Thanks buddy

One of the products, I really like for cleaning a pf every couple months, is meguires quick wax. Its a spray bottle. I keep my microfiber towels in a zip loc inside the game (that keeps dust off them, and keeps them clean). I use it liberally, meaning i purposely over spray on to the plastics and the ramps. It cleans and slicks everything up. I am posting this because I just remembered how much I liked it after spraying the quick wax on the metal wire-forms (both painted and chrome)
Once you get ball lines that wont come up with the quick wax, regular car wax (what they call wax has no wax. its a polish with a cleaner) I use meguires, I think its called gold class or something like that. For that application I use a cotton towel. Then when I am done, I will spray a coat of the quickwax over the area to blend the areas I did and didnt do with the "wax". This procedure is for both regular pfs as well as cleared .

I have not, but I am always interested in something better

After I am done polishing a pf, and I am happy with how it looks, I take it home and put it in the living room. I wait until I have 3 or 4 in the house and I lay out the drop cloth in the tv room, watch cartoons and run a damp cloth thru every little hole. Even the little ones of the side rail screws. I feel lucky when it is older models because they have less holes. Sys 11 and dmd take over an hour. I can do this Viking in 35-40 minutes.
I almost always forget to take shots of planks before they go out, but I remembered this time.
CPR did a good job on this Viking. Yes the laminate was detached and coming up in one place, and the star roll-over insert was choked with clear, but the pf looks good.
The Quicksilver is the second I have finished with Mircos new clear process. He clears the pf first, then cnc's the holes. This makes for a perfectly flat clear which is good... BUT. The edges of all of the cuts are sharp enough to cut your finger if you wanted to do so. Here is what comes to mind with this finish: when the ball travels over things like slits of the roll-over wire switches,its going to chip up the edges. Since the clear is not sprayed over the edge on to the vertical side, you are going to have some problems. Also, I dont know what is going on with the shooter lane, but they are not sanded, and with the stock clear, I think it will wear and look bad immediately.
This is all my opinion, and I am not being negative at all, only critical, as if I am writing a yelp post. Actually those suck and dont serve much purpose. Mirco seems to always be tweeking his process, trying new things and changing what needs to be done, so I bet this will evolve. After all it is a production finish. There is no way they could spend 30 hours in the clear and expect to stay in business

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Here is the quicksilver.
I am really happy mirco made this title. Without a backglass you can get this game cheap. If you are going to do a resto, you would prob buy a backglass anyway. Once the pf is installed, its going to look like a work of art, and play like lightning (oh that's another stern title). I really hope he continues to make more stern and gottlieb titles.

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I dont have any experience in using a sharpie on a pf except to put a name. I have not put much thought in to it but I dont recommend. I am guessing you are talking black? if that is the case, and you want do to a touch up with the pf in the cab, clean the surface with a solvent to get the wax off, and use a gloss black oil based paint. If you rough it up a little it will last even longer. That testors model paint is oil based.
quick fix I guess

Have a good holiday weekend!

With the weather and humidity soo dang hot I am getting some paint work done. I dont have a music in the shop, which I never even noticed until i got this 1970's Marantz Quad set up at my house. Now I need music on constantly, and I have become a full on music snob. Reminds me of people that used to ask me "do you actually like that beer" when I would get a nice cold high life or PBR.
Anyhoo. Here is a NOS flight 2k that is way behind schedule, on account of leveling inserts and painting them. Now they are ready to paint. The pf is on my light table, so I can make sure no light is peaking out of the dark colored insert key lines.

NOTE: the top biggest bonus insert is a lighter blue than the others. On my repro all of them are the same. Can anyone chime in that has an original, if their big bonus insert is lighter than the others?

You may notice that the actual inserts dont always stay in the key lines. On every insert I have to draw an inside and outside line. so a perfect circle twice on each insert. This pf is loaded with them! Painting inserts is not bad work at all. Better than digging ditches!

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DE star wars is still available!
email is [email protected]

I got a good letter this morning from a fella who is doing a pf swap with a stock repro pf. He is very concerned because the pf is getting scratched up just from the installation, and he is worried, whats it going to look like when a ball rolls on it.
I dont know the guy's age or experience or anything like that, but sometimes I have to remind folks that the type pf clear I do, are an idea that I have nurtured, cultivated, developed to meet what I want from a pf, and what my expectations are, and it has progressed down the line. For the most part a pinball machine is a tool to earn quarters,(hence the coin slot) and like all tools that earn, it depreciates. (as does the pf)

I get asked all of the time, why the heck would someone pay you 600$ to reclear a pf that has a new "perfect" clear all ready. If I am in the mood and have the time I will try to explain about how pinball machines started as an amusement coin op entertainment. In fact many of us are attracted to the fact that they are that, we like that they have coin slots that were used (or meant to be used) and its always cool when a non pin person comes over and sees the machines that you have "IN YOUR HOUSE?". So at their core, they are a quarter earner. That's where the bar is set for the most part when it comes to building the games and the pf. If you want something the looks extra-ordinary, plays extra ordinary, and keeps that look for a long time (decades), well that is the product I have been developing.
My process takes about 30 man hours, and over 13 weeks! I use about 20$ of sand paper per job. None of this can be done on a mass-production level. Its good they dont, because it allows people who dont care if it looks amazing for a decade to be able to afford them. You can add cost and extras depending on what is important to the individual.
Its not realistic to expect a finish that I charge 600 for, on a pf that cost 900. Also on a production pf or a nos pf, it will start showing wear the first game you play. Its a fact.

