The side art image is done! I had to redraw the entire thing over the scan. Click the image below for a larger 2048px x 3845px view. The actual image full size is 8,000px X 15,000px. I’m off to the printers tomorrow to make some copies. The little squares with pac-man inside are registration marks, so I can line up the different stencils for each color.

One of the items I ordered for the Pac-Man restoration came in today – the marquee. I can get a brand new replacement for $59 from TwoBits.com. I figured all the parts will add up, so I tried to save some money and got an original on eBay for $14.99. It looked like it was in great shape, and the seller was helpful….BUT it’s scratched in a few places on the back. Very noticeable when back lit. So…if you are going to buy a marquee it’s best to ask if there are ANY scratches at all on the back side. You don’t want scratches on your backside, do you?

I am now looking for a replacement sans scratches. If you have one you want to sell me, please post a comment.

I’m still working on the sideart scan. One more day and I think the image will be ready to go. I want to get it done so I can get back in the garage and do more work on the cabinet. I think it’s lonely.

Carpal tunnel…here I come. I’ve been cleaning up the scanned side image for several hours, and haven’t slept much. Everything needs to be redrawn to look right. If I had to guess I’d say I’m about 33% done. Everything in the pic that is dark black has been redrawn. Everything that is faded is from the original scan layer, with a white faded mask layer over it so you can easily tell the difference. The actual file is huge, and my computer doesn’t like it too much. It’s cool to see it progressing and not looking all beat to hell like the art on the cabinet.

OK…before I continue stripping the rest of this puppy to bare wood, I have to decide what I want to do regarding the side and front art. It’s clear by now that I definitely can’t preserve the art. I want this to look 100%, and touching up the paint is not going to give me that. I’ve scoured the web, reading messageboards and newsgroups and am getting some ideas. The original artwork was painted on. The yellow has a blue spatter over it, which is only visible close up:

From what I hear on the Interweb, some cabinets had this, some didn’t, and some had pink. A post in RGVAC written by someone who knows a lot more about this than me indicates that the red and blue colors where painted using a stencil, and the black was silkscreened on top. Read the rest of this entry…

After stripping all weekend, I have an entire side exposed. It’s really starting to look better now.

The Pac-Man cabinet is in pretty good shape.

It looks like it won’t need any major work as there are no missing chunks of wood or anything cool like that. First step is to see what’s under that nasty black paint. Upon close inspection, the answer is pretty obvious – nasty BLUE paint! Much to the disgust of my neighbors, I start stripping with the garage door open. Under the black and blue, some coolness starts to emerge:

Once I start seeing the letters, I have a very hard time trying to strip in an orderly fashion (like I used to back in my Chippendale days). I can’t fight the urge to keep going at the letters. At the end of the day, we officially have a pac-man cabinet:

I picked up a Pac-Man cabinet in Worcester, MA (welcome to Worcester…$1.25) that was converted to a 1942. I could tell by the cabinet and the orange t-molding that it must have originally been a Pac-Man until someone covered it in black paint. @#$!%*$!

I plan on bringing this Pac-Man back to life. Keep in mind I have no clue what I’m doing, so this should be interesting. The guy I bought it from took the marquee and PCB out, and we loaded it into my pickup. While tying it down, the seller commented that I must be a shipbuilder, so I guess I know how to tie at least 2 types of knots. It survived the ride back without ending up through some poor unsuspecting driver’s windshield, and is now in the garage.