(Topic ID: 175214)

Cabinet paint for 1958 Bally Bowler

By miatawnt2b

7 years ago


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    #1 7 years ago

    I am starting to restore a 1958 Bally All-Star Bowler that needs some cabinet work. Wanted to get some opinions on what to do. I really need to replace the bottom door at the back of the cabinet. It's had some water damage and the plywood is badly delaminated. The rest of the cabinet while it still has paint is badly flaking. So I think I have a couple options...

    1. Shoot the cabinet as-is with polycrylic and seal in the flaking orig paint. Replace the bottom door and paint it as close to the orig paint as possible.
    2. Strip and restore the whole cabinet trying to match up the orig paint as best possible.

    Now I have really no idea how to go about getting the orig look of the Bally paint. It's a textured taupe color with blue fleck. It almost looks like a rust-oleum stonecraft paint.

    Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas? My initial reaction is option 1. It's only original once, and this preserves that. I don't at all mind the paint not being perfect. That said, since I have to replace some wood on the back, How do I paint it and get it to match decent enough? It's not super critical that it's 100% since it's the back of the cabinet.

    Thoughts?

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    #2 7 years ago

    Hi
    Don't have that game, but the paint looks simple enuf.
    matching color is gonna be fun... cause you don't just have old paint...
    you have old FADED paint. where you gonna find a can of faded paint?
    the option is yours, If it was me, I would strip and repaint the whole thing.
    not orig, but matches.
    and even if the color is not exact, how is anybody gonna prove it?

    #3 7 years ago

    Another thing to consider, taupe did not exist back then.
    it was orange, white, and blue...
    and almost nobody has real orig colors anymore.
    folks are too fussy. they want fu fu colors now.
    makes it even harder to match. imho.

    #4 7 years ago

    Yea, This is an easy cabinet as far as most others I've seen. It's a textured paint though, and I'm not sure if it can even be reproduced without coming up with some one-off method. That's why I'm wondering if it's just best to preserve.

    #5 7 years ago

    Yes, Bally Skill Roll has similar paint and I've wondered if anyone has successfully replicated the speckled look/effect:

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    1 week later
    #6 7 years ago

    My $0.02:

    Please keep the paint as is. It is the patina and it is the history of your game - every sweaty touch of every player going for a personal high score is embedded in that surface. At a minimum - since you have expressed doubts yourself - how about deferring the cabinet repaint question until you have completed all other elements of your restoration? Then, if it seems the right thing to do, you can repaint the cabinet. (I hope not.) My take on the game is that the paint looks very nice, with just a bit of wear-through on the front. The wood rails and legs look amazingly good. That is a great game and I hope you post a lot more photos of it. I'm big on "original fabric" and feel that natural wear (not abuse) should be celebrated and enjoyed. I like a game that looks like it's enjoyed a pretty easy 60-year life, not one that came off the factory line last week. Many - perhaps most - disagree, and will do amazing recreations of the factory-new look, but I'll be the angel on your shoulder whispering to keep the game as original as possible.

    #7 7 years ago

    Have a suggestion. I just re-did a Williams Alley Cats shuffle bowler. Yeppir paint was faded no doubt but the graphics were in pretty decent shape. Just need to fix all the scrapes and divots and she would look very acceptable given her age. So what i did was to take part of the game into my local Ace Hardware and had then color match the faded paint was damn near perfect. I had hopes that it might just be OK but it was better than OK if you were to look at the machine today you would have no idea unless you had a NOS unit sitting right next to it.

    Just a thought.

    By the way there are a few guys on a thread that I started for shuffle/skee/bowler that have older games like this and maybe worth a post there to see if one of them who already owns a vintage game like yours could help.;

    #8 7 years ago

    I had written and posted prior but it never appeared so take two. I did touch up on the coin door and some on cab using the paint you mention(Stone craft) and then added the color flecks w/a brush and acrylic paint. Touch up was on bottom left and top left of coin door and 1 or 2 other spots. The pic does not do the result justice. I don't have the before/after pics to show anymore unfortunately. It came out great.(I thought anyway : ) It was a bit of practice to get the right texture and thickness. To do a whole cabinet may be a different story.

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    That is not touch up by the ball release handle.

    #9 7 years ago

    That is one beautiful piece of art. Wouldn't mind having this piece in my collection. Great find.

    1 week later
    #10 7 years ago

    Well i decided after long debate to refurb the cabinet and repaint. Heres what i came up with as a reproduction paint job.
    The paint and cab was really in too bad shape to keep it. I know the pics dont look bad, but the cabinet was cracked and the paint was flaking off every time you touched it.
    I tried to reproduce the base off white with blue fleck. It looks good, just not sure its reproduction quality.

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    1 week later
    #11 7 years ago

    Figured id post an update. Started painting graphics this evening

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    #12 7 years ago

    Looks very good.

    Rather have this in my collection than a poor paint flaking version any day, that is not patina to me. Are you going to re-lacquer the side rails etc?

    #13 7 years ago

    The wood was not laquered as far as i can tell. I hit the wood with a light sanding and rubbed them with danish oil.
    -J

    #14 7 years ago

    very nice work! congrats.

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