I am not saying any of this as a smart ass or know it all. I think in the pursuit of wanting to do our very best work, and also using a restoration as a form of personal expression, we forget what we are dealing with. Also, in general products we spend hard earned money on, often disappoint when just a little quality would go as long way.

So I thought this space rider was done and I was polishing it, and I noticed it was not what I wanted, so I cleaned all of the polish out of the holes and sanded and recleared. This is what it looks like before I block sand it going from 600-3000 then polish with different grit compounds, then clean. It looked so good to me I just wanted to take a couple pics. they didnt come out well, and the battery died after 5 shots because its flip phone from 2010-12 I think.
If you dont know this is the alt pf for h. globetrotters. I have alt pfs for this, matta hari, and KISS
This pf actually belongs to tommy "2 knuckles" skinner

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That game and even that pic makes it look like a real fun house ta a carnival. FH is an expensive game to restore (relative) but the rule set is amazing, so many shots. One of the best games ever made.
Thanks for posting that pic. Inspired me to get back to work! ha

Here is some pics that do not do the pf any justice at all. crap phone. oh well

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Inside the shop

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I should mention that John Greatwich made the stargazer pf as well as the seawitch. So in the future if someone searches those titles they will find my crappy pics

oh good idea, I will work on that, thank you

I took some pics of some paint work I was working on yesterday. The first is a mirco IJ. I have been letting it cure for about 2 months now. The inserts were moving quite a bit at first. Now they have not moved any more in about 2 weeks or so. several of the inserts cracked the ink and clear at the edge of the insert. In this one which is ij3 it was only 3 inserts, super j.p. chose wisely and rope bridge. I also reglued the effected inserts from behind.
2 of the 3 ij pfs I have in the shop now have the glitter around the inserts. On one or both of them its not linned up very well so about 30% is outside the color it is suppose to be on. there is nothing I can do for that. The one that didnt have the glitter added, actually has an area about the size of my hand where glitter got applied like it was spilled on it, or if it is like the stuff "dancers" wear, it gets all over everything and takes a lot of work to get rid of it before you go home

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So this is another ij that I named ij2. I used my brushes to point to some issues that are very minor. In the first pic the art is not centered enough so you can see the edge of the insert, so I will make the black key lines bigger. You may be able to see the glitter option around the inserts.
On the second pic you can see minor, hairline cracks that I will paint.

Sometimes this stuff is small enough that I will let it go, maybe if it is just 1 insert effected, but the customers want this perfect and I dont blame them considering this is one of the best games ever made, and the cost or price involved. Its just minor stuff here, but I am happy to do it, I would want it done

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First good laugh of the day! thank you!!!

Sh here is a pf that is going to go home with glitter on it. There will be an argument tonight!

Minor stuff but I am trying to keep this thread interesting. I dont want people to think I am a nit picker. I guess I am but in a good way

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So this has not happened to me in well over 5 years. The mylar had an insert under it like most do, but this insert was lifted on one side, and the ink and clear was cracked. Its been so long since I had an issue removing clear, and I have done it on this title over 20 times. This time it lifted the paint right off starting at the crack. sucks. I have to match blue, red, white, of course black (I have 7 shades of black)

The second pic is a result of me sanding the stock finish off, and DE pfs are notorious for lifted, cracked inserts. This is a result of a lifted insert. I should have sanded by hand, now another color to match

The 3rd pic shows a jackpot arrow insert, that are usually lifted on all makes of pfs. Black is the last color screened so it is the tallest, since it is stacked on top of at least one or 2 other colors, sometimes 4 or 5 colors. So when sanding off the original finish, black key lines around inserts, and black in general, is what I watch for to judge when I got enough off. I usually sand until I do this somewhere, and then I can judge the depth. I will clean up the black area at the ball hole also in that pic

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Here is a little work in progress

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I crashed after dinner, so here is where I left it.

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So I posted pics of this pf 2 weeks ago. It was cleared, and i still had to sand it to 3000 and polish it and clean. I got to about 75% done with polish and I didnt like it. it needed more depth in the clear. so i cleaned all of my polish, sanded it down (which is so painful when its good enough for 95% of people) and laid 2 more coats.
waited 2 weeks, sanded it to 3000, polished, cleaned. Now I am glad I did what I did, even if I may have bummed out tommy for taking longer.
We will serve no box of wine before its time.
so more pics. I have not one little thing to complain about on this one.
Maybe if tommy sees this and has a pic of the back glass that goes with it, you could post it here.

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The pics are better if you click on them.

I wanted to mention that I got a couple new pf's to add to the list of pfs available.
I have a Getaway, Catacomb, and Kiss (screened not digital)
I will get them up on my website soon for pics.

Bruce Elson. Paging mr Bruce Elson. You have a Diner pf complete.

I find my self saying it all that time, I miss pin shows. Kevin's Pinball at the zoo is such a laid back fun affordable show. Its hasnt changed much in the last 15 years I have been attending (except get better).
I sure hope we have one next year. The only way we will realistically be able to do that is to beat this virus, and without making a political statement, the only way to do that is to act like a country with care and pride.
I want to be able to go to shows again, and spend every dollar I can beg borrow and steal!!!!!

This is a TAG no fear. drilled and dimpled, perfect, except it needs a flash clear coat.

There is also a pic of the dumbassed cat and a getaway that every time i tried to email it, it turned all crazy

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I haven't run a towel thru all of the holes to clean the polish out of it

How much do NO fear games sell for now?