Water will absorb into the wood and dry faster. You have to work quick and of course you run the risk of ruining the cabinet itself if the surface was prepped poorly or the cabinet is mdf. Rapidtack doesn’t absorb like water but instead floats the vinyl over the wood. This will allow you to take your time and thus give you less air bubbles. Now if this is a candy or a vehicle, sure water and soap all day. Would I recommend that to a beginner….nope.
Also,
@Evan , I took a few minutes to research that seller of the MK art. It’s for sure not 3m product, so you’re gonna be in for a struggle. Also being a conversion of a Midway cabinet you’re going to want to take stock of what you need and buy it. Like other models of Midway cabinet, the control panel is in layers. Plexi, on top of metal, on top of wood. Typically when a. Op coverts they ditch the metal panel and drill a new plexi straight to the wood. The art for MK mounts directly to the metal panel, so if that’s missing you’re not gonna have any panel art. I can’t tell from your pictures if anything is missing or not. You’ll also need 30 ft or so of red, not bright red, t moulding. Lastly, the marquee in that package is just printed on vinyl, so while you should be able to use it if it has the factory marquee mount, the light is not going to shine through it.