Ms Pac Man Resto: Stencils or Decals?

Andy Hoffman

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I just got started here, and picked up a Ms Pac man this week for a sweet price. She runs great, but definitely needs some cosmetic work. I was hoping to pick some brains and see what the preferences are.

I would like to fill in some chipped areas of the cabinet. It is mostly along the bottom and back. I am lucky that the front edge has only paint rub from people holding onto the cabinet during play. The seller suggested using sawdust mixed with Elmer's wood glue and formulating my own wood paste. A local rebuilder said to get wood putty from Ace Harware. I have also read about people using Bondo. Thoughts or experience?

For the finished product, which will obviously be a while, I want to keep it as authentic as reasonably possible. I do not own a paint gun or have a spray booth. There is enough artwork left that I could touch it up, however some of the paint is easily removed. I wouldn't want to do a touch up only to have the paint below it come off. If anyone suggests decals, I would like to know which brand. I have noticed that some are not as similar to the original paint scheme as I would like.

Any other tidbits of wisdom would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
I restored my cabinet last summer. I used bondo for the larger holes, and wood filler for the smaller scratches scuffs, and I was pretty happy with the results.

As for artwork, I re-stenciled my cabinet. My cabinet was pretty trashed though, the art was in bad shape, there was a good amount of vandalism, the pink was totally faded, and black bars had been painted down the sides to cover wear, so touch-up wasn't really an option.

I've got a thread buried in the restoration showcase, I documented quite a bit of what I did.
 
Stickers or Stencil - the age old debate.

Depends on if you're a classic or contemporary Ms Pac owner. By the end of the run, Namco was actually using stickers on its cabs, not stencils. So either way will be correct.

Personally, I'm doing both. I have Dptwiz building me a stenciled Ms Pac from scratch, and I'm restoring my own Ms Pac that I will apply stickers to. After each one is done, I'll keep the one I like best, and sell the other.

For filling in gaps, just use bondo. It's the easiest thing to work with, and it takes a sander very easily.

You'll want to strip the cabinet of its existing paint job and start from fresh wood no matter what route you take. It's the only way to ensure that you get a good adhesion to whatever material you're using.
 
If you have an original plywood cabinet, it's stenciled/painted, probably with a lacquer. The cabinets that originally had decals were the later particleboard ones.

In my opinion, an original, worn cabinet > a 'restored' one with the decals. The only way to make it look factory 'new' is to do the stencils and repainting, but it's a HUGE job. Not to discourage you, but you'd want to get some practice with stencils on some scrap wood or something, get the hang of spraying, etc..
 
I can see where it was sprayed for it's original paint. There is a small amount over yellow overspray throughout the artwork. All in all, it looks OK given it's age and service life. I would say 4 out of 10 based upon my limited experience of seeing old Ms Pac's in person. The T-Molding seems to be original. It is the textured appearance T-Molding.

The coin door has two stickers ("Quarters" and "Tokens") affixed. I do want to remove them. However, when I began to remove the quarters sticker, paint from the coin doors came up. So, I will leave it be for now. I do plan on repainting the coin door as well. Any suggestions for that would also be great. I forgot to mention that chore earlier. I want to keep the Bally/Midway logo, of course. I will attach some pictures as well for further review.
 

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