Often it's good to stick to the plan. But sometimes it's just more fun to do something completely different. Today was such a day.

I'm currently in between two restorations: my Time Fantasy was finished a few weeks ago, and the idea was to start restoring my Xenon and my Quicksilver any day now.

I wanted some games out of the way first, amongst others this Barracora, a very decent machine that I bought rather cheaply. Great gameplay by the way, one of the best from this era imho.

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It didn't startup at first, but I got the mpu/driverboards fixed, and although the power supply has been hacked (like always on System 7 it seems) the game seems to work nicely now, apart from some playfield switch adjustments and a few light bulbs.

Which I planned to address whilst cleaning the game, it isn't too dirty actually. The idea was to fully restore it in due time, in a few years perhaps.

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So I removed most stuff from the playfield for a good cleaning. And that's when things went wrong and I left my original plan...

This girl deserves more than a simple cleaning. The playfield damage is limited, I can easily fix it. And hence I decided to restore this Barracora right away.

The reason I'm writing this down so early in the project, is to create a point of no return for myself: this is the new plan. The Xenon and Quicksilver girls will have to wait a little longer, from now on the Barracora girl has my full attention!

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I know... It is indeed a great game and already I feel a little sorry that I took it apart so fast, actually only after having played a few test games.

With all stuff out of the way I did an initial cleaning. Although I reckon that the game has low mileage, it has quite some ball swirl, which is, obviously, most noticeable in the white and yellow areas. I know that many people here use magic eraser to address this. I've had good results in the past with another strategy that I thought sharing, and it involves this product:

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I got it from a German guy a few years ago. Basically I guess it's a sort of thiner that can be used to dissolve old paint, varnish, lacquer etc. Applied on a cloth I carefully rub the playfield, inch by inch, hence slowly removing the original thin old layer of varnish, which in my experience seems to contain most dirt. As long as the cloth gets brown/black I'm removing dirty varnish. As soon as it becomes coloured I'm removing paint. Obviously that's the sign to stop and to move to the next spot

Once mastered it's a quite safe method though. It doesn't remove all dirt and swirl, but a lot. The left eye below is original, the right one is done.

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I've used magic eraser a few times myself, it works great. Yet I never felt comfortable with rubbing strongly on an old playfield. This product allows me to rub softly, with equal results. About 10 delicate passes and done. I'm not saying that this approach is better, I just thought I'd share it as a possible alternative.

Yes, that is the plan. But I still have a lot to remove first...

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Pfew, done!

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I need a beer

I've added connectors to both target banks. That took me some more time now, but it might pay off in the future.

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The rest has been desoldered, and is gently waiting for some more attention

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It's holidays in Belgium, and it's hot today (1st day of a heatwave). Then a man has two options:

1) Take your wife to the beach

2) Stay home whilst your wife goes to the beach alone. "Sorry, seems like I have an appointment". Ok, wife goes to the beach with one of her friends, looking forward to a girls-talk-day. I have an appointment! Ha, with the Barracora girl! "Enjoy your day and don't hurry coming back!". Oops. Ignore the suspicious look. I hope I'll never have to explain to her who Barracora girl is

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Mylar removal. There's only mylar near the bumpers and usually freeze spray method works best on these. Barracora girl is no different.

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Next I scanned the playfield, just in case. And while I was at it, I also scanned the plastics. I need these to create clear plastic protectors.

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Note to self: don't forget to scan the playfield again when it's restored.
If anyone wants the scans, just drop me a line.

Finally I lightly sanded the playfield with #400 for its 1st clearcoat session. Shooterlane is sanded as well.

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Ha-ha. No: that's my own personal table in front of the gameroom. I wouldn't dare using the kitchen table

Bad news from the car body shop: they are closed for holidays until 6th of August. No clearcoating is going to happen until then.
There was no need to hurry after all .

Hence I slightly changed strategy. Usually I prefer to have a first layer of protective clearcoat before doing any touch-ups. But since my playfield is actually in very good shape with flat inserts it will require very little structural sanding after the first clear is applied. Hence it seems safe to already do some initial repairs in these dithered areas. The benefit being that these will sit straight on top of the original paint itself, casting zero shadow. I'll have to be careful, that's all, by lack of protective clear.

