Repainting Cabinets

[Flack]

Ever repainted an arcade cabinet? How did you do it -- I wanna know!

A friend of mine and I just spray painted his MAME Cabinet. He's more pleased with the outcome than I am -- I don't think it came out very even. We put a layer of flat black on the side, followed by a layer of gloss black. It came out splotchy in areas.

Here's the methods I've come up with so far:

Spray Paint

Air Compressor Paint

Roll on Paint

Contact Paper

Any other ideas, and/or experience with these methods?

[chadtower]

In the past, I've just sanded down as far as I could, primed twice, then rolled on with very thin coats until I had a nice shine. It usually comes out quite good if you take your time, make thin coats, and are sure to sand in between every coat to keep things nice and texture free.

[davidleeroth]

Well, my friend is a car painter and sometimes when he has leftover paint, he'll spray whatever I decide looks in need of some. Usually it's wheels or something car related but we've tried it on plastic and wood with great results.
He has one of those garage-size ovens too. If the paintjob didn't turn out that well, sticking it into the oven usually helps.

Personally I've only painted with cans and it's fine for smaller things but for something the size of a cabinet it would take hard work and practise to get it right.
There's a fine line between textured/great/running paint. Remember kids, patience is the key.

[Vigilante]

The idea of contact paper for the shell just makes my skin crawl, I might use it on the control panel with some plexy....

I will soon paint my converted jungle king cab and I was wondering the same thing... the spray paint (only can do that outside) or roll it. A third option would be to bring it to an autobody paintshop. I think ultimately I'll roll it, with primer and thin coats.

Soon is a relative term, I've been building this cab for 3 years now...

[MarioAllStar2600]

I took a black sharpie and painted in all the areas that were suppose to be black on my burgertime. If you look hard you can notice but from far away it makes the machine look MUCH nicer. There is just so much work to be done to that machine.

[Chunky]

sanded, removed trim, did the edges, wood filler
rollled with thin napp black primer, resanded, looked for bad spots touchup, rerolled with thick napp, great texture. looks great, no spots.


yeah i tried to spray my first one, never again.