New Arrival - Donkey Kong: Part 4

At some point in the cab’s life, an ugly piece of black Perspex had been glued to the front, adjacent to the coin door. 

I wasn’t planning on touching this, as I was a bit worried about what can of worms removing it would unveil.  However I thought that this would let the cab down, and the freshly powder coated coin door would only highlight it further.  I don’t mind cabs having a few battle scars, but this was damage that needed some repair work.  I had a change of heart and decided to carefully prise it off. 

It appears that a locking bar had been fitted across the coin door, and the damage may have been caused by contact with a pad lock.  The locking bar had been removed and the Perspex glued over the damage.  I removed the remnants of glue with a Stanley knife blade, lightly sanded the edge of the damaged areas and applied wood filler.  For the round holes, I made some dowels and glued them in place before adding filler.

Damaged sections filled with filler, sanded and masked off ready for painting.

After trialing many samples, I finally found a very good match to the Donkey Kong blue – Blue Grotto (silk) from B&Q.  I used a micro paint roller to apply the paint. 

I’m really pleased with the colour match.  It’s not perfect, but the colour difference is minimal.