You want to start by removing the Mylar.

At least once a month somebody asks if they can clear coat over the Mylar. Usually the clear lifts off after a year, so lets just say no to that idea.

There are about 100 internet guides to removing Mylar, but the system that works best for 1990's playfields is to freeze it with canned air (just turn a can of Dust Buster or Maxell upside down). The propellent will freeze the adhesive causing it to separate from the Mylar film. Carefully peel the film back a section at a time.

With really old SS playfields it is often better to use a hair dryer or a household iron and remove the Mylar with heat.

If the film lifts off the playfield paint, or even the top layer of wood, the playfield is not a good restoration candidate. Sometimes a game was stored in an unheated garage and went through a freeze/thaw cycle.

There is some risk, and there is often no way to know until you start. Take a deep breath and remind yourself, not every game needs to be restored.

Always try lifting the Mylar far from the player's view. That way if you start lifting paint, you will not have ruined the entire playfield front and center.

=
EDIT:

After you get the Mylar off, pat down the residue glue with white baking flour. Really press it into the glue, and let it sit a few minutes.

Next, wet the flour with 91% or higher isopropyl alcohol, and allow it to sit until most of the alcohol has evaporated.

Starting at the edge rub all the glue into little crumbs with your thumb.

Even the inserts clean up easily with this method.

I've given up on Goo Gone. The flour/alcohol method works 10x faster with no scraping, or obnoxious smell.

Even really stubborn Sys9 and Sys11 Mylar adhesives are no match for the flour/alcohol method.

rubbingalcohol.jpg flour2.jpeg

Now with the adhesive gone, you will see your playfield in the harsh light of day.

You will need to assess its needs but usually you will have:

PAINT LIFTED FROM INSERTS - the paint has a harder time sticking to the plastic than to the wood, so often the Mylar lifts off the paint too.

GHOSTED INSERTS - the paint AND clear coat have partially lifted from the insert leaving an air gap between the insert face and the clearcoat.

RAISED/SUNKEN INSERTS - the plastic has expanded at a different rate than the wood and is now proud or below the playfield surface.

CUPPED INSERT - especially on old Ballys, the thin face of the insert has become cupped from age and heat from the bulbs. Inserts without the reinforcing facets on the backside seem much more susceptible to cupping.

FADED INSERTS - UV from the bulb and other light sources like sunlight, have removed the color from the inserts.

CRACKED INSERTS - Damage to plastic from air balls or trying to level raised inserts with a hammer and wood.

WORN PAINT - The paint on the playfield or inserts have worn off.

PLANKING - The paint has checked along the surface of the wood. This can happen to any game, but you see it especially when a game is stored in an unheated garage.

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Light up inserts from the front with a flashlight and check each one for damage. You want to look from the back because there will be less to distract your eye.

You can sometimes reinforce a broken insert with epoxy and chopped glass fibers, but if you are putting a lot of work into a machine, you probably want to order new inserts from Gene at Illinois Pinball.

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Before we pull an insert out from the playfield, we want to be sure it does not lift any of the surrounding artwork.

Most Williams games have no, or almost no clear coat (whenever someone talks about wanting Stern to have "Williams quality", all the ops laugh).

Just to be safe, run a brand new Xacto blade around the parameter.

If it's a new Stern game, or if it has been clear coated, REALLY make sure you have cut the insert free of the surrounding clear coat.

3.jpg

(DO NOT remove any inserts from the playfield, unless you have it's replacement "on hand". DO NOT assume you will be able to find replacements, as many have been unavailable for decades. Even if you see that a certain size (especially arrow inserts) is available online, make sure that it fits BEFORE you start. You have been warned )

Next after cutting through any clear coat, it is time to remove the damaged/faded insert. (remember we only remove inserts that are damaged, don't remove inserts for no reason).

1. Find a wrench socket that just fits into the insert hole on the bottom of the playfield. On strange inserts like the chevron arrowhead insert pictured, I use a small nut driver.

