oily tar and dustAs the sun was out, I decided this was the best route to get it cleaned up. Agitate some detergent with a brush all overAfter leaving the detergent to do its stuff for 10 minute, I rinsed everything offLooking much better!I left the monitor to dry off for the rest of the the dayA sunbathing Robotron
So back to the cabinet. The real issue I have to deal with is the damage to the base at the sides:
This is what happens when cabinets are moved around with no feet attached! I’ve now got feet on the cabinet as you can see, but that damage needs fixing. The damage towards the rear is so bad, that I decided the best thing to do, would be to remove what’s left of the part that hangs over the base on each sideSo we have to be confident. I got the saw out and cut a straight line along the bottom of the cabinetIt seems drastic, but as you can see, we now have a nice neat bottom edge to work with, making any repair here much more stable and secure – not to mention easier!But before we start, let’s get this exposed particle board sorted out. Wood hardener is good for this. Apply a liberal amount to all exposed wood. This will give our filler a secure base to attach itself toSo a bit of prep is required before we start. I’ve masked off the sides to avoid over spill of the filler onto our artwork. That white panel has been sprayed with silicone grease, and will provide us with a straight edge to mold our filler along the bottom. It’s resting on the two feet on the underside of the cabinetHere you can see how the white laminate board provides the straight edge. Work methodically, preparing small amounts of filler mix as you go, to make sure what you’re using is still plyableLet your filler dry a little then slide your silicone grease-prepared board away and leave to dryThen remove the masking tape before the filler fully dries. And there we go – not bad. This needs sanding of course, but I’m pretty pleased with that. I need to have a think about how I’m going to touch up the paintwork here. I may well have a go at reproducing that red stripe, which should be fun (gulp)
Well there you go – progress so far. More in part three next time, where we’ll get our filler sanded down, touch up the paint, replace the t-molding and rebuild the cabinet ready to play again!
The Arcade Blogger 
Nice to see some more progress on my old cabinet!
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Great work! Good luck with the red stripe retouching. I have faith in you.
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