I'd keep the originals

Something can be restored a million times, but it can only be original once.

If you must, put it over. I'm sure my views are in the minority though. Do what makes you happy. It's your call.

Depends on the severity of fading, predominantly in the yellow, red, blues, and oranges.
If you decide to replace, two words.
"Belt Sander".
Make sure you have dust trap and ventilation system on HIGH.

Remove the old is a must!

To remove: use a heat gun and wide metal putty knife. I find it helpful to use a razor blade to mark the decal in manageable strips.

I think playmatic and blackknight are misunderstanding what you mean.

If you are going to decal a cabinet you need to sand off the old decals, bondo the cab, and sand it smooth. You cannot just put the decals over the old ones. The cab is no longer smooth and it will show. You will also end up with adhesion problems.

I am fairly certain he was deliberating whether to do the full work.

I have personally done at least 5? WPC games. I really don't count anymore, I just remember the "bad games" like FT, IJ, and a few others.

Belt sanding, and smoothing is a must. Adhesion will not be a problem if the cabinet is prepped correctly. Bondo additive is not necessary, unless the cabinet has damage or you have ripping or gouges. It does however ensure a very smooth application.

Failure to remove decals promotes "ghosting" and decal peeling.

Use a heating gun (or hairdryer) and I put some industrial glue remover on those suckers but be careful if you don't want to repaint the inside. If glue remover goes throught the holes and on the inside, your paint will be toast. But the glue remover and heat combo will remove these puppies like butter.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/wcs-restoration-journal/page/2#post-2941982

Then use the belt sander.

Only if you know what you are doing - otherwise that is scary advise. If you do it a lot - pick up a Festool sander to burn through those decals with ease.

I had to learn to do decals because the guy before me stuck new afm decals on over the old. You could see the lines of the old art slightly raised they the new decals, and they looked like crap at the edges.
I would never just slap decals on over a game.

Orbital sander works acceptable as well and less aggressive. You have to watch against chipping and corners.

Using a belt sander properly means using the damn thing and practicing before you stick it on a pinball cabinet.
It is not possible to use it for every part of the cabinet anyway, if you want properly prepped surface.

It's not rocket science but that also means you are not running the thing at full RPM either. Home Depot offers classes for novices.

I have found letting the pens sit in the warm sun for 30 minutes helps a lot.

I am friends with a good friend that does sign and wrap work. I asked him the same question and he swears to me that the decal will adhere to the original decal better than if you applied to the wood. but he does wraps and a ton of stuff. maybe the material is different.
magicchiz

Well, once you sand it and Bondo any imperfections, you paint the cab black, then install decals to the painted surface, not bare wood.

silkscreened decals vs digitally printed decals two completely different beasts. If you put the new decals over the old ones then you'll see the old one trhought the new because of the raised ink on the original.

I second this. The belt sander is more aggressive and you could end up with an uneven surface that is very hard to make flat again. I would choose and orbital sander with a 60 grit disc to remove the bulk of the decals. Then you move to finer grits to avoid removing too much.

No pictures handy but DEFINITELY remove the old. Take the extra effort and do it right. I had an IJ that had perfect decals over original and it always bothered me until I replaced them.

Big Bob

Look through seller photos on the internet for TAF cabinets. You will find one. Extremely disguishable patterns.

Please do it the right way, which means removing the old decal--the only reason you will see anyone recommend installing the new decal over the old is because they're lazy. You can spot a game where this was done from across the room. Even if you somehow come up with a technique that works, the edges of the decals are going to be a give away.

What works best for me was to score the sticker lengthwise in 4 in strips then use a heatgun on each strip. Once you get the hang of it you'll be pulling each strip in one whole piece.