Here's a close up of the left side, where the control panel sits. You can see that for some reason screws were punched all the way through the sides of the game. Both sides were like this.

The control panel latches in place fine with the original hardware, so I'm not sure why this was done.

There was some water damage to the edge of the cab. Tempest cabs have black vinyl covering the inside, and it is still bonded to the wood. I sanded off the slightly puffed out edges, and then feathered it into the vinyl.

I've also patched the area where the screws that had gone all the way through the cab. I filled the holes with wood putty, and will have to do the same thing to the outside of the cab.

I applied two coats of primer, and then sanded some more to get it as smooth as I could.

Finally, I sprayed both sides with five light coats of Krylon satin black spray paint.

After two hours with a hairdryer trying to get just one side of the original art off the cab, I ended up buying a cheap heat gun. Using the heat gun I was able to finish the job in less than an hour.

The next step was to use wood putty and bondo to clean up the edges of the cab. There was some water damage causing the edges to puff up, and the points around the control panel always seem to be damaged on Tempest cabs.

This is a picture of the bottom of the left side showing the worst of the water damage.

I used masking tape to keep the bondo in the proper shape, then sanded down the top until it was flush.

After sanding with 220 grit, dusting it off and using a tac cloth to make sure the sides are smooth and clean.

I then placed several paint cans on the art and lined it up. Take care with this part or you'll end up with crooked side art!

To stick the art down I removed the paint cans from the bottom half of the art. Then I carefully removed about 2 feet of backing from the art, and stuck it down using a plastic bondo spreader (a credit card will also work).

Now that the bottom is stuck down and lined up, take off all the paint cans and roll up the art to the bottom. Now slowly unroll and cut (a helper is needed) a couple feet of art at a time, and carefully stick it down as you go.

Here's the first side done, with new t-molding. When I flipped it over to do the second side I found a couple areas that needed a bit more bondo work to get level and smooth.

Take your time to make sure it's smooth, or you'll end up with bumps in your art.

The control panel overlay is chewed up at the bottom, but you don't notice it much in person because of the dark color. A new overlay is $45, so I think I'll just keep the one on there for a while.

I did purchase another control panel, so eventually I'll fix that one up and put a new overlay on it.

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