Vinyl or paint?

[M3talhead]

I guess everyone comes to this decision atleast once when designing a cab. With my last project, I took a busted up Gauntlet II cabinet that had this Barney-purple laminate and covered it with tack paper.




This time, I want to do a  more professional job, but cant decide if vinyl sheeting is the way to go instead of using a black textured paint. The MK3 sideart is in pretty good condition, but the edges are dinged up pretty bad in some parts, and there is a 30" gash horizontaly on the right side. I'm leaning more towards vinyl as I write this, but which would have the most "authentic appearance"?

[captainpotato]

Maybe it's just the low resolution of the picture and the better side of the cabinet, but to me it doesn't look so bad. Are you sure that you cannot fix the artwork? Sure, it's not perfect, but it doesn't look horrendous.

As for the Gauntlet II... I know what I would have liked to have done to the person that made it Barney-purple...

[M3talhead]

I'll admit, its not as bad as most other cabinets I've seen restored, but this style that Midway used is my favorite. If you look closely, the light tan marks on the side, are actually pieces of wood that have been chopped off or broken away entirely. Touching up the artwork won't do much but give color to pot-marks. Thats why I was leaning towards vinyl. I could fill the holes and missing chunks with putty, sand and smooth them out, then cover it in black to give it a nice clean finish. I love Mortal Kombat, but the 3rd in the series was never my favorite. It just looks beat up when you see it up close. Not really damaged, its just taken more abuse than what I'd call "fair". Then again, I plan on keeping this cabinet a long time, so I'm paying very close attention to detail.

[Hiub1]

Instead of covering it plain black, is there a way you can source maybe MK2 sideart? It would be a shame to cover up such a nice cab with plain black vinyl or paint. See if you can find some artwork to keep the spirit of the cab intact. This is just my opinion though, good luck with whatever you do.