There are four "layers" to the IMSAI panel. At the very front is a layer of clear plexiglass - for protection, and the outer layer of the "sandwich". Behind that is a thin layer of mylar, which is entirely coated in black, except for the panel lettering which is clear (ie: "reverse video"), and clear rectangles where the LED's show through. Behind that is a piece of material which is white on the front, and foil coated on the back. In the rectangles where the LEDs show through, there is nothing. The rearmost layer is a sheet of red plexiglass. The LEDs show through the red plexiglas, though the holes in the white/foil piece, though the clear rectangles in the mylar and through the clear front piece - the red plexiglas in the read give them a nice obscured/deep-red background. The panel lettering is the white side of the white/foil piece which is visible through the clear lettering in the mylar, and the clear front panel. This piece would not "Drop" or shift because it has 8 screw holes through it and is held in place by the other pieces and the screws, and also because if it could, it would hit the panel switches. It would not make sense (although possible) to remove the white/foil piece, since this would render ALL front panel lettering invisible, and would also allow the LEDs to be visible at angles when they should not (when looking through the lettering for example). I think it more likely that the white part behind the IMSAI 8080 has been removed or covered. It may be as simple as removing a piece of black paper piece of white paper to fit in this space. The worse case scenario would be if the former owner used a black marker to color the IMSAI 8080 clear letters from the rear of the panel... This might also be repairable, but be very careful not to remove the intentionally black parts. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html