I am going to start this thread again, after getting some encouragement for folks. Its basicly for open pf talk, questions ideas, stuff wanted and available, and of course I will be hawking my wares, like my list of nos/reproduction/, and cleared, tweeked, restored pf's.

Now with the help of chris travis' phone camera, I will be posting pics of the jobs that go thru here. some are fairly interesting. I will try to remember to do before pics. People are always buggin me for pics, and I lost interest in pf pics because it is so easy and common to make a pf look like a million bucks with pics, and when it gets here and the check is cleared, it looks like crap. Because of that, I lost interest in pics and put no stock in them. I am going to post more on here, if for nothing but entertainment.

Here is a list of some of the NOS/NEW reproduction pfs I have available:
AC/DC stern pro $650
Batman Dark Knight stern $750
Batman Forever sega $750
Bumper Pool Gottlieb 575$
Car Hop gottlieb $700
Contact williams $375
Corvette NOS bally $975
CSI stern $550
Family Guy stern $850
Harley Davidson stern $650
Indy Jones 4 stern $600
Iron Maiden stern pro $700
James Bond 007 Gottlieb $850
Monte Carlo gottlieb $450
Nitro Ground Shaker Bally/cpr gold $750 plastics available
No Fear williams $800
Popeye bally $600
Speakeasy bally $600
Spiderman Stern nos $800
Spring Break gottlieb $675
Star wars episode 1 williams 800$
Rolling Stones LE stern $800
Simpsons data east $900 In studio for paint and clear, Price is going up
Simpsons pinball party set. stern $900
Addams Family Bally silver $875
Transformers stern $500
Wheel of Fortune stern $550
Wiz of OZ JJP $500
WWF Royal Rumble pf set Data east $975
Xenon Bally CPR gold custom starburst inserts $975

STAR WARS Data East nos cleared dimpled, and tweeked $2000
Amazing Spiderman gottleib nos. cleared, inserts glued and painted dimpled, tweeked $1900

There is a list of my used pfs on my website pinballplayfieldskruzman.com. as well as shipping crates

Clearcoated/reproduction PF install kit $75

Pinside will get a donation for all sales

Here are some "before "pics of a gorgar pf I did for ken white in CA. he does amazing restorations. I remembered to take the pics after I reset 5 inserts, and glued and leveled all of the rest. This has one very thin coat down and sanded 600 grit. Pf was all ready dimpled

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and some after. NOS pfs from this era take plenty of paint work. This one was not planked which is unusual

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Here is a before and after of a touched up area. This is an IPB pf and they did the touch up. Many of the IPB MM pfs had touch up that is hard to find sometimes because it is such a busy pf. Of course once you see t, it is all you see from now on!

There are 2 touched up spots up by the top 2 lanes, and then one by the arrow insert. The red spots are about an inch, and then there is the black in the inserts. The arrow on the left side of the pf had to be done also. These pics are not of the final project. after I do repaint, I lay a coat of clear down to see how it matched since the clear deepens and darkens the colors.

I am not sure why, but people talk poorly of the fact that I dont accept resto work, but the majority of the work I do involves this type of thing. restorations put me in bankruptcy, but thats a story for another day.

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Flash gordon pfs are really rare. If I run across one, I have a post-it here on the wall to remind me.

I really appreciate that.
One of my friends, just this week, wrote to the reproduction pf maker about the flaws on his new pf, and the reply he received was, " it is going to be fine after 25 plays", and he went on to say that "the pf's that cost 500 look exactly the same after 25 plays and (he) dosent know why people waste their money." He knows nothing about my work (although he has known me for years). That is my biggest focus. Ball dimples. My work has been progressing since the first year. I am constantly trying to do better, but 2 years ago, I found a way to make my clear repel ball dimples even more than before. It has a lot to do with why my process takes 13 weeks.

I definitely wouldn't do this for a living if I didn't think I was contributing and making pinball a little better, and being involved in the restorations people do is an honor.

Here is something a lot of folks don't know. I have a couple of tests I do to check the mechanical bond of the clear. The first I do to one pf in each group. (which is 5 or 6 pf's) I got this from the diamondplate pf's that sun did. I put masking tape on the cleared pf after the 2nd or 4th coat, and I cut an X thru the tape in to the clear with a utility knife. the first test is when I pull the tape if it takes clear with it. The next test is I hit the cuts with 175 lbs of compressed air to see if it will lift. The test that is done on every pf is after sanding I clean out all of the holes and edges with the 175 lbs air gun that will quickly identify any weak bonds in the clear. Its totally relative, but my service is expensive, and I just want to do the best I can do. Not every pf comes out perfect. some I believe are possesed, and will just not co operate, but I always do my best, and re do it a couple times.

