Now for the fun stuff... There are 5 of the "Visible Exterior Panels" that will receive black laminate (the inside of each side panel, the coin door panel, the bottom of the top panel and the dynamic marquee panel).
I ordered one 4'x'8' Wilsonart Black Matte sheet of laminate from Home Depot. I initially didn't want to spend the money but the results make me think it was worth it.
Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures of this process because I was rushing to finish in an afternoon while the wife was at work. I also didn't want this to go longer than a day because of the mess I was making with the router as well as the awful fumes from the contact cement even though I was outside.
Anyway, the process was relatively straightforward but not what I would call easy for one person... well maybe easy in hindsight but I sure was cursing up a storm during the process. Here's what I did:
- Cut out over-sized pieces of laminate for each surface with my razor
- Using a 3/8" nap roller, roll on a layer of contact cement to both surfaces (the back of the laminate and the MDF surface you want to laminate)
- Wait 25-30 minutes until the glue is tacky to the touch
- Place thin dowels across the MDF with the glue on it and then lay the laminate on top (do not let them touch just yet - the bond is instant)
- Remove the middle dowel (I had 5 of them) and then using a roller or bottle of wine or rolling pin, press the laminate to the MDF and apply pressure rolling the laminate on from the middle to each end (removing the other dowels as you go
- Trim the laminate flush to the edge of the panel using your router and a flush cutting bit.
After all of that for each panel, here is what I ended up with:
Easy! Well, not really - I only have one table so I had to do each panel individually waiting the 30 minutes for the glue to dry for each piece so it took an entire afternoon. The panels are really nice - way better than any paint job I could have done without considerable effort.
Also, you might have noticed that I did not laminate the front marquee panel because I had to set up for that due to the delicate nature of the panel. I'll explain that next.