It’s amazing what one can do with a three day weekend and some fairly decent weather! It was nice enough this weekend that I could get out in the garage (as opposed to the basement) and continue some work on the Dig Dug cabinet. Let me bring you up to speed on all that has taken place since the corner repair.

The side art was stripped from both sides of the cabinet using a heat gun and some good old fashioned elbow grease. Once the side art was removed the entire cabinet was sanded, first with 80 grit paper, again with 120 grit paper and a final sanding with 220 grit paper. I then applied two coats of primer to the entire exterior of the cabinet, sanding between coats with 220 grit sand paper.

Once the primer was finished, I painted the front and back exterior of the cabinet with four coats of flat black latex paint. I applied the paint with a spray gun. I didn’t want to destroy the orignal stickers on the back of the cabinet, so I masked them with masking tape prior to spraying. Here are a couple of pictures of the final results:

There’s a bit of overspray on the primed sides of the cabinet, but as long as it’s smooth it shouldn’t matter. The side is getting covered with one large adhesive decal. While I was painting, I decided to do a bit of work on the coin box as well. The coin box and utility panel were sanded down and painted with 2 coats of Rustoleum flat black enamel. All of the components were reattached with new screws. I think you’ll agree that the results are worthwhile. Here’s a before and after shot (there is a bit of dust on the final picture as I forgot to take it out of the garage while I was sanding the cabinet…it wiped right off):

Finally, I began to apply the new side art. The side art was printed on self adhesive vinyl using a 42″ HP Design Jet 500 on best quality settings. I downloaded the art file from the Arcade Art Library and cleaned it up to my liking. Essentially, some of the curves were pretty jagged so I took the time to smooth them out in Adobe Illustrator.

Before removing the old side art, I took some measurements for the bottom and back side so I would have reference marks to line up the new art. The bottom half of the art got taped to the cabinet so it wouldn’t shift and I began applying from the top down. It was then a matter of applying the new side art, moving slowly to make sure there were no air bubbles or crinkles in the artwork. I then trimmed the edges of the art with an X-acto knife. I only have one side done right now but hope to finish the other tomorrow night. Again, a before and after shot:

In case you’re wondering, this was the side that had the chunk missing which was repaired. There is no visible sign that the corner was repaired. After I finish the side art on the other side, I’ll be putting a coat of liquid laminate on top of each side to protect the art. I then need to finish restoring the coin box and coin door, install new t-molding and put the cabinet back together. Stay tuned!