2. Take a hair dryer, set it on high and warm both sides of the insert. (I use a heat gun, but I don't want any beginners thinking that this is a good way to learn - too risky until you have a feel for this stuff).

3. While keeping your hand on the face of insert to control its release, push the insert out from the bottom of the playfield. It does not take much pressure at all. On Williams games, you might get the feeling that the insert "wants" to come out - its that easy.

Look how faded this insert is. Note that the playfield itself, nor the cab art had any fading. All this fading can only be attributed to crappy plastic and UV light from the bulb for 20 years.

4.jpg

Many people don't know how playfields are manufactured, so they don't understand that you can't just put a new insert in the holes without working them first.

The sheet of plywood is CNC routed with all the holes.

Then the inserts are glued in by a Pick N Place machine.

Then the entire playfield gets run through a drum sander. The drum sander sands the wood and the inserts all down to one level.

Finally the wood is coated with sealer and it goes to the silk screen to print the graphics.

-

So, brand new inserts are not flat. They don't have to be, because they get SANDED flat after installation in the playfield.

We don't have the luxury of sanding the entire playfield (unless we are installing a printed overlay over the entire surface), so we have to flatten the inserts first.

5.jpg

To get the inserts flat, you start with 100 grit sandpaper.

Place the sandpaper face up on your table saw (or any other really flat surface), and move the insert around in a circular motion. Apply even pressure, checking your work often.

You don't want to take too much off, because thin inserts are more likely to crack.

Next sand with 220 grit.

And finally 300 or 400 grit. Do not polish further. You will see why in the clear coating section of this guide (if the insert is opaque or prismed, you can even leave it at 220 it will give the clear coat some extra tooth).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DP5ss7B46cA

Video of Whitewater inserts being installed.

The old playfield glue can be epoxy or a sticky mastic of some sort.

You want to clean it all out so the wood can accept the new glue.

The sticky mastic stuff does not readily take to other glues, so be extra careful if you encounter it.

6.jpg

If the soft mastic is hard to remove, use the Burr tool with your Dremel.

Don't enlarge the hole by removing wood, just spin out the mastic.

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As you have probably noticed, even brand new playfields have problems with inserts lifting up.

Wood contracts and expands at different rates than does the plastic insert.

We sure don't want to spend all this time restoring a playfield and have the inserts rise up again and ruin our clear coat.

We want to glue in the new insert (or reseat an old one) and never have to do it again. That means we have to do a better job than the manufacturer did.

If you have ever put a glob of epoxy on an insert, you have noticed that you can chip it off after it has dried. Obviously, this is not an acceptable bond for something we never want to do again.

We need to give the epoxy some "tooth", so we sand the edge of the insert with 100 grit sandpaper.

8.jpg

This is where you start to separate the boys from the men in playfield restoration.

Even sanding the edge of the insert is not enough.

The final step is to prime the plastic with 3M Plastic Primer.

It goes on thin like water and dries in a few seconds.

Now when you apply the epoxy, you can't chip it off.

9.jpg

Clear two-part epoxy is the glue of choice here.

We know it sticks to our primed plastic, we know it sticks to wood.

Any glue you can easily chip off of an old sacrifice insert like wood glue, Gorilla Glue or silicone is obviously not going to give us the permanent bond we require.

I use Two Heads epoxy, but you can use just about any brand. One of my favorite restorers has been using the Harbor Freight $1.50 stuff (http://www.harborfreight.com/super-strong-quick-drying-epoxy-92665.html ) for years with perfect results.

Pick a brand with honey-like consistency, you don't want a big mess dripping out the bottom of the playfield.

Always apply the glue from the bottom of the playfield. This way you won't drip on the painted surface and the "squeeze out" will head towards the underside.

Never apply glue to the insert itself, or the squeeze out will all be on top of the playfield.

If you do somehow get glue on the playfield surface, wipe quickly with a rag lightly dampened with Acetone.

Use an "acid brush" to apply the glue. Epoxy dries quickly, so you will throw a bunch away as you work. Don't bother trying to clean or save them.

