Yes, it sucks.

Glass out.
Head off.
Side rails off.
Playfield out
Legs off.
Remove playfield, head, and lockdown bar bolts.
Remove the leg stand off plastics.
Fill the dent or scratch.
Learn to apply decal with wet process. Wet is better if you need to take decal off and reapply.
Learn how to trim decal if needed.
Learn how to remove bubbles out of decal.

If I have missed anything, I am sure other pinsiders will help out.

Good luck!

Just push another machine up closer,You wont see it.Or take a heatgun and warm it up and try and put back together.

Same way here ,I sold my Star Trek LE because it had a couple scratches in the armour.Wish I had just powdercoated it instead.One of my favorites

I'd be careful. If you don't know what you're doing, the installation is most likely going to look worse than the scratch.

These are still available as much work as it is just trade it for a new one. I guess I’m lazy but no way would I trust myself to make it as good as new and I would probably spend more doing it then what I would lose trading in or selling and ordering new.

The challenge is sourcing new decals half the time. Stern is very particular when you seek replacements direct and good luck when a game is out of production.
If home customers are overtaking location then better access to both functional and cosmetic parts is needed in the future.

That's probably the best way to go.. They are making them again later this year I believe

I've decaled a few machines. This is my advice on how to do it.

You should have 2 people to help you, you can do this much easier and with the machine in the upright position if you have 2 people to help you. Here's how...

Prop the machine up with your pinball cart.

Remove the 2 legs, the side rail and the head hinge on the damaged side of the machine.

Strip off the original decal. You MUST remove it.

Lightly sand the side of the cabinet to make sure it's smooth.

Take s damp rag and wipe the side down and make 100% sure it's dust free and let it completely dry.

When you're ready to install the new decal, take a tack rag (it's a very sticky wipe) and do a final wipe down of the entire side to ensure that there's no dust whatsoever on the cabinet. Dust will cause nipples in your decal that will stay there permanently if any are present. It must be 100% clean and dust free.
Prepping is the most important step.

Now, postion the decal up against the cabinet by having 1 person hold the font of the decal and the other holding the back of the decal up against the cabinet with the white backing still on.

You stand back and line up the decal so it's pretty close to where it's supposed to be installed.

After it's lined up, take a sharp scissors and cut off the excess decal all the way around the machine and leave about 4 inches or so of excess all the way around so that you can have that hang over to trim off after the installation.

Now, have the 1st person hold the front of the decal up against the machine with it nicely lined up. You can even use painters tape to hold that front down if you only have 1 person helping you. If you have 2 people to help you, have the 2nd person peel back the backing from the back side of the decal at the end of the cabinet, so you can work on adhering it from that end and work it towards the front.

Have the 2nd person peel about 6 inches of the backing paper back while YOU take the exposed sticky end, lije it up and lay it slowly onto the cabinet, starting at the very back edge of the cabinet.

Once you have a a few inches lined up perfectly and stuck down, have the 2nd person peel back another 6 inches or so of the backing paper by rolling it up into itself. Rolling it up helps to make it more manageable and helps to prevent the decal from accidentally sticking to the cabinet.

You should have 2 tools for this part. A decal squeegee and a rubber roller.

Now take your decal squeegee. It'll be plastic rectangle with a protective felt like material on one of the long edges.

With the felt protector end against the decal, you start at the very back edge of the machine where you stuck down that first inch or so of the decal and you work all the bubbles and air pockets out of it by scraping them gently out towards the back end of the cabinet as well as towards the person holding the decal. Always start in the middle and work your way down and then up.

After you're done getting all the air out and it's nice and flatly adhered down, take the rubber roller (about 4 to 6 inches wide) and roll over the area you just squeegeed. That will help to press the decal down firmly so it adheres well and remove any bubbles you missed with the squeegee.

After the first few inches are all down nicely, start squeegeeing towards the 2nd person as he's holding the decal away from the cabinet, preventing it from sticking to the cabinet. You do NOT want that to stick. It's a pain to release and could tear the decal trying to pull it back away. So be patient, go slow and be careful. As I said above, the rolling up of the backing paper helps to prevent that from happening because it acts as a little buffer between the sticky part of the decal that's in the air waiting to get squeegee sealed down on the cabinet itself.

Keep repeating this process. Squeegee all the air bubbles towards that 2nd person that's holding the decal. Then use the rubber roller and press down with a little force to really stick that decal down. Always start in the middle of the decal and work your way down. Then go back to the middle and work up to the top. Keep doing this slowly and steadily with patience pushing all the air out of the decal. Person #2 keeps rolling up the paper backing 6 inches or so, while you squeegee those air bubbles towards that unstuck decal end.

Keep doing that down the length of the entire cabinet till you have it completed.

As you work your way closer to the front, person #1 can hold the decal away, while person #2 completely removes the backing paper for the final few feet or so of decal installation.

After you've completed sticking the decal down it's time to check for bubbles. If you have any bubbles, you can take a pin and make a pin prick in the bubble. Then, carefully squeegee the air out through that hole by going around it in a circle till all the air is out and the decal is down. Then use your rubber roller to press down and really get that decal to adhere well. It should go down without anyone being able to ever see the pin hole.

