Cabinet:

Restoration Continued :

Choosing Paint and Application Tools :

One of the most difficult choices for beginners is what type and color of paint to use and what painting tools to use. Here are some tips to follow:

• Never apply latex paint over oil paint, even if it is a new brand that claims it will cover old oil bases paints.
• Never apply paint with a brush or a roller (including foam types). These tools will leave unsightly lines or bubbles. Be aware that paints designed to smooth themselves out after applying them (such as 'Liquid Plastic') will not produce a perfectly flat finish. At best, the bubbles will close while drying but the surface will likely end up with a textured appearance.
• Use only good quality oil base paints.
• Apply your new paint using either an electric sprayer or an air gun sprayer. I have tried both and I very much prefer the air type.
  • Air Sprayer :
    • Pros:
      • Has very accurate control of flow volume and rate.
      • Quiet operation.
      • Easy to disassemble and clean. All metal parts.
      • Most air guns can be adjusted to operate in pressure or siphon modes depending on paint type and application. I have only used the pressure mode.
      • Air guns are available in a very wide range of sizes and all can be used with the same compressor and line setup. Some air guns are so small that they can be used for very fine detailing work.
      • Air guns are generally much cheaper to replace than electric ones.
      • Air compressors are widely available in economical kits that include a wide range of other very useful tools such as a general purpose paint sprayer gun, an air hammer, impact wrench, brad nailer/stapler, blower, tire filler with gauge, regulator, quickconnects, various nozzles, an air line, and so on. If you decide to get started in spraypainting with air tools and you need a compressor, then buy one of these starter kits. You'll suddenly find yourself working with all sorts of new tools that you will soon be wondering how you ever went so long without.
    • Cons:
      • Initial investment cost is relatively high. Requires a medium size compressor with a long line, regulator, filter, and moisture remover. Also, you'll probably want to install quickconnect plugs and sockets on all of your lines and tools to make your life a lot easier.
  • Electric Sprayer :
    • Pros:
      • Initial investment is low. Requires no support equipment (except maybe an extension cord).
    • Cons:
      • Very noisy operation.
      • Very poor control over rate, spray pattern, volume.
      • Electric guns are not available in various sizes.
      • Some parts of the gun do not come apart for cleaning so it is easy to ruin the gun, even after just one use.
      • Small vibrating parts wear out fast, are relatively expensive, and can be hard to source.

Choosing Colors :

(skip over this long lecture!)

If you are keen to make your restored cabinet look authentic, you'll be wanting to duplicate the factory original colors exactly. Oh, if only there was some sort of universal color matching system that you could use, life would be so much simpler. When it comes right down to it, there's only one tool available that can accomplish the task of color matching regarding of the paint manufacturer and that is your own eyes.

Every paint manufacturer produces its own selection of colors and each makes up its own proprietary codes for them and these codes mean nothing at all to any of the other manufacturers. Further, and again this is just a marketing ploy, they make up an exotic name for each color, that when you think about it, means absolutely nothing. They do this because they are attempting to retain their customers. The idea is that once a customer buys a color from them, they won't be able to buy that color from any other brand or have it custom mixed from another brand using their color codes. This is grossly outdated thinking. This method of marketing may have worked to some degree about 15 years ago when your town had only two or three paint shops competing with each other and there was no internet, but these days it is naive and even just plain stupid to think that hiding the mixing codes will prevent customers from going anywhere they want and buying any brand of paint they want.

With the advent of electronic computer-based color matching systems sitting on every paint store counter, anyone can match anyone else's colors within minutes. With the advent of the internet, people have an unlimited ability to share information and instantly find it. That said, if a universal color code system for paint mixing did exist, people could easily search for and retrieve the exact color codes that they need to match something that is known, such as the Robotron cabinet, and take those codes to their favorite paint store and have the paint mixed there and buy it all the while knowing that it would be a perfect match. Contrary to the belief that paint stores presently hold sharing color codes would decrease business, it would actually bring in new customers from an unlimited number of sources at no cost for advertising on the part of the store.

