Broomfield, CO
mrm_4 - how did you paint your saucer black....spray, brush, or both? I like the look and before I put down a hardtop on my MH, I'm thinking of painting mine black as well.
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mrm_4 /
Arcane - looking for advice on how to address this. I had really nasty, dirty ball tracks up the shooter and across the arc at the top of the playfield. Between Novus 2 elbow grease, magic eraser, and sanding down with my orbital I got it to he point where it's nice and smooth to the touch, but traces of the ball track are seen as white (plus in some areas where I sanded, it's also a little white). After wiping down with naphtha, it looks much better but after a few minutes of evaporation, it's back to white. Is wiping with naphtha and indication of how it will look after applying clear? Will applying poly help with the coloration?
Here's what it looks like before naphtha and after it evaporates:
IMG_6445 (resized).jpgIMG_6446 (resized).jpgIMG_6448 (resized).jpg 2 months later
Quoted from mrm_4:Sometimes I forget I own this sexy little She-devil. Might be the bourbon but I felt the need to take a few intimate pics.
So, so very nice. That cabinet interior shot is inspirational....someday, I hope my MH can match it. I'm very happy with how my playfield came out, and I also have a brand new CPR backglass, legs, and levelers. I'm working up the courage to re-do my MH cabinet like yours! I'm going to practice by repairing and painting a Bally SS cabinet next month with a Black Jack project I've been working on. If I screw it up no biggie....I bought it non-working for under $100 and have put only about $75 in it getting the boards, power supply, flippers, and everything else working 100%. 
2 months later
Quoted from mrm_4:Now what in God’s name would I be doing with a sanded down playfield? [quoted image]
Hardtop baby!
Do you have one squirreled away or do you need to wait for Outside Edge to come back online (hopefully next month)? I'm waiting as patiently as I can for them to come back with an EBD...."supposed" to happen later this year.
Quoted from HoakyPoaky:Post many photos of your process because I’ll be very curious, especially if you paint the scoop, apply clear & do the hardtop
HoakyPoaky - I've got a few pictures from my MH hardtop install if
mrm_4 doesn't mind me posting them in his thread. It was the first time I'd done anything like this and I learned a lot. I only tore down the topside and while I sanded the whole playfield, I only removed artwork from around the inserts. I cleared the inserts after wet sanding the scratches out, repaired, painted, and cleared the scoop, and applied polyurethane to the bare wood areas on the apron, arch, and shooter lane before laying down the hardtop. After the hardtop was laid down, I needed to dremel out a couple of dozen hardtop holes that didn't align 100%. I completely disassembled and rebuilt the drop targets (including new targets), rebuilt the flippers, put in new CPR plastics and backglass, and converted to LEDs. Extremely satisfied with the results, both in looks and play (man, it's fast now).
01 - Sanding Down Inserts (resized).JPG02 - Sanding Down Inserts (resized).JPG03 - Ball Track (resized).jpg04 - Original Saucer (resized).jpg05 - Saucer Repair (resized).jpg06 - Saucer Painted (resized).jpg07 - Mased for Clearing Inserts (resized).jpg08 - Clearing Inserts and Saucer (resized).jpg09 - Masked for Poly (Wood) (resized).jpg10 - Hartop Test Alignment (resized).JPG11 - Reassembly (resized).jpg12 - Done (resized).jpg13 - Done (resized).JPGQuoted from mrm_4:Hey @mathazar what did you end up using to fill in the wood for the saucer? Plastic wood or some kind of bondo, also what paint and clear did you use? I was considering just 2Xing the saucer gloss black and using Krylon Crystal clear. I like the poly idea for the barewood.
How’s the saucer holding up? My current playfield is beat the clear couldn’t handle the impact of the ball hitting the backside of the hole.
I used Liquidtex Black Gesso on the saucer, applied with a fine brush. I think I did three coats, then shot it with Krylon Crystal clear. The saucer itself is holding up well after about 200 games, but I must admit the backside of the saucer hole is starting to wear and some very small areas of the original wood is starting to show through there. At the next topside tear down for new rubbers and cleaning (maybe over the Christmas holiday), I was thinking I might touch it up and re-clear it with a different brand rattle can and see if it lasts longer. Or maybe do more than just a couple coats of clear. I'm not brave enough (or equipped) to do 2PAC.
Quoted from HoakyPoaky:Did you paint black edges around your inserts before laying down the hardtop? I haven’t seen that before.
I did at first - I read on a couple of other pinside posts about hardtop installations that it was best to outline the inserts in black because the hardtops don't always align 100% and you don't want bare wood showing through. I found that after painting around the inserts (and letting it dry for several days), the paint would smear with the first coat of clear. I resanded and started over a couple of times, retrying the process each time (with different paints, different dry times, and different rattle can clear). Never could get it to *not* smear so I just took it off and did a test alignment with the hardtop and while many of the screw holes did not align 100%, the insert alignment was great and I chose not to paint the insert outlines. Came out just fine.
2 weeks later
Quoted from mrm_4:Ok so the extreme idea of creating a 3D printed saucer went out the window. Just painted it and cleared.
Now I’m hoping I stumbled across a secret weapon. Time will tell but I’m super impressed with this clear enamel I bought from Ace Hardware. I laid down coats by spraying in 2 passes left to right waited 2 minutes and then up and down probably about 10 times. Waited 2 days, wet sanded with 800 grit, then laid down more. I repeated this entire process 3 times.
