Commando (1985)

August 16, 2022

Commando (1985)

If you want to know more about Commando check out the wiki here:

I purchased this Commando locally and it wasn't in bad shape at all really, but since it was going in my home I really wanted to make it look as nice as possible. Here's what it looked like at the start from the front.

Before:

The cabinet had some scratches and chips along the edges as well as a very large scratch that ran across the side and over the side art decal. The plan was to strip those and apply new ones.

Before:

The coin door was also in bad shape. Besides the scratches, and chipped paint, there were screw holes where I assume a lock bar had been at one time, as well as holes next to the coin door in the cabinet itself. Finally, there were also no keys to the coin door locks, so I knew I would want to replace those as well.

Before:

Step 1: I removed the coin door, and stripped the side art. I ended up ordering the "SEEKONE 1800W Het Gun" off of amazon since I didn't have one yet and will definitely need one moving forward with all future projects removing art and decals.

The side decals came off pretty easily, I'd say it took about 10min per side.

Step 2: After scraping off as much residue as possible from the where the decals were and giving the cabinet exterior a good cleaning, I used wood filler to fill in the holes in the cabinet near the coin door as well as chips around the edges of the cabinet, and sanded everything down as best as I could.. Sadly I forgot to take more pictures of that.

Then, I started to paint. I used oil based paint and foam rollers.

Initially I wasn't getting good results, there were too many roller marks visible. After some advice from the community, I tried sanding between coats and using a lot more paint on the roller. Below is a picture after a coat and sanding, and then pictures after the final coat.

Final coats of paint. Success! It's not perfect, but it's pretty good.

Step 3: I ordered new side decals from Szabos Arcade. They look amazing!

After some measuring and taping where I wanted the decals, I applied them slowly using my felt squeegee. I'll link to them below. The final result looks great!

Step 4: The adhesive for hinges for the control panel were coming apart, so I wanted to quickly fix that.

I separated the control panel from the hinge and scraped all of the old adhesive off, then applied a new line of "SteelStik Epoxy" and let it set. Now it was aligned and strong again, I put it back on the cab and moved on.

Step 5: The monitor cover showed some wear and tear and I wanted to replace it. Also, there is some burn in on the monitor but you don't notice it when in game, and I can't fix that sadly.

So I went out and bought some large cardstock. It wasn't a perfect match color wise, but close enough.

I took the old cover, and traced it onto the new cardstock, cut it out, then folded it to match the original one.

Original on top, new on the bottom.

I think it turned out pretty well for about 75cents or whatever it cost per sheet.

Step 6: Now it was time to cleanup the coin door. First thing I did was take it all apart, and give it a good wash.

Then I patched the holes it had in it with SteelStik epoxy, sanded it and started the paint process.

I've seen a lot of different ways and types of combinations of paints that people use for coin doors. I ended up going pretty basic and used 2 coats of Rust-Oleum Hammered Black , and then 1 light coat of Rust-Oleum Satin Black.

I think it turned out pretty nice.

I reassembled, it rewired it, and put in new "Yorkim Red LED Lights" into the coin slots to make them really stand out.

I then added 2 new locks for the coin doors.

Step 7: This cab showed up with a power cord that was pretty frayed in a few spots so I need to replace that for safety.

I end up having to do this on a lot of cabs and my go to replacement is a "Pinfox 6ft 16 Gauge 3 Prong Heavy Duty Replacement Power Supply Cord".

There's several different way to do this depending on how the current cord is hooked up. I decided to go the easy, not perfect route and just clip the green wire leaving it how it was connected and splice it to the green wire on the new plug and wrap it in electrical tape. For the white and black, I put on new wire terminal connectors and plugged them right in.

Before: After:

Step 8: Now it was time to put on the final touch with the new t-molding. Commando traditionally has black t-molding on it. I had seen a picture somewhere where somebody used light green and I loved it and wanted to do the same here. So I ordered new 3/4" Bright Green to use here.

I applied this with a rubber mallet with a soft cloth wrapped around it to cut down on any dents or marks while lightly hammering it into the slots. I also used an exacto knife in a few spots on sharp corners to trim some of the part that goes in the grooves to make it tighter and not bulge out anywhere.

I love it and think it looks awesome.

Notes: I did end up replacing the plexi glass for the bezel, and decided to try tinted. That is what is pictured here. I've decided I'm going to go back to clear for this particular cab because I think it makes it all blend better.

I learned a lot doing this. Just as much of what not to do, as what to do. I hope people found this enjoyable, and maybe even helpful to some. I'm still very new at this, so if you know of a better way to do something done above, please say so! Lets share the knowledge.