I am clearing an alice cooper pf that is going to be installed at the factory, and the art is really cool. I like that it is not a cut and paste job like what stern has been using for the most part lately. I love stern games, its just since most of the titles are licence's, its cut and paste computer work. I really like the bm66, and the Iron maiden. Of course dirty donnies work is the best stern has ever offered in my opinion.

Ok here is an opportunity to brag for you guys. What is you most cherished pf. One pf. Please no collections. No pfs that you dont own any more (I have hunderds of regrets). I like to hear what titles are still out there.

My submission is Gottlieb Amazing Spiderman

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Well that went over like a led zeppelin.
No one else has a nos/new that want to brag about?

I will break my own rule and say that a nos Rocky from the gottlieb collection sale is the coolest pf I have ever owned.of course I had to sell it because its my job

This morning I was watching "How its made" and it was hand made shotguns. simple double barrel and over and under. everything hand made and everything one of a kind. Tough to decide what was more beautiful the metal or the wood. I was guessing 8 grand for one. then they said that each gun had about 1000 hours of work including the hand engraving and wood work. I doubt that charge 10 bucks a shop hour like I did when doing resto work, so I am guessing 100k$ for these beauties. sure you can buy them at wall mart for 275, but these were unbelieveable. the kind of stuff really rich people pass down for generations. really inspiring to watch,. I had never heard of the name but it was 2 names that started with an H. The wood was burled walnut. The engraving had so much depth, similar to a really complicated proof coin.
Anyway it was good inspiration for me... (to raise prices. Ha!) jk

Holland and holland!!!! absolutely beautiful!!!!

I am putting together funds for a roof as well as rafters for the studio, as well as a van, so if you have been out here and know my games, they are all for sale.
I am going to put together all of the titles and prices and in the next few days. I listed the elvis beautiful, shoppped, $3600 and the huo dale jr $3500 on another thread. I have a restored flight 2k I do not want to sell. New pf and e\verything on it is new. all tec cpu and rotten dog Bridge rec board. BGR back glass. the cab is the only thing left to do and it could use a little tune up because I havent played 10 games on it yet. led light. its beautiful 2600 firm.
I have a batman forever with a cleared nos pf installed. cab is 9.5 game is amazing $4k
Gottlieb world beauties wood rail, has been working in my living room for about 5 years, never broke once. love that game $650.
The nicest dr dude I have ever seen cab and pf are amazing. no broken plastics or any thing on the pf. amazing game 3500

I am listing my best games, most I have had a long time. I dont want to sell any of them, but I have to borrow money for this project and I would like to borrow less than more. I am going to list everything on cl and FB, so I will put links to them when I get them done.

forgot to say I dont want to ship any games. pick up, cash on the glass.

wow that viking looks totally different once you start getting parts on it . will you please post more pics as the project comes along. That pic just made my day!

I have worked on 2 asteroid annies, and restored one, so 3 total, and I have only seen one game. Thats a pf I would love to own.

That gold strike is comming along well. I do it just as your are, then I lock down my colors with fix spray or super light clear, and then do my black. what I really like is the clear will up the speed with less friction, and it will play nice and fast.

Having a collection of christiansen pfs, whould be a great collection, and would take some time and work to achieve. The reason I got in to pfs was because things went sour on me one day, and I found myself living in a 550 sq foot, 1 bedroom apt, so I scaled down to 2 pins in the dining room. I started collecting pfs so I could get my fix.

I have done about 15 jj pfs total. what titles have they done besides wiz, hobbit and dialed in? I think those are the only ones I have done. I remember the hobbit had so much wood cut out that when I measured from side to side there was 75% of the wood missing, so I was afraid that the wood was going to flex a lot. I am going to have to do a joust for a friend soon, and I have no idea how that will go since when I am done, I run a heavy 13 amp buffer over it for a day (at about 2k rpm).

As for singing the pf's, its been a point of contention for me. I didnt want to sign them because it was a work of art, and I only contributed a part of it, and if I was the original artist I wouldn't appreciate it. I think it sucks that the pf manufactures never mention the original artists or send them a check. Even if it was just 5 bucks per.
Then for about 2 years I used my grandma's crown stamp from her deli in hamtramic. Lately I have been using the stamp but I keep forgetting to use it before the poly the back. It will wipe right off if I do it after,

One thing I do is I use a upc sticker on the WPC repro pfs that dont have one. I really like that detail, because it messes people up when it is installed because thats the first way to see if a pf is a repro (of course there are other tell tale signs). One of the advantages of buying one of my tweeked TAF pf's is it has a upc sticker. I am waiting for the final coats to cure on a tweeked cpr taf right now that will be for sale. Its for sale now for 1700.

