What should I do with some badly scratched arcade sideart?

[Sniderman]

Hey gang,

Well, I'm putting the finishing touches on my Targ stand-up, and I've come to the hard choice I've been avoiding. The sideart on both sides are horribly scratched/gouged. Imagine someone taking a lawn rake and dragging it along both sides. That's what I have to deal with.

Replacing the side art with a repro is out because 1. unlike Donkey Kong or Pac-Man, my machine is pretty obscure and sideart would have to be custom-made, leading to big-ass expense and 2. I couldn't afford new side art even if it WAS common.

So, as I see it, I only have a few options:
1. Remove the side art, sand the cabinet down, give it a fresh coat of paint, and leave it alone.
2. Do everything above, but put a "general" piece of art in place. (There's a nice "Exidy" logo art I've found that might look nice. Normally used for the kickplate.)
3. Try to salvage the art already there by cleaning it up and meticulously touching it up with modeler's paint. It'd be noticeable up-close, but it'd look good from a distance.
4. Clean the original sideart and paint AROUND it, but don't even try to touch up the original art.

So, what should I do with my f'ed up sideart?
EDIT: Here's a pic:

[chadtower]

I have several arcade cabinets in my house with similar budget constraints on what should be restorations. I'd say clean up the side around the art and leave the actual art to be restored later when you have the cash, or maybe by the next owner.

[leonk]

Sniderman:

don't touch that side art, unless you're ready to spend some $$$ and more so time to fix it up. That side art is really great and replacing it in the future will cost many folds more than fixing this one.

Visit arcadecontrols.com - lots of info on how to fix it.

[FABombjoy]

I'd leave it until a better option presents itself. That side art isn't as bad as it could be. I'd work on cleaning up all of that white area around the art itself. If you can get that to look nice and new, I think the damage to the artwork would be muted.

[Raccoon Lad]

That doesn't look too bad as-is

I'd just try to clean the white sides of the cab up, and take a black marker and use it to fill in any missing/damaged areas of black.

seeing as so much of the side art is lightly colored, fixing up the black areas will make it look a lot cleaner.