If you are a beginner, glue up maybe 2 inserts at a time. Don't get too far ahead of yourself, once the glue hits its "work time" it starts to set up fast!

10.jpg

Sometimes you find that an insert has "a mind of its own" and won't stay down for the epoxy to set.

There could be some tension in the wood (maybe the reason the insert popped out in the first place).

To fix this, we use a 12" C-clamp ($9 at Harbor Freight) to hold it from rising above the playfield surface.

Knock the edges off of 2 blocks of good quality (flat) plywood, and clamp with 2 pieces of wax paper (in case any glue squeezes out). Don't forget the wax paper, you won't be happy if you glue a piece of wood to the playfield....

There of course will be inserts that you will not need to replace or reseat.

After 20 or so years, you would think that if they were going to move, they would have already moved. And certainly there is some truth to this.

But a new clear coat is going to put new tension on the playfield that was never there before, so usually you will want to apply some glue to the back lip of those inserts.

I know, it's not as good as roughing them up and using plastic primer, but it is better than a surprise 6 months down the road.

The theory of fixing Insert Ghosting is that we need to "glue" the flap of clear coat back down to the insert face. There is going to be no place for a lot of solvent evaporation, so we need a "glue" that will cure without direct exposure to air. We also want this glue to have some flexibility to it so something brittle like epoxy is out. Pro restorers have found that Isocynate Clear coat is the perfect solution.

Lately, I've been using Diamond Plate for my top coats (I restored a game for a Dupont engineer who brought me a rather generous 5 gallons of the stuff), but it seems to be too "hot" for this kind of repair.

What does work nicely is PPG Shop Line JC661 clear. You mix it in 2 ratio with a fast topcoat hardener and it cures before it eats the old clear coat. Still, you should make a scan of that area of the playfield in case disaster strikes. You can then use the scan to make a decal (directions for this process are coming up later in this guide).

You need to neatly apply the clear under the flap, and for this you will need a syringe. The JC661 can be drawn up into an Insulin syringe, or for larger jobs, get a big horse syringe.

Using an absolutely brand new Xacto blade, cut a slit around the damage, following the edge of the insert itself.

g2.jpg

Be extra careful because the clear contains Cyanide, so you don't want to go injecting yourself with that.

Fill the gap under the flap with the clear.

Have a rag moistened with Acetone ready to clean up any spills. Use less than you think you need, it takes very little.

Press down the flap to push out any extra clear or air bubbles into the rag. Cover area with waxed paper.

g3.jpg

On top of the wax paper, place a hard rubber block.

Under the playfield hold a piece of plywood.

Clamp together tightly overnight with a 12" C-clamp.

I'm going to break up the logical order of things because I got a few emails about paint and Frisket over the weekend. Rather than email everyone separately, I'll cover them here....

Let's start with paint for playfield restoration.

We NEVER use Sharpie pen, Paint Pen, or those little bottles of Testors enamel that you have left over from your Dungeons & Dragons days - EVER.

All of the above will run into the final Clear Coat, making a smeary mess (for you or the poor sucker that buys the game after you and tries to have it restored).

We don't want to use those cheap $1 acrylics from the craft store, because they fade so quickly, making our repairs more apparent over the years.

We don't want to use cheap paints because they don't contain enough pigment to cover in a single coat (especially expensive pigments like Red). Add a little thinner so you can run it through the airbrush, and you find there is almost nothing there.

We don't want paints that dry substantially darker than they look when wet.

We don't want paints that become darker when they are clear coated.

We don't want a paint that permanently sets until heated. This gives us an "out" if we spill, mix the wrong color, or simply make a mistake.

So what paint can we use? Createx air brush colors.

http://www.createxcolors.com/products.html

1. It's already good to go in your airbrush, no thinning is necessary (unless you are doing shading)

2. It covers in a single coat.

3. No waiting for it to dry. If you like your work, you hit it with a heat gun (use a hair dryer if this is your first time - safer), and go on to the next color. Tape will not lift it. This saves you hours of time.

