I finally got all my artwork issues resolved. Unfortunately I did not get the finished product through Brad. He could not fix the yellow on the files I had sent him so he was awesome enough to refund me half my money (shipping and cost of materials). I finally realized that the files I kept sending him were not completely vector. They were saved as .eps but being a dummy I did not realize that the images that were contained in the file were raster. Brad explained this to me and I hung up the phone. Later that day I realized what I had done and instead of wasting anymore of Brads time I reworked the files over the weekend (into actual .ai vector files) and took them to a local printer where I could more of a hands on experience.
My local printer printed me off a quick mock up of the files (so I could check the yellow this time
) and I accepted them and had the artwork by Tuesday of the following week.
In the meantime I took the time to sand down and throw a couple of layers of Kilz on my control panel at the behest of those on the forum. I'm glad I did because I would have wasted my CP artwork. The paint doesn't give too much of a texture but enough to give something for the artwork to grab onto.
Over the following weekend I was ready for my artwork. The side art, which I thought would be the toughest, went on the easiest.
The first thing I did was measure each side to see where exactly I wanted the artwork. Now from what I have read on the internet there is only a 2 3/4" space between the top of the DK side art and the top of the cab. That to me seemed a little high even for DK so I just looked online for the side of a FFJR cab and placed my artwork accordingly. Most of the pictures I saw placed the bottom of the artwork even with the bottom of the speaker grill panel so I went with that.
To make sure my side art stayed in place I placed some tape to keep it from moving. The larger piece of tape was to keep the artwork down when I removed the upper part of the backing to finally squeegee it in place.
After I got the side art like the picture above I cut off the small part of backing and squeegeed the top part to the cab then began peeling and applying pressure to the rest of the artwork which went on wonderfully.
Final application goodness.
After the side art was applied I turned to the control panel. In my haste of reordering the new artwork I forgot to tell my new printer that I needed a matte finish on my control panel. After I got it applied with no problems I put the plexiglass on top and began to tighten down my bolts to keep the plexi in place. As I did I realized that I was getting odd smudges all around where the bolts were putting pressure on the plexi. I was also experiencing this problem even worse near where the push buttons were at. Half way through I realized my artwork was gloss so when the plexi glass met the gloss of the CP it left smudges. I already had my artwork applied and I was not going to rip it off and spend another $40.00 getting new artwork. It was fixed easily enough by putting small, thin washers between the CP and the plexi. You can see how poor it looked in the picture below before I put the washers in. Note the lower corners and around the push buttons.
I also applied my coin door decal set from
thisoldgame.com I'll post a better picture when I take it. The one I took is a little tilted. I think I was high on paint fumes when I took it.
I saved what I thought would be the easiest art to install for last. This being the monitor bezel artwork. I. Was. Wrong.
I should have known when you cut the middle out of something it would make the structural integrity weaken. It took me two times to get it right. The first one I tried, I ripped in half when I tried to apply it. The second one was a little better. I also used the wet method this time and it was easier to re-position. I still had a tiny rip in the bottom left hand corner about 1/4" long but its hardly noticeable and I think it gives the bezel a NOS look. Like it has been sitting in a warehouse for about thirty years until I dusted it off and placed it in my cab.
Here is the machine sans bezel art:
And the bezel artwork applied:
Don't mind the black dots on some of the pictures. They were taken with my phone and I forgot to clean my lens before I took the pics.
Well that is it for now. The only thing I have to do is remap a credit button and I should be good. I'll try to get some better pictures up when she heads to her forever home. I also want to get a quick video shot of it being played. We'll see how it goes.
I learned a lot on this cab. Some things were new others were things I should have remembered from my weecade. (Like how plexi and gloss artwork don't mix.)
This is should be it on major updates. The next one probably wont happen until its moved in the spring. As much as I want it traveling in the open bed of my truck in this wonderful Michigan weather.
I also wanted this cab done by the end of last year to hopefully get nominated for the UCA but, Hell, how many times can a FFJR be nominated for a dedicated fullsize. Props to Sjaak for winning last year. He was a major influence on me building this cab.
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Topic: An Original Fix It Felix Build --- 100% Complete! (Read 101268 times)
