My son and I finished off the taping and masking of the cabinet today, and managed to prime the backbox. Here's my son reaching into the cabinet. We learned that the Harbor Freight lift table is also useful for raising the height of a helper so he can reach the inside of the cabinet:

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Here's what I learned priming my backbox today:

I chose a Neiko 2.0mm HVLP spray gun. The gun's specs are about 4.5cfm for nominal operation at 40psi. The compressor I have is a pancake compressor that does about 3.5cfm at 40psi. This is not ideal. Don't do this. I think for the cabinet I'll rent a larger compressor.

The nozzle size was fine spraying Kilz Original, but I had to thin it about 20% with thinner. I honestly don't think this matters much, though spraying this took a really long time (partially because I had to keep waiting for my compressor to catch up).

Here's the final product, after three hyper thin coats of Kilz:

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My poor man's spray booth was not adequately ventilated. I had a good respirator but really folks, don't do this, get proper ventilation if you're going to use a HVLP gun, it gets everywhere. I looked at myself in the mirror after and thought I aged, and realized that a fine mist of white Kilz was in my hair. I guess I should have worn hair protection!

As far as the finish is concerned, it's hard to say if it's orange peel or just my inconsistent sanding, but I think it looks pretty good. I experimented using Kilz from a spray rattle can for part of it and there is no question the atomization of the HVLP gun was superior to the rattle can. The trouble is that you can't get the HVLP gun into small areas, so using both isn't crazy if you're careful with the rattle can.

Anyway, next stop...priming the cabinet, and matching the purple decal color at a paint store.

My intent is to sand again with 320 until it's super smooth before painting a color. Do you feel we should paint another coat of primer after sanding it again?

As for the purple/black debate...I keep going back and forth. I'm definitely going with black for the inside of the main cabinet, inside of the main backbox, and the front edge and visible inside area of the backbox. Originally I was going to paint that purple but despite the marketing flyer showing this, I like the look of the black better there.

The question is what to paint the back of the backbox and cabinet. My current plan is to paint the back of the backbox purple and the back of the cabinet black, though I'm struggling a bit figuring out what to paint the beveled edges. If I stuck with just purple, this debate disappears. I have the same problem on the front edge of the backbox, where black meets purple. Decals will be married up against these edges, so my instinct is to paint the bevels the color of the decal, so I can paint the white vinyl to match. I'd love thoughts on this.

I rented a larger, 7CFM compressor, and it made a huge difference. Now I have a good motivator to get the painting done quickly:

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Once the paint was dry, I was less concerned about orange peel. It was gone. There was one spot where I painted too thickly, but that is easily rectified with sanding. A primed cabinet!

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Next step, sand down with 220, then paint color.

Thanks. I think we'll sand the primer-only decal areas with 320 prior to applying decals, everything else will be 220, paint, 220, 320, paint.

We learned a few things today.

First, for anyone in the future trying to get a paint matched to your BoP purple, let me help limit your wasted time. High end and low end paint matching stores all use a variation of the same software matching system (Sherwin Williams and Home Depot included) that scans a source color and comes up with a match. Vinyl decals, specifically purple, have a reflective quality as well as a faint dithering to create the colors. This dithering, combined with the fact that bright ink colors in general are fairly rare in household paint, will cause any computer matching system to basically fail creating this purple.

However, if you stick to Home Depot or Lowes, there is a way to do this. You start with a purple (in my case, I found a swatch called Academy Purple), and you find an experienced person with no chip on his/her shoulder working the paint matching counter. They can edit your color by hand to create a match. It took him about twenty minutes, and to be honest, I'll never go anywhere else but this dude again, bless him.

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It's not going to be perfect. If you want a perfect match for touch-ups, don't use this paint, use Createx Airbrush Colors and mix your own, you'll be way closer to the original. Here's a link: http://www.createxcolors.com/airbrushcolors.html

However, given that this paint will only be visible on the bevels, on the edge of the vinyl, and on the top and back of the backbox, I think it will be a great choice...We'll see when I get there! If you want to use it, in theory, a home depot can scan that QR code on that image and make you this paint.

Meanwhile, back to our restoration: Today we sanded the primer with 220 (and 320 where decals were going over primer) on both the cabinet and backbox. We then HVLP sprayed the first coat of semi-gloss black on the front/insides of the backbox and the inside and back of the cabinet.

The second important thing I learned today is more regarding HVLP spraying. For today's paint, which was a Behr Ultra Plus Semi-Gloss latex black paint, I used a Neiko 1.7mm nozzle HVLP spray gun, again with a 7CFM air compressor. I didn't need to do any thinning at all! In fact, right out of the can, it sprayed beautifully, though I did need to remove the stupid built in filter that ships with the Neiko (it is a small, white plastic cylinder that sits between the paint reservoir and the nozzle that is easy to remove). Here are the results of the first coat:

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I can already see the extra attention to the details really paying off, particularly in places like this:

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Tomorrow, if the paint is ready, we'll sand all the black areas with 220, then 320, then do a final coat of semi-gloss black. This thing is really coming together! I also just got word that my repro playfield is coming soon, so now I know what my plan will be for the playfield.

The magic of Bondo and fiberglass resin:

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The HVLP gun sprays a super consistent coat, but fair warning, it's also SUPER THIN. This latex paint covers really well so it's hard to tell how thin it is. I hit the black from yesterday with 220/320 before spraying the final coat, and the white primer was quick to show through in places. You can't spray thicker because you'll get orange peel, so you may need multiple coats, your milage may vary. I think I'm good with two coats.

