Pac-man restoration step by step

supercharged

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I have taken great detail to document the restoration of a pac-man I recently did for a customer.

I hope this thread will be helpful to anyone trying to do the same and this thread will be a valuable resource.

Please leave responses until I have finished the thread so it may be read uninterupted.
 
It started with a repair to a "big event golf" game for a customer who said he was looking for a PacMan.

When this arrived; I informed him he already owned a PacMan of sorts.

Pic is after it was stripped of it's hardware
 

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it was then sanded and primed.

The chips and damage where repaired with automotive body filler.

This was also a good opportunity to take a few measurements of the original artwork location. I have noticed variance in the location from game to game by as much as an inch.

It was also necessary to weld up the large hole from the trackball that was hacked in. I would recommend using a different control panel if you have this problem as warping can be an issue and will be tough to straighten if you do not know how to work metal.
 

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I then resprayed the black with semi-gloss enamel in an aerosol can. (used a quality brand for a good job). Taped off the black areas and applied the yellow.

There are several methods of application for the yellow. I used a smooth roller and cut the paint by 10% to make sure it dried smooth. The paint is water based valspar from Ace hardware and i cut it with water. It takes two good coats to make sure it is not transparent anywhere.
 

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After a few days to be sure the yellow was good and dry and would not peel or blister when the stencils where being removed. I applied the blue color stencil.

These stencils where notated with distance from the top edge of the cabinet and the back edge was trimmed to match the back edge of the cabinet.

The pic is after the blue was sprayed. I used rustoleum blue from Ace hardware also.

I suggest removing only the areas of the paper backing where you need to color and not the entire backing to save some headache

You will notice there are little packmen on the first set of stencils that are to be left on when removing the first stencils and aid to locate the following two stencils
 

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Before applying the red stencil; I removed about a 4 inch circle of the papaer protecting the adhesive side of the stencil from arround the locating packmen.

This allows for adjustment without trying to get the whole piece of vinyl back off the cab!

The application paper is transparent enough to see that they are in the correct location.

After it is in the right location. Tape it down on th upper corners, middle sides and bottom corner.

You can fold down the top have of the stencils and remove the paper to expose the adhesive and work it back up from the center.

Repeat process for the bottom

You will then be able to see that the areas to be painted are properly located. They may touch the blue but not overlap. Remember; a black line will be painted in the areas between the two colors and you can touch up if needed after.
 

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I sprayed the rustoleum red on the stencil.

You will notice it is gloss; i will tell you how to fix this later.

The second pic is what it should look like.
 

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Now for the fun part.

Be prepared to spend a few hours on this process.

I hope you left the little packmen in place to reference the location of the black stencil.

I also foun it helpful to remove the backing from the adhesive side in a few key areas to help make sure the stencil was in the correct location.

For example: The lines around the eyes, the red boxes located inside the blue and a few spots in the letters.

You will want to confirm that the the edge of the blue and red areas are visible in the open areas of the stencil to be painted. I have multiple pics below to reference.

When you remove the backing to expose the adhesive; it is best to do it in sections working from the center out and pay close attention to the details of the paint splashes to make sure they are all being applied to the cab and not staying on the backing
 

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After spraying the black with a satin aerosol.. Let it dry a full day or more if it's cold.

remove the stencil and spend an hour or so picking the little pieces off the cab with a x-acto knife and this is what you have!!!!

I then sprayed the entire cab with a few coats of semi gloss clear to get the right effect on the entire surface. This also helps hide the lines left from the stencil
 

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reinstall your marquee, bezel, coin door and control panel. You're done!

In this case; the customer wanted red t-moulding. Orange is correct but I like the red. It is also a 60n1 but I think I camouflaged the extra buttons well.

I hope this is a helpful thread to all who are considering this job. It is time consuming but it is worth the effort.

feel free to comment/respond!

Thank you, Martin
www.strykersarcade.com
 

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That's really cool and it's nice to have a detailed step by step process of stenciling as I will be doing my Scramble stencil soon.

For your Pac, did you do the paint speckles? I don't know if I missed it in reading through the posts. I've read that a toothbrush does a nice job of scattering the dots.
 
I have done them both ways. This one is without them. It is true that a toothbrush is best and it needs to be done before the stencils are applied.
 
Looks great Marty. Not a huge fan of the stick choice, but understand why you decided on it. The customer is always right, even when they're wrong, lol.
 
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