First off, if ya screw up it's easy enough to sand it smooth and start over. So don't be nervous, GO FOR IT!

Now, take off side rails, it sucks to strip, sand or paint with them on. Pry up carefully (I use a stiff putty knife) until you can grasp the nail heads with some side cutters or other tool. Now go to your best local hardware store and buy new nails (Or call Steve-PBR. He has 'em)

Stripping paint is easier with less chance of poisoning yourself with old lead paint.

Never heard of those stencils. I make my own. This one could be easy with careful masking. Or damn hard, depending on your graphic abilities.

Krylon will work fine, just prime bare wood or it'll suck it up like a sponge. And pick your base white carefully. Ivory can be *too* yellow sometimes.

Doing the texture with paint sprayed in a cap from a can may not work. It may be too thin. I use montana gold's webbing spray though it takes a whole lotta effort to make it look legit. You have to spray fast and far in a karate type of move. I don't let anyone witness be doing it. But look up Montana Gold's webbing spray.

Good luck! (oh, and your mileage may vary)
Art.

I second taking off the rails. I've had an easy and a hard time doing the job, it just seems to vary on the game.

Ivory worked well for me on the game I did that had that base color. Don't use gloss if you can avoid it, satin looks better. You might have a hard time finding true blue and banner red in satin-I did. I used gloss then sprayed the entire cab and head with satin poly and it evened it all out and gives the cab a nice finish. Not factory, but you really can't tell.

Webbing with brush flick is how I did my first one, and all I can tell you is, it ain't easy. Practice, practice practice before you try it. I'm sure you know this but I'll repeat it anyway, the webbing goes on before the graphics. I've seen people do it after. Don't.

I've used stencils from This Old Game. They were fine. They'll stick on, so they're one use only. They will give you a much sharper edge than the factory did, but that's ok. Just don't get real heavy with the paint or you'll end up with raised edges, which is not so good.

You can do it. Just dive in. As Art says, at worst if you screw it up, just sand it down and go at it again.

You really can't make a cab like that much worse - except by covering it with woodgrain vinyl. You're on the right track, proceed.

It's good to work on your restoration skills. Especially if you think you may want to do another cab repaint down the road.

With that said I was extremely disappointed with the ones I'd tried to do. Even though it was an improvement over what I had, when you do it yourself every flaw will grate on you. These days if Boilerman were within driving distance and I wanted a cab repainted that is the route I would choose. He does a great job and it will add value, especially to a game like Kings & Queens. It's admirable to do it yourself but there is definitely a learning curve. Boilerman has already figured out all the subtleties. He knows how to apply proper webbing which is like a lost art it seems. K&Q is certainly deserving of the pro treatment. The nice thing is, as you've mentioned if you decide to try it yourself and your not happy with your attempt you can go to plan B.

Rustoleum Heirloom white is the best match for the base...

I usr Krylon black (sometimes silver) webbing spray BUT I shoot the webbing into a HF touchup sprayer then cut it about 50% with lac thinner, testing to see if I get the right consistency...50 lbs on the compressor.

https://picasaweb.google.com/116707490823432104374/SpinACardSold#5850527576807050994

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good luck. And you can check out some of my attempts here

https://picasaweb.google.com/116707490823432104374/BankABall3PaintJob

as always, practice practice practice

What about shooting a satin Krylon clear to obtain the finish you desire?
http://www.krylon.com/products/satin-finish/

My advice is that you can repair anything you've screwed up (usually). Every time I paint a cab, I screw it up and have to redo it, sometimes multiple times. I'm on attempt #3 on my Bad Cats right now to get the orange right. Haven't even gotten to the cat touch-ups yet.

And auto bondo is the choice for filling in scratches and dings.

Very good series on cabinet restoration................ Sparky is Good & Funny

I fully agree with all the advice you've been given thus far. Definitely remove the side rails. Boilerman posted a video a while ago where he removed a pair in like three minutes or something.
You sure didn't pick an easy one to be your first! Good luck, and be sure to let us see what it looks like when you're done.

I've stripped cabinets using both methods. First was with Motsenbockers water based remover. Works pretty well but does take several applications to get all the layers. No harsh odors either.

Then, on advice by a Pinsider, I bought a Festool RO125 Rotary Sander. With that tool I can strip an entire cabinet/backbox in about an hour. The Festool unit is spendy but works very well. I've easily stripped 10 to 15 cabinets with it. You can certainly use other sanders but it may take quite a bit longer. With any sander, care must be taken so as not to do any damage to the wood.

