Monster Bash - on the Road to Recovery

After a month of lacquering, sanding and painting, the machine starts to go back together. The playfield isn't due back for a few more weeks, but it is now time to start putting the cabinet back together. One of the goals is that every part that goes into rebuilding this machine will be fee of dirt. That means:

Paint or lacquer on every wood surface
Every metal piece polished in the tumbler, then cleaned either by hand or ultrasonics
Every screw, nut, washer, clip cleaned by ultrasonics
Every large metal piece had washed and polished
Wiring harnesses thoroughly cleaned - soap and hot water

My wife allowed me to move the machine into the house for reassembly. Here are  the pictures after a day of decals and assembly.
 

The machine as it stands.

Here's the backbox. I wanted to refinish it, but preserve the yellow writing. There's a long story, but the short of it is:

• Mask off the yellow writing 1/4" all around the outside
• Paint the back with Rustoleum satin balck. Allow to dry 3 days.
• Scuff up with 220 grit sandpaper, including the yellow lettering area. This will look bad when you are done.
• Seal with Minwax Polycrylic satin finish. several coats.

When done, the whole thing looks pretty good. In this picture, you can see the border line but it is not very obvious. The color match is very good. Were I a better painter, I could have feathered it in. Note: I am a really bad painter!

A few points on the long story:

• Deft satin lacquer makes Rustoleum satin black wrinkle up.
• Krylon gloss black makes Deft primer wrinkle up
• Polycrylic is water based and safe on just about anything water-resistant
• This backbox took FOUR attemptss to get it as you see here.

All the black is Rustoleum satin black. Looks very nice.