I removed four bolts from inside the arcade cabinet on Sunday, whacked it a couple times with a hammer to loosen up the paint that was holding it in place and the original control panel popped right out. The raw opening is larger than the new control panel (you can see into the cabinet now if you look along the backside edge of the new panel) so I will need to insert a bracket to both fill the gap and support the new wider, deeper panel.
I anticipate forming up a box that I will anchor to the insides of the cabinet. Then I will place a wooden ‘plate’ across the top and attach that to the box. Finally I will place the control panel on top of the plate then screw it into the plate from below. This should provide me with a rock solid foundation and prevent any movement even under heavy duty play. I’d like to have this finished by the end of February if at all possible.
After the panel is in place I will begin to work on integrating the PC into the cabinet, settling on a UI and finishing the outside as well.
Nice!