I'm actually doin it right now. I decided to try this first before buying a set.

It's taking a while, but it's not hard. Still have yet to see if I will be happy with them or not.

I am a third generation art metal worker and I can tell you the kind of work you are talking about doing is really hard.

The problem is by pounding on the metal you end up stretching the metal so you will end up with a bulge/ripple depending on which way the extra metal goes. You already have this problem caused by the original dent.

Honestly, to get things looking perfect it would take less time to make from new sometimes. Normally when I screw up and put a hard dent/crease into something I will look at making a new one, because in the end I may spend as much time or more to repair compared making new.

If you are going to try this make sure your hammer is perfectly polished (the face better look like a new pinball in smoothness) and does not have any sharp edges or you can make things worse really quickly. Think light hits, you don't want to stretch the metal and work around the crease edges, don't hit on the crease. Hope that makes sense. Look up terms like "shrinking sheet metal" for tips.

Take a look at auto body repair, this is a classic repair problem. Your problem is that you can't fill in the dent with body filler and paint over it all to make it look right.

Best of luck.

Powder coat them. You'll never notice the dents when they are done.

What ninja said, or just get out the bondo body filler and fill in the dents like you would with a car, sand and break out the can of spray paint.

Find any of the piles of websites that focus on at home auto body repair for how to do this.

Depends on the game. Choosing the right colour of powder coat can really add to the feel of the game. I put that $hIt on everything. I polished a set once, they turned out really good.

You might have luck using some kind of rolling pin (maybe steel round weight lifting weights) and a nice smooth table. I did this with some success but it was less than perfect and I had just put new decals on so I bought a new set.

Yeah, in an update to my post.... They are looking a lot better, but not the quality I was hoping for.

I will be buying a new set.

I wonder about paintless dent repair techniques. My father in law is a body man of 40 years with mad skills. I'll have ask him about this.

Brian

Did you try Doug Huse at
http://www.letsplaypinball.com/index.html
I got a set from him earlier in the year.

I have 30 years in performing paintless dent removal. Planes, refrigerators, brass horns, motorcycle tanks, you name it. I can get a dent out of anything. Try local PDR techs. Or you can try glue pulling but be careful.

Yeah but have you done stainless steel rails on a pinball machine? I do not see that on your list. I wanna see this done with glue pulling.

OK, here's the deal. Dent guys always say they"get a dent out of anything" does't mean shit. I apologize for my bold statement. got to examine a bunch today (thanks Eric) and glue pull is out. If was removed and prepped with the right tool, it could be improved 75% . So bottom line, it could never be cost effective. I'll stick with cars thank you. I'll gladly advise those with hail damage or door dings.

But here is an item some detailers used but the tubes got clogged all the time. I adapted one to clean dirty playfieds.

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