Finished all art!
By the time I did the last sticker, it was somewhat routine...but still work-intensive. There were a couple of air pockets that wouldn't squeegee out during application but I worked them out the next morn after most of the water/soap solution had dried & the adhesive was better able to stick.
Slitting the auto wrap to allow for hardware (2x flipper button assembly, 1x playfield prop rod bolt, 4x head mount holes) was easy. For the 8 leg bolts, I just cut 1 little slit, because the front & back panels didn't get the auto wrap treatment, so I didn't need to cut much.
I'll post some more detailed pics shortly, and I have since assembled the cab & (shockingly) everything still works 100%, but here are a few thoughts to capture now before I forget:
1 - The auto vinyl warped a little at the 3 screw holes for each flipper assembly. This may not be an issue for normal flipper buttons.
2 - The art got damaged when I torqued the nut/bolt for the playfield prop rod. I'm not sure how to address this. A big washer would keep the art from getting damaged but cover the art some.
3 - I put the cabinet side art a little too high. I roughly centered the art on the sides of the cabinet, but the head overhangs the top of the cabinet by a few inches, & the side rails also cover the top inch or two of the side. Fortunately, I didn't put the art so high that the side rails covered it. That would be disappointing.
4 - NOS art is quite brittle. The art that I bought had a few small flaws: small tear or punch or bite taken out of an edge. A few of these grew during handling/application/schooching/squeegeeing. Darn.
5 - Trimming at the edges was tricky. If it's too long, it will leave a little flap that will get caught & probably peel back or fray. If it's too short, the white wood primer is exposed. I should have spray painted the perimeter of the lower cabinet sides before applying the black auto wrap, to prevent any white from peeking through. This is a non-issue on the head, where there's T-molding all around. There's a small spot where the right art meets the front of the cab, where my right hand brushes against when reaching for the right flipper buttons. I think I need to trim it juuuust a little bit, but I'm a bit frightened to do so...The jury is still out on whether to trim the auto wrap to the edge or to trim a little long & fold over to the back side/underside.
6 - Don't use the same 10-1 water-soap solution on *top* of the stickers as underneath. I used 10-1 filtered water-dish soap under the auto wrap & the NOS art to float them into position & then squeegee them. I still think it's FM that all that water & soap just disappears, but it sure seems to. My (small) mistake came from using that same solution on the outside to act as a squeegee lubricant. When all was said & done, I spent a good half an hour & lots of rags & paper towels & alcohol to de-soap the entire cabinet outsides (soapy water had dripped onto the front & back panels too, as well as the glass, which cleaned up quickly & easily w/ Windex). I think that plain water would be just fine for an artwork-protecting lubricant when running the squeegee over it.
7 - Speaking of squeegees, I very much liked the baby burpy cloth wrapped over a DVD case. The case was firm but flexible, & I could adjust its stiffness by using the short end or long end against the art.
8 - It wasn't a big deal, but it might have been a little easier/safer to have removed the playfield first. I figured it was safer inside the cab than outside, where I didn't have a great place to store it. As such, I went through extra efforts to mask holes & keep the glass on & such, which added a little labor & risk & cleanup, but it worked out OK.
9 - I cut up pieces of ShamWOW & stuffed them in cabinet holes during sticker application. These made for good plugs to keep soapy water out of the cab. They came out easily when done.
10 - Now the rest of my cabinet looks disappointing, especially the front panel & coin door & legs. Oh well--not gonna do any more cosmetics on this! :] I did do a little spray paint on the lock-down bar, which had a bit of rust.
11 - There are a few flat-headed carriage bolt-ish fasteners in the cabinet from the factory (holding inner playfield slide rails, I believe). If I really wanted, I could have used wood filler & sanded those super flush. But, the factory art showed these fasteners, so I didn't feel bad out showing them in my work either. :]
12 - Ditto for a few places where my razor blade removal of the old art pulled up a small spot of primer. These show through the auto vinyl wrap & SWEPI art.
13 - The front holes in the side rails from Pinball Life pretty much lined up w/ the cabinet holes. I ran a drill through to clean them up a little. I also drilled holes for each of the 2 back holes in the new rails (that didn't exist in the stock rails) & added 8-32 pan head screws to secure those rails better. I didn't have black screws, & I ran out of black spray paint doing the lock down bar, so I found some "smoke" spray paint that I'd used on an RC car to tint its windows heavily & laid down several coats. That's close enough to black, & the big fat head covers up those fasteners anyway.
That's all for the moment. I'll post complete pics & closeups of some of the above issues later.
Thanks,
-Jason
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Topic: Changing side art on Pinball 2000: Do I need to paint!??! (Read 17426 times)