4. It does not react with auto clear coat.

5. It dries the color you mixed it.

6. It is almost the exact same shade when clearcoated.

7. The colors mix properly. Many cheap paints just turn brown when mixed (blue + yellow = brown).

8. It's fade resistant.

9. It sets so fast with heat that even when using white, old colors do not telegraph through the new paint.

Yes, it's $4 a bottle, not .99 cents, but once you try it, you won't ever go back to cheap paint again.

Createx_Opaque-Set_5803-00.jpg

Now I just said the word that scares the beginners - Air Brush.

Don't worry, you can get a perfectly serviceable brush for $12 at Harbor Freight.

You could try to thin out paint and manually brush it on, then try to sand it flat to remove the brush strokes, then touch it up again - but you are not going to do that. Your time and your playfield is more valuable than that.

You have spent $200 on LED lights for your game, you can certainly buy yourself an airbrush.

Now if you "get good" at this airbrush stuff, you can certainly buy a $200 Iwata brush, but I'm telling you that there is no playfield I could not restore with the HF one. I sometimes have 4 HF brushes filled with different colors at once, so I can keep my pace up. Spray, heat set, and on to the next color - that is how he pros do it.

You can use a regular shop air compressor (like a Pancake or 120 gallon garage monster), a dedicated "air brush" compressor, or even just canned airbrush air.

If you use a regular shop air compressor, put a simple water separator on the front of the air line to catch the moisture.

Don't ever drip oil into the hose you are going to use for painting. If you have already done this for your other air tools, buy a dedicated painting air hose.

http://www.harborfreight.com/deluxe-airbrush-kit-95810.html On sale all the time for $12.

image_11957.jpg

PAINT-1.jpgYou always read somebody asking "What color paint matches the blue on XXXXX game?".

And the real answer is "The one you mix yourself".

Even if you had a can of the actual Williams paint, your playfield has faded in the last 30 years.

Even if you knew what the color mix was at the time, those colors were mixed by eye at the silkscreener, and thus varied from batch to batch.

Even if someone found a match "Blood Moon #666" for their XXXXX game, it would not match yours, because different games have seen different amounts of UV light.

Now many people have tried to mix their own paint and found it did not create the color they thought it would, or it just turned brown. That is because cheap paints don't have the pure pigments and binders that mix well with others.

Good quality paints mix beautifully, creating the results you expect.

Mix paint in a clear container that you can set on the playfield to match it up. Try to use natural light, not a yellow incandescent lamp. Use a flat container, so you are not looking down the neck of a bottle.

Women have much better color vision than men. Don't be afraid to ask your wife to match colors for you. It will involve her in your hobby and make her feel important that she has a skill you don't. Let her do the actual mixing, don't just ask if a sample is a match.

Mix up a little more paint than you think you need.

You will lose some in the air brush or you may have an unexpected touch up latter.

Store small amounts in contact lens cases (5 for $1 at the dollar store), or little "artists" jars.

Step by step matching:

1. Take a drop of your mixed paint and put it on the playfield and see where you are at. Adjust lighter, darker, greener, whatever and place another drop.

2. If drop looks good, spread it out a little and let it air dry. Still the right color? Excellent. No good? Wash off with damp cloth (remember, it's not permanent until you heat set it).

3. Once you have a good dry match, take some Naphtha on a rag and wipe it over the playfield and the paint sample. Does the color still match while wet with Naphtha? If yes, you are ready to paint! If not, adjust slightly until you get it right. The Naphtha give us a temporary "clear coat" to check our work.

PAINT-2.jpg

What the hell is a Frisket?

If you are not from an art or auto background, it probably sounds like something you should have tried before you got married. But nothing is more important in restoring playfields than your roll of Frisket.

Frisket is a roll of masking plastic:

1. It cuts super cleanly, so you don't get raggity paint lines.

2. It is clear, so you can see what you are cutting (It is available in opaque, for what reason, I don't know).

3. It is self adhesive yet does not leave any glue behind.

4. Although it is "low tack" and normally does not lift paint, it totally keeps paint from seeping under the edge. Much better than blue painter's tape or green "frog" tape in that regard.

