You a pilot?
Whistling Death

I am still learning the airbrush so it will be a while before I feel real comfortable with it. I am actually looking for a real bad playfield so I can just do all kinds of work on it to practice different techniques.

2??????? You inbox is gonna be full of people wanting to buy one.
Took me 3 1/2 years to find this one.

What kind of shape are they in?

Everything worked out so I was able to Clear the playfield today. I am really happy with the results. I will let is cure for 48 hours and then I will wet sand it and see where I am and how level the surface is. With the insert text being vinyl I might have to put one more layer of clear on it.

Here is a picture after the mist coat and first heavier coat was put on. Look at that shine.
playfield coat 2.jpg

Here are a couple of shots after the clear.
playfield 1.jpgplayfield 2.jpg

Here are some shots of the specific areas that I profiled earlier.

Pop bumper rings.
pop rings.jpg

Out Lane
outlane.jpg

Green railroad track inserts.
tracks.jpg

Green insert and 50K
green insert.jpg

Square Inserts
right inserts.jpg

Round inserts and text
5 inserts.jpg

I also picked up the backbox and paint today. The paint that I had matched earlier was close but not perfect so they had me bring the backbox and paint back and they worked on it some more. When I got there today they showed me 3 spots that they put on the back and top of the backbox and I could not see where they painted so I am really looking forward to working on the cabinet. If you need cabinet paint matched I can highly recommend Sherwin Williams. Just too bad you cant buy a smaller amount of it.

I appreciate the comments. I am very happy with the results so far.

I use Finish1 by Sherwin Williams. A friend of mine that also restores machines uses it and we have been happy with the results. We have covered paint, water slide decals and vinyl with no issues.

It is all surface oil based enamel. We also did a test on this paint and our clearcoat covers it with no problems.

Not a big update but I did sand the playfield today. I was hoping that maybe I could wet sand it and not have to clear again but I decided that I took enough clear off especially around the vinyl text that I will go ahead and clear a final time. The surface is super flat not and I could probably get away without clearing again but I feel the clear covering the vinyl text is pretty thin. I think a final clear will add the extra protection and allow for a good wet sand the playfield to make it perfectly flat. Its really starting to shape up.

Sanded and ready for final clear.
playfield.jpg

Flat Flat Flat.
ball view.jpg

I hope to start working on the cabinet this weekend or next week.

Wow. A spare playfield, that's doesn't happen too often. How is the clear on your spare playfield. Mine had a lot of cracking It. With the sanding and clearing it is looking teally good. What shape is your original in?

I actually suggested to CPR to see if they could get MJF permission to repro the playfield and backass with him on it and then donate a portion of the proceeds to his charity. I think it would be a huge hit if MJF would agree to it. They didn't seem Interetested. I have an idea I am working on though. We will see how it turns out.

I have not tried that yet. I usually wet sand the final coat to remove any imperfections and then buff out. I still consider myself learning so I am not an expert by any means.

Well, The weather and my work schedule keep getting in the way so I have not been able to get the playfield clear coated yet. Since I couldn't do that I started working on the cabinet and some of the other assemblies and the ramp.

The cabinet had some chips out of it and some side rail dents in the backbox. The first thing was to glue the backbox wood back together.
backbox clamp.jpg

Then I had to fill the missing wood edges with epoxy wood filler.
cab back putty.jpg

Here are a couple of pictures of the sanded areas of both the backbox and cabinet.
cab.jpg dent 1 sanded.jpgdent 2 sanded.jpg

There are more areas to do but I am gonna make sure the paint I got matched works on the cab before I have to blend it on a visible surface. I will end up painting the entire front of the backbox.

I worked on the playfield backboard and I am trying some new flexible LEDs that will direct the light forward so it should be a vibrant illumination. As you can see I have 2 different colors. I put 4 cool white and 4 red in there. I thought it might look cool when the letters light up they are red. I will see what it looks like and make my decision.
backboard.jpg

I also took the speaker panel apart and put in purple and yellow LEDs. I used purple in my Congo and it was a very rich color. I think it will make the speaker panel pop.
speaker panel center.jpg

I also started working on the ramp. I decided to go ahead and order a decal set as I want the game to be as nice as possible and as you can tell from the pictures, the ramp corner decals were not lined up right and look like crap. A couple others were not lined up either. A couple of domes have some edges coming up so I will replace those too. I will probably only use the ones that I need and save the others.
ramp big.jpgramp left corner.jpgramp right corner.jpg

Took the ramp flaps off and they had some rust pits off. I worked and buffed them out and they look pretty nice. Now I have to decide if I am going to turn them blue again or clear them and leave them silver.
ramp flap.jpg

Going out of town Wednesday for three days so I hope to get the playfield cleared and start the cabinet touch up early next week.

Got my decals in and decided to strip the ramp today and put the new decals on. This was about as fun as working on pop bumpers but it has to be done.

