Fix it Felix Jr. – Cabinet Preparation

Over the last couple weeks we’ve been working on the Fix it Felix Jr. cabinet. The cabinet we started out with was a rough old VS. System converted Donkey Kong cabinet. I had actually “gutted” the cabinet last fall before it got really cold outside. I stripped out everything from the cabinet so I could do the repair of all of the worn and broken areas. I ran out of time last fall to do any further work on the cabinet, until this month. Here are a few pictures of the cabinet during the gutting:

Here’s the cabinet when I started.

The inside was really a mess! Badly done conversion that didn’t hold up over time.

Pretty dirty inside.

So this month the next step was to repair all of the wood damage. I prefer to use Bondo for this because it bonds great with wood, doesn’t shrink, and hardens quickly. I worked in really small batches because you only get a few minutes with each batch before it starts to harden. Most of the work was filling in minor damage from holes, dents, or splits in the wood. There were a few more difficult areas that actually had to be rebuilt. The two upper back corners of the sides were split or broken off, and the back edge of the left side had a big chunk missing from it. All were pretty easy to build up with bondo, but it took several batches to get enough bondo in place.

The back corners broken out, before repair

Bondo build up.

The back edge was missing a chunk of wood.

More Bondo

After all the bondo was applied, I sanded everything down smooth using a couple different grits of sandpaper. I also sanded all of the surfaces that need to be painted to roughen the surface for paint adhesion. Once I was all done with the cabinet preparation, I tore off the old base and replaced it with our new base. The wood was so split it was a chore to remove the old base.

The base was shot and needed to be replaced.

Here’s a shot of the new base, all complete with new casters.

Check out my Fix It Felix, Jr. Photo Page for additional pictures along the way.