Bottom line, either way works. I'd suggest trying both and see which works best for you.

photo-828.JPGas far as removing the old paint, there's fans of sanding or stripping. i'm firmly in the paint stripping camp. sanding creates a much larger mess and you also have to deal with airborne paint particles that may contain lead. i use standard paint stripper ( not the citri strip or "green" versions). it works fast and does a great job. then use a putty knife to remove the paint off in sheets. it'll be starting to bubble up before you're done applying the stripper. apply more for stubborn areas.
after that, sand the cab down to as smooth as you can with a power sander. I used an orbital palm sander and it worked great. you will prolly have to sand some painted areas after the stripper, particularly in cracks or recesses. after that, fill any gouges/scratches with bondo and sand smooth. then prime which will show any areas that need more filler. at this stage, areas that still need filler should be very shallow and can be easier filled with thin body filler which is commonly called glazing putty available at auto parts stores just like bondo. sand the putty areas down and spot reprime them and you're ready for paint.
below are various pics of my Diamond Jack cab repaint. they show the cab stripped down to the wood. visible in a couple of pics are the front of the machine and head with thick black epoxy. these pics were taken while the epoxy was curing and once cured it was sanded smooth. these areas had a significant amount of wood missing (significant enough that bondo wouldn't be structurally strong enough, IMO) so I used epoxy. one pic is after the repaint but before reassembly.photo (1).JPGphoto (2).JPGphoto (3).JPGphoto (4).JPGphoto.JPGphoto-828.JPG

beadwindow why did you do 98% on that cab? it came out great except the inside lip is still yellow.
you see it all the time. not to start a flame war like the nos white post thread>>just asking. I have seen others do the same thing

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No worries on the flame war, its just pinball. Someone else pointed that out to me not long after I finished and I've since corrected it. I made a couple other mistakes. One is that I have the color of the diamonds reversed on the lower front of the head. I restored this game for my girl so I asked her if she wanted it corrected and she thought that was crazy. Her only demand was that it played like it did before the restore. The other was I forgot to paint the new metal piece just to the right of the coin door. I'll get to it some day but have other projects going on as usual...

live and learn.... I made my share of mistakes along the way

forgot to mention to the OP that when the cab and head are empty it's a great time to inspect it for cracks where the sides and bottom have pulled apart. this is pretty common and is easily fixed with wood glue and some pipe clamps. don't overlook this as you'll never have the game completely apart again.

Did the same thing on my King Kool repaint. A bother once the rest of it is done but easily fixed. Just takes time.

take your time and it should come out fine

just finished my EGGHEAD it came out great.

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You really should go into business!

The Egghead cabinet sure looks nice boilerman......

jr if I did I would be worried it would take the fun out of it!

dave wait until you see it when it is done...

Boilerman, I'll see your EggHead and raise you a SquareHead

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I like egg head a little more, square head has gobble holes and egg head doesn't
yours came out nice! your pf wood area is a little dark but looks good otherwise

Thanks. This was a paint job for a pin buddy. I also redid the apron from a rescue decal. If you do a very light webbing you can overlay the decal on it.

IMG_0019.JPG

Nice work on that game. Yeah too bad about the "sunburned" playfield (a topic that should be explored ). That's the cabinet I would need "boilerman" to do for me, a "Square Head" (among others).

That card tray came out awesome! Thank heavens for Lee and Gordon at Pinball Rescue.

Nice job on the Square Head cabinet Ken!

Nice job so far. If you're using spray cans, try to avoid Rust Oleum paints. Krylon, Valspar, and even many store brands seem to be better and cheaper. Rust Oleum seems to me anyway, to take a long time to dry (sometimes it never fully dries and comes off the surface you've painted). Your results may be better, but this has been my experience with spray cans.

And no webbing directly from the Krylon can! Too gloppy. Needs to be cut.

(Ive had good luck with Rust Oleum)

From my experience with spray can enamel, a light first coat, let it dry for a couple days then lightly sand and let that dry for a couple of days. Continue that way till your done, the drying time even after sanding is very important.

I have never used a pre-made stencil kit, so I don't have any experience or advice to lend.
Who makes the stencil kit? I may be wrong and it's a minor point anyway, but I don't think the top of the backbox is supposed to be webbed.

Don't be afraid of a repaint.here's a game I saved that most people wouldn't touch(and I wouldn't blame them) Ted
http://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=11982

Those guys used to have a lot more pinball stencils on their site. Wonder what happened? Only show K & Q's and Atlantis.
You're webbing looks great!! Don't worry about top of backbox, no one's going to see it.

For webbing, I just get some acrylic black from Michaels or AC Moore and a stiff 3" paint brush from the local hardware store. Dilute the paint with some water and practice on some plywood until you get the effect you're going for.

That repaint looks nice, so far!

I would seal with some sort of compatible clear, Satin sheen is a good choice too.

Varathane works pretty well. I did a cabinet by brushing on 3-4 coats sanding between then buffing out the finish. If anything it looks a little too polished compared to an original painted cab.

Wow! Looks like a professional paint job.

very well don Danny!
you did a great job on your first one.

Nicely done!

Well done!