That is a great idea... Hadn't thought of it before. I will definately consider going this route. Thanks!

In case you were wondering... I'm in the middle of touching up the playfield right now, color by color. Started with black. Continued with turqoises. Red, pink, yellow, white and orange will follow. A slow proces, because I want to do it right. And because I just don't have much time.

The blue demon looks a lot better than he did

After the black and turqoise of the past update, the past days I've focused on red, orange and light pink.

The red on the playfield was a great match straight from the bottle; no color mixing needed there. Orange was more difficult. Had to mix bright orange with a bit of brown there. Light pink was the most difficult color to match. I had to mix three different colors of paint to get a close enough match to the pink of the playfield.

The problem area in the picture is starting to look pretty good again, with its new coat of light pink. The bad news is that I will have to make this mix again when I continue working on this playfield: there are more light pink areas that need to be touched up...
the pink color comes from these three bottles...

Slowly but surely...

She's ready for her first layer of clearcoat! touch ups are done!

I'll be using Spraymax 2K clear from a rattle can. Couldn't recommend it more. I've had some very nice results on some of my other machines using it.

http://www.safonov-autolack.com/spray/klarlack/2k_klarlack/standox/standox_2k_klarlack_kristall_pro_k9040_hochglaenz_elastsch_spraymax_400_ml_020841304e_i186_51850_0.htm

Layer 1 and 2 of the clearcoat (= 1 can of Spraymax) are done and drying as I post this.

These first layers fill the planking that occurs in some parts of the playfield. The later layers will make the clearcoat nice and flat.

the product used
drying...
drying...
the clearcoat fills the planking

Thanks @mgpasman! I'm extremely glad that the first layers of clearcoat went on as I hoped they would. It's definately one of those nailbiting moments.

Almost forgot to mention: I put some fresh caps and potmeters on the Squawk and Talk and the Solenoid Driver a few weeks ago.

fresh caps!

Thanks so much for your constructive critisism on my spelling! Always welcome. Now, back to work:

Today, I wetsanded the playfield with some 400 grit sanding paper. This makes the playfield more even. Also, it makes the next layer of clearcoat attach better.

The sanding made part of the damage to the turqoise devil guy resurface. After sanding, I touched that part up again. Finally, it was time for the next two layers of clearcoat. I'm hoping that the clearcoat will be thick and even enough after one more round of clearing...
Sanding the playfield. Note the damage on the devil's face
drying...
shiny!
Stay tuned!

Thanks guys! Yeah, I love the playfield artwork as well. Actually, this machine as a whole has the ability to turn heads. The cabinet looks great. The mirrored backglass, when clean, really pops. My goal with this clearcoating process is to make the playfield pop as well.

I'm finally done clearing the playfield! Today, the third and last can of Spraymax went on. The field now shines like never before. It does have dust specks here and there.

When the clearcoat is dry, the next step is to lightly sand the playfield for one last time. This will flatten it even more and make the dust specks go away. After that, I'll be polishing like crazy until the shine returns.

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After the final clearcoat, I've wetsanded the playfield with 600, 1200 and 2500 grit paper. It's nice and flat now and all the dust specks are gone. After the 2500 grit, the shine is starting to return. It is however not nearly as shiny as I want it to be, yet.

Also, I've painted the wooden slats that go on the sides of the playfield (do these have a name?) in a nice glossy black.

Next step will be cleaning the sanding residue from the playfield holes. After that, I'll be polishing this playfield until it shines brightly again.
a flat but hazy finish

Right, so the playfield holes were all filled with dusty residue from the sanding process. I cleaned this with cotton buds and a small knife. A tedious job, but in the end most of it went away.
a really shitty job
After this, it was time to let my drill and Meguiar's DA Power System do the dirty work. This is needed to make the hazy clearcoat after the sanding job of my last post look shiny again. First with Scratch X 2.0, later with Ultimate Compound.
the setup
This brought back a -lot- of the shine to the playfield.
awesome results
The last step before the rebuild will be a final polish of the playfield, to get a glass-like finish. Again with help of the DA-system. Stay tuned!

And... it's polished! Here's a low light photo to show the crazy shine this playfield has got now. Check out those rain drops in the reflection of the window on the playfield.

Not Photoshopped!

mirror-like

The rebuild has started! I installed minty fresh drop targets today and cleaned their assemblies while I was at it.

Is it just me or are Bally drop target assemblies far more complicated than their counterparts from other manufacturers?
new pearly whites

Thank you! And... what are you waiting for?

Restored and installed the pop bumpers today. The rings have been in the tumbler and so have all the other small metal parts.
restored pops

I've also started to clean the other assemblies. And I've changed the flimsy fuse holders underneath the playfield for some high quality ones.
old and new
Now the wait is for the Noflix Plus leds I've ordered to arrive...

Thanks for the heads-up! I appreciate that.

According to the manufacturer, Noflix Plus leds should work fine in early electronic games. They claim this here: http://www.pinball.center/en/custom/index/sCustom/58
If they don't work or look right, I'll just switch back to incandescent bulbs and have a nice stash of leds for my other games.

Thank you! I'm really happy with the results so far. Too bad I have too little time to make big steps into finishing this project.

You might be fine if you leave the holes sludgy in between coats. The final cleanup will probably be a bit harder though, as the clearcoat might make the sludge 'bond' together. I'm not sure.

I did clean the holes a bit in between layers, but not thouroughly. After the final layer of clear, I only cleaned them once more: after the final round of polishing.

All coil assemblies have been cleaned and re-assembled. Very necessary, because they were dirty as hell. The linear Bally flipper assemblies aren't popular, but I'm keeping them in and will see how they perform. With new plungers, links, nyliners, coil sleeves, coil stops and switches, of course.
the dreaded Bally linear flipper mech
The pop bumpers now have new bumper caps installed.
fresh caps
I've also installed red translucent Medusa flippers with orange bands, to give the machine an extra badass look. How do you guys like them?
a break from the norm

I had this thursday and friday off, so I had some time to put into the Fireball II project. First, the playfield was transferred into the cabinet. To my surprise, both the mpu and the squawk & talk were dead, so I took a Stern M-200 mpu and modified it to accept eproms. After that, it fired right up. No sound yet though.

After that, I installed the NoFlix Plus leds in the machine. They work perfectly, as advertised. No ghosting or flickering whatsoever. Very happy with that.

Cleaned and installed the posts, put some fresh silicone bands around them and cleaned the plastics.

led'ed out

The playfield may look complete in the picture, but it isn't quite yet. I still have to install a small amount of hardware on it.

Thanks guys! It's great to see how people enjoy the documentation of a pin resto. Makes the hard work so much more worth it.

You're of course all invited to come and play the finished product. Not quite there yet, though...

Fellow FBII owners, I need your help! It just occurred to me that my FBII is missing the one way gates between the inlanes and the outlanes. At first, I thought I might have lost them. But judging from the first picture in this thread, they were actually not there when I bought the machine.

Can anybody send me some good close up pictures of these one way gates? Or, better yet, does anybody have some they want to sell me?

I just realised that I never actually posted any pictures of the finished product in this thread! Well, better late than never, I guess. For closure.

The machine has been at my friends place for about a year and a half. He didn't have the space for it anymore, so I got it back about a month ago.

This is the first time I got some decent play on it and I have to say: Fireball II is a great Classic Bally! I'm happy to have in the collection.

Here's two pictures. I might take some more fancy ones later on.

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