Here is a pf that I have never had the pleasure to work on, and I love it! I dont know the fella that made this, but he gets 2 thumbs up for his art and design. The girl, the colors, the deep colored inserts. The only thing I would change is make that a pack of Lucky's in her hand. That would be extremely cool.
I included a pic of the original pf off of the IPDB. I have not seen a BG that goes with this, but if it just had the girl riding the rocket, it would be awesome! Anytime a pin up is riding or straddling something phallic... well I am a fan! If you have a pic of the BG please post it here for me.
It appears that this pf is sealed/cleared similar to the way Wade does his: A coat of lacquer or polyurethane is screened across, as the final screen. I think wade does at least 2 coats on his and that is still super thin. Its as thin as the ink used.
so I have to be super careful, when I sand these for prep, but this one has an issue I am not sure I can fix, or to what extent. Luckily, this belongs to my dear friend tommy skinner, who is easy to please. Tommy is the fella who does my website, and in return, I am his pf man. (there is a song in there somewhere)
I did an apprenticeship in a custom cabinet-makers shop 25 years ago, and this happens more often that I wish. Wood is such an unpredictable organic material. This plywood that pf makers use is cabinet wood, which means it has a super thin laminate glued on top of regular plywood. If you think about how they make laminate, you will understand why it happens. I sell my walnut trees to a mill that makes laminate, and they put the log on a lathe, spin it and get the gum wood off, that is the white wood around the outside (where most of the water goes up the tree), and then slice sheets as big as they can that are the thickness of construction paper. Its a beautiful procedure, and the operation I saw was an unbelievably expensive, super sharp, super thin, long blade, and it peals off the outside like a potato. They keep the sheets in order because when we made expensive cabinets we needed the wood grain to match if there is a seem, or even if not a seam. I never really thought about it, but if the mill making the plywood and applying the laminate had an acct with a pinball manufacture, it would be a great way so sell the sections that dont match or the grain runs a funny way, since its going to get inked. Either way pf makers pay a lot for the wood. I havent been told the price since before covid, so no idea how much now.
One of my jobs at the cabinet shop was to glue down laminate sheets that were chosen, which was a neat job. The the glue smell was harsh for even me.
So what we are dealing with on this pf is the laminate has split up. When they cut laminate i think they did it when it was still very wet so that it was pliable. sometimes it gets glued down and then dries, or gets moved to a dryer environment, and when wood dries, it cracks and splits. Even though the whole underside is covered in glue and stuck to the pf. I think the sheets that were made on the outside of the log, were more prone to this. I have forgotten so much from that experience I shouldnt be trying to explain it. Its an organic material. It was alive, and dynamic, it moves, changes, reacts.
It was common that a couple months after installation, we would get a door returned with cracked laminate. If you imagine it is just stained the cracks can range from looking "organic", to a split that you can put your finger nail in. many people griped when it was just a slight issue of appearance, but we often got people complaining if the doors didnt all match perfect in tone as well as grain (which is impossible).
The first thing that comes to mind for repair is sand it smooth. Problem is the laminate is so thin that you can either make the crack wider, or easily sand right thru it. On this pf the laminate cracks are on a dark color so they really show. If it were a light color it wouldnt. so rather than block sanding this flat as I normally do I have to sand it with non blocked sandpaper. I will build up the clear to level out the surface, but down under the clear the cracks will still be there. I am interested to see how well or much they show. If they were cracks that were open, I can make it disappear easier than puckered like these. If I sand thru and hit ink I am going to be in big trouble, because the back ground on this is huge, and there are no natural borders to it from key lines or other color edges (for repaint of that area).
So it will be a challenge, and thats what I do for a living, fix up pfs. Not roll doobies.
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Galesburg, MI
Ramstein-miesenbach
Barrie, ON
Auckland, NZ
