Cabinet restoration was next on the agenda. The back box was tackled first, it was completely gutted except for the aluminium ground plane and the board mounts. The MDF used for the backglass frame surround had been wet at some stage and was swollen, as well as having huge gouges in it which prompted me to reconstruct this part from new MDF board, as can be seen in the pic below. I had already stripped the old paint with paint stripper and scraper at this stage, but not before tracing the stenciled patterns. The back panel needed to be re-glued to the bottom panel; the glue was just applied when this pic was taken. All of the dents and scratches were filled with automotive body filler.
Next the back box was completely sanded back, starting with 80-grit wet/dry sandpaper, then 320 grit before dusting it down and given several coats of white enamel undercoat. This was left to dry for 24 hours before sanding back with 400 grit sandpaper, then after removing all dust it was given several coats of red spray enamel.
