Pac Man Mini/cabaret restoration

[Vamino]

Where to start......the cab in question:

I stumbled across this cab and was offered it for a cheap price due to it's condition.
I looked at the sides and thought, it aint that bad! I looked at the front, and again I thought not bad for a 35 year old cab.

Then I seen it from the back............

....The guy who offered it to me said: 'it looks like someone let off a fire extinguisher or something'.
I was thinking to myself, damn that looks bad.....I gotta save it!

So, payment was made and the delivery was arranged. A week or so later it arrived. I've got a few projects on the back burner but I thought, yeah I can just about squeeze this one in.

I had to take my bike out in order to close the garage though, luckily the door just about closed with inches to spare.

Whilst I'm sitting here in my living room typing this message I'm looking at 2 Sega
drivers opposite me and a large tower of Model 3 + Naomi multi system cages to the right of me.....I'm now thinking to myself that things are getting desperate regarding space. But I'm
also thinking it's great to be single.

So today me and a mate finally moved the cab to my place, I dismantled it as much as I could and then loaded it up into my trusty VW Polo. Once it was in the conservatory and I commenced cleaning the reality sank in, man this is not going to be a quick job is it.....what have I got myself into?

So here is where I'm at now:

After cleaning some of the 'white stuff' off the side, I thought I need to remove all the loom to do it properly. So I proceeded to undo the screws with the loom holders....the first screw disintegrated, the second screw came out with a bit of effort, then the third screw crumbled and I gave up.

I went straight to ebay and bought some screw remover pliers called Neji-Saurus, they are made in Japan so I'm hoping they will make life easier. So now I'm waiting patiently for them to arrive before trying again........
Vamino2015-11-23 21:32:06

 

[cparsonsuk]

Wow, so much work to do, kudos for taking this on and will be amazing if you can save it.

cNp

 

[silverfox0786]

i would have loved to take on this project

good luck with it

btw a uk based seller of those pliers

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-PLIERS-with-screw-extractor-jaws-Ipad-Tablet-PCs-Phones-HDDs-Engineer-PZ-57-/261130823533?hash=item3ccc9c276d:g:z5sAAOxyA7tSWrOC

 

[Vamino]

....So whilst I'm waiting for the Neji-Saurus to arrive, here are the condition of the other bits.

As soon as I removed the glass I noticed the the art was flaking on the back of the glass. I leaned it up against a wall for 30 seconds and the wind quickly ripped off the flaky artwork. Bye Bye Pacman chara.

The marquee is not too bad considering it's age.

The bezel looks like it will clean up ok.

There is an interesting repair to one of the leaf springs.

The coin bucket didn't escape either....

 

[Vamino]

i would have loved to take on this project

good luck with it

btw a uk based seller of those pliers

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-PLIERS-with-screw-extractor-jaws-Ipad-Tablet-PCs-Phones-HDDs-Engineer-PZ-57-/261130823533?hash=item3ccc9c276d:g:z5sAAOxyA7tSWrOC

Truth be told I'm gonna enjoy doing this, but I'm not looking forward to the woodwork though as I've never done anything like this before.

Thanks for the link, that's who I bought it off mate.

I bought the larger ones and those ones.

Thanks.
Vamino2015-11-23 21:35:00

 

[terminator2k2]

nice project....I would love this, if only I had the space...me missus is already getting fed up with having the spare room taken over by the couple I already have haha....

take it easy, nice n slow and enjoy it....btw, whats the sega driving cab with the red sides?

 

[Shun]

Can't wait to see the progress on this one. I'm building a replica one of these at the moment so defo subscribing to the thread.

 

[silverfox0786]

i would have loved to take on this project

good luck with it

btw a uk based seller of those pliers

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-PLIERS-with-screw-extractor-jaws-Ipad-Tablet-PCs-Phones-HDDs-Engineer-PZ-57-/261130823533?hash=item3ccc9c276d:g:z5sAAOxyA7tSWrOC

Truth
be told I'm gonna enjoy doing this, but I'm not looking forward to the
woodwork though as I've never done anything like this before.

Thanks for the link, that's who I bought it off mate.

I bought the larger ones and those ones.

Thanks.

the wood actually doesn't look as bad as i thought

there are many wood resto techniques

i would use wood glue and water mix and tissue paper and slowly allow swollen wood to soak it up to strengthen the wood

replace any that needs replacing

one important thing to remember is the monitor don't destroy it, that's a 13 inch not a 14inch and 13s are rare as unicorn poop

this cabaret would look so good next to my pac-man mini
silverfox07862015-11-23 21:47:44

 

[Vamino]

I forgot to include a pic of the game PCB. After reading up on the common faults Pacman has, I'm happy the edge that plugs into the connector hasn't burnt. Whether the PCB actually works or not is anyones guess.

 

[Guests]

Already loving this!!

 

[Vamino]

nice project....I would love this, if only I had the space...me missus is already getting fed up with having the spare room taken over by the couple I already have haha....

take it easy, nice n slow and enjoy it....btw, whats the sega driving cab with the red sides?

Like I said, I'm glad I'm single at the moment mate.

Even I get fed up with the arcade stuff taking over the house.

The driver with the red sides is one side of the 2 twin Scud Race cabs crammed in there. One twin is for my Garcade and the other will be up for sale if/when completed. I was gonna start on the Scud before the Pacman but I changed my mind as I've done so many drivers recently and wanted a change.

Thanks.

 

[Vamino]

Can't wait to see the progress on this one. I'm building a replica one of these at the moment so defo subscribing to the thread.

Wow, nice job man!
It's amazing to see just how many people on this forum are good at woodwork.

 

[Dragon32]

I just finished my restore on pac mini and it looks awesome.

I've got quite a few spares as I just kept buying bits for it.

 

[Bensonrad]

that white mould looks very scary, don't breathe it in!

 

[griffo83x]

Great stuff mate i look forward to seeing your progress

 

[Vamino]

I just finished my restore on pac mini and it looks awesome.

I've got quite a few spares as I just kept buying bits for it.

They are a lovely looking cab when they are in great shape, I like the size of it.
I'd be interested in seeing some pics of your cab if possible, I'll definitely need a few parts in the future. Already I need a leaf switch, NOS control panel overlay, and heaven knows what else.

Already loving this!!

cough cough cough.....what was that Bensonrad?
Hmm, I think I need to buy some face masks like PAC-MAN wears when he is spraying his cabs.

 

[Vamino]

Great stuff mate i look forward to seeing your progress

Thanks mate.

 

[muddymusic]

I've seen similar condition cabs brought back to mint, so I have high hopes for this one

Really pleased you got this, you deserved a nice find after what happened with that last deal.

What's great about these cabs is pretty much every single part is available
http://www.pac-man.com/pacman/mini/front/

 

[strykr]

The characters on the CP look good nick, Johnsarcade restored one of these and he liquid masked off the characters and resprayed the black, might be worth looking into. Always a good feeling to save as much original stuff as poss.

how is the cab structurally?

 

[_Matt_]

Yeah deffo get a mask. I had to clean mold off every inch of one of mine, nasty job. Still smells of mold a year later! Good luck, I'm sure it will look great when finished.