While the black paint is available, we have a couple more projects besides the cabinet to hit with black paint!

We painted the bolts we want to be black with a Scotch Brite pad, then painted with a self-etching primer:

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Nothing quite like the fun of removing the old, moldy, boogery paint from the U and H channel pieces. Just imagine how many sneezes these pieces saw over the past 26 years!

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The channels get cleaned with a Scotch Brite pad, cleaned with naptha, then also spray painted with self-etching primer. Finally, they get a couple coats of semi-gloss black:

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Finally, the bolts got a couple thin coats of semi-gloss black as well:

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Now I'm debating painting another coat of black on the cabinet. I'm unsure if the shinier areas are that way because of my lame ass sanding or because of inconsistent painting! I'll let it cure for another hour or two and check again.

Well, the simple answer, because I don't have one. Regardless, it didn't take long. Also, the bolts had already been tumbled, so all I needed to do was a second of Scotch Brite per bolt on the head. Still, probably worth buying a wheel soon, since at some point I'll be re-surfacing the ball guides and other stainless items. It might make easier work.

That's a valid choice. In fact, working with two part automotive paints probably would give me the best results, but I have more experience with latex so I went for it. If I went to an automotive paint store, chances are I'd have an easier time matching the purple! The truth is, after reading through a number of Vid's threads, I got attached to the idea of a good latex paint.

When I sanded the paint it sanded quite easily. The key with most latex paints is that it takes longer to cure, so for best sanding results, you must wait much longer. Regardless, the results look pretty good. I'll post some better lit photos tomorrow.

Ok experts. What would you recommend doing about this orange peel?

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Should I let cure, wet sand, and re-paint? What grit to wet sand with?

My guess is that my sprayer was too close to the surface. It's on the very back of the main cabinet.

I'm thinking I should let it cure for a day first, though. It's dry to the touch but this paint takes a while.

My son thinks it looks good this way. Maybe we're overthinking this! Regardless, time to stop trying to correct it and let it cure for a few days at least as you suggest.

I lose my compressor tomorrow. I may try to paint the purple somehow, though I'm afraid to mask anything fresh.

Exactly my thoughts. Since the backbox black is finished, I'll HVLP the purple tomorrow if I think it can handle the masking tape. I also managed to get the playfield mounted on a rotisserie:

Never seen a drywall screw used as a bumper post before.

This is my first time using this rotisserie (the one Marco sells), and I have to say, I'm really disappointed. The brackets that hold the playfield bend easily under the weight of the playfield. When you turn it upside down, if the C clamps aren't super tight right up against the horizontal brackets, they will just bend and break. I'll probably screw this playfield directly into the brackets. I could probably improve this with some thought, but for now, it seems stable enough. I'll end up making my own rotisserie in the future, but a shame to pay this money and have it be flimsy.

I'm feeling the purple pinbot power.

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Do you folks typically paint the sides where the decals go? I was thinking of doing the edges of the sides so the bevel matches.

Since decals are going on the sides of the backbox, and the current surface is perfect for the decal, I may limit the spray to the edges. Then again, if I start spraying and I'm covering most of it anyway, I'll just finish the job.

The cabinet is making progress as well:

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Well, interestingly, the paint comes out initially in a bit of an orange peel, then it flows outward and the orange peel disappears, particularly on a surface properly sanded.

My painting process ran into a few hiccups. The purple turned out great. The black, however, has inconsistent semi-gloss. I'm thinking that the black paint unmixed itself at some point, or something about spraying it un-thinned. The purple, which is the exact same base, I thinned with about 10% water, and it worked beautifully.

To fix it, I abandoned the HVLP for the black and went to Rustoleum 2x "Painter's Touch" Semi-Gloss black spray paint. The stuff really looks great. In fact, I was just about finished with all the painting, when I made a rookie mistake. I had taped on top of the black paint with a high end 3M masking tape, and when I pulled it off, it left its glue residue behind, rendering wherever it was with zero gloss. If I wet with naptha or thinner, the gloss returns.

So now I'm experimenting with removing the glue with thinner. If that fails, I'll have to either repaint with black, or paint over with a semi-gloss clear, which I have handy. If anyone has any experience with this problem, let me know.

Also... I'm wondering if anyone has cleared over the warning screen text? One option would be to hit everything with a semi-gloss clear once the screen text is on, though my fear is that it would dissolve the screen ink.

Great tips, thank you. For the clear, I was planning on using the Rustoleum Semi-Gloss clear spray rattle can, since this isn't a playfield after all. Any experience with that?

You can see some inconsistency with the semi-gloss clear. I'm pretty sure this happened because the pressure out of the can was so high, even at 12", it pushed or blew the previous line of paint aside.

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Do you guys recommend we add a coat or two, or sand down (maybe wet sand with high grit) and then a new coat?

Also, can someone explain to me the science/wisdom around this:

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or from another angle:

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It seems that after sanding a coat of paint (say, at 320 grit), the entire surface will appear 100% uniform. Then, when I paint a new coat, there will be some areas that look like that. Almost like a naturally occuring steel diamond plate pattern. Is this random? Something left behind in the previous coat? We're at a loss.

The temperature was about 72 degrees. What causes checking and lifting?

This depends on what photo. On the black photo with the strange lifted pattern, that's just spray enamel (Rustoleum Painter's Touch) on top of Kilz primer. The inconsistent clear coat photo is spray enamel clear (Rustoleum Painter's Touch Semi-Gloss) over latex.

...and I should add, the strange lifted pattern was really enamel on top of enamel, as I sanded a previous coat of semi-gloss black and painted another coat on top, and got that pattern.