Side Art for DK

It's about time I get back to work on this Donkey Kong project.

If you've been reading along, you know that I recapped the monitor.  Well since then it's been sitting around the garage, and doing it's best to be a burden.  If I can get the artwork installed, then I can return the monitor to the cabinet, and that will be one less thing I have to move around.

So, I ordered the DK sideart from arcadeshop, and it arrived yesterday.  Rather than wait around for neatly rolled and somewhat expensive giant stickers to get stepped on, I decided I'd try to get them affixed to the cabinet as soon as possible.

After googling I found the consensus was that it should be 4 and 3/8 inches from the top and exactly 2 1/2 inches from the back.  There were lots of other suggestions on how to apply the artwork.  Such as using painters tape to align the piece and special rollers and such.  Well I didn't have anything but scotch tape, and my laminate roller seemed a bit awkward so I just used a squeegee thing that I had from another project.  I think perhaps the most important item to have on hand is some upbeat 80's music, I used New Clear Days, by The Vapors, vinyl is best if you can find it.

I taped it in place about midway down and peeled the backing off ( of the side art, not the old record album).  I then folded the sticky portion down and using a pair of scissors, removed the backing and carefully affixed the top of the artwork, using a squeegee and some car detailing spray as a lubricant on the top surface.  Working this carefully up from the middle, I had little to no bubbles trapped between the art and the cabinet.

The next step was to remove the remaining tape, carefully, since I had to use scotch tape.  Then I flipped the whole piece upwards and carefully peeled a portion of the backing off and downward.

Placing the backing in this way helps to hold the artwork away from the cabinet so that you can then carefully squeegee the material to the surface a quarter of an inch at a time.  Once again, I had very few bubbles.  I think it turned out well.  The second side was even easier.