When applying decals does it matter what colour surface is? ie can it be just left the colour of the primer with the edges sprayed the colour of the game. Can you see this through the decals? Or are they usually thick enough you don't see the beneath paint or what colour it is.

Perfect so no point wasting paint by painting whole game final colour of cabinet just the edges.

I am in the same boat as the OP first time restoring a cabinet and its one massive learning experience also having issues with getting rid of wood grain, as you can really see where the wood filler is vs the normal wood, not sure if just multiple coats of primer / sanding will remove or if i need to cover the whole thing with a very thin coat of wood filler to really smooth it down.

indeed i am starting to learn this, i thought the pf swap was gonna be the hard part! it's easy compared to sorting this cabinet out

Ill be using a dark grey primer, and spraying edges with the dark Earthshaker blue. The decals seem pretty thick. I was going to cut off a bit (in unused section and just though just to be safe)