ACDC cloudy window( my fix..)

I recently aquired my second one, this time a Back in Black , luci's not being around , always regretted selling her..

And it made me look at the playfield window in disgust... luci was clear-ish, but this was awfull.

So I decided to re-clear the field if I failed my experiment , now its fully dimpled and compressed anyway its a good thing to do.

I started sanding away at the clear from the top, as I suspected the vertical markings in the window plastic caused by the rough drum rol sanding all playfields go through. I was right, the further I went, the cloudy clearcoat thinned, and the scratches in the plastic became apparant.

Time to get rough.., so I switched from waterproof paper to 360 grit on my mini sander to speed it up and get deeper into the plastic. Then 500, 800, 1000,1200,1500,2000,2500, 3000 wet sanding, and buffing with paint renovator and polish..

Then unmask, and a result to be happy about.

Anyone brave enough, give it a try..

Ps Pictures are all out of order, but the last should be of the most appropriate polish rag ever !!

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#2 2 years ago

KJB

dudah

Pinside member

Chicago, IL

6y 73,300 1,715 10

Great work! Gonna do this to my Congo window.

Were you wet sanding the whole time?

#3 2 years ago

AHS

hoby1

Pinside member

Looks fantastic......Dont you worry about the edges on the clear chipping now.

#4 2 years ago

steigerpijp

Pinside member

Dry sanding with 320-360, then wet.

No danger of chipping, its a super smooth transition into the playfield .

#5 2 years ago

BAK

dsuperbee

Pinside member

Sacramento, CA

7y 63,400 5,054 8

Quoted from dudah:
Great work! Gonna do this to my Congo window.
Were you wet sanding the whole time?

Congo and cftbl have it way easier, just remove it from the game.

#6 2 years ago

DAD

wdpvideo

Pinside member

8y 105K 2,719 28

Maybe you could go to work for Stern. I like the pride you take in your work....

#7 2 years ago

BIL

mrbillishere

Pinside member

9y 62,050 1,136

Nice job! The before and after shots of the speaker underneath are very telling.

From your description, it sounds like now the window has no clearcoat on it, just raw plastic now for the ball to travel over. Correct? (We've all seen CFTBL, MB, etc built this way, not a big deal.) Or, did you clearcoat it when you got done?

#8 2 years ago

AHS

hoby1

Pinside member

So what protectes the insert. Dont you worry about possible hazing

#9 2 years ago

DAD

tfduda

Pinside member

3y 38,300 159

Wow--very nice!

#10 2 years ago

BOB

Cobray

Pinside member

Philadelphia, PA

7y 59,400 1,220 8 14

Wow, great job!

#11 2 years ago

YZF

yzfguy

Pinside member

7y 90,800 7,878 7

You, sir, are a maniac. I would never have the balls to do that. Great job

#12 2 years ago

MUG

FrostyMug

Inactive member

3y 24,900 387

Good job!!!

#13 2 years ago

DAD

MK6PIN

Pinside member

6y 124K 9,904

Quoted from yzfguy:
You, sir, are a maniac. I would never have the balls to do that. Great job

Ditto...especially on a BIBLE!!! Good grief man, great job!!!

#14 2 years ago

MPV

BenetBoy78

Pinside member

7y 102K 1,025

Couple questions. What does your mini sander look like? Who is mfg? What was paint renovator and polish you used? Did you do anything the the window from the back side? Great Job!!

#15 2 years ago

YAW

yuriijos

Pinside member

Westminster, CO

6y 62,550 3,106 5 29

Seems like a lot of work for something Stern should be taking are of. What causes the hazing in the first place and why didn't Stern correct the issue?

#16 2 years ago

JIM

BowlingJim

Pinside member

Munroe Falls, OH

15y 87,050 2,184 8

Looks awesome

#17 2 years ago

USA

jayhawkai

Pinside member

8y 93,550 5,156

Quoted from yuriijos:
What causes the hazing in the first place and why didn't Stern correct the issue?

Clearcoat. The fix was not to clearcoat the window.

#18 2 years ago

EDY

thundergod76

Pinside member

Cleveland, OH

4y 65,300 1,978 2

LOVE stuff like this. Awesome job!!

#19 2 years ago

YZF

yzfguy

Pinside member

7y 90,800 7,878 7

Quoted from jayhawkai:
Clearcoat. The fix was not to clearcoat the window.

Is there a certain date that divides the two production methods?

#20 2 years ago

DAD

MK6PIN

Pinside member

6y 124K 9,904

Quoted from jayhawkai:
Clearcoat. The fix was not to clearcoat the window.

Makes you wonder if the clear coat doesn't let the full color of the play field come through ....am I missing something...anyone have thoughts on this? Or was it just how this type of clear coat interacted with this type of plastic.

