I started by cutting out a side panel. I used a handheld circular saw for the straight cuts, and a small router with curve cutting jig for the rounded corners. Getting one of these cutout and stood up was a great moment, I was really happy with how it looked. I actually made an error transcribing my measurements to the wood at this point, but didn't realise until much later.
I got a second one cut out, and connected it to the first with floor and roof panels. Now I could really appreciate the full size of it.
I got the control panel pieces in, with holes for the player one and two start buttons on the front and added the wheels. As I mentioned earlier, the steel panel was a bit too narrow, so I had to route out a 2mm recess in some pieces of wood to fill in the gaps at the side.
Next I set to mounting the monitor. My dad picked up these brackets as he thought they might work, and they were perfect.
With the brackets fixed to the sides, and some cross pieces, I could screw the 4 corner mounts of the tube into them.
The monitor was a really tight fit, I had to file a few millimetres off the edge of its mounting points.
I planned to put both a door on the front, beneath the control panel, and have a lift out panel on the back to provide access to the monitor tube and chassis.
This shows the support structure beneath the steel panel
At this point I had put in the T-molding slot with a slot cutting router bit, and I started putting on the undercoat, and the top coat of the inner surface of the side panels. Most of the cab would be covered in vinyl, but the inner overhang on the side panels, and the speaker panel, would be painted black. I got a special paint designed for rough surfaces that you paint on thick and then sand back smooth, it worked really nicely and completely eliminated the wood grain. I actually shouldn't have started paining that black coat until I had more of cab built, and I would end up having to redo it because I scratched it during further construction.
One break from authenticity I decided to do was stick a decent sound system in it. This was a nice upgrade that wouldn't be apparent from the outside, or noticeable when playing games, but with an AUX port on the back it could double as a living room stereo, or function as a jukebox if I setup that software on it. I put in Dayton ND-91full range speakers, hooked up to a Lepai 2020 amp. I bought these from Parts Express (https://www.parts-express.com/) and found all the information for speaker box dimensions, port size, etc, on there. They have a LOT of really useful info, including forums, on their website.
Here I am testing the sound system for the first time. It sounds bloody great, with thumping base.
At this point every panel that isn't a door/hatch is attached and the cab is fully undercoated
If you look closely in the picture above you may notice I have a larger diameter radius on the curve of the bottom back corner than the front corner. This is to allow the cab to be tilted back on it's rear wheels to be wheeled like a trolley. It has swivel wheels at the front, and fixed wheels at the back. In the picture below you can see two rectangular holes in the top panel. These serve as handles when wheeling it as a trolley (albeit a bit too high to do it really comfortably), and also as air vents. They'll have plastic inserts placed inside later.
Next I added the wood grain vinyl and the t-molding. Before adding the vinyl I painted the sides with a high gloss, because that's best for vinyl adherence. This first picture shows one completed side, with vinyl trimmed and t-molding on. I got a cheap vinyl off ebay. It looks great, but it's very thin, and the adhesive is weak. It sticks fine to the gloss black, but when I tried to bend it round the edges to tuck under the t-molding, it wouldn't stick well. I had to go around the edges and add PVA glue to keep it stuck down. I did a pretty good job but if you look closely in the flesh, you can find small flaws. I wasn't comfortable just trimming it to the shape of the panel, it was such thin vinyl and the adhesive wasn't that strong that I was afraid it would peel up. In future I would use a good brand of adhesive vinyl like DC-fix. That stuff sticks to anything (including raw wood) and is tough as hell. Could have saved myself a lot of bother.
This image shows the other side just after I put the vinyl on, and before I trimmed it and folded it over the edges. What you can also just see is that the back of the cab (and the roof) is painted a matte black.
After this I put on the front door, and built the back hatch, but I don't have any photos of that process. With those things done, anything that would create sawdust was finished, so I moved it from my dad's workshop into my apartment living room.
Control panel and coin door added.
I got a pack of 5 locks and keys off ebay, one would go on the coin door, one on the larger front door, and one on the lift out hatch at the back
Monitor added
Joysticks and buttons added
Still a bit of work to do, but actually having a recognisable arcade cabinet sitting in my living room at this point was a huge buzz, even if it would still be a while before it was operational and complete. Next comes the bezel, artwork, marquee light, computer, software and other finishing touches. Almost there!
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