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Time to clean up the plastic bezels.

They coated the connection to the glass with black tar and tacky adhesive. I don't want all that on my new glass trim.

I used ISO, gloves and a cotton cloth and slowly removed all black tar and adhesive off the panels.

Before:



After:



These panels are fragile like rice crackers. the previous techs split the corners of most of the panels. Some were long rips. I got 2 that are near perfect and 2 with longer rips.

Before:



I used black electrical tape on the back of the plastic to join the mating edges of the rips. It looks great now and will look better when I coat with my lithium grease. The tape is stopping further damage.

After:



I finished the cleaning all of them. all 4 are ready for a finish in time for the restored glass panels.

 
Exciting times..

Here's the Plastic bezel before lithium treatment. Notice the oxidation where the finishes separate. Alcohol only makes it worse.

Before:



After a rub down of lithium:



Much easier on the eyes..

Here is one of four glass panels restored with new black trim from Stickers for Days:



Plastic bezel fitted with no glass:



After glass (need a hookup on new black security screws) :





Next up: Wiring and chassis troubleshooting
 
This is as close to factory production line as you can get!

That's what it would've looked like 32 years ago! :)

Well done to you sir!
 
wow these are really coming along nice. You did a great job with the restorations. They look like new.
 
Thanks guys. There will be updates soon. The CV has been causing my my clients to panic buy everything and I haven't had a moment to catch my breath since then.

I just finished my lunch today at 4:12 PM. Its been like since this started.

I'm not complaining. I feel bad for my crew though. They all got a $1 raise per hour and bought them either a Nintendo Switch or Xbox One X JIC we did go to quarantine.

I got lots of questions of about wiring, Chassis and convergence. Stay tuned
 
These aeros look great.
Fun fact: the black tar isn't a coating, but is instead the melted remains of what used to be rubber grommets for the screws that mount the glass.
 
Not in my case....someone got coke back there, and it ate the paint around the glass, and turned it into tar. everywhere the coke wasnt, was still fine...but that acid just melted the paint after being trapped up in there....or at least that's the best I could tell....I did have the remains of the grommets on the screws themselves for sure...
 
I've seen the exact same effect on like ten different aeros. I am pretty confident that the grommets begin to melt, and the resulting tar streaks downwards and eats the paint on the cabinet and the glass.
 
I only had the coke/tar/paint destruction in the bottom left corner, and there were no grommets left on any of the holes....I believe you whole-heartedly...this is my first Aero....I'm just sharing what I've seen on mine. It may well have been a combination of coke and the grommet melting for all i know. I'm just glad it's cleaned out, and thanks to Hoagtech, I will have a nice new black vinyl sticker to put on some new glass, very very soon.
 
I've seen the exact same effect on like ten different aeros. I am pretty confident that the grommets begin to melt, and the resulting tar streaks downwards and eats the paint on the cabinet and the glass.
I only had the coke/tar/paint destruction in the bottom left corner, and there were no grommets left on any of the holes....I believe you whole-heartedly...this is my first Aero....I'm just sharing what I've seen on mine. It may well have been a combination of coke and the grommet melting for all i know. I'm just glad it's cleaned out, and thanks to Hoagtech, I will have a nice new black vinyl sticker to put on some new glass, very very soon.
They just called me and said thanks for sending you their way.

If your install goes well they will be selling me a bulk wholesale order for Arcade Projects. So best of luck for the good of us all Bagheera369
 
As soon as the lockdowns end, and I can get my glass, then I will post install pictures and process. I have experience applying graphics...so it shouldn't be really difficult, just painstaking. Thank you for putting me in touch, and I'm happy to share, so that I can repay the favor, and maybe some others can benefit!!!
 
Did we ever come to a consensus of where to find those replacement rubber grommets for the screws on the glass panel?? Mine also melted off.

Also would like one of those bezel stickers. Sadly Gate Ninety seems to be halting all shipments until further notice.
 
Not yet....Hoagtech was looking at some vinyl tophats...and I did a quick look online, but havent had a chance to dig yet.

The screws for the monitor glass are 5M x 16mm screws, and you can hunt down the black security-torx buttonheads, but i found a 50pk of black hex ones on amazon for 8$, and will be going with those....they do have a text stamp around the rim, but I'ts not something that's a concern for me....ymmv.

Accounting for that, if a tophat is found, it would need to be about 4-5mm deep (I have not measured exact glass thickness yet), and the rim of the tophat would need to be very slim, because if you put it under the fragile bezel, any height there, will cause the bezel to just crumble over time. If you put it just through the glass, you will be putting extra pressure on the bezel from the top, and chance crumbling it there too. Those bezels are too damned fragile.

That's my 2cents.

I have not ordered my sticker yet, as I'm waiting on my first unemployment check to hit the bank before I do any other arcade purchases at the moment. The monitor bezel stickers are not coming from gate90, they are coming from a shop that Hoagtech knows, like he said...if my install goes well....he will be ordering a bulk order for the group. I'm the full price guinea pig, so to speak. ;) I hope to have that accomplished in the next month, before the end of may at the latest....but the glass replacement will not be cheap, and I'm trying to be reasonably responsible with my $ until i get back to work.
 
Not yet....Hoagtech was looking at some vinyl tophats...and I did a quick look online, but havent had a chance to dig yet.

The screws for the monitor glass are 5M x 16mm screws, and you can hunt down the black security-torx buttonheads, but i found a 50pk of black hex ones on amazon for 8$, and will be going with those....they do have a text stamp around the rim, but I'ts not something that's a concern for me....ymmv.

Accounting for that, if a tophat is found, it would need to be about 4-5mm deep (I have not measured exact glass thickness yet), and the rim of the tophat would need to be very slim, because if you put it under the fragile bezel, any height there, will cause the bezel to just crumble over time. If you put it just through the glass, you will be putting extra pressure on the bezel from the top, and chance crumbling it there too. Those bezels are too damned fragile.

That's my 2cents.

I have not ordered my sticker yet, as I'm waiting on my first unemployment check to hit the bank before I do any other arcade purchases at the moment. The monitor bezel stickers are not coming from gate90, they are coming from a shop that Hoagtech knows, like he said...if my install goes well....he will be ordering a bulk order for the group. I'm the full price guinea pig, so to speak. ;) I hope to have that accomplished in the next month, before the end of may at the latest....but the glass replacement will not be cheap, and I'm trying to be reasonably responsible with my $ until i get back to work.
Like @bagheera369 said I am going to wait until install before offering the glass trim film.

It is difficult to install and must have a good process of instruction before anyone attempts it.

It's not your average sticker..
 
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