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Out of a job Got off my ass fix my 2 Aero City project.

8bitforlife

8bitforlife

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Multi Boyz
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Location
Carson City Nevada
Hello I am finally starting my 2 Aero City project cabs.

List of what needs to be done.

Get cp harness's
Get rid of rust with Krud remover
Repair cp outer housing as its a rust fest.
Drill locks out
Fix wiring
Patch lock holes
Grind off security lock guard
leave paint as is or repaint cabs. ( havent Decided @hoagtech was helping me look for options)
Buy new graphics if painted
Buy ls-32 sticks and new buttons
Fix glass bezel artwork.

Cabinet 1
After moving one cab in I was able to turn it on after fixing the rats nest and removing soe redundant wiring. But it had no sound and the picture was great. The screen had some roll over on top and picture was a little dark. I could not adjust it as locks had no keys. I am not sure if i can adjust it out till i can try or it requires a recap
After my friend came over today to drill out locks on Aero we found out that the wiring near speakers had 2 wires cuts which would be the reason the sound wasnt working. He took that wiring to his work to solder for me.
I have a whole psu on wooden block coming from buyee to change out if need be.
Voltages where ok on the 12v but the 5v was a little low but cames worked.
the glass artwork was ruined or flaking from the foam that rots
Rust on inside bottom of cabinet

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Cabinet 2
Its not nearly as bad as the first cab but the wiring is complete and in tacked.
No lock guards or holes except on coin door weere there is a added on plate i can take off and fix with epoxy and paint.
Have not turned on machine yet
Glass has same flaking and problem from melted foam.
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The good news is you have original CP's and not plastic River Service.

Whether you decide to go full boar and powder coat, or go auto paint. You will need to sandblast your unit to remove the rust.

Make sure if you have an auto paint specialist paint them to mention your sandblast requirements.

Too bad you got one of those lockbar holes.

The body is in great shape and could have been worse with major dents.

I may have extra Control harnesses as a couple sellers sold me 1p/2p sets and I thought they were for one player each. I'll get back you on that.

I'm so happy to see more there are three of us with Aero restoration projects working together.

@Kavas @8bitforlife.

Lets work together to make this the Aero City Renaissance of 2020!!
 
the paint might have to wait unless i do it myself. I did get a reply from an auto body place here and they do sandblast and paint. But my dad was a painter for 50 years so i know how to spray.
I made a shopping cart for my homedepot of krudkutter rust remover and citristrip.


Im more worried about the artwork on glass how am i going to replace it.
 
Ya after figuring out wiring I am lucky i have original wiring and one cab is complete and other only going to take some soldering and shrink wrap to fix it up.

I did notice that the Aero female connector for jamma was loose on the first cab so I would loose colors unless perfectly bent. So i might detox and try to bend pins back.
 
I was gonna make an update soonish but am waiting for May as this Covid shit is putting a damper on this project. Gate ninety won't ship any international orders until this is over, meaning when my powder coating is done I will have it looking bare for awhile. Not sure when they will open up again.

I used CLR (Calcium, Lime, Rust) Remover I bought off Amazon for $20 and put most of the smaller parts including that terrible control panel in one of those plastic storage bins. A couple days each and the rust was gone. Again will post an update soon. Hope this helps!
 
Kavas said:
I used CLR (Calcium, Lime, Rust) Remover I bought off Amazon for $20 and put most of the smaller parts including that terrible control panel in one of those plastic storage bins. A couple days each and the rust was gone.
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What kind of ratio did you use to water?
 
rewrite said:
Kavas said:
I used CLR (Calcium, Lime, Rust) Remover I bought off Amazon for $20 and put most of the smaller parts including that terrible control panel in one of those plastic storage bins. A couple days each and the rust was gone.
Click to expand...
What kind of ratio did you use to water?
Click to expand...
The bottle says different amounts for different applications. Some are 1:1 and some are 1:8. I'll post a pic eventually on my thread but I had the big tub and I needed a lot of this stuff to make any difference in water levels so I used about 1/3rd of the bottle, and about 2 gallons of water. The tub I put them was so big I had to turn them over after a couple days to do the other side on some parts, so it wasn't that deep.

Also know that soaking this for a few days in this stuff WILL bubble and weaken the paint. This may benefit you if your doing a full restore, but if you already have it painted I wouldn't recommend this method.
 
I got in contact with a car repair place that i even know where it is and they said they can do the sandblasting and paint. I asked if they can repair some dents/scratches/ and holes from lock stuff. I am Waiting on reply If this works out I well be posting a madonna thread after i get it here.

For everyone that doesnt want to wait for reproduction artwork from gateninety (top notch work cant recommend enough) theres a guy on ebay thats in cali that does same work and he can customize the serial to your serial. Not sure if gateninety does that though. I messaged him and he does the stickers that require foil on foil.
 
8bitforlife said:
I got in contact with a car repair place that i even know where it is and they said they can do the sandblasting and paint. I asked if they can repair some dents/scratches/ and holes from lock stuff. I am Waiting on reply If this works out I well be posting a madonna thread after i get it here.

For everyone that doesnt want to wait for reproduction artwork from gateninety (top notch work cant recommend enough) theres a guy on ebay thats in cali that does same work and he can customize the serial to your serial. Not sure if gateninety does that though. I messaged him and he does the stickers that require foil on foil.
Click to expand...
I contacted gateninety about the custom serials and they said they do Not do custom serials, all the numbers are pre-printed. :(

They currently have a special deal on the Aero artwork and he said he will honor the sale long enough so that people overseas can get in on it once the covid lockdown let's up. It's a set deal tho for all of it.

How comparable is your guys work to gateninety? The custom serials is tempting.
 
8bitforlife said:
they got back to me and guesstimated 1200 bucks for 2 cabinets to address the bad areas. Guess im doing it myself. thats a rip off
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That’s not good.

Maybe an angle grinder and a rotary sander might solve your problems.

Your most likely going for a primer than coat after sanding.
 
I have an aero myself and I'm really looking forward to this resto. A resto is definitely in the future for mine as well. Will be following closely and awesome work so far.
 
8bitforlife said:
if i can bargain him down what what would a good price be to aim for?
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I would say $400 would be fair.

I wouldn’t present with an assembled cab.

I would completely gut it first and show him the skeleton.

He likely got overwhelmed and overcompensated the bid.

This is what I showed my PC.




Maybe show him the after photo to give him an idea of what he’s doing.

 
If you are talking about repair work to the body, I similarly have bad news. My coater has told me the method he was using isn't working out and is now consulting another body work friend of his who works on porches. Apparently there is no getting around it. If you want these things done right you have to put in the money.
 
The cheapest I could get was 600 for the sandblast and powder coat. I am not sure if that's the case anymore considering he is putting in the extra work to make sure the holes I had in mine are taken care of.
 
Kavas makes a good point.

Did your quote include body work, hole repair, Sandblasting, priming, and painting?

If so your quote doesn't seem as bad.

I paid $412.50 each cab total for Body work/Dent repair, Sandblasting & Powder coating. but I had 4 done at once.

I believe @8bitforlife doesn't have a Powder Coater on his island which is why he is going the paint route.

Auto Paint looks great though. I had my Chevy 2500HD hood redone 2 years ago and it still looks brand new after many car washes.

Maaco charged me $400 just for the hood so 600 ain't too bad in perspective.
 
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