The drawing in the middle has still quite some ball swirl. Whites first. I'm using an ultra-thin brush and a magnifying glass.

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Before-after:

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I will airbrush the yellow areas tomorrow.

So true...

I had started touching up the labels next to the drop targets with the paintbrush. Lots of ball swirl dirt there. But then it seemed making more sense to quickly mask them with Frisk and have them airbrushed.

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Yes!

Wife is back from the beach. Enough fun for today

Airbrushed the yellow areas in the two silhouettes left and right. Although the yellow mix consists of mostly opaque colours, it needs primer first for good coverage.

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The most prominent ball swirl in the white and yellow areas is gone. It doesn't really show that much in the darker colours. I think I will only touch up the few scratches in these areas. There is some relief on the bodies. If it still shows up after clearcoat I can airbrush them again.

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Thx guys!

I think all possible manual touching up prior to clearcoat is done now. All whites and yellows in the center area are addressed as well with the ultra-thin paintbrush. All ball swirl is gone (except for that yellow drawing in the middle that I'll airbrush afterwards when these defects are smoothed out with clearcoat).

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I'll put the playfield aside for now and work on the cabinet whilst waiting until the car body shop is back open after holidays.

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As said earlier the game is really decent with remarkably little damage. Hence I'm in doubt whether I'd sand and repaint it completely. Perhaps I would prefer an original cabinet with little damage over a repainted one.

Obviously it needs a good cleanup, and I also plan to address the damage on corners and edges, but these are mostly black areas. The whites look good and the few scratches can easily be touched up. The metal blue paint is hardly damaged (except for those two spots on the bottom left side of the head that were repainted by a presumably colour blind previous owner). So yes, I'm in doubt about what to do. Or: I can try keeping it original and fix it as good as possible and still decide to completely sand it if it doesn't turn out well.

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I disassembled the head today.

CPU and driverboard have already been serviced. As said earlier the power supply does work as it should, supplying proper voltages, but I don't like the way it's been hacked (as often the case on system 7 it seems), so I'll have to address this for sure. I'll get rid of those old caps as well.

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Display panel looks good, but needs a repaint.

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Done! A few more boxes have been added to the to-be-cleaned-department

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@mof: I hear what you say. I do want a great cabinet though, that's the point of restoring it. But the more I look at it, the more I think that this game doesn't need to be fully sanded down and repainted. I feel confident that I'll get more than acceptable results with local repairs. Time will tell soon enough.

I took apart the cabinet.

The inside is worse than the outside. Especially the bottom panel is very dirty, I'm not sure yet how to tackle it. For sure I cannot sand the ribbed surface.

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I already fixed the underside: glued a few loose chips on the borders, sanded the wooden bottom panel, the metal plate was edge primed, next zink spray and finally a protective satin coat. Still wet on the photo.

A first part is done! A part that nobody will ever see

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That is indeed the case. It must have been like that when cut to size and drilled, since the switch hole is on the correct side (when flipped over). They had no choice but to install it this way.

>>> Edit: you made me doubt and I checked with my other Williams games: the bottom panel is always installed this way: smooth surface at the outside, ribbed surface is inside. <<<

So the challenge remains how to address the ribbed surface inside. First cleaning it as good as possible, then perhaps paint it in a wood tone...

Good tip, thx @Theonlylilo! I didn't have such sponge, but a steel brush did the trick to remove a huge part of the dirt.

I've done a first round of repairs on head and cabinet. I'm using a 2K black coloured polyester putty. Weird stuff.

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And how crazy is that: I accidentally ran across a rattle can with a 99% exact colour match for the metallic blue paint. I did a quick test on some plastic foil. Finds like this make me happy

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I agree on this one. Don't worry. As said:

Hm. Change of plan...

I've done a test repair on one side of the head and touched up the metal blue paint (white and black to be done obviously). I'm not satisfied. It appears that after all the game has way more small scratches and dents than showed up at first. Seems like I'll have to fill/sand more than I expected and as a consequence I'll have to touch up a considerable amount of the painted art.

