...The Saga Continues

OK, So I planned to finish up this weekend and came very close. (a couple minor things left..)

First thing to do was cut the speaker holes, and finish up some airbrushing on the cabinet.

I cut out the coinbox over/under hole and then the marquee speaker holes.

then carried the Lightning theme airbrush work over to frame the coinbox..

total time only took about 20mins to paint, 5 mins to dry

and finally the full cabinet view ready to assemble the components..

 

first to go in was the side neon rings.

the layering was first the neon ring, then plexi, then art, then 1/4" plywood veneer.

from the inside it looks like this...

from the outside, turned on they look like this (in broad daylight)

(also notice, only 1/4 of the circle is fitted with t-molding, I came up short and had to order more)

next thing to tackle was installing the 6" speakers and sub woofer.

using the Creative 2.1 remote control, I wanted it easily accessible so I decided to notch out the lower marquee retainer and have it easily located in arms reach.

in the picture below you can see the marquee bulb and the location where it will be mounted. to the right you can see one of the 6" speaker holes.

after taking apart the sattellite speakers, I will save you the joy and show you the contents below, it was quite un-eventful, however required as this is the wire that I will use to connect to the 6" car speakers.

with the wires disconnected and holes cut, it installed quite easily.

I mounted the volume controller, re-installed the marquee. then I soldered the sattellite speaker wires to the 6" (new) speakers, installed them in the cabinet and voilla!

looks nice, and works great.

(although you can see groove for the t-molding that has not been installed yet)

The next step was to finish the monitor placement and bezel.

First, I decided the easiest aproach would be to block the monitor into the exact location.

the cabinet was designed for any monitor and did not want to structurally limit it from upgrades, otherwise I would have designed it as a more permanent solution.

neverthe less you can see how the configurable blocks leverage its shape to bind the monitor(21"). (as seen through the rear access panel.)

with the monitor now fixed in its final resting place, I needed to get rid of the tan monitor face...enter the black paint.

I simply masked to the edge and airbrussed the monitor frame with the same black paint used for the cabinet (Black Magic, latex acrylic)

ok, remove the mask, clean the screen and move on.

while it dried, I modified the bezel.

the bezel was 5/8" thick and with the hole cut for the monitor, it did not look right playing through a "thick window" hole of a bezel. so I decided to rout the back side of the bezel to 1/4" thick the area that the monitor touches, so that the monitor would only be behind a 1/4" thick face plate, reducing the tacky factor. below you see the end result is quite nice.

now with the bezel done, monitor in place, I could mount the bezel artwork and place the plexi-glass screen..

below the monitor bezel, you can see the subwoofer where it will reside.

I tried with and without tinting on the bezel to see what I liked better, I ended up going with clear.. although here it is with tint..

now it was time to wire the control panel, I had been postponing this because I expected it to take a while(due to the fact that I was also lighting each button) so I finally got started.

after drilling a hole in the bottom of each of the buttons, inserting the LED and routing wires, it looked like this. (I used the MALA Hardware due to its simplicity and integration with MALA frontend, well worth the price, you can get one here)

once the lights were all ran, I routed and wired the switches to the I-Pac unit(yellow wires)

with the Control Panel wired and finished, I mounted the lid back on the Control panel box using the piano hinge and 15 screws.

next thing I did was set my control panel on the cabinet to make sure it all looks ok, before final wiring of the cabinet..

here are a few photos of that.

Its starting to make it all worth it!!

going to have to wait a few more days for the coin box to be delivered, for now, there is alarge hole...ugh..

below is pretty much a picture of the rest of the day, playing, configuring and playing some more. (notice the side neon rings have power... :) )

A dream come true, for real, scratch one item from the todo list, special thanks to my Father(and his tools) for all the hard work, Expert Advice and patience!

(...starting to sound like a  fathers day card.)

I am really loving it so far, hope you like it as well, cant wait to share more!!