A noobs adventures in cab ownership!

[ChrisBEANS]

Just when you thought I’d stopped with the incessant noobish updates…

Got lots of things to do to the U4 over the next week or so, and I’m reallllllly pleased with one part in particular. Not sure if it’s going to upset the purists or not, but it’s been done for good reason, in good faith, and I think it looks amazing.

I’ll keep you posted

[geotrig]

if its an lcd Chris your banned !

[ChrisBEANS]

Pandora’s box…

So many games, and cheaper than buying dusty old hardware!

[thegreathopper]

[ChrisBEANS]

So, the machine originally had a powder coated CP surround to match the rest of the cab.

For whatever reason, the operator had removed the coin entry and riveted a piece of metal over it, and had repainted the surround white. It hadn’t been done well, was rough to the touch and was generally crappy.
A real shame as the original powdercoating on the rest of the cab is in decent shape considering its age.

The underside of the CP housing was even worse. It’d been painted with some horrible black stuff and all the components including the hinge and the brackets for the locks had been painted on.

It had to be refinished in any case, and I’d always desperately wanted the chrome (or stainless steel maybe??) CP surround, but I could never find one, or a cab for sale with one.

So my options were:-

1 - Strip it, and paint it white again but properly, or maybe powder coat it. - problem here is that unless I did the whole cab, the new white would be a contrast and likely jarring.

2 - Strip it, and polish it up to look like the stainless CP surround. - problem was that although the white paint stripped off without issue, the black stuff inside was impossible to shift. It also turned out that the metal underneath wasn’t suitable for polishing, nor do I have the skill to do an adequate job in any case.

3 - Strip it, and get it chromed by the bigger boys - problem with this, is that it’s not authentically as the cab was made.

I’m all for authenticity, and faithful, sympathetic restoration but as the CP surround had already been repainted, and needed to be stripped and refinished anyway, I figured I’d opt for the chroming…

Genuinely interested in whether people think this was the wrong move?




I still haven’t picked it up, but I’ve got photos from the metal finishers this morning…

[ChrisBEANS]

Here it is after I stripped it.

The inside made me sad…

[ChrisBEANS]

Here’s the pictures I’ve been sent by the finisher…

[geotrig]

Looks blinging but your banned for the pandora ! arent most of the new one vga out ?

[ChrisBEANS]

I’m not really getting a Pandora!!!

[geotrig]

thank god .... cp looks ace and all shiny like !

[thegreathopper]

Wow that is shiny, looks great.

[geldra]

Looks ace!

[MrSandman]

CP looks amazing. You definitely didn't make the wrong choice IMHO.

[Neo Gold]

Awesome!.. No need to use the living room mirror now Chris!

[ChrisBEANS]

First snag, and I’d already anticipated this…

The chroming obviously adds a couple very thin layers of metal, and the tolerances on the holes at the top are very tight. You see where this is going…

The snap in buttons no longer fit.

No major issue right now. It’s only some small lumps at the very top that I can almost certainly shave off with a Stanley.

97E131FB-295C-4727-98A1-BA86B29D9ADA.jpeg

Before I do that, I’m going to order some screw ins instead, see if they fit better.

My concerns are that I use a small metal button where the coin entry as a ‘coin up’ button. It being metal I obviously can’t shave that down!

There’s also the credit LCD (LED??) counter too. I’m not home with the parts to check if they still fit…

[cools]

[ChrisBEANS]

B-astard…

[thegreathopper]

Wow, needed with those buttons!

[ChrisBEANS]

Wow, needed with those buttons!

Nothing’s set in stone yet… we’ll see…

[ChrisBEANS]

I’ve got another CP surround, and I just had a quick check with the same buttons.
They don’t fit on the other panel either which makes me all the more confident that alternative screw ins will work.