5. It withstands heat well enough to not shrink when we are setting a layer of paint.

If you can use tracing paper, you can use Frisket.

IMG_6491.jpg

Cut a section of Frisket and lay it over the area to be airbrushed.

Run you finger along the outline where you will be cutting. You don't have to really press the rest of the frisket down.

Using a BRAND NEW Xacto blade, trace the outline of your soon to be painted areas. Don't press too hard, you should not be feeling the surface of the playfield as you work.

Use a metal straightedge to guide you along straight lines - giant time saver.

If you are cutting a circle for Keylining, you can use a circle template to again save time.

Cut exactly on your line. You don't have to worry about bleed.

Lift the Frisket film from any place you want to get painted. See how cleanly it lifts? Press any air bubbles out that forms as you remove the pieces.

I used "oil paper" here for masking, but you can use Kraft paper or whatever you have.

Make up a bunch of masking papers with one leading edge with masking tape applied.

You will be reusing them as you move to the next area of the playfield, so make them large enough for the biggest section.

FRISK-2.jpg circle-template.jpg

Now lay down your color.

Practice by shooting a little on the masking paper. If you set the gun down without the cap over the nozzle for more than a few minutes, it may throw a glob out, known as a "booger".

Don't wait for the booger to dry and then sand it out, just wipe the area clean with a rag and spray the entire area again. You are going to like using Createx paint, believe me.

Shooting on the paper lets you be sure that if any boogers are going to fly, it won't be into your work.

Catch the light on the wet paint and make sure your coat is even. If it all looks good, hit it with the heat gun and set the paint.

Now you can change colors, or even put another layer of the same color without waiting around.

Note in this picture how the Frisket that was pressed down onto the playfield has stayed perfectly attached without shrinking from the heat gun- while the area not pressed down has wrinkled. It's good stuff!

FRISK-3.jpg

Although there are times when you are blending different colors at once, normally it only makes sense to do all the same color at the same time.

Cut out all your Frisket at the same time.

Then move your masking papers around in an orderly fashion, from zone to zone.

Don't waste time masking off the whole playfield with little windows and miles of tape. Just move your masking scraps around. Once the paint is heat set, you don't have to worry about the tape or Frisket lifting the paint.

Do all your colors from light to dark, but save white until the end so it does not get dirty. The Createx paint is flat finish, so the white can soil easily.

Often, once you think you are done, you will find black areas that still need touch up. Be careful you don't get the black on the new white paint!

Sometimes you have a area of the playfield that can't be cleaned up with the Magic Eraser.

Normally, the ME and 99% alcohol cleans off the topcoat, leaving just the paint behind.

If you have to clean too much with the ME, the actual paint will wear away. Or sometimes there is too much printing to clean around. Or sometimes the cracked area is close to the flippers and draws the eye to the cracks, where higher on the playfield it would go completely noticed.

First scan the area with one of those HP 4670 scanners.

Sand any keylining off of the insert, and leave it roughed up to 500 grit. We want that rough area so the clear coat has some "tooth" to hold on to.

Shoot a thin coat of clear over the playfield to lock down any loose pant and seal the surface.

Lightly sand it back to flatten out the cracks that telegraph through the clear.

In this example: Note the planked surface, note that the ME could not get it clean without removing the black printing, note the poor "kiss" of where the red meets the other paints.

cracked.jpg

While your clear coat is hardening, open your favorite photo program and examine your scan.

Using the "Channels" function, kill off any color other than the black and white and make a .jpg of the font.

Go to http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ and upload the .jpg of the font.

"What The Font" will tell you what font is it. If your .jpg is crappy, it may ask you to clarify a few characters.

Download the font and open it in your photo program.

Overlay the new font letters on top of the playfield scan in a new layer.

If the letters are arched like this example, you can Rotate each letter or use the "Warp Text" function.

Remember that font size can be fractional, so your font might be 28.6 size rather than just plain old 28. Take your time a get it exactly right.

This font was identified as: Omnibus.

