World's Slowest Ms. Pac Man Restoration

[Boatdrinks]

I began this Ms. Pac restoration 2 summers ago. It's finally getting off the ground, so I thought I'd post some pics. Unfortunately, I can't find any of my old pictures of the original condition of the cabinet, or anything else earlier than a couple weeks ago when I finally decided to start laying on some paint. Suffice to say that the corners were badly broken, paint faded terribly, and the whole thing was just a wreck. So 2 summers ago I removed everything from the cabinet, inside and out, and I do mean everything right down to the wheels and cp clips. Nothing left but a nice light empty cab. Sent the coin door, marquee brackets, etc all out for powdercoating. The pics begin after all the paint was stripped and all the breaks and holes bondo'd. It's taped off and set up on a 4-wheel dolly...

 

[Boatdrinks]

Here's the low-end compressor HVLP sprayer I'm using, along with the settings.

 

[Boatdrinks]

4 coats of primer... I used Bullseye 123 mixed at at 5 to 1 ratio with water and a capful of Floetrol. It's always nice to see that blank white surface.

 

[Boatdrinks]

Various stages of apply the blue... I was excited that the serial number still showed through so well after the priming and repainting.

 

[Boatdrinks]

The final coat of blue is done... forgot to mention that the black around the monitor had already been painted last summer with Rustoleum satin black.

 

[Boatdrinks]

Today I finally decided to break out the stencils, since the weather was nice. Here in MN we get about 2 weeks of decent weather between the 90s and humid summer and the 30 below winter. I've had the stencils for over a year, but life is busy...

In the second photo you can see that i mixed 2 cups of yellow... one mainly primer with a bit of yellow for coloring, and one yellow with again a 5-1 ratio with water, and a dash of floetrol to slow down the drying time. First 2 coats with the primer mix, and then switch over to the correct color.

I made the decision to stencil only the front this week... Biggest reason was that many people have said that the speed factor was so important in getting the stencils off before the paint had really set up. I figured by only doing one side at a time, I could work quickly and get a clean remove...

Last 2 pics are of the yellow stencil on, masked of, and ready to go.

 

[Broodwich]

Slow or not it looks like it's coming along great!

No sense in rushing perfection IMO especially true when it's your own.

 

[Boatdrinks]

Stages along the way to finishing off the yellow. I lost count of the coats, just kept adding a new one every so often until it looked right. I was glad I worked one side only and added the floetrol, because the stencil peeled right off with no paint tearing like so many have mentioned when using latex paint with the yellow stencil. I did have a small amount of bleed along the lower edge of the top yellow stripe, but fixed it later with a a strip of frog tape and another light coat.

Since my stencils were made over a year ago, they have the infamous missing yellow details in the leftmost ghost's hand...

 

[Boatdrinks]

The restoration cabinet pushed up next to another Ms. Pac that I have conveniently kept in the garage to help with the restoration. having the original to refer to has been a great help for stencil placement, etc. When they sit next to each other, you can see that the blue paint code is just a bit off. Not sure if too light or too green or both, but I'm still happy with it.

 

[Boatdrinks]

Here's how I solved the missing yellow hand detail problem...

Once again, having the original to refer to was helpful. I cut a small piece of stencil material and stuck it down over the original cab. Traced the 3 missing areas as well as the lines along the side of the ghost to help line it up on the resto cab. Then I just used an exacto knife to cut out the pieces I needed. Applied the stencil to the resto cab, and used a small foam brush to apply the paint. Seemed like a hassle to break out the sprayer again for such a tiny area. I'm happy with the results so far.

I'll post again when I put on the pink...

 

[Boatdrinks]

Slow or not it looks like it's coming along great!

No sense in rushing perfection IMO especially true when it's your own.

Thanks. I've restored many Ms. Pacs over the years for other people, and always used the vinyl stickers... but I knew that the one I finally decided to keep for myself would need to be repainted. Only in the last couple years with Joymonkey's vectoring of the art did it really seem like a possibilty. This is also the first cabinet I've ever sprayed. I've foam-rolled many, and always was happy with the results, but after seeing the smooth finish and the easy of using the sprayer, I'd never go back.

 

[delroy666]

Looking great so far. Nice job fixing the ghost's hand. My Pac-Man stencil was missing a few dots near the bottom and I fixed it by re-using a piece of the stencil that had the dots already cut in it. I also like the idea of spraying yellow-tinted primer before the finish coat - I'll have to remember that. Keep the pics coming!

 

[toolguy]

Looks nice and will be a real nice one when done!

 

[Boatdrinks]

Finally got around to adding the pink to the front today. I'll try to add the black in a few days.

 

[Boatdrinks]

And the black went on tonight... Rustoleum satin black. 2 pics... One after the main part of the stencil was peeled, and the final reveal after all the bits were picked out via exacto blade. The Midway Mfg. text still needs to be added (separate stencil for that.)

 

[cadillacman]

ur my hero. its salot more work but just looks better than vinyl its just not the same..