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Bob's Arcade Cabinet 2nd attempt!

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BobtheAddict:
Thanks guys for the compliments.

For the plunger, I wish I took additional pictures to show the mount before I used Bondo and paint to cover it up, but I will try to explain the process for everyone.

First things first, I cannot take credit for the idea about mounting the pinball plunger to the base, as I got the idea from Mountains control panel. With that said, here is the process.

The first thing I did was route out a groove on the base so I could mount a metal plate for strength. Next, I took the back of the pinball plunger and cut it down to size "See picture below for details" so it was not so bulky. In addition, I flipped the pinball plunger upside down in order to mount it to the base.

Next, I used some nylon washers to mount the plunger. It was a little tricky to mount because of the radius, so I had to cut the nylon washers at different angles to make the plunger level and to be able to bolt it down.

That is all I did really to get the plunger installed. Of course, I am so anal about everything being perfect, that I must have spent 4 days making sure the mount was straight and the Bondo surrounding the plunger was smooth.

For the paint portion, I started with a good primer. I decided to go with a quart of Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch N1980 Grey Primer. I would say that I put on about 4 coats of primer that was applied from a spray gun I just picked up. I did all the normal stuff like sanding in-between coats "220 all the way up to 400 sand paper". Next, I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch N1974 Semi gloss Black. Because I wanted the black paint to be perfect, I must have put on 10 coats or more. LOL

Well, that is it for now. Football is about to begin and you know what that means, an excuse to pop open a beer before noon. :)

BobtheAddict:
Good evening everyone, I just finished putting the last coat of black paint on the control panel and wanted to share with you where my project stands.

All I need to do now is route out the groove for the T-Molding and spray on a couple of clear coats to complete the top portion.

thatitalian:
Would you mind describing the painting process you used, it looks like laminate it is that smooth!

BobtheAddict:
Sure thing thatitalian! I mentioned the painting process above but I can elaborate a little more.

I started with a good base coat of primer "Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch N1980 Grey Primer". If I recall correctly, I put four coats of primer down and sanded in-between coats. Typically, you would use 220 sand paper to sand in-between coats but I used several different grits of sand paper in-between. Most, if not everyone here will tell you it is over kill to use anything more than 220, but I went up to 600 grit.

Between coats of primer, I let the paint dry for at least 18-24 hours before I sanded.

This allowed me to get that smooth silk finish I was hoping for. The real key with my paint job was that I used a Gravity Feed Hvlp Spray gun.

I hope that answers your question.

BobTheAddict

thatitalian:
Great answer! Thanks very much!

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