This clear coat dries super fast and is sand-able the next day. It levels it self REALLY well. Every time I was done spraying I felt terrible wet sanding but I needed to do it to help level the sunken areas in the wood. I just finished it today and I’m happy with it.
I’m gonna let it cure a couple weeks before I install the hardtop. Then when I do my PF swap the week I’m off for thanksgiving, I’ll give it a wax. But after the final coat I’m not sanding or buffing this. Looks good to me.
[quoted image]
First coat
[quoted image]
After wet sanding
[quoted image]
Final coat from today
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Just checking to see how it looks with the hardtop laid on it. [quoted image]
Wow....that looks fantastic!!
Quoted from mrm_4:And it failed...
I held the ball from half way up the playfield and let it roll and the clear cracked like a windshield. Which really bugs me because I did this drop tests. But I guess as this cures it get really hard and looses flexibility. Glad I figured that out before installing the hardtop.
Back to the drawing board.
Dammit!!!!
2 weeks later
Quoted from mrm_4:That’s installed, there’s not much prep outside of what I’ve already captured. Just got it lined up, clamped it down a little above halfway and peeled back the masking for the bottom. Laid it down then peeled back the top and BOOM! It only takes a few minutes to lay down. I did clean up the insert windows from behind because they were a little cloudy. And I put the pop bumper screws back in before I laid it down.
Ok let’s edit this:
I guess if I list everything I did it would be the following:
Sanded entire playfield
Polished inserts by wet sanding at 2000 grit
Painted the outside edges of inserts that might have the edges exposed
Applied gloss wipe on poly to inserts
Cleared all exposed wood with Ace Hardware clear enamel
Painted and cleared saucer
Damaged the saucer testing cheap clear
Sanded saucer down a second time and reshaped with epoxy
Repainted and cleared saucer with SprayMax 2K
Cleaned all the clear plastic of the hardtop from the back side to remove smudges from handling or extra adhesive from production
Wiped playfield with a tack cloth and sprayed it with duster
Lined it up how I wanted splitting the difference in registration
Clamped it down
Checked registration again
Reclamped
Checked registration again
Reclamped
Checked registration again
Reclamped
Went back to check registration again and yelled at myself for being a perfectionist
Vomited out of nerves
Peeled back the protective layer from the adhesive for the bottom half and laid it down
Then peel the back and laid it down
Then stood back and laughed at how ridiculously easy it was
How did the holes on your hardtop line up with the holes on your playfield? I had 4 holes on my MH playfield that were completely covered and a couple of dozen partially covered. Nothing my dremel couldn't fix, but like you it was my first time through it and I was nervous as hell, but after 20 minutes the dremeling was done and upon reflection really simple to do. I can't wait to do my next one....hopefully Eight Ball Deluxe in December.
4 weeks later
She's looking really sweet once again! Congrats! So what's your next obsession going to be?
I love my MH hardtop - with the complete tear down, drop target/flipper/pop bumper/sling rebuilds she's fast and furious like new. I'm gaining experience and confidence with the Black Jack cabinet restore/repaint I'm doing now that I think my spring project is shaping up to be restoring my MH cabinet next.
Quoted from HoakyPoaky:Paint and then spraymax clear the saucer
Polyurethane the shooter lane and exposed wood areas
Wet sand the inserts to glossy shine, paint insert edges black as needed.
Apply the hardtop
FWIW, that is what I did with one deviation: instead of using Spraymax on the saucer (painted black with Createx), I used Krylon Crystal Clear gloss. It held up well for about 100 plays, but then some of the black toward the bottom back of the saucer started to wear away. Other than that, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The inserts, shooter lane, and exposed wood areas look terrific.
I'm not sure if the black wearing away in that spot is because the clear product I used isn't good enough or if I perhaps didn't get enough layers/coats in that particular area. Either way, I think when I restore the MH cabinet this spring/summer I'm going to repair the saucer and try Spraymax for the clear. I wasn't going to bother with the cabinet, but after having the MH playfield playing and looking like new I want to take the pin the whole way now.
6 months later
There are some die-hard Mata Hari fans out there....myself included. You've got a beautiful machine and I'd have no qualms at starting the price at $2750 and try to hold as tight to that as possible. Another good angle for selling is that you've been thru your machine from top to bottom, inside and out, and I'd wager that as it stands today it's 110% more reliable that most every other Mata Hari out there and as reliable (perhaps even more) than when it was new.
2 months later
Quoted from mrm_4:So Saturday I booted this baby up and went to play a game, waited for it to boot and do it’s opening melody and just as I was about to hit start it rebooted itself. I played 10 games with no problems and even got distracted and left it on for about an hour and it stayed on. What would cause such a random reboot after having no problems for the last 2 years? Connector?
Something must be going around. Twice in the last 4 weeks I've had something similarly weird on my MH (original MPU with NVRAM). I normally keep 10 or more credits on the game, and twice in the last 4 weeks it dropped to 0 without the game being played. I didn't witness it, I just know that the credits were >10 in the morning when I turned it on, and later in the day I went back downstairs to the basement and the credits were at 0. None of the other data normally saved in the NVRAM (high score, scoring thresholds, bookeeping audits, etc) were affected. Just the credits being "reset". Weird.
3 months later
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