Many people ask me how much work is involved with restoring a playfield. Unless you do it, you really don't understand the time it takes. So In this thread, i'm going to be documenting a playfield from start to finish and time stamping everything to show the amount of time it takes and the amount of work involved. I'll be updating this in real time as we go.

I do 3 levels of restoration. Level 1 is basic clearcoating with very minor black line insert edging touchups. Level 2, only touches up visible areas of the playfield from players perspective. So areas under plastics, ramps, posts , aprons are not touched up. Level 3 touches up everything.

This field will be level 3.

So the first group of pictures will be the field at the start.

before 001 (resized).jpg
before 007 (resized).jpg
before 002 (resized).jpg
before 003 (resized).jpg
before 004 (resized).jpg
before 006 (resized).jpg
before 005 (resized).jpg

Mylar is removed. 1 hour
start 002 (resized).jpg

Cleaned with magic eraser 1 hour 8 min
after cleaning 001 (resized).jpg
after cleaning 002 (resized).jpg
after cleaning 004 (resized).jpg
after cleaning 004 (resized).jpg
after cleaning 006 (resized).jpg
after cleaning 005 (resized).jpg
after cleaning 007 (resized).jpg

after cleaning 003 (resized).jpg

dracula (stern)

Ok, apparently I can't edit my place holders or add pictures. So I guess it's going to be dragged out through the thread.

Now we address the wood chipping areas. Normally in a level 2, i'd let most of these go,as they will be hidden when populated. But this is a level 3 so I must fix and repair the chipping.

Here is the wood areas before.

wood repair 001 (resized).jpg
wood repair 002 (resized).jpg
wood repair 003 (resized).jpg
wood repair 004 (resized).jpg

Wood filled Time 45 min

wood repair after (1) (resized).jpg
wood repair after (resized).jpg

Shooter lane sanded
shooter lane sanding (resized).jpg

Now it's time to start color matching. Currently working on the yellow, orange and black. Black is usually easy to do, but sometimes in fields this old, depending on how well it was stored, the black fades. So new touchup black stands out and you can see all the touchups. So it has to be milked up to match it's current state. Unfortunately, I won't know until it gets it's first layer of clear. Same with the colors. Some colors darken up after clear hits them. So they look like perfect matches, until I shoot it, then it's off. Very very time consuming process. So far I'm doing orange- yellow and black

Time invested so far in color matching 1 hr 53 min

color matching orange and yellow (resized).jpg

color matching orange and yellow (1) (resized).jpg

for fixing screw holes, i'd take toothpicks or bamboo rods and wood glue them in the holes. Then take a wire cutter and cut them off. Should be strong.

i do use naptha technique sometimes to try and match. Some times that difficult as the rough texture sometimes tricks you on how the light reflects until it's smoothed out by clear.

Color matching works by. I look at a color. and find a close starting color. Then add colors until it matches. Everything is eyeballed. If it has yellowing due to years of cigerette smoke. Then i add some raw sienna in it. Faded from the sun, add a touch of white. there is really no way to teach this. It's kind of a natural talent.

For shooter lane, I have a 100 year old angle rasp that I use. Sometimes I wrap it in sandpaper and sand down the lane. It's a long round like file that goes to a point. So it's basically a shooter lane file. One of the many tools that were passed down from my great great great grandfather. Who thought i'd be using them to for pinball.

more colors sampled and tested. Time : 1 hr 39 min

Blue
blue test 2 (resized).jpg
blue test (resized).jpg

Red
red orange test (resized).jpg
purple pink test (resized).jpg

Pink
red test (resized).jpg
pink test (resized).jpg

red detail test (resized).jpg

Black line work started. Also did some first layers in white and did some more yellow. Lighter colors like whites and yellows usually take 3 or 4 layers to even out.

Time used: 2 hr 40 Min

touchup levels 002 (resized).jpg

touchup levels 001 (resized).jpg

all depends. I find that touchups blend better without a layer of clear, as the touchup tends to hover slightly and create a slight shadow that sometimes makes a new touchup stand out more. So I try and do as many touchups as I can before the first layer of clear. Also, this really lets me see how my color looks as well.

Paint right now is all free hand. 90% of what I do is brush and free hand.

Touching up various sections of the playfield. Doing a lot of black line insert edges.

Time: 1 hr 15 min

touchup level 3 003 (resized).jpg

touchup level 3 001 (resized).jpg

touchup level 3 002 (resized).jpg

nothing better than being able to do a hot swap. Makes the process so much easier.

OK, first layer of clear is on. This lets me see how some touchups turned out as well as seal in what I have done so far. I can see the pink is way off.

Time: 39 min

first layer of clear 002 (resized).jpg
first layer of clear 001 (resized).jpg
first layer of clear 003 (resized).jpg

Now that the clear is on, now we can mask and do the white hidden areas. (level 2 fields do not get this done)

Mask applied and cut out, airbrushed and removed.

Time: 2 hr 30 min

making done (resized).jpg

White airbrushed. White was matched closely with other whites on the field so it doesn't stand out.
white airbrushed (resized).jpg

Mask removed, and bleed under all sanded away.

mask removed (resized).jpg

it's a low tack stencil applicator that I use for my vinyl cutter for transferring stencils.

more touchups done. Some did a second coat on some.

Time: 3 hr 6 min

touchup level 3 003 (resized).jpg

touchup level 3 002 (resized).jpg

touchup level 3 001 (resized).jpg

2nd layer of clear applied to seal in everything done so far.

Time: 45 min

2nd layer of clear 002 (resized).jpg

2nd layer of clear 001 (resized).jpg

it's coming along nicely. There are tons of visible cracks in the lacquer that show up and only visible after fresh clear is applied. Once I scuff to do touchups, those minor lacquer imperfections disappear. Making it very hard to remember where they all are. As you are kind of touching up blind at that point.

When i'm doing playfields, i'm usually working on 4 different ones at a time. This way, i can prep some for clearing, some for touchups, so while i'm waiting for some things to dry, or clear to harden, I have something else to work on. Nothing is more irritating than laying my arm on a part I painted that wasn't dry. Puts little stamps all over the playfield. Not so bad when I sealed in previous touchups, but sucks bad when it goes through areas I masked and airbrushed but didn't seal in yet.

the wavyness if the clear evens out as more and more layers are added. Through the spray and block sand process. Right now clear is basically used to seal in touchup layers. Leveling process hasn't really started yet.

PPG, and i use an automotive spray gun, with a tip ment for clear. Same used for clearing cars.

some wood areas airbrushed and blended in to hide the fill job and hide some wood graining.

Time: 1 hr 15 min

wood airbrushed 001 (resized).jpg

wood airbrushed 002 (resized).jpg

Painted the inlane switch areas. Deep graining in them.

Time: 30 min

Clearcoated layer 3

Time: 25min

clear layer 3 002 (resized).jpg

clear layer 3 001 (resized).jpg

yes, the only air brushing so far is the white regions and the wood touchup areas. As the airbrush feathers into the natural wood nicely. I try to keep as much natural wood as I can, as painted wood looks painted, no matter how good you are at it. Personally, I hate the way painted wood looks, so I only do it when I have to. So blending makes it much less noticeable.

Every layer of clear needs to be sanded to get the next layer of clear to stick. So it needs to be roughed up before touchups are started. Plus the block sanding helps flatten and even out the playfield. reducing cupped inserts, some to the point of disappearing completely. Depending on the severity of the cupping. Regardless, it's greatly reduced to the point where it will not effect the movement of the ball anymore.