I'm just up the coast in the Fraser Valley, I've had no choice but to store games in unheated barns and garages for years, only problems I've ever had is where moisture became a problem, otherwise we don't get cold enough. Just try to avoid any rapid changes in temp or humidity and you should be fine.

Your halfway there with that bulb. An old farmers trick was to put a coffee can over a 100 watt bulb to keep the hen house warm during winter. It technically could work the same for a pin.

Id at least bring the backglass inside.

I keep most of my EM machines in an insulated but unheated building (Ohio). It can get pretty cold some days. Temperature is usually not the problem, moisture is. Cold air is generally drier than warm air. I have a lot more problems with moisture in the summer and often need to run a dehumidifier. So I would say if your not taking any special precautions with it in the summer, it should be fine in the winter.

Some might say that problems arise when the hot bulbs meet the cold glass. I don't play them much in the winter. I wouldn't leave them on for five hours straight but I've never had any issues playing a game or two and then turning it off.

Look online for a piano dehumidifier or dehumidifier rod. These are plug-in metal tubes that get warm and are available in various sizes and watts. Maybe get 2; plug them both in for the dead of winter and keep the other plugged in for the summertime.

I never put one of these in a pinball, but did keep one in my piano in the basement. The darn thing worked for years and years!!!!!! It sat on the wood in the bottom of my piano without issues, but I would suggest securing it in a pinball machine so there was no issue with it contacting anything.

Keep an eye on the temperature in the cabinet. You'd be surprised how much heat a (55W / 60W) bulb can generate. Also, I'd be a bit concerned about the localized heat right around the bulb. It's going to be a lot hotter directly over the bulb compared with the outside corners. You might want to experiment with keeping the coin door cracked a bit to get some air flow and even out the heat.

Moisture and humidity are your enemies. Rapid temperature change can induce the circumstances. But the majority of the time as long as you don’t have the back glass in the elements you will be fine. During significant temperature changes there is always the chance of inserts expanding and contracting at different rates than the wood play field. And thus resulting in loosening either up or down. I live in Vermont where winter in January and February are consistently below freezing. And yet I have purchased machines that have been in peoples uninsulated and unheated Garages for years with no apparent consequences. If you can protect it from the cold great, but if not I wouldn’t worry too much especially in your area.

Thanks
Blake

I guess you don't have a usable basement?

My house is a hair over 1000 sq. ft with a full basement, subtract out the mechanical stuff down there and I've probably got about 900 sq ft. for pins, whatever.

Can you make part of the garage 'part of the house'? i.e. put up a wall and extend your heating/cooling out to it? (2 car garage to 1 car).

That one is in much nicer shape than ours (especially the glass) so I’d try and keep it as safe as possible. I agree that it would be a good idea to get the backbox inside the house.

I dint see the benefit of the bulb in the bottom box unless you’re worried about dampness. I’m that case, use the damp rid stuff or equivalent that is used for boat and RV storage. Too much risk of fire or something with a bulb.

The orange peeling happens sometimes. Let it fully dry and give it another coat and let that dry. Bring the glass inside and store it under a couch or someplace safe that wont move. As suggested above, you can fold the game up and cover with some blankets- If there is a Harbor Freight near you they often times have the 'moving blankets' on sale for cheap and they make a nice cover/wrap for games for your situation. Your machine will be ok as long as you don't keep it out there for 10+ years with no protection. It has prolly seen worse in a bar.

Not uncommon... lots of dirt and grime buildup on backglasses that is extremely hard to remove without further damaging the inks and adhesion... it's risky trying to clean a backglass prior to clearcoating... I think what you have done is par for a 70s EM... I've done a few that look similar.

Play the crap out of it. That’s what it’s for!

That backglass looks good to me
I sprayed ours just before the weather turned cold.
I saved some of the peeling spots, but others were too far gone. I think that I’ve at least stopped further damage. Now I’m on the hunt for a donor glass.

I don't use Triple Thick, so I can't speak to that, but don't believe all the horror stories you read about cold storage. There's no evil demon inside cold air that is set to destroy your backglass. I live in an area that can get pretty darn cold and my machines have survived for 25 years.

The evil demon - Moisture - lurks inside warm air. OK, maybe not so much in the Arizona desert but certainly in Ohio.

Cold air is drier. When you add warm moist air to it, the moisture will be drawn out and cause condensation. Just like it can do to the windows in your house. Rapid, repeated temperature changes can cause moisture problems.

The other problem is expansion and contraction rates of dissimilar material. In this case screen printing ink and glass. If they don't expand and contract at the same rate cracking ink can occur. This is minimized by slowing temperature fluctuation. In my case the temperature changes gradually with the seasons.

I don't play them much in the winter, but I have turned them on, played 2 or 3 games and turned them off to no ill effects. If you're really worried about heat from the bulbs affecting the glass you could always switch them all to #47 bulbs or, better yet LED's.

Put the 55W bulb in lower cabinet, it will keep the whole game dry since the heat will rise up to the backbox. That is a common trick with operators that run their games on the bus with travelling circus.

It isn't bad.

The orange peel appears to indicate the paint reacted to a contaminant on the back side of the glass.

To me, when you use TT, you want to apply it heavy enough, enough coats, so that it floats flat in the clear areas. If you can see any texture in the paint over the windows you could use another coat.

For the areas away from the windows, 3 coats or more should be adequate.

bgresto.com will repair or copy your backglass

Likely you sprayed too thick of a coat and it's lifting where the original ink had weak adhesion.... as it's drying it's shrinking slightly and that's what's pulling up the ink.

The key to triple thicking is thin coats to start and after the triple thick has sealed the glass, then the thick coat if you feel it needs it. Because of the risk of what's happening to yours, I no longer triple thick backglasses that are in decent shape to start with.

Chalk it up as a learning experience. We've all had our mistakes that cost us something, whether it was time or money. You won't make the same mistake twice, and you may save someone else from doing the same. Kudos to you for having the intestinal fortitude to share it with us!

I can't speak to the use of triple thick, but I'd highly recommend you remove the backglass if it is going to get near or below freezing where your machine is kept.

As an example, I kept an older pin in my garage over the winter (in the Midwest) several years back that I was not using and left the backglass in place. When spring came, I turned it on and tested the machine. I found that it worked 100% without any issues in function or appearance. However, the backglass wasn't as lucky. Apparently, the art fully separated from the glass and effectively turned into many, many pieces. Only 10% of the art remained.

If I only took this piece off and stored it in the house, the machine would be have remained perfect. Lesson learned.

KrustyBurger, If you lost 90% of your backglass in one winter, I think there was more at play than just cold storage.
I've had machines in cold storage for 25+ years. I've had outside temperatures that have dipped well below zero and periods where it never got out of the teens for a week or more and I've never experienced anything like that.

Could it have been sealed with something like "Cover Your Glass" that Steve Young used to sell?