Contra Konami Cabinet Restoration

I've always wanted to own an arcade cabinet. Sometime around 2005, I was set on getting an arcade cabinet and converting it into a Marvel vs Capcom machine that resembled the cabinet my friends and I used to play at Milford Amusement Center. Being young and impatient, I jumped on the first empty cabinet that showed up in the Connecticut craigslist ads and picked it up. Unfortunately, I didn't have the drive to finish back then so I put the cabinet on hold and left it in my Dad's basement (sorry Dad.)

8ish years pass. The combination of getting out of an apartment and moving into a house, and feeling nostalgic for the old arcade days reignited the spark. I started stalking Craigslist again for something resembling the old MVC cabinet of my youth. Once again, I jumped on the first reply I got from a seller. $50 and a Uhaul truck rental got me Contra in a dedicated Konami cabinet from a guy in Sumner, WA. The seller said it worked and that he just couldn't get the controls to work.

Post Hardware/Monitor Gutting

I checked out the cabinet once I got home and noticed this thing was in BAD SHAPE. The MDF on the bottom 1/4 of the cabinet was water damaged and swollen. Most of the metal (screws, bolts, nuts, speaker grills, you name it) were rusty. The isolation transformers looked scary. The cam locks in the coin doors had been drilled out, the marquee light did not work, and there was no back door to the cabinet.

I lurked on the KLOV forums for suggestions and the resounding advice was to use the cabinet as a pattern to cut a new replacement cabinet. That wasn't going to happen as I don't have the tools or know how, so I decided on giving it my all and restoring it as best as I can.

Next step: Roll it outside, and sand this beast down.