#21 2 years ago

AHS

hoby1

Pinside member

If you read his findings its vertical sand marks that cause the cloudiness and that seems consistant to what i see on mine. Still like the clearcoat over it.... as the insert will scratch more easily than the clear

#22 2 years ago

DAD

MK6PIN

Pinside member

6y 124K 9,904

Quoted from hoby1:
If you read his findings its vertical sand marks that cause the cloudiness and that seems consistant to what i see on mine. Still like the clearcoat over it.... as the insert will scratch more easily than the clear

Ahh....so was the fix not sanding the insert then clearcoat? Interesting stuff here.....

#23 2 years ago

AHS

hoby1

Pinside member

He said that sanding off the clear, wet sanding the insert then polishing the insert and leaving bare was the answer, Not sure how that will hold up over time as the plastic will cloud in the long run . Could be worst than the present hazing in the clear now IMO in time .

#24 2 years ago

POP

Nevus

Pinside member

Shreveport, LA

7y 111K 5,279 12 17 1 1

Looks nice. Good work.

#25 2 years ago

steigerpijp

Pinside member

Quoted from hoby1:
He said that sanding off the clear, wet sanding the insert then polishing the insert and leaving bare was the answer, Not sure how that will hold up over time as the plastic will cloud in the long run . Could be worst than the present hazing in the clear now IMO in time .

The plastic got the full 320grit sanding to remove the miky clear coat. The scratches in the plastic remained full of this clear so you have to go deeper..

I tried because worst case, you reclear the field properly, without scratches and milky clear.. after sanding the plastic 500-3000 grit and polishing it comes back clear as glass. A ball over years if play will never cause a full 320 grit haze so I feel confident it will last.

And if anyone wants to get their field cleared, you'll need to ask your painter to do this window treatment first anyway .

The back of the window had no treatment btw

#26 2 years ago

AHS

hoby1

Pinside member

Can I ask how long this took and how many times you had to reapply the tape .I wish you had made a video of this as it looks sooooo good!!!

#27 2 years ago

steigerpijp

Pinside member

Ofcourse, I think it took me about 4 Hours.

This includes the carefull start, before I decided to go full power instead of high grit wet paper by hand.

Use plastic fine line tape just a tad over black lines around the window, you dont want to sand through those.. then a few layers of quality masking tape for the wet sanding.

I faded the sanding into the Horns as a sander wont get there properly, use hand work around the edges.

Start in the middle, soon you see a darker area appear, meaning you've broken the milky clear and the real plastic is showing. Use it as a guide to work towards the edges.

Anyone doing this, good luck, its really worth it. No more people asking why the lower field looks so strange..

#28 2 years ago

AHS

hoby1

Pinside member

Outstanding work !!!!!! Coming to America any time soon, say maybe the Allentown show. All the food and beers ya could drink on my tab. I only live two miles away.

GREAT JOB !!!

#29 2 years ago

YZF

yzfguy

Pinside member

7y 90,800 7,878 7

OP
Quoted from steigerpijp:
Ofcourse, I think it took me about 4 Hours.
This includes the carefull start, before I decided to go full power instead of high grit wet paper by hand.
Use plastic fine line tape just a tad over black lines around the window, you dont want to sand through those.. then a few layers of quality masking tape for the wet sanding.
I faded the sanding into the Horns as a sander wont get there properly, use hand work around the edges.
Start in the middle, soon you see a darker area appear, meaning you've broken the milky clear and the real plastic is showing. Use it as a guide to work towards the edges.
Anyone doing this, good luck, its really worth it. No more people asking why the lower field looks so strange..

I swear, my palms started sweating and I felt a lump in my throat just reading this. I am glad there are people like you around with the guts to do this stuff.

#30 2 years ago

LEW

Pinballlew

Pinside member

3y 101K 3,341 7

Quoted from hoby1:
So what protectes the insert. Dont you worry about possible hazing

If it does he can just polish the insert again to make it clear.

#31 2 years ago

AHS

hoby1

Pinside member

Wonder if crystal clear mylar would be a good thing?

#32 2 years ago

RHO

Rensh

Pinside member

7y 93,900 2,233 4 17

If you do this and are worried about scratches on the insert due to lack of clear you can always put a playfield protector on

#33 2 years ago

???

ruszip2

Pinside member

5y 14,650 10

Can you give us more information about the mini sander that you used ?

#34 2 years ago

MRW

Toads

Pinside member

Shepparton

5y 57,050 841 14

OP
Quoted from steigerpijp:
The back of the window had no treatment btw

I've had great results using novus 2 as a fine cutting compound on the back of the window on my bible.

#35 2 years ago

steigerpijp

Pinside member