I recently bought a Sonic Super Straight with a beautiful playfield (wish all the manufacturers made them that durable), and a really nice backglass, but also the all-too-common apparently water- or humidity-damaged particle board cabinet. It was falling apart in pieces at the bottom of the side panels. I didn’t take photos, but these were taken by the seller, so you can get an idea of the condition (before more of it came off in the back of my vehicle).
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After searching the web, I discovered some items made by PC Products to help this cabinet. I got them at two different local hardware stores.

First, I applied PC Rot Terminator, which is a two-part liquid epoxy designed to treat rotted wood. It soaked in and turned the flaking mess at the edges of the particle board into a solid hardened material. I made many applications, probably more than necessary, and was pleased with the solid result.3C00BA78-F1C9-468D-8EBD-13D1AD818D37 (resized).jpeg

Then I used their PC Woody two-part paste epoxy to fill in the areas that had flaked away. I got the larger cans. My hand is in the photo to show the size of the containers; they’re not really that large. I got two sets, and I used most of it.83F65816-914E-45B2-B069-24B15CDF4DDD (resized).jpeg

I didn’t take photos along the way, but here is the cabinet after touching up the repaired areas. This is not high-end by any means, but the cabinet is solid, definitely looking better, and I’m confident that I could load and transport it without pieces flaking off.459855B8-3D74-48C6-8C4A-7B3AF9D9CE72 (resized).jpeg

It did work very well, but this cabinet needed the PC Rot Terminator first. Otherwise, I think any additional particle board flaking would have taken the PC Woody with it.

The biggest thing I learned was to be patient with the liquid epoxy (“Rot Terminator”). I applied enough to completely soak the cabinet side particle board bottom edges (with the cabinet empty and upside down) with each application, but I probably put a bit too much on in some of the applications (I applied it many times, letting it dry between applications). Some of the liquid epoxy ran down (actually up) both the inside and outside of the cab. I’m not too concerned about the inside, but I had a rag to wipe up drips down the outside, and I missed a couple. Thankfully, the drips aren’t highly noticeable on my Super Straight, since the cabinet has yellowed. I did want to make sure every part of the flaking bottom edges was rock solid.

I’m starting to work on a Mars Trek right now, in fact! It’s a great pin, IMO.

One other lesson learned:

The liquid epoxy directions say to drill holes in the wood. I did, but they were really not necessary on my cabinet. The particle board was flaking badly enough that it readily soaked in the liquid epoxy deeply enough on its own.