about a year ago, i was lucky enough to find a dedicated congo bongo cabinet in germany, which i picked up on my
gone ape roadtrip. now the time has come to show you the restoration results. there wasn't a lot to do on the machine, because it already was in very good condition (nice to have a great-looking machine for a change BEFORE restoring it
). why did it take me so long then? well, most of the time i was waiting for certain parts to come in from the usa, for example the brown t-molding (which i had to order twice because i hadn't ordered enough the first time - what a rookie mistake).
the biggest cosmetic thing to fix was this piece of missing wood decor
what i did was cut it in shape and fill in some holes ...
... while being watched by my cat gnocchi!
sanded down
up next, i ordered in as many wood decor samples as i could possibly find which i thought were close to the original
here's the one that came closest!
although it looks off on the pictures ...
it's an almost perfect match "in reality" and the difference is difficult to spot! trust me: pics don't do it justice
here's a list of the other things i did:
- of course, the usual in-depth cleanup
- installed new brown t-molding
- painted over minor damages to the wood decor with markers
- replaced the rusted original screws with brown spray-painted new ones
- replaced two of the three locks (keys had been lost
)
- replaced the leg levelers
- fixed the
trouble in congo bongo country connector problem- got myself a nice fitting keyring
and here's the machine in all its glory
congo bongo in full working order (note that the t-molding on the right is still missing on the picture)
i'm still excited that i managed to get that machine. it's so damn rare over here in europe - especially in that condition. PLUS the game plays just great!!!
THIS RESTORATION IS OFFICIALLY DONE!!!