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Hence I'm not sure it makes sense to stick to the partial-touch-up-plan. This would take more time and yield lesser results than to fully repair/repaint the game. As a start I've scanned both head and cabinet. I will draw a set of stencils in Illustrator next.

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Well that wasn't too difficult actually. The artwork on Barracora is easier than EBD for instance, mainly because there are only a few areas where the colours are adjacent (and require overlap).

First I stitched the scans together in Photoshop, next I imported these combined files in Illustrator.

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Next I meticulously traced the artwork. Blue first, white next.

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Done

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During the test a few days ago, it occurred to me that the metal blue paint is not really opaque. I reckon it will require quite a few coats of metal blue paint on that black background and I absolutely want to avoid thick layers of paint.

I have a plan: why not use the white paint as a base coat under the metal blue paint. Visually the end result will be the same, but that way I will only need a few very thin layers of metal blue (on that white base coat) for proper coverage.

This are the original blue and white stencils.

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Here's the white stencil I'll produce: including a white base coat under the metal blue paint.

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Cabinet and head have been filled/sanded/primed/again/again and finally got 2 layers of black base coat.

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Stencils are sent out to be plotted. I should have them by Thursday.
Also the playfield is out for a first clearcoat session. Presumably back after the weekend.
Only good news

The downside to making your own stencils is that you get back a huge roll, and have to do the peeling yourself...

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ORVAL is Belgiums finest Trappist beer - by far imo.

And not only does it have an excellent taste, it appears that it can serve many purposes: a 12-pack makes a perfect weight to keep stencils in place

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Stencils are in place.

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1st colour - creamy white - done. The layer of paint is thin, no thick borders, no drips. So far so good.

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Haha, yes, I admit that I'm a little obsessed with games from the amazing era between 1979 and 1983...

Stencils ready for the final colour: metal blue.

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Done! I'm happy. A few minor touch-ups to be done, but my strategy of painting a white base colour did work: I only needed 3 light layers of paint for full coverage. I'll let it settle for a day or two, and will then also lightly sand the artwork before clearcoat.

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I've sanded the head and cabinet and both got 3 layers of semi-gloss clear. I don't like my games to be too glossy. I think this is close to the original shine. Difficult to catch on camera though...

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Rebuilt has begun.

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Similarly to my Time Fantasy, I'm routing the ground wire via the right side of the cabinet instead of left as Williams originally did. After all it's just matter of connecting the metal parts, it doesn't matter how the ground wire is arranged. But this lay-out gives me a nice support for the always loose and sloppy line cord.

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Today's progress:

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I'm not the first one here tearing apart a coindoor, so I'm not going to be too detailed about it.
It's my first old style Williams coindoor though. Wow: I think it has more parts than a Bally coindoor

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Few hours later. Everything is cleaned/polished/sanded/etched... Time to put the puzzle back together.

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Pfew. Done.

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I made some variations of blue coindoor labels to match the metal blue paint on the cabinet.
Not sure yet if I'll keep them. Perhaps black labels would look better.

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Yes, all are in free play mode.

Cabinet is done.
Wiring is in place, metal parts, .. only remaining are flipper buttons (ordered) and legs (later).

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Better than before

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Playfield is back with the first layer of protective clearcoat.
I'll let it settle for a while (leaving on a holiday anyway) before sanding it down and proceeding with airbrush repairs.

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Overall I'm happy with the very limited gaps left around the inserts. I'm even more happy though that the paintbrush repairs done in the center drawing (yellows and whites) blend in so well with the original print. The yellow flame shape still has to be airbrushed to get rid of the ball swirl.

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Back from holidays. Back to this restoration. I missed it

With new chrome legs and flipper buttons the cabinet is now 100% finished. I think black flipper buttons work pretty well with this art package. I also changed to black coindoor labels.

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Back to the playfield now.

Yes, I've been doing that prior to leaving on holiday and things settled for 3 weeks. Time to sand the playfield, #320 first, #600 next. All gaps and recesses are gone, except for a minor border remaining on 1 insert. It should vanish later in the process.

