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I finally got around to priming my cabinet.  Now I just have to figure out how I want it painted!  I used a foam brush and an oil based primer.  I went with and Oil based product because they're usually more durable than water based ones.

        (The dog isn't part of the artwork)

Color Selection

Home Depot made quite a fiasco of mixing my paint so I ended up getting it at Lowe's.  I don't blame Home Depot - just the guy who was mixing the paint.  The color I decided on is called "Red Red Wine" and is made by Olympic Paints.  It's acrylic paint but looks more like latex to me.  I hate soft, plastic like paint.  I picked a red color because most people seem to be picking blue or black.  I like to be different.  Green is my favorite color by an entire cabinet of green wouldn't look that exciting.  I'm hoping that the red entices people to think of berries or wine. (yum yum)

Painting - Day 1

After soliciting advice on a message board I decided to use a foam brush for painting the cabinet.  My goal was to have an ultra smooth and high gloss finish.  Just like a new car.  I put the first coat on and wasn't real impressed with the coverage.  The paint seemed to dry quickly also.  The foam brush kept leaving blotches of dark color everywhere and didn't cover well.  The photos below show what it looked like.

After the paint dried a bit, I painted the inside (around the monitor area) a high gloss black.  When I put the monitor and bezel in, I want the edges around it to be black also.  The red will come up against the front plexi-glass when everything is finished.  From the front plexi-glass on back, everything will be black.

While I was nice and dirty, I spray painted the coin door black.  I also painted the control panel high-gloss black.

Painting - Day 2

The next day was a disaster but ended on a good note.  I sanded the first coat smooth and ended up taking off most of the paint.  The first coat just wasn't thick enough.  After sanding the entire cabinet and dusting it off, I started the second coat with a foam brush.  This time I was expecting complete and even coverage.  Unfortunately the brush still left blotches and didn't cover well.  The paint dried quickly and got sticky.  Pretty soon my cabinet looked like it did when I bought it.  (It had a bad paint job with brush marks all over)

In desperation I stopped painting and got ready to go out and buy a roller.  Then I realized that I had an airless sprayer that someone was storing at my house.  I got the sprayer out and thinned my paint accordingly.  I played around with the sprayer until I had a nice mist.  When I started to paint the back door the sprayer threw out a thick blotch of paint.  I wiped it off and tried again.  I had a nice mist and then suddenly a big stream of paint flew out.

At this point I was covered with paint and incredibly mad.  I went to the store and bought a new, very expensive sprayer.  I also picked up a short nap roller - just in case.  I returned home and to make a long story short, had the same problem with the expensive sprayer.

By now I had sort of given up on getting a good paint job and pulled out the roller.  I knew it would leave a texture on the cabinet but I hoped it would fix the paint blotches left by the sprayer.  Fortunately it did!  In fact it covered the cabinet evenly and it looked great.  The texture isn't too think and the color is great.  Below are some photo's.

Painting - Day 3

I put my cabinet out in the sun to warm up and harden.  At lunch time I snuck home, sanded my cabinet and put on another coat of paint.  There were still some light spots here and there and I wanted to ensure the coverage was good.  The cabinet came out a much darker, deeper red.  I think the lighting used to take the photos below had quite a bit to do with the darker color.

Second Chance Arcade

E-Mail: todd1814@yahoo.com