The metal shield is on all of them. I think it was security the coin box. Both my Xenons have it.

I am redoing a Xenon cabinet at the moment. It took me many tries to get the cabinet smooth. They used some garbage wood at the factory, the right side of the cabinet and the left side of the head obviously came from the same piece. It looked like the blade chattered badly when the veneer was cut for the top layer of the plywood. I ground it down with 40 grit but had to skim coat most of the side with body filler to get it smooth. In the end I lost the serial number. On the head I was able to keep a little bit of it.

The lighting makes the colours look funny but in real life the pop.

Xenon Cab 1.png

Your question about ghosting and LEDs the basic Bally lighting board will definitely flicker and ghost. The auxiliary lighting board on the score panel insert does not have that problem.

I had the exact same issues but I wet sanded with 400 and 600 grit. The final coat is really smooth.

Did you spray that second coat within 48 hours of the first one? I did that, same thing but not so uniform over the whole surface. Just let it dry thoroughly and wet sand it flat again then put more paint on.

The cabinet picture I posted above was done with Rustoleum paint spray cans. I used Semi-gloss black and gloss red and blue. The semi-gloss requires excellent surface prep or everything shows. You can always scale back to satin black to obscure minor flaws.

I had the first set of Xenon stencils from Jeff after he first offered them. I had exactly what you had happen, happen to me too. After it dries hard it shrinks down a bit in height. I wet sanded with 400 grit then 600. I topped it with more primer then sanded that, then did more black. I was really not looking forward to resanding down to bare wood again. If you wet sand then pay close attention to your coverage with the black you can get a really impressive finish. I use a trouble light in one hand slightly below the paint can so I can see the coverage as it goes on. I do my first coat then go sit outside the garage for ~10 minutes, then I do my second coat.

One note: The paint seems pretty tough after 24 hours, you can even wet sand it. Doing that removes the top cured skin, so leave the sanded job for 48 hours or you risk wrinkling it again. I learned the hard way. So start your sanding the next day, wait two days, then recoat.

When you get to the stencil stage, do not use a quick drying paint, it will pull off in strings and ruin the job. I used more Rustoleum rust paint that says 2-4 hours before you can touch it which makes a big difference (Rustoleums Tremclad brand in Canada). I do two coats a few minutes apart then start pulling the stencil while wet. Have a knife handy, you don't want to stretch the stencil too much as it snaps back and then lays into your fresh paint. I have a small container with Naptha in it and Q-Tips ready once the stencil is off. Get up really close and wipe off the little strings of paint that inevitably happen. You can do major improvements but only while the paint is wet.

After it all dries hard, you can use a bit of Novus two to clean off the smudges on the black paint left by the Naptha.

Not sure you were looking for all that advice but I finally finished up my cabinet last night with red on the head. For the cabinet sides, given how long it takes to pull that large stencil and the shortish working time for clean up, I only do one side at a time now.

How did you polish those up? My Xenon coin door was horrendous, I think lots of liquid had poured down from above. I used evaporust and it looked great but not polished like yours.