The Coin Door

The Coin Door was bought off of Ebay for about $30, it was in decent shape, the mechanisms worked, but it was rusted, and missing the lights and one of the $.25 plates. To restore it I disassembled it entirely and removed the rust with a wire brush (because it was originally powder-coayed, it's not necessary to remove ALL of the powder coating before painting, just make sure it is clean.) I painted it with Rustoleum Black Satin Spraypaint, the same paint I used for the top of the table, and then a coat of Minwax Spray Polycrylic, to help protect it from scratches. I had to replace the Midway Door plate because it was dented and scratched pretty badly, also, it was rivited in place, so I did more damage to it in removing it. I found a replacement at Quarterarcade, which just looks great. I used the cordless drill with a wire brush on all other metal parts to remove rust and corrosion. I bout a replacement $.25 plate, lamp holders and replacement bulbs from Bob Roberts.

The complete disassembled coin door, you can see (from left to right) the coin mechs, the anti-tamper switch, coin door frame, coin mech holders, coin slots, and chutes, the coin counter (up from the frame) main door part, and the $.25 plates.

The Lock and key was a special annoyance. The lock that was on it originally was broken, so the Ebay seller included a seperate lock and key. This was good news, however, we ran into problems when it came time to install the coin door. The lock was too short! I doubt that this was intention on the part of the seller, but hey, I'm not about to let a $5.00 trip to the hardware store come between us! Coincidentally, one again Bob Roberts has come through with an excellent article on dealing with these types of locks, you should take a look here.