Control Panel Material & Mounting Joysticks

[ScottEK]

I'm in the process of restoring a beat up cabinet to be a new high tech Hyperspin box.  I want to go with a completely different joystick and button layout and I'm looking for suggestions on what material to use.  The control panel is from a Ninja Gaiden conversion kit, I added two additional button holes years ago to play MKII.  The panel is made out of a thin rigid sheet metal.  How can I modify and still have it look good?  My end goal would be to have a nice vinyl CPO over it.  Here's some pics:






Also, I'm confused on the joystick mounting.  I bought two X-Arcade joysticks but they didn't come with any mounting plates.  How do I mount the joysticks and keep the bolts hidden?



Thanks for any help!

[RetroACTIVE]

Those sticks simply mount on the back side of the control panel.  There are four studs on the back of the panel that fit into the four holes of the body of the joystick.  You can't see to well in the pics you have of those sticks, but there are 4 mounting holes for screws/studs on them.  You don't have to do anything to make those sticks work... just get some nuts that will fit on those studs.

[tsaylor]

I had a similar problem, starting with a metal control panel from a centipede machine and wanting a totally different layout.  I considered several options but in my case decided I was better off removing the metal part and replacing it with some new wood pieces.  Then I used some of those "hammer in" threaded inserts to mount my joysticks and trackball on the underside of the panel.