Also consider this little fact of life... when you go to repaint a wall or something, how often do you know the original type of paint that was used, the manufacturer of that paint, and the crazy name that the manufacturer made up for it? Probably never. Okay, so where your home is concerned, you might find the old paint can sitting in your basement and it'll have the brand name and color name on it. So what are the odds that you'll just so happen to go back to the same store and buy the same paint brand again? What are the odds that they'll still be selling that specifically named color? Probably less than 1 in 10,000. So what good did it do in the first place to hide the mixing codes from the customer? None at all. In fact, the customer now cannot even buy the same color in the same brand anyway even if he wanted to because even the stores that sell it do not know the codes anymore since the old colors were discontinued. So there it is. The same flawed thinking that was intended to hold onto customers is now driving them away.

Okay, back to the task at hand, what do you do? Search the internet for paint codes? Go ahead. Maybe you'll get lucky. I've have listed my own choices for my Robotron cabinet below. Will that help you? I hope so, but probably not, that is unless you buy the exact same brand either this year or within the next couple of years and that you have a local store that sells that same brand. After that, who knows. I scoured the internet looking for paint codes. I found some too. I live in Canada. All the codes I found online were for a brand that is available only in the USA. The brand that was specified has a web site. I soon learned that none of the colors that were specified for Robotron were still being manufactured. The names were useless. Even the proprietary mixing codes were useless. The original manufacturer told me (through tech support email) that they couldn't use the old codes to make new colors because the chemistry had changed so much over the years. Now consider this, who was it that specified and posted those so-called "correct" colors for Robotron and other games in the first place? How accurate were their choices? How would you know? Are you willing to trust their judgment implicitly? I'm not sure that I would considering how much time and money I am investing in my restoration project.

Some day, a really smart small group of people are going to get together and develop a tiny electronic box that you will buy for $20. You'll hold it up to your wall or game cabinet and click the button. It will instantly read the color of the surface and store it. You'll plug the box into your computer and it'll send the color codes to the web site of the company that made the little box. They will ship you the paint that is a perfect match or you'll go to the local store that sells their brand and they'll mix it for you on the spot. Until that day comes, you are limited to two choices. You can scrape or cut off a large paint chip from the original surface that you want to match and take it to the store and put the chip into the countertop matching machine and get paint mixed from that, or you can do things the old fashioned way and that is to use paint swatches.

So here's the bottom line (finally !!!) about how to buy your paint and select the correct colors.

• Do not copy anyone else's codes. They are probably out-of-date anyway, but even if you can still get them mixed, remember that they are based on their choices only. You have no idea how accurate, or inaccurate, their choices were. Some people would have done a great job, others not so much. When it comes to paint, trust your own eyes first. Am I telling you not to use the colors that I have listed below? That's up to you. Do you like the photos of my machine as it looks finished? Does it look good enough for your taste? Do you think my camera and your monitor have conveyed the colors well enough to tell? Again, that's up to you to decide. All I can say is that I'm very happy with my choices and I like the results. If you do use the colors that I listed because it was a convenient shortcut, don't complain later that the colors were not exact in your opinion.
• Go to your local paint stores and read the labels of the various brands. Keep in mind that you want oil base only (such as alkyd), not latex. Do not allow yourself to be attracted to fast drying paints. They are likely to cause problems when spraying such as gun clogging or an orange peel appearance to the finish.
• If you are painting metal, choose something that says it will bond to metal such as the Tremclad or Liquid Plastic brands. For wood, you can choose almost any brand so long as the label says it'll work okay on wood. Most brands will work, but not all, so read the labels carefully.
• Avoid any brand of paint that says in the fine print that you have to sand between coats. That adds a ton of work and it is completely unnecessary.
• Now that you've chosen a brand, take a color swatchbook (called a fan) home. You may have to put a deposit on it because lots of people do not return them otherwise. Don't complain about it, just do it. You'll get your money back later. Hold the swatches up to your game cabinet artwork and decide for yourself what colors are the best match and write down the name and number of each color.
• Take the swatchbook back to the store. Ask for a free swatch card for each color you chose. Ask for a blank white piece of their color test paper.
• If the store can and will do it, ask them to make you a set of small test samples. Sometimes a store will make a small can that is just a few ounces of paint. If not, ask if they sell small test packets of their line of colors. You might want to factor this into your choice of paint brand. It could save you a lot of money if one or more of your color choices doesn't work out. If you cannot buy your new colors in sample sizes, you'll have to risk buying a full quart (or litre) size can of each color. This can easily add up to $100 or more, so this likely will represent your total intended paint budget for your project. Buy an extra empty can for each color. If you decide to thin your paint for spraying, you'll need the extra cans to store whatever amount of thinned paint is left over.
• Before you paint, brush a bit of each color on your test paper. Let it dry and then hold it up to your cabinet and see if the colors match well enough. They probably will, but if not, it might not be too late to adjust them slightly. Better to realize this now than later after you've already painted the cabinet. If you are working with small samples, you're lucky. It won't cost you much to try another color. If you are working with a full sized can, you might be able to get the store to slightly lighten or darken it but this is risky also because you won't know how much you need and it might come out worse than it was before. Besides, it might not even be a matter of brightness so much as hue. If you can show the store clerk that the color doesn't match your swatch, they may exchange your entire can for a new one at no charge. In all cases, be aware that paint colors look a lot lighter when wet than when dry so you cannot simply lift the lid at the store and look at it with respect to the swatch and know if it matches. It will not. You have to apply some paint to the test card and let it dry naturally for 24 hours. That's the only way to know for sure. Some paints stores have a fast dryer machine behind the counter to help make immediate comparisons but some paints do not react the same when dried that way.

