Advice needed for bezel restoration

[glock339]

I'm a total newbie to the hobby so looking for some advice please, I recently picked up a Lordsvale Neo Geo locally that needs a bit of work.

The job I'm currently on with it the bezel, the boarders seem OK although have a few small scratches that could maybe do with touching up. However the tint is completely knackered, as well as 2 huge gouges running vertically down the middle there's also loads of weird starfish like blebs all over it. When you are playing a game it actually doesn't look anywhere near as bad as in the photos I've attached, but it still need sorting out.

My only thoughts so far is to very carefully remove the tint without damaging the border (not easy) then stick on a new sheet of tint? Although I've no idea where to get the tint or what type to buy etc!

This is not something I've ever done so any advice/suggestions would be great!
Cheers.

 

[Spanky]

This bloke could make you a replacement https://bgresto.com, but he's in the US.

 

[cools]

Strip the old tint

Instead use a sheet of tinted perspex sat behind the glass like lots of cocktails do

 

[glock339]

This bloke could make you a replacement https://bgresto.com, but he's in the US.

Yeh I'm guessing that could work out fairly expensive

 

[glock339]

Strip the old tint

Instead use a sheet of tinted perspex sat behind the glass like lots of cocktails do

Definitely an option, although I think the perspex may be more expensive than just buying some tinted window film to stick onto the glass

I'll also have to decide what % tint to get. Grok says in 1980s they often used glass bezels with a light tint 10-20%, then 1990s and later models might have had slightly darker tints of 20-30%. I've no idea what mine is so I guess if I go for a 20% it will probably be a safe ish bet.

 

[cools]

Definitely an option, although I think the perspex may be more expensive than just buying some tinted window film to stick onto the glass

I'll also have to decide what % tint to get. Grok says in 1980s they often used glass bezels with a light tint 10-20%, then 1990s and later models might have had slightly darker tints of 20-30%. I've no idea what mine is so I guess if I go for a 20% it will probably be a safe ish bet.

No doubt more expensive, but not terrible and much easier to work with. When replacing a scratched/too dark cocktail one recently I ordered samples first to determine the tint. Shipping doubled the price, was lucky to know someone also in the same situation so sharing an order helped make it more palatable.

 

[cools]

The tint I went with was far lighter than the original, meant I could lower the contrast on the monitor which massively improved the overall image.

 

[Spanky]

Yeh I'm guessing that could work out fairly expensive

In 2020 I bought a pinball backglass off him for $265 plus another $125 postage. He already had the artwork though.
You could ask for a quote.

 

[glock339]

No doubt more expensive, but not terrible and much easier to work with. When replacing a scratched/too dark cocktail one recently I ordered samples first to determine the tint. Shipping doubled the price, was lucky to know someone also in the same situation so sharing an order helped make it more palatable.

Samples sound like a good idea, I think I'll have a look into window tints & perspex then make a decision.

 

[glock339]

In 2020 I bought a pinball backglass off him for $265 plus another $125 postage. He already had the artwork though.
You could ask for a quote.

That would be considerably more than I paid for the entire thing 😅. To be fair I would pay that if I thought it would be a massive difference, but I reckon as long as I'm careful I will be able to remove the old tint & then either apply another film tint or add some tinted perspex to make it look as good as new for around £10 to £40 ish.

If I did completely bodge the job I would have to look into a new bezel 😁