Next, draw the Keyline that goes around the lighted insert. Hold the SHIFT key down as you use the circle tool and overlap the outside of the original circle (this makes a "perfect" circle). Then hit the Subtract button and draw the inner circle. This "cuts out" the center of the first circle.

Unview the background image and check your work.

If it's your first time, the above will take you 20 minutes. If you've used photo programs in the past, it will be less than 5 minutes of work.

5000-WLIT.jpg

Next, you have to print your art.

You need Clear Water Slide film, and a Laser Printer. Get the thinnest film they have, if offered a choice.

Ink Jet printer inks quickly fade, don't even think of using them.

Most high end hobby shops have really good decal printers that can print opaque white, and gold / silver metallic. If you need those kind of decals, don't be afraid to use their services.

Trim off the excess film around the printing, leaving clear tabs to connect the keyline to the letters.

Using Frisket film, lay it over the sanded clear coat area to be repainted.

Cut out the Frisket any place that will be painted white (in this example).

Clean up anywhere that the colors don't "kiss" correctly.

FRISKET-OVER.jpg

Pull the Frisket off and clear over the paint (maybe the whole playfield if you are efficient).

Remember, we never want to apply a waterslide decal to the bare paint, or directly to a plastic insert.

The reason is that you don't want the tension of the clear coat to be different on the topside of the decal than it is underneath.

You run the risk of ghosting if you just stick the decal to the insert plastic.

I've never had an insert decal ghost that has been applied on top of clear coat, then coated over.

Don't take a shortcut here - do it right.

5000-wlit.jpg

Here is the waterslide decal applied .

The screws left not only a hole, but a depression around the holes and lifted some paint too.

I taped over the back of the holes and filled them almost to the top with 5 minute Epoxy.

I dewaxed the surrounding area with Acetone, then I topped the depression off with Bondo.

Why not just use Epoxy all the way? Because Epoxy is harder than the playfield, so you won't get a nice feathering around the fill. You will sand off lots of paint before you ever get the edge even with the playfield.

Bondo sands and feathers easily.

I gave the Bondo a half hour to dry and then feathered it into the surrounding playfield.

You can color blend the area in with an airbrush, or mask off and spray to the edges - depending on the complexity of the surrounding graphics.

BONDO.jpg

RAISING INSERTS:

Sometimes you find that inserts have sunk below the playfield surface. Not cupped, but actually fallen in.

Cupped inserts can simply be filled with clear coat, but if you can see the wood beneath the playfield around the edges, you need to raise it up.

Heat the insert from above and below with a hair dryer.

Keep one hand on the face of the playfield to control the insert, as you push the insert from behind with the largest socket from a wrench set that will fit in the hole.

You may have to reheat while you work.

If the insert is really loose, and you can easily remove it, do so (rough up the side edges with coarse sandpaper, prime with plastic primer and re-glue with epoxy).

If the insert is really tight, then just level it with the face of the playfield and re-glue the entire insert perimeter from the back of the playfield with epoxy.

Don't spare the epoxy, better to have a heavy coat that no ones sees from the back, than to have the insert move around in the future.

Some of the wireforms have wings or blades near the ends that are presssed/formed, to retain them in the playfield, so they are not 100% round. These wings will sometimes pull up bits of the playfield when you remove the guides.

Yeah, that can be nerve wracking.

Usually I pull the first wireform the farthest up the playfield (or hidden from player) to see what I'm in store for.

Warm the area with a heat gun to make sure the paint is soft and not brittle, so it is less likely to chip.

The trick whether you are tapping or pulling out, is to make sure you are moving both ends of the arch equally. Pry a little on one side, then move to the other side.

Once you have the wire out a little, gently rock the wireform side to side. This will slightly enlarge the holes, making for a clean exit. This is especially important for the wires with wings.

Keep on the lookout for wings, or a sharp burr on the very end of the wire - that is what usually gets ya.

I lay down a thin piece of plastic cutting board to protect the playfield and usually use a 5 inch "mini prybar" from Harbor Freight. I've tapered the ends of the prybar on a grinding wheel. I'll never use it for real prying, so I'm not worried about loosing strength on the bar.

