Question about my cabinet

[HeavyK]

Y'all

   I just got an old street fighter three cabinet, and I was noticing while I was removing all the old stuff from inside it that front piece or kick panel was attached to the side of the cabinet with wooden dowels that have come loose.  My concern is should I try and screw the two pieces together or should I just get some wood glue and clamp it shut by laying it on its side and putting some weight on it?  Any ideas?  Also there use to be a bill changer in the kick panel, but it is gone and I don't know what I'm going to do about the large gapping whole.  I was thinking about trying to fill it in with bondo.  Would it be better just to cut the kick panel out and try to fabricate a new one?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[sstorkel]

If you screw it together, you'll have ugly screws visible from either the front or side of your cabinet. Do you want that? If you re-glue the dowels, you won't see anything. I would suggest using an actual clamp to keep the pieces together while the glue sets. Pipe clamps are cheap and provide quite a bit of clamping power.

I have a "rule of thumb" for using Bondo. Don't remember where I picked it up or if it even makes sense these days, but it hasn't let me down yet. The rule is this: if the hole you're attempting to patch is bigger than the palm of your hand or more than 1/8th in deep, you need to do something other than Bondo.  How big is your hole? Coin door size? Happ sells lots of doors you might be able to use to cover up the hole...

[HeavyK]

The hole is about the 3" by 4" and it is completely through the cabinet.  I figured I could use bondo because of people use it to make new edges and everything, what should I use in place of bondo though?  Also, what is a "pipe clamp"  is that the same thing as an irwin quik clamp?

[Jdurg]

You should take an equal thickness of plywood or MDF and cut it to fill the hole.  Then you can use Bondo to fill in the small gap that might be left and also "bond" the plug that you created to the panel itself.  When I was putting together my first CP, I screwed up a button hole and had to replug it with a wood scrap, then use putty to fill in the gap.  Eventually, when it all dried, I sanded it smooth, re-drilled and it looked fine.

[IA1NY]

You have a pretty huge hole to Bondo.  Alone, Bondo would never stay in it.  I'd have to say to do like sstorkel and Jdurg said.  Back up your plug with an oversized piece of ply, or MDF.  Screw it onto your panel from the back so that your screws don't show.  You can then Bondo your gap.  If you don't wart the back, you will end up pushing a plug that size through and have to redo it.  A small hole like a buttonhole is one matter, but a large hole like you described is another.

Also, do you need to match a finish?  It's really hard to match the finish of an old cabinet.  You should consider sstorkel's advice about finding a door that fit's (or is slightly oversized) or else find an old bill changer on ebay that you can fit into the slot.  Even if it doesn't work, it'll at least look like it's meant to be there.

[HeavyK]

ohh I see.  Your last remark leads me to kind of my next question.  The cabinet has laminate on it and if patch it with bondo will I still be able to sand down the cabinet and paint it and possibly not see any seams?

[IA1NY]

The cabinet has laminate on it and if patch it with bondo will I still be able to sand down the cabinet and paint it and possibly not see any seams?

Yes, the laminate is sandable and will take paint once sanded.  Use a heavy grit (60-80) and sand all of the color off it so that only a light brown "backing" is left.  Use a spray primer, and then you can paint over that however you want.  You're going to want a belt sander (prefferable) or a random orbit sander.  Regular orbital sanders will do the trick but are much slower.  Don't bother to hand sand it unless you are in it for a good workout. 

Make sure you sand any texture off the laminate.  Otherwise there will be a noticeable texture difference between your patch (which will be smooth) and the rest of the cabinet which has a slight texture (unless it's a gloss laminate). 

Getting into the corners is also going to be tough unless you hand sand or have a specialized corner sander.  Regular sanders either can't get all the way into the corner, or end up buggering up the side you don't want to sand.  Putting on masking tape helps, but it's not foolproof.

I do recommend that you first try to find a dummy bill changer or door before you patch and paint.  That's a much simpler cover up and will take a fraction of the time and will probably be about the same amount of money when all is said and done.

[HeavyK]

Thanks for all the information!!!!  In regards to the bill changer I have the plastic door that is there just not machine that goes through the slot.  I will post pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.  Also, I have laminate on the inside of my cabinet.  Is this normal, and do I have sand it down as much or can I just rough it up and paint it black because very little of it will be seen.  Once again thanks for your help!!!

[sstorkel]

Is this normal, and do I have sand it down as much or can I just rough it up and paint it black because very little of it will be seen.

If it isn't going to be seen, don't bother painting it! If you are going to paint, however, you'll need to sand it. Paint doesn't stick very well to most laminates...

[HeavyK]

Y'all

  Here is the hole in the cabinet I've been talking about.  Tell me what y'all think I should do.

[ivwshane]

You could turn it into some sort of usb port or memory card reader.

I'd probably just cut some mdf to fit and fill the whole.

[IA1NY]

You could turn it into some sort of usb port or memory card reader.

Yeah!  Simple yet elegant!  Get a piece of flashing or thin gauge steel, paint it, and create a useful panel that will fill the small hole of the bill changer slot.  You only have to epoxy it onto the back of the changer housing.  Better than having to totally redo the finish of the cabinet panel.  Even if you leave it blank and paint it black, it'll look better than filling, sanding and painting the entire panel.  Remember that you would have to try to match the rest of the cabinet; an iffy prospect at best.