Like so many of these forty year old cabinets, this one is crumbly and swollen from water damage.  In addition to all the damaged particle board, all the metal parts are lightly rusted, its almost like it was left out in the rain.

As much as I hated to do it, the lower half of this cabinet would need replaced.  This would then require a re-stencil of the side art.  Also the top panel, lower back panel, and back door would need replaced.

Below are a few pics of the progress so far.  Also the metal plates used to mount the missing leg levelers needed soaked in Evaporust for several days.  After they were cleaned up, they were bolted back in place, then four new leg levelers were installed.

These new pieces are held firm with wood glue and biscuits.  Using the router helps keep the cuts perfectly strait, and will make blending in the new wood simple.

One fortunate aspect of the Gyruss cabinet, all the panels are bolted in, and easy to remove.  However, every bolt requires soaking to remove the rust, and will require sanding and painting.

Double the fun with Gyruss

"I don't look for projects any more, they look for me." While I can't be certain, it seems I've heard some form of that statement before.  Honestly until the moment I began writing this post, I hadn't given it any thought, or even tried to understand what those crazies were saying.  Speaking of crazies...

Jeff Davis, a new-ish arcade collector, had this busted and trashed Gyruss sitting in his garage.  There wasn't much hope for it really.  There were several parts missing, the monitor tube and frame were there, but not the chassis or neck board.  The wiring harness had been hacked, a switching power supply added, then removed.  Experience told me this cabinet was likely to be scrapped or parted out, which I felt was unfortunate.  Luckily another Gyruss became available, in somewhat better condition, although fortunately for me, also not working.  After fixing up Jeff's second Gyruss, I was gifted the other.  Not to worry, although I haven't done a major restore since the Pandemic Lockdowns, I felt I would eventually get around to this one.

Work on this crap has been tedious.  I've been reluctant to start a post about it, figuring my interest would fade.  However, I've made an effort to spend a minimum of an hour on this each Saturday, so with that, I've managed to maintain what I now call "forward momentum".

Anyway, it's getting late, so for now, I'll just post a few pics.

I call these, "water damage and missing leg levelers".