This was the last playfield that got a complete repaint. I used water slide decals for all the letters, numbers and the suites for the cards

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The water slide decals have worked well so far. Some day I would like to get a cameo and give it a try.

I cut the stencils for the back box out of poster board. I hope to have time to use them this weekend.

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I painted the blue and orange on one side of the back box. I’m not sure what to say. I think it came out as good as can be expected. There are fuzzy edges like original because I used poster board for the stencil. I’ll give it some time, but my first impression is I prefer the crisp lines from the vinyl stencils.

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I painted the blue on the other side of the box. It didn’t go well. The stencil bowed up as I was putting on the last coat. The triangles are way fuzzier than fuzzy. It looks like I’ll be doing this side again. Not the first time I messed up.

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Thanks for the kind words.

Well I’m back where I started. I did some sanding and several coats of yellow to cover up the blue. In hind-site I should have done a coat of white first but I was able to cover the blue after several coats.

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I finally finished painting the back box and have moved it inside for storage. The poster board stencils produced a less than perfect result. I suspect it was like that originally. Overall I’m happy with the result and have started laying out the stencil for the main cabinet.

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The drawing for the cabinet stencil is done. Hard to see in the picture. I’ll cut it out when I’m ready to paint.

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I’ll fill all the low areas with 2PAC using an eye dropper.

Going backward seems to be normal for my projects. While fastening the playfield to the frame the upper ply in one area peeled up. It has to be about the sixth area I’ve had to repair. After I got that repaired I discovered a crack on the side of the cabinet.

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The colors are starting to grow on me. The back box not the carpet.

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I’m not having any luck with putting the last coat of yellow on the cabinet. Last night I laid it down on its side with the hope it would prevent runs if I went too heavy. No runs but the tiger stripes are just as bad. Not sure how to prevent them, but it looks like I’ll have to try again.

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I need a break from painting so I went back to the back box relay board and refurbed the replay unit. I needed something to go smoothly and it did.

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I got back to painting tonight. It came out much better this time. I still have faint tiger stripes, but good enough.

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I took some time during the holiday to cut out the stencil for the cabinet and spray the orange on one side. I admit it took a few hours to cut the stencil and another two to put all the pieces on the cabinet and spray the orange. Although this is closer to original I did think about Pinball Pimp stencils a couple of times. I hope to find time to spray the blue tomorrow.

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I covered up the orange and removed the blue pieces. Surprising how many weights I needed this time. I had to use a bunch of my sockets besides the weights and tape. I’ll post again after it dries and I remove all the stencil pieces.

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I removed all the pieces of the stencil. I have a few areas that need attention, but not too bad. I’m surprised I have any fuzzy edges considering how many weights I used. Does anyone have a suggestion for the other side?

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I painted orange on the other side. Progress is painfully slow.

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I have blue.

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This side is done. I have a few areas to fix just like the other side. Overall I’m happy with it.

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I finished painting the front. For the first time since using the poster board stencils it came out great.

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My new back glass from BGResto arrived yesterday.

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I finished the back box relay board. All the mechanicals were taken apart and cleaned. I also put on new labels and painted the front.

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Since I have some time off this week I cleaned and painted the original legs. I used Rust-Oleum Almond. It is a very close match the original color. One coat of primer and two coats of Almond paint and they looked great. Naturally I wasn’t satisfied and decided to add some clear for extra protection. Of course I went too heavy and now all four legs have runs. When will I learn to leave good enough alone?

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I sanded the runs off the legs and sprayed two light coats of almond. It came out good this time. I’ll give it a few days and give it a coat of clear.

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For now the back box is done. I went through the mechanics on the board cleaning and labeling everything. I had to replace one coil, but mostly it was just cleaning. The back box was stripped, repaired and repainted using poster board stencils. The inside was coated with polyurethane. The new BGRESTO backglass is still in the box. It’s nice to cross this off the list as complete.

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Thanks for the kind words. I tend to seek out cheap projects and then discover the amount of work involved to fix them. Persistence and attention to detail are my best and worst traits. I’m like a dog with a bone.

Yesterday I finished fixing some of the yellow areas on the left and right side of the cabinet. Not perfect, but good enough. In a week or so I’ll fix the orange. After that I need to make new side rails and then reassemble.

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I’m going to put the cabinet aside for now and start on the playfield. This is what it looks like after removing everything and giving it a good cleaning. I think I’ll start by removing the inserts.

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Removing the inserts was easier than expected. I used my heat gun on the low setting to heat the backside of each insert. When the front side was hot I used a socket, extension and a small hammer to knock them out. The only damage was a small portion of the top ply broke loose in one place. As soon as I find it I can glue it back. There is a lot of glue in each hole that needs removing. Other than that I’m happy.

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I opened the box for my new back glass from BGResto. It’s a huge improvement. He does great work.

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Some before and after pictures.

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These steppers are very sluggish so I will give them a good cleaning.

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Disassembled and ready for cleaning.

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I cleaned all three steppers, painted the frame and made new decals. They are very snappy now and look much better.

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I finished fixing the paint on the cabinet and removed all the paper. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the bottom and inside. The paint isn’t perfect, but it will pass. If I have to do it again I would make stencils similar to the ones from pinball pump. Painting with poster board stencils is harder than I thought. I guess I can’t put off the wood rails much longer. I’m going to try some local lumber yards that make custom trim. Hopefully I can find someone to make them.

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I’m back on the playfield. My next step is to replace all the inserts including the rollover inserts. I was lucky enough to buy new for all of them except for the rollover inserts. After thinking about it for awhile I decided to make them. I used two 1 3/16 inserts of each color. I drilled holes in each; one big and one small. Sanded the edges of the one with the small hole and epoxied them together. I’ll need to add a thin shim in the hole for the button to make it flush, but it should work.

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I installed the new inserts. They make a huge difference. I need to do a thorough prep and then I can apply my first coat of Spraymax 2K. This is the part I’ve been looking forward to.

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I replaced most of the light sockets during the last week. Today I prepped the playfield and put down the first coat of Spraymax. Even with all prep I still got a lot of fisheyes. Oh well they can be fixed.
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I sanded the playfield with 320 grit and filled all the low spots with 2pac using an eye dropper. It looked like a serious case of the mumps. An hour later I applied three coats of Spraymax using the whole can. Today I sanded off the high spots with 220 grit. I still have some low spots, but it’s much better.

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I was hoping to paint the dark blue today. It is masked off and ready to go except I’m waiting on white paint. I want to prime the area with white before the dark blue. I ordered some last week and should get it tomorrow. I printed some photos of a newer playfield that intend to use for my color choices.

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