Now it's time to trim off the excess decal around the machine's perimeter.

Take a new razor blade and trim away the excess decal. Do this by taking the blade and running it slowly and carefully at a little bit of an angle while softly pressing against the edge of the cabinet. The cabinet edge acts as a guide for you to make a smooth clean cut. Use at least 4 blades to complete this task so you keep using maximum blade sharpness to cut smoothly and cleanly.

The top, bottom and back of the cabinet will be easier to do than the front. So do those 1st so you get the groove and feel of the razor blade cutting the decal. Start at the top 1st though. That way if you make mistakes and cut into the wood or anything, it won't matter because the side rail will cover it up. That will get you the feel for cutting with the razor blade for the rest of the sides.

When you do this, you want to use light pressure on the blade. The sharpness of the blade will cut the decal on its own as you slowly and evenly skim along the cabinet side. It's the sharpness of the blade that does the work, not your strength pressing down on it and forcing the blade through the decal. It should cut super easy and cleanly. If you apply too much force and pressure on the blade, that will cause the blade to dig into the wood and cut through it. Worst of all, when you go to trim the front of the decal, you'll dig into the existing front cabinet decal, cut into it and ruin it.

When cutting the top and bottom of the cabinet, you want to cut halfway through the length of the decal, then stop and switch to the other side of the blade so it's nice, new and sharp. When you go to switch sides of the blade, you can cut the decal up and away to remove that excess and prevent it from falling into where you're cutting and messing you up.

Take the fresh new side of the blade and finish cutting the rest of the decal. I suggest starting at the back of the cabinet and working down towards the front.
When you make the 1st complete cut, throw that blade away and get a new one.

As you're cutting, you either hold the decal that you're cutting away up, or you have one of your helpers hold it up and out of the way for you. Otherwise it will sag down in your way while your making your cuts. So it always has to be held up and away.

At minimum you want to use 1 blade for each side. Don't mess around. Single edge razor blades are cheap. Use nice sharp blades so they cut smoothly and cleanly.

If you're cutting and feel any resistance at all in the decal, stop and either switch to the other end of the blade or get a fresh new blade if the other side was already used. Don't fool around with dull blades and damage the decal or cabinet edge. Do the same for the bottom, back and front of the cabinet.

Cutting the front is the hardest part. When cutting the front use that light pressure to gently push the blade against the side point of the cabinet, not the front point of the cabinet. To do this, you'll be squatting on the side of the cabinet and cutting from that spot so the blade is at an angle that is pointing away from the front of the cabinet. Now, slowly cut downward holding it at that nice angle. Very lightly cut down the whole side without stopping, unless you feel the blade pull on the decal because the blade has dulled. If that happens, flip the blade around and use the other new side. Then finish your cut. Feel free to have one of your helpers hold the cut piece of decal up for you so it's not drooping down your hand and in your way. Utilize your helpers to hold that cut piece away for you.

Regarding heat guns.

You shouldn't need a heat gun for this job. I've decaled several cabinets without one and have had zero issues. BUT, if you chose to use a heat gun, that's fine. Just make sure you hold the gun far enough away from the decal and SLOWLY move it in and get closer and closer to the decal, stopping when you get to the point where you can see that the heat is working on it. You don't want to get too close and burn the decal. You can ruin it. If you don't have one, you can use a hair dryer in lieu of a heatgun for this job, but it takes longer becsuse the heat isn't nearly as intense as the gun. Just make sure that you're patient. Patience is key.

After you heat little sections of the decal, lightly use that squeegee to push out those air bubbles. This should go pretty quick. It's not hard and it's not rocket science. Maybe you can find some YouTube vids on all this to watch as well. When you do this, start in the middle and work down toward the bottom and then back to the middle and work your way up to the top. This will keep the decal even and prevent wrinkling.

After you've finished imstalling the decal, reinstall the side rail. You'll probably need some 3M double sided sticky tape. That will help to hold the entire rail firmly against the length of the cabinet. Screw the rail in, then the backbox hinge and then bolt on the legs.

Drop your machine back into place and it will be good as new again, till the next friend comes over and scratches it with their button or zipper. Lol

Hope this was helpful. Feel free to PM me if you need to.

GL!

You're very welcome and my pleasure my friend.

As I said, if you do decide to undertake this project, please feel free to reach out to me with a PM should you have any other questions.

I recently replaced side art on a friend’s Mandolarian. Pinfidel did a nice write up but there are a few differences with a Spike 2 game versus BLY/WMS Here are a few:

1) Stern decals are sized to fit and don’t require any trimming.
2) you don’t need to sand a Stern Spike 2 cab. Simply peel the old decal off and wipe a dirt residue clean. Stern’s cabs are similar to a melamine cabinet.
3) use the wet method. If you don’t, the material for Stern cabs is thinner than the old BLY/WMS and will crease as you squeeze the air out. They also tear VERY easily.