Launching A Missile Command Restore

This is one falls into the "easier" category for once. I bought this a while back as a complete working game that needed a little love and i must confess, it's nice to have a cabinet that isn't going to need a pound of bondo and an eternity of sanding.

If you look at the original back door on this thing, you'd swear it's been a sponge for the past 30 years but the rest of the cabinet actually had very minimal edge swelling or cabinet damage. The upper and lower back panels are loose and full of so many nails that it isn't worth trying to save em but other than that, the rest of the cabinet is quite nice. I'll start off with a few before pics. and post more as the teardown continues.

 Now that this is gutted out, all the exterior vinyl/melamine is coming off, everything will be sanded/sealed and fresh vinyl will cover it all up again. The control panel, marquee brackets, coin bucket lid/handle, coin door and transformer shell will be powder coated. 

Here's a couple side shots just before i install the new sideart. As i mentioned earlier, this cabinet didn't need much work and required no more than a spoonful of bondo and just a light scraping of glazing putty to close the open pores along the bottom edges where i had to sand it a little harder. After the prep work was done, i covered the sides with 3 coats of high gloss polyurethane and a wet sand between each one. The final wet sand removes some of the high gloss sheen but has no affect on how well the vinyl graphic sticks, this is why i go with the high gloss and it's never failed me.

Here's an early shot of one side applied, it still needs trimming and t-molding but i couldn't wait to see what was under the premask. 

Next up is this diaster:

 There really isn't much to this thing on the outside but underneath was a tangle of wires that took a while to detach,

 there were even a few that were soldered to the rectifier board which added to the fun. Didn't matter though, it all had to come off if i wanted a nice clean panel. The metal shell was powder coated in a goldish/yellowish color then put back together. The final piece looks like this

 I've had alot of people ask me if there is an issue with coating these things and the short answer is no however, you need to make sure you re-establish your ground contact points by sanding back down to the bare metal anywhere ground lugs were installed.  

It's been a while since my last update but this thing is nearly done. All parts that needed powder coating are done, nuts/bolts/screws are all new, t-molding, leg levelers, board rebuilds, super Missile Attack kit, trackball rebuild etc. are taken care of and a brief power up tells me this one's  almost a wrap. I'm down to monitor choice for this one and i have 6 options. 3 options are all brand new wells monitors and the other 3 are slightly used but also burn free wells monitors. 

I've decided to use one of the burn free Wells 7302's that i had laying around. I cleaned it up a bit and threw in some new caps so it's ready to go.

A pic of the inside that's almost done.

As i put the finishing touches on this one, i have to extend a gigantic thanks to Rich at This Old Game for taking on an experimental projects that makes this restoration a bit unique. Several months ago, someone came forward with ideas of creating new silkscreened versions of a control panel for this game. This project never happened and sadly several people were robbed of their money and hope of ever seeing one of these new repro panels.

Rich contacted me and offered his services on an experimental basis as he always wanted to try screening directly onto a control panel. My original panel was straight but had the typical hand wear that these panels were subject to so i had it sandblasted and powder coated in a finish that had some texture yet would provide a nice and extremely durable surface to screen on. This project came with no guarantee and if it didn't work, i still had a nice finish that i could put an overlay on. This final one of a kind piece(for now) turned out absolutely beautiful. My son is waiting to help me haul it downstairs for final assembly and this one's a wrap!

Just after the above picture was snapped, i had my son help me carry this to the basement while he was home for spring break. The game still needed the bezels put in but it was working and close enough for some action. Over the next couple days, my son had several of his disrespectful and lazy buddies over for guy stuff and video games which proved to be a a bit of a disaster for my brand new artwork. Somebody drug one of my metal barstools into the gameroom, slammed it up against my cabinet and then proceeded to swivel the chair back and forth until my art on the left side was full of scrapes and gauges. No more details necessary!

Here we are at my final 3 pictures, the left sideart has been replaced and all is good. A big thanks to Rich at This Old Game for producing a beautiful silkscreened control panel and a new silkscreened glass bezel to finish this one off.