Ms.Pac gets a facelift and more...FINISHED !!!!!!

[level42]

Great, I feel a pro already 

[ckong]

That ms. pac-man is looking superb André, you must be very relieved now that this can be removed from your to-do list. And the tutorial is nice, I will sticky it in my favourites. 

[level42]

Well there's still the kick-plate which has it's own challenges. Like making a "plug" for the coin-door hole and of course the inside corners.

And still plenty to do.

- install the kickplate protector
- install the t-molding
- most of the harness is in OK but still some small things to do
- restore the coin-door. It looks like I may have found a friend from a friend who does spray-painting. I have at least three coin-doors in need (Ms.Pac, LL, Berzerk), I hope he does sand-blasting too
- redo the black paint job on the CP and install CPO and joystick and buttons etc.
- reinstall the monitor. I guess that may be very quick because I want it gone from my attic
- fix the Ms.Pac board
- install the 99in1 kit on the board

...and I probably forgot something....

BUT, it's working "upwards" now

[Muerto]

Well there's still the kick-plate which has it's own challenges. Like making a "plug" for the coin-door hole and of course the inside corners.

And still plenty to do.

- install the kickplate protector
- install the t-molding
- most of the harness is in OK but still some small things to do
- restore the coin-door. It looks like I may have found a friend from a friend who does spray-painting. I have at least three coin-doors in need (Ms.Pac, LL, Berzerk), I hope he does sand-blasting too
- redo the black paint job on the CP and install CPO and joystick and buttons etc.
- reinstall the monitor. I guess that may be very quick because I want it gone from my attic
- fix the Ms.Pac board
- install the 99in1 kit on the board

...and I probably forgot something....

BUT, it's working "upwards" now

99 in 1 kit?? Never heard about that one..

[level42]

Sorry it's a 96 in 1 kit: http://home.everestkc.net/mdoyle/multipac.htm


Oh and Before and After shots.....

Untitled by Level_42, on Flickr

Untitled by Level_42, on Flickr

It's when you look at the new vibrant colors you realize it's not just the pink that has been faded like nuts......

[gyruss]

wow, stunning! 

[Superully]

that looks AMAZING, andré, obviously very well worth the effort and the money. vinyl really IS a great alternative to a paint job! btw, i've notived there's a difference in the copyright message under the ms pac-man label, but can't read it. what does it say compared to the original?

[level42]

Yes that's one of the drawbacks Ully, it says Namco....

Also, if you look closely you can see that there are some size errors in the artwork. It's something you'll never notice when you look at it "just like that" but if you're going to compare like the two pictures above you'll see it.

Still, yes I think it's a serious alternative. I know I wouldn't have done the stencils yet, but this I can manage (took long enough already)....

[ckong]

I am going to stencil my ms. pac-man somewhere later this year, but I won´t hesitate to buy the decal set if the result is not satisfying. Your cab looks amazing and I think that it is a good enough compromise.

[Etienne MacGyver]

I only see the "after pic", anyone else got that problem ?

I know how the result looks, i have seen it in a best close up as possible (a few centimeters in real life  )

[level42]

Yeah had the same problem, I put the link in again, seems to work again now.....weird....

[Laszo]

I think it looks great, clean and crisp. Well done.

[Etienne MacGyver]

Indeed !

Not to be negative, dont get me wrong, it looks fantastic, but lets start a little game of find the differences...

Perhaps i can fix those in a vector file..  

Lets see:
1. the curves are not the same
2. the pink part is wider that the repro and also a bit shorter from left to right
3. the copyright looks different
4. the mrs is bigger on the Original
5. same as 4, the ghost and mrs are bigger in the Original, and look at the left pink blob on the ghost, its bigger on the Original.
6. same as 2, its wider on the Original and almost at the edge

again dont take this as negative, just looking for the differences.

Like you say, when you do a comparison next to eachother you see it, if you just see the cabinet, its very beautifull !

(i remember you almost freaked out when i was at your place and you did the comparison...)

we should have scanned it before sanding..  oh well, just enjoy it like it is now, it looks 10000x better than the worn out Original !

[level42]

You're absolutely right Etienne, but indeed, no issue when you don't put it next to an original one. My guess is they reduced some sizes a bit to reduce the possibility of misplacing the artwork.

Anyway....next step. The Kickplate !

It's hard to tell how much time I spent for all these steps. It's because of doing this all for the firsts time. However, there are also decisions to make AND to measure, place, measure again, replace etc. etc.

Of course I've seen Rich's great video on how to install kick-art: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaO2fH9upIU

However, I had no clue what size I had to cut of on one side. Of course it should be centered, but still it was hard to position it like this.

Another reason was that I don't have a metal ruler to cut straight along with...

In the end, I decided to go with basically the same method as the side-art, so not from right to left but from bottom to top. I fixed the artwork with two clamps on the top. I could move around the artwork near the bottom a bit like that.

I had cut off almost all of the excess (white) material on the edges to have the smallest piece possible to work with.

I figured I could just as well bend the inside corners and "hit" them with my squeegee to get it well into the edge while going "up".
Note that I may have been helped by the fact that it was both pretty warm and humid today here, so that may have made the vinyl "adjust" a bit more easy.

Anyway, here we go:

I used the "hard" side of the yellow squeegee this time because this piece of art is masked.


Untitled by Level_42, on Flickr

The inside corners go really well, the small pink squeegee works really well here:


Untitled by Level_42, on Flickr

Went up to the top without many problems. I used a plastic "soda" bottle instead of the tube this time, a little bit smaller is better here.

Then it was time to remove the masking: Didn't have a plant-sprayer at hand, so I used a wet sponge to make the masking a bit moist to get it off easier.


Untitled by Level_42, on Flickr

Hello there Missy ! Yep, still got bubbles...


Untitled by Level_42, on Flickr

Removed all bubbles and cut out the coin door hole. I didn't use a plug (I got lazy), and because of going up, this is also less of a problem...in fact I hadn't any problem with it.


Untitled by Level_42, on Flickr

Now, where did I leave that kick-plate protector rubber strip ??

[Etienne MacGyver]

Looks great !

Is this also as thin as the other, or is it different vinyl since it has protection over it ?

I can imagine it is more sturdy because of the protective layer.

All you need now is the coindoor installed and then it looks like a brand new cabinet !

Great Job