One of the most common issues with arcade cabinets is water/moister damage. Over the years, these cabinets have spent years in damp warehouses, basements, and worst of all, outside!
While this kind of damage is extremely common, most people don’t even think about it, they buy a broken arcade machine just thinking of the electrical issues, not thinking about the water, and other kinds of damage done to the cabinet. So how do you fix this kind of damage? Well, it depends on how bad the damage is and if it’s even worth fixing.
If it’s just a lock bar hole from some arcade, you could go through the work of perfectly filling the hole and color matching/repainting the area, but personally, I don’t find it worth it, especially if it’s in an area with artwork. I’d just simply put in a plug, a carrier bolt works nice, or just simply reinstall a lock bar. It’s not like a lock bar isn’t period correct.
If it’s right against artwork, it will be hard to repair it without damaging the artwork further, so I tend to let this kind of damage slide a bit more.
Either way though, you should at least stop the damage from getting any worse by simply using some wood hardener on the edge to harden up the softened MDF wood. Just make sure you protect the artwork if it is too close.
If you can do the repair, it’s quite simple. Again, start with using the wood hardener on all affected areas, removing any loose wood dust, and then just some body filler. Yes the automotive kind, like Bondo. Wood filler tends to be softer and does not like being applied in the thickness sometimes needed for the repair. After applying the body filler, a quick trick is before it fully cures and, while its still in the semi-soft state, you can use a razor blade to easily cut off excess body filler to cut down on sanding. After it has fully cured, just do some sanding, being careful to remember the wood around the body filler will sand faster than the body filler. Simply repeat, adding body filler and sanding till it’s as close to perfect as possible. If you want, you can hit it with some glazing putty to help fill any pinholes, sand again, and you are ready for paint! Or new vinyl, but if you are applying vinyl it needs to be 100% perfect as absolutely any defects will become much more visible, and I’d almost recommend just skipping straight ahead to putting a laminate on the cabinet for a perfectly smooth finish.
Now, if the affected area is larger and actually structural to the cabinet, you shouldn’t just fill it all with body filler. Instead, you should simply replace the wood. No, not the whole side (unless you have to) but simply finding how far the damage goes and cutting it all off cleanly.
Next, use what you cut off as a template (and the other side of the cabinet if possible) to cut a replacement board for the section you cut out.
Now to attach the new panel, simply drill holes into the edge of the original cabinet matching up with holes on the new board and use dowel pins and a lot of wood glue to pin the new board onto the original cabinet side, making sure to keep it level with the original cabinet wall. While just the dowel pins are quite strong, I personally like to run a reinforcement board along the seam on the inside of the cabinet, attaching it with a lot of glue and air nails.
Now simply take some body filler and slowly work on filling the crack between the original cabinet and your new board. This will probably take a few coats to get perfect, but just remember the wood sands faster than the body filler, so if you aren’t careful you will end up with low spots on each side of your crack that will make it visible through the paint.
A very commonly neglected spot on an arcade cabinet is its bottom.
These tend to be quite bad as a lot of times they were just left bare MDF with no paint to even try and protect it. So, if you are already there, you might as well paint the bottom if it’s already in good shape so you can keep it that way.
But if it’s already too far gone, you have to decide how you want to remove it. Inspect the sides very carefully, as on most cabinets the bottom is actually slotted into the front, back, and sides. This will make it much harder to remove. It may also have additional wooden pieces used to air nail the bottom to the sides and, in most cases, also glued in, so it may be safer to cut it out instead of trying to force it out.
Now how do you slot a new bottom in? Unfortunately, it’s not easy. Some people ignore the slots and simply use additional wood pieces so you can air nail them to your new base with a bunch of wood glue and then also air nail with more wood glue onto the sides. The problem is, on most machines, they use the bottom board to hold the feet that support the entire cabinet.
The best option is probably going to be doing more damage. If you remove the board at the back of the cabinet that the rear door would sit on, you should be able to recreate the bottom board the same as the original with all its slots and slot it in fairly easily, then simply copy whatever original way the cabinet used to attach it, most likely glue and additional wood pieces with air nails.
Now you can simply reattach or more likely replace the foot brackets due to rust. Or since you are already there, spend a bit more money and install some good casters, Trust me it’s worth it.
And if all of this is done correctly, you should be left with a cabinet that, from the outside at least looks like you never did anything to it.