John's Arcade Forum - Classic Arcade and Pinball Collecting and Restoring Discussion Forum - RETRO MAME - Nintendo Vs Forum

I am trying to get into the whole restoration process and I have a few games lined up that need some love. I am pretty sure my Nintendo cabinets were painted over at least once in their life but I was wondering if Nintendo originally painted or laminated the cabinets?

If it is laminate, is there any place that you can buy those strange colored laminate?

Nintendo originally had a very hard almost laminate type finish. It's not just paint. It's closer to a laminate. It's SMOOTH. Might be a baked on acrylic or something.

I am pretty sure Home Depot has formica laminate that you can special order to match. Or, you can use vinyl from this old game.

I'll tell Phet about this thread. He has done much with this topic. Me? I have been lucky and all my Nintendo cabs have been solid.

I am mostly interested in donkey kong and punchout. I am sure the same goes for others but those are the two I need to work on.

I have an issue with my Nintendo cabs. Was wondeirng if this questoin was ever answered? I was going to do formica. But if there is a better solution Id would go with that. Thx.

I just restored a donkey kong.  My dad owns a cabinet making shop and I was able to order through one of his suppliers a laminate that was a very close match to the original blue color.  I used Nevemar brand laminate.  Caribbean Blue S3070T.  I was very happy with how it turned out.

John, I don't want to correct Mr Ninty, but Nintendo cabinets I own and have seen have several different types of finishes depending on where and when they were manufactured.

Some have that fiberglass gel coat that you are referring to (my DKJR converted to a PC10) , my DO upright has actual blue Formica on it, and my DKJR is a particle board cabinet with a melamine finish.

Ian, I personally suggest that you inspect your cabinet and decide how to restore it based on its original finish. If the cabinet is Formica that has been painted over you will only need to strip off the paint.

Formica DK
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/27/6e5ubehe.jpg)

Melamine DKJR
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/27/ydu3aqe9.jpg)

Gel Coat converted JR
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/27/e2are8ev.jpg)

Note the cloth coat on the inside on my DK (my Jr has the same inside finish)
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/27/adeha4eg.jpg)

The thing about using Formica is it will make the cabinet thicker.

I built a Nintendo cabinet from scratch and I used Formica but in the end I used narrower plywood so the t molding fit well.

Ill have to try to see what the punchout has. My dkjr's both have that melamine finish

So they are particle board cabinets? I have yet to see the melamine finish a plywood cabinet. Not that it didn't happen. That is my least favorite finish as is isn't perfectly smooth.

I could be wrong then, All of my nintendo cabs are ply. THe finish looks a lot like the melamine but I really can't tell.

Well, look at the edge in the photos I posted, Formica has about 1/16" of dark brown under the color. If it is melamine then there is just the paper thin color on particleboard. It would be impossible to put melamine directly on plywood, you would see the wood grain.

At the local lumber yard when I buy melamine it has ⅛ of MDF between the melamine and plywood. It has to be there. So if your cabinet is plywood if you don't see a layer of MDF then it probably isn't melamine but gel coat.

Thanks Uncle Tighe, I checked it closer this time and both cabinets are laminate. How easy is it to fix chipped laminate, or even more seriously a lock box hole.

Hey Ian, great news that it is Formica, although the chips suck. Can you post some Picts so I can see the level of damage and the location? Because depending on the damage patching is a viable solution over a complete refinishing.