Where it stands today... finished?

Once I put the marquee on, the cab's coolness factor went up 1000%. You can see the cab in it's current state in the pictures below. A few notes:

1. ARGH the bezel is killing me. I measured and remeasured, and cut, and recut, and still the stupid bezel is crooked. I had it looking pretty good, then had to move the TV a bit to attach a cable, and it never lined up right again. Clearly, I will have to permanently mount the TV so it doesn't slide around, then refit another bezel, this time made of wood, and mount it too.

2. Changing the carriage bolts out to the new black ones was far more of a pain than I had thought. I even got a new socket set and everything, but it was just hard to do around all the wiring. And of course I lost the nuts several times! Bob Vila, I am not.

3. The Unreal Coin Door is a nice touch. I wish it was more black, and less gray, but it isn't as bad under real lighting conditions as it is from the camera flash. Also, the pewter-look hinges are far better looking than the nasty old painted ones.

4. Painting the screws holding the CP in place was difficult. Granted, I was doing it mostly at night, so I couldn't see well, but it took several coats to cover, even after using some wood putty to cover them better. I really must get a countersink bit. :/

5. In case you are wondering, I collect Transformers, and they are what you see in the background. I'm not really 10 years old. (No matter what my wife says.)

I hope to have pictures of the cab setup and turned on soon.

Closer...

Attached are the latest pictures of the cabinet. I still have the "test" bezel on, plain old foam board. Not terrible, but still needs some work. I am considering using some model paint to paint the TV speakers black, so they don't stick out so much from the bezel, though they will certainly be noticeable either way. I'm thinking get the foam bezel just like I want it, then use some 1/4" plywood painted gloss black like the rest of the cab, and that will just about do it. I'm considering putting some sort of yellow trim around the hole for the TV screen, to look more like an original Q*bert bezel.

I did have a friend whip up a nice custom marquee for me, which I have attached. It should be here this week, if all goes well. I also fiddled with a layout for Mala, and have attached a screenshot of that below, also.

Edit: no clue why the yellow is blue in the marquee picture. Odd.