It takes a LOT of patience and a steady hand but in the end it can look way better than those CRAPPY side overlays (and in my opinion they look VERRRY crappy). Actually I didnt use a paint brush at all. It depends on how bad your side art is. Mine was fairly bad, but luckily it was bad in all the right places.
BLUE BACKGROUND: For example, if you have huge gashes in the blue background behind Arnold, then youre kinda screwed...or at least your job is gonna be a lot harder to make the repair look unnoticeable. Thats because for the original blue background they use tiny black dots overlayed in a pattern on top of the blue to make a gradient from dark blue at the top (lots of black dot patterns) to lighter blue at the bottom (less black dots). It makes more sense if you have one and can look at it up close. If the blue background has been scratched and is white (or even worse, wood) then you have to paint it with a
matching blue acrylic paint first, then get a
Sharpie Ultra Fine Point pen and recreate/match the black dot patterns. ATTEMPTING TO REPAIR THE BLUE BACKGROUND IS NOT RECOMMENDED UNLESS YOURE PRETTY GOOD WITH YOUR MARKERS & PAINT AND YOU HAVE A LOT OF PATIENCE...otherwise you could screw it up totally and have an uglier mess than you started with.
ARNOLD REDS/LOGOS/WHITES: Blacks On Side Art: Use
Sharpie Paint Markers Oil Based (use
Fine Point to fill in larger areas and use
Extra Fine Point to make tiny dots for the fine details on his face. The Fine Point can also be used for pretty much any black area if the damage is not too huge. The reason I chose various Sharpies is because their glossiness is consistent with the original art, and their repairs can hardly be identified if done correctly.
Reds On Arnold & Logos: Use either
Sharpie Paint Red Fine Point Oil Based or just a non-paint
regular Sharpie Red that you get at office supply stores. I started out using the Sharpie Paint red but realized later that I liked the regular Sharpie red instead because it doesnt leave an edge around where you paint. So I recommend a regular Sharpie red marker for all reds on Arnold.
If the red on your T2 & Midway logo's are fading to yellow get a straight edge ruler that you dont mind getting color on, and use it as a guide for your marker to color perfectly on the edges of the logo. Again I recommend using a REGULAR Sharpie red marker for this (not the paint marker). Be careful. Again if you dont have a steady hand and a LOT of patience then you probably dont wanna mess with all this. Midway logo is tedious because its smaller so you have to be extra careful not to go over any of the white. Keep in mind, its better to paint red over the black edge of the logos than over the whites of them, so work your way in on the first few tries until you get comfortable w/ it.
Whites On Logos & Arnold: For the whites on the logos. mask around them with painters tape and use the white
Satin spray in the pic. Be sure to mask well, overspray can end up in places you wouldnt have expected. If theres any chunks of whites missing from Arnold, I would suggest using a
glossy acrylic paint in a tube & paint it on with a
paint brush.
RED BORDER AROUND EDGES OF CABINET: Mask off basically the entire cabinet leaving only the borders open for painting. You should take off the t-molding before doing this. Use the
red Satin spray paint listed in the pic. At the Lowes where I bought this red paint, there was 2 different shades of red in this brand. I bought the lighter red of the two. The darker one looks okay but the lighter of the two reds really pops.
T-MOLDING: My t-molding looked like crap when I got it...so I actually painted the t-molding with the same
Satin paint that I used on the red border around the side edges. It made the two match and both are slightly glossy so it really looks brand new and clean when it dries. Give it a full 24 hours to dry before touching it.
BLACK ON FRONT WOOD PANEL/TOP/BACK OF CABINET: You have to mask off the T2 kickplate (again, replacement kickplates look like crap, try to preserve your original if possible). After masking the kickplate with painters tape, use the
black spray paint that is listed in the pics. I also cut up trash bags and taped them on over the side art. Check the pics for a better idea.
INSIDE: I used the
High Heat Ultra seen in the pic. Ultra version makes it mildy glossy and looks better than just the High Heat non ultra. I doubt it was necessary to use a high heat paint, but I figured better safe than sorry. You could probably just go with the
Satin black paint if you wanted...just give it several days to air out before you put any high voltage devices back in there.
Its well worth the time, sweat and boredom it takes to do all of this, especially if you plan on keeping your machine for a long time. It'll look brand new once your done. And if you absolutely MUST get side art overlays, for the love of God get one with a red border around the edges...the ones without it look HORRIBLE! Heres a link for one with:
http://www.thisoldgame.com/products/terminator-2-side-art-set