Here are a couple of pics of the original decals. Chewed up and not aligned very well.
decal 1.jpgdecal 2.jpg

Before removal, I used some blue mask on the top of the ramp to mark the placement of some of the decals so I can get them back exactly where they were.
blue tape.jpg

No the fun part. Pulled the decals off pretty easy. Just like mylar, the glue was left. I use TR-60 and flour and it takes the glue off without damaging the surface.
glue removal.jpg

Here al the decals are removed and you can see the decals that I marked for placement.
dcals removed.jpg

I normally use a vinyl application fluid to put decals on but I have heard about people using Windex so I decided to try one like that. I did not really like it as the decal moved almost too easily. It was hard to wipe down and get the bubbles out without moving the decal all over the place. With my application fluid you can move the decal when its really wet but as soon as you make a swipe with your damp cloth, it is not going anywhere. Then you can work all the bubbles out and it sets pretty fast. There may be a better trick but this is just my first time observation. Here is the ramp with all decals applied.
finished.jpg

Planning to do the final clear application tomorrow.

Finally got the final clear on the playfield. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I will let it dry for 48 hours and then do some light block sanding and then buff it out for the final shine.

Here are a few pics of the playfield.
full.jpglow.jpgmid.jpgupper.jpg

Here is a pic without the light glare.
back.jpg

Yes. I have a few things planned but I have never seen one of those. That would look cool on the right side pink area.

I have 3 different very detailed deplore and that I will experiment with when done. I also have a plan for a topper that should be pretty cool

I agree that it has to be done right and add something to the machine. I don't add toys just because. Of the 17 machines I have the only one I have added anything too is F14.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f14-airplane-and-afterburner-mod

I was able to get the final clear on the playfield Monday. I wet sanded the playfield starting with 1500 to take out any minor defects and then worked up to 3000 grit to get ready for final buffing.

Here is a picture of the playfield after the final clear was wet sanded.
sanded.jpg

I used a high speed buffer and Treasure cove polishes and some Meguiars final polish. Here are three pics of the playfield using a flash to try and keep the glare down to show the colors.
low.jpgmid.jpgupper.jpg

Here is a picture of the playfield showing the shine. Hey, is that a garage door on my playfield?

garage.jpg

Thanks. I have several DE games and love them all. Now if I could just find a project GNR.

Its been a few days since an update. I have been working but have been able to get some things done between.

I was able to get the ramp totally rebuilt and ready to install. All decals are new except the top of the 3 light blocks on each side. I have new decals and will make the decision after I put it on the game if I need to cut new plastic and use the decals. The originals look pretty good so I may keep the new ones for future use.
ramp.jpg

A few days ago I was able to do my test paint on the corners of the Cabinet that were filled. The paint was thinned with 10% mineral spirits and the paint was airbrushed. I think the paint was still a little to thick and will use 15% for the back box. I am pretty happy with the results. There is still a little blending to do but overall I think it worked pretty well.
cab before.jpgcab after.jpg

Today I was able to paint the Inside, front and top of the back box. The before pictures are earlier in this thread. I used black primer due to the darker color of the blue paint.
back prime 1.jpgback prime 2.jpg

Once the primer was dry I sprayed the first coat of blue. I hope to spray the second coat tomorrow. I think two coats will cover very nicely.
back after 1.jpg

You can see a little of the black primer showing through. I think the second coat will cover this very well. I also need to use a little better lighting as it was hard to see how even the paint was going on. I went and bought new bulbs for my 500 watt shop light after I was done.
back after 2.jpg

When I started this project I had planned on just touching up the lower cabinet and painting the back box as shown followed by some hand touchups on the scratches. My detail half of my brain is trying to talk me into clear coating the entire cabinet and then restoring all the blue followed by clear coat. I am leaning this direction now as I want this machine to look as good as possible. I am in the process of making a paint booth and it all works out I will have a place to do this kind of stuff. I will let you know what I decide to do.

I was able to get my paint booth made today and the second coat of paint on the back box. I bought a new set of paint guns at Harbor Freight and I thought I would give the detail gun a try today. I am really happy with the results. It put down a real even coat of paint.

Here are the Guns.
guns.jpg

Here are some after shots of the back box. You can see that the sheen is really even with good coverage.
bb 1.jpgbb 2.jpg

Here are some shots of the paint booth that I constructed. Its really easy to set up and I can put it together in 20 minutes. Here is what I used.
10x10 foot canopy
2 rolls of 10x25 plastic
2 fans and filters
9x12 painters canvas
kit.jpg

Here are a couple showing it ready to go. The exhaust fan vents right outside the garage. After I was done painting I turned the fans on and when I checked it 15 minutes later I could not smell a thing inside so it vented the air really well.
booth.jpgfan.jpg

I have been using another gun for clearcoat but I will be testing this gun out on clearcoat in a couple of weeks. They seem to be very nice guns and dont feel cheap. I was very happy with the small gun. I have to head to Dallas for some recurrent training so wont be able to work on anything until the second week in March. Darn job is getting in the way of my hobbies. Wait, I guess its paying for them though.