I bought a set of nylon prys too, but I always forget to try them out.

nylon_pry.jpg pry_bar.jpg

Most playfields have lots of reflective white areas that are lit by the General Illumination circuits.

Even though you often don't directly see these areas, it's important to repaint them bright white.

My light meter says that by repainting these sections, you are gaining 30-40% reflectance - that's a lot.

Not only are you getting a brighter reflection, you are getting a pure reflection, rather than one tinted beige or yellow.

The old paint has yellowed, the old Lacquer on top of it has yellowed, but at some point these areas were indeed a nice white.

These areas are mostly out of sight of the player, so you can do them without a bunch of leveling and patching. Because you can do them so quickly, there is no reason not to do them.

Sometimes these areas are just clear wood on one version of the playfield and screened white on another, latter production run. It's a judgement call if you want the extra light reflection (and color purity) by painting the clear wood white. Some purists frown upon it, many customers insist on it.

Don't get paint in the light sockets, or try to put balls of foam or tape in them. Just put some old bulbs in the sockets and paint around them.

BULB-SOCKETS.jpg

The Shooter Lane:

The Shooter Lane is a special case in restoration.

Because each layer of plywood changes direction, each layer wears in a different way. Dirt gets pounded in and end grain wear in the wood can leave soft fibers exposed.

Get a dowel or a piece of pipe of suitable circumference. If you do a lot of playfields, you will have a few sizes around the shop.

Cushion the sandpaper with an old rag so that your pipe has some "give" like a sanding block has.

If the lane looks bad, you might start with 120 grit sandpaper and see if you can clean it up.

Don't remove too much material or the groove can become too wide.

Step down to 220 grit and see what it looks like.

SHOOT-1.jpg

There is a little bit of sanding skill and a little bit of fudge factor involved. Take your time, it either will be nice, or a pile of crap.

If you think you got it nice, take some Naphtha on a rag and wipe down your work.

This gives you a preview of what the clear coat will look like.

Sometimes it looks great dry, but looks terrible when Naphtha-ed.

Other times it looks dicey and grey, but comes out perfect when wet.

If the damage is too bad to sand out, don't despair.

Patch any soft wood fibers with wood filler, sand smooth, mask with tape and simply paint in the "layers" of plywood.

I know this sounds flaky, but I've done it 100s of times and 95% of the time the customer never notices - but if I did not paint it, they'd notice for sure.

shoot-4.jpg Epoxy-for_wood_patch.gif

Usually I remove Mylar, Magic Eraser, and scrape paint off worn inserts .

Then I put down a light coat of clear.

This:

1. Locks down worn wood fibers, letting the paint adhere cleanly, without fuzz or texture.
2. Locks down existing paint - so masking tape and frisket don't lift paint and make more work for me.
3. Fills in planking and swirl. Sometimes the tiny cracks simply fill in and do not need further painting.
4. A new coat of clear highlights low spots that need to be brought up so the playfield is dead flat. A quick run of 220 grit sandpaper over the field will show much work needed. If you see shine, that spot is low!

PAINTING VERY FINE LINES:

Sometimes you have a fine line to repair. If you have a bunch of fine lines, make a water slide decal; but for just one line here is a big time saver.

Don't make this kind of fix over rough wood. Be sure you have a solid foundation, or your first clear coat down.

Here is where the ball has worn through the line.

It is in a very noticeable place from the player's point of view. It needs to be repaired.

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The line is thinner than a 000 brush, so how can you paint it without making a mess?

First we gently cut a path with a Xacto knife. Use a fresh blade, of course.

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Now load the tip of the Xacto with your paint.

Use a little less than you think you need.

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Make a pass in the guide you cut. Notice how the pre-cut guide perfectly takes the paint.

Make as many passes as you need to match the thickness of the original line. Most thin lines need 2 passes.

You could not do this freehand with a brush.

Once you have mastered this technique, you will be quickly fixing playfield details you never though were possible.

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