Have you ever watched Antique Roadshow?

If you repaint your cab, you kill the collector's value.

Appraiser: In it's current condition, at a well publicized auction, it is worth $8,000.
Woman: Oh my gosh!!!!!!!
Appraiser: Had it not been refinished, it would easily fetch $90,000......

It all depends.

Some collector's do not want ANY repainting of the game, especially by amateurs.

Some will accept touch ups, if done in a manner than can be totally reversed (decal, overlay, or removable pigments).

Some will accept a totally repainted game "that looks like new".
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Think of the classic car market. Some would accept a car with fiberglass repairs as long as it looks good, others would call that an abomination.

I guess it all depends on how much work you want to do. Playfield touch ups are tough at best, especially if the surrounding paint is older as in this case, matching the color will be tough. In my opinion if you can replicate a good stencil, why not touch up the cabinet? Lord only knows how many Kiss machines I've seen re-stenciled and painted and they brought big money. I've had personal experience with Dragon, I recently sold one I had for some time. In it's current shape what's it really gonna be worth? Fixing it up really gonna hurt it's value if it's done right, I don't think so. The bottom line is it's yours, do what you feel like doing and enjoy it...

Hey,

Without getting into the "is it going to be awesome to a collector" debate, I'll comment on two things. One, for how to make a stencil, check out this website: http://home.kooee.com.au/brainsnap/. Specifically, the guy has done a complete rebuild on both a Flash and a Gorgar cabinet. Worth checking out.

Secondly, I personally bought an airbrush. Actually, I bought two. The first one was a Testor's, and I didn't much like it. The second one was a Badger Crescendo 175. I would go as far as to say I love that thing; the thing is a tool, whereas the Testor's seemed like more of a toy to me. If you want to lay paint down without brush strokes or any of that stuff, airbrush is the way to go. Just my two cents.

Luke