 

Choice Overloading :

Here's where you can get hung up for quite a while. Worrying about all sorts of color related issues can cause you to delay your project almost indefinitely. You might even get into arguments with paint store staff people because you are fed up with their apparent total lack of intelligence with regards to color matching and your desire to do it accurately. What if you choose a color that is not exactly factory original? Will anyone be able to tell? Will it lower the value of your machine? Will anyone say "Oh my God, what were you thinking?" Are you worried that you matched your swatches to faded or otherwise color-shifted old paint? Are you concerned that the colors will look different under various lighting conditions? You're probably splitting hairs and need to step back and take a relaxing breath. Go for a walk. Smell the flowers. Look at some fluffy clouds until they look like Volkswagons or CareBears.

Still worried? Fine. Let's get on with it then.

First you need to know that your are matching to paint that is as close to the original color as possible. Is one side of the game cabinet obviously faded a lot more than the other side? If so, the more faded side was likely facing a window for a few years so simply do your matching on the other side. Does your cabinet have so much smoke film contamination that the color has changed completely? Use a general purpose cleaner such as Simple Green to remove the smoke film and to clean the paint without bleaching it. Not convinced? Compare your swatch color to several locations on the cabinet. Try lightly sanding an area to remove only the surface of the old paint. It may reveal the true color underneath. Did sanding it make it look a lot lighter? Dampen it a bit.

Try to do your matching under fluorescent lighting and then under tungsten lighting. If the colors that you thought matched perfectly under one light source look wrong under another, you might want to try changing the paint brand, but all brands will exhibit the same problem to some degree. The apparent colors of the cabinet and swatches will look different under different types of light regardless. The point is that they should still look the same as each other, in other words, the cab colors still match the swatch colors. The best solution is probably to perform the color matching under the lighting conditions that you will usually have in your game room. Most game rooms are lighted by some sort of tungsten type bulbs (not fluorescent bulbs) because they are easily dimmed and these bulbs generally produce more red light as they are dimmed. That said, I would perform the color matching under tungsten lighting at its brightest possible level. As the light is dimmed, the color spectrum will shift of course, but as the light gets dimmer, your eyes will be less able to discern the color change. The colors will look most accurate and natural when your lights are turned up and that's all that matters.

 

Final Color Choices :

My final choices (from summer 2007 line):

Brand: Benjamin Moore interior alkyd base

Base Color: 2120-50, Silver Spring

Red: 2003-10, Million Dollar Red

Blue: 2066-30, Big Country Blue

If you want to duplicate the factory original metallic look, you'll have to apply a clear glaze (with a fine metallic already included in it or as a powder added to it) after the base color and before the art colors. I chose to forego this step to save money and time and because I've heard too many horror stories from too many people about how difficult it is to apply metallic paints such that they look even and uniform.

Congratulations! You've run the gauntlet. Now it's finally time to paint. After that, you'll either love it or hate it. Trust me, you'll probably love it. That said, don't worry about it so much! Just get painting and as Larry would say "Git'er done!".

 

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Sept. 4, 2007