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Ready for airbrush repairs. Happy times

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I can do that. I was planning to scan it again anyway after restoration.
It would then just be matter of properly stitching all those scans together, do some final photoshop touch-ups and to remove the transparent non-printed areas from the artwork (wood, inserts).

Finally: airbrush repairs. My favourite part

Blue first. The remaining ball swirl in the blue areas is very visible and there's damage in the logo.

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Damn thin lines...

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That was easy: it appears that the guys at Williams used the same blue from Time Fantasy for Barracora. I still had some colour mix.

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I'm also trying to fix the scratches and post damage in the dithered areas. There's quite a few. Blue first.

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Then black. Slightly humidified to get an idea how it will look once cleared.

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Orange and red next...

Thx!

Change of plan: since black is so dominantly present overall as a background colour I opted to paint that first. There's scratches all over the place.

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Notice that the artwork and the rollover opening don't match in the top left lane. I'll fix this, and while I'm at it I can also correct the alignment in the other rollover lanes and holes.

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Masked and airbrushed.

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Border opacity test on a lightbox.

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Remaining: orange, red, woodtones and whites. And the yellow flame-icon on the face

Woodtones today. Partial airbrush over the damage in the saucers, trying to keep as much original wood as possible. Also repainted all rollover lanes to properly align them.

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I also addressed the yellow flame-icon. Ball swirl and damage is gone. Before-after:

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In my experience, airbrushing the whites is one of the most rewarding parts of a playfield resto. Since quite a few GI light holes are out of alignment, I have opted to airbrush the area completely white for now. I will reproduce the wooden border and black outline afterwards. It's worth the effort imo since some holes remain visible after the plastics are back in place.

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All masked. And airbrushed.

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Happy so far. I think I'm 80% done now. There's some remaining touch-ups in the black areas and then I think I'll have the playfield cleared before proceeding.

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As said quite a few GI light holes were out of alignment. Fixed now. Wood first, black border next.

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The playfield is ready for a protective layer of clearcoat. I'm happy with the progress so far.

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Thanks for the kind words...

Cabinet as such: no. But I can send you a pdf or illustrator file with the stencils if that's of any help. PM me your email address and I'll Wetransfer the file.

Whilst waiting for the playfield I've scanned my plastic set and drew plastic protectors in Illustrator. I created precise vector outlines on the plastic borders whilst adding 2pt extra protection where the ball can hit the plastic.

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Here's a combined file with clear protectors for Defender, Barracora and Quicksilver. Ready to be lasercut from 2mm polycarbonate.

I had some space left and added a few extra protector sets for the slingshots and the center plastic on Quicksilver. And also some clear lane guide sets for Eight Ball Deluxe. Drop me a PM if interested.

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The playfield is back! It was cleared yesterday. I'll let it settle until after the weekend and will then sand it flat for the final airbrush repairs. I'm happy with how things shape up so far.

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This was the second clearcoat session. I still have to do some touch-ups and orange/red repairs. The final clearcoating will happen next.

With the protective clearcoat on the playfield, I consider this the best moment to tackle the bottom side.
Major damage has been filled, including all holes from the wire harness brackets (some were loose) and staples (cleaner).

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2 coats of grey acrylic paint and 1 layer of satin clear applied. It is an improvement

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Here you go...

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Back to the topside. There's some scratches and missing paint chips in the orange and dark red areas. Since they are not adjacent I think it's possible to address them both using the same Frisk mask. Orange first.

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And airbrushed. Createx opaque orange straight from the bottle was a perfect match, too easy

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Enough fun for today. Dark red tomorrow...

Red done.

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That was the final colour. Apart from some very minor touch-ups, the playfield is now ready for final clearcoat. According to my notes I spent about 35 hrs on airbrush repaints and touch-ups, which is a lot more time than I had anticipated in the beginning. Nonetheless I think it was worth the effort.

Here are some before-after shots.

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Drop target area.

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Area above the bumpers.

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Thank you

I'm using a Cricut Air2 to make the masks for the insert borders.

It's been a while since last update. Ouch, I've been terribly lazy lately. My workplace looks the same since two months. I only need a few hours to get the Defender up and running, but even that didn't happen yet

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I hope to get back to work soon, get the Defender out of the way and proceed with Barracora.