Tommy skinner and I have come up with a very simple decal to start using, I just need to figure out where and how to get it made. I think I will take it to kinkos. Now that mirco puts his name under the clear, I may as well add mine.

There was a pf here in pinside for sale that was listed as my clear coat, and a customer checked with me to see if it was legit, which is was not. I do know the seller and I think it was just a mistake, though there are plenty of people on ebay that sell "kruzman" pfs that are not mine. I contacted ebay and they told me to go punch sand. I keep the envelope of every payment for pfs and clear (I dont take paypal for that service) so I can look up pfs from pretty far back, and I suggest to people to check with me before buying anything that is claimed to be my work. Usually the seller has a pic of the pf in my crate,and with my packaging, so that is very easy to tell. I may look on the net to see if there is a printer who does this kind of stuff for a decal. Maybe one of you guys is in that field and can help me

I know it is a fat chance, but I need a used Spirit pf to restore for a friend in B.C. to do when I finish this DE Simpsons and VOLTAN. Please contact me if you can sell or trade one.
I just remembered when I was going thru Gene Cunninghams personal collection at his house he had a couple Bon Voyage games done of course by christinsen. I came so close to buying one of the games, but I have not seen that pf available in a coons age.

If you are a fan of christensen, check out Robert Williams. He is an artist in S.CA. still alive I believe. I got to meet him in 92 when I lived out there. his work has pinball written all over it. The best book featuring most of his woek is "views from a Tortured Libido" published by Last Gasp. Introduction by dr. tim leary. It has in depth analysis of 60 of his greatest oils.

Good old Gene Cunningham wrote and published a book on Christiansen titles Mad dog and his art. Gene was friends with him in the 70's and really enjoied the friendship. Christiansen gave gene a couple of Back glasses for his games that are full on nudes, and glorious! Including the top less matta hari, which I have one, and "son of fireball"

My last suggestion is a book from a gallery show that I contributed to, on Christiansen called; Broads, Boobs, and Buckles. I thing gene contributed to it also. Thats show was in 09.

well there we go. That is a little easier. good ol mirco. bless his heart

I have been using this stuff since art school. Those thin black circles are very hard to paint. if you lock down your existing paint then if you dont like what your results are, you can remove the black without the colors.

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I am told that VID has hundreds or more tips on doing restor work (on pf;s). I think it is awesome that he has spent so much time contributing to the benefit of the hobby. I have not done more than 2 full restores a year for the last 3-4 years (I think). I haven't been able to find a way to make a living at it, and by living I mean grossing 20k a year. When you are doing a restore for your self, you know exactly what your specs are, and what is good enough for you and the job. working for people I dont know, I have no idea whats good enough, so that leaves me with doing the absolute best I can, which takes me a lot of time.

People form an opinion of my work after seeing one job. If that was a job that a customer wanted to spend as little money as possible, and the pf is not all that great, and then changes hands... The new owner is unaware of the original specs and budget. Then it can be concluded that I suck. Since day one, this is the problem I have wrestled with.
Other pf restorers have different levels, but it goes back to that same story, when once it changes hands, its just said that kruzman did the pf, and if there is a huge range of quality possibilities ,there is a huge chance there will be a disappointment.

The other thing I ran in to with restoring pf's was I would have a customer who was specific with his expectations, and was very happy with the job, but the people who are not involved do more talking about their opinion of the work. So not only was it super frustrating, but I spend so much time on doing the things I do, as well as I can, I exceed the budget quickly, and do the rest for free.

Sorry to yap your ear off. I have got 3 people who very respectfully, and kindly didn't understand why I wont do the restor work for them. Its my favorite job, which may be why it's where I dont get much pay. Now days they are paying 15 per hour at mcdonalds, and I have charged less than 15 per hour ,SHOP TIME, many many many times. Since I live pretty simple, and make enough to qualify for medicaid, I can work cheap... until the roof at my studio in the barn is falling in. Which brings up one of the many reasons pinball is the greatest hobby in the world. Each game is a little savings acct that you get to play with! A lot of games go up 5-10% a year, and they are fairly liquid. As I say this I realize that if this is my contingency plan, I should concentrate more on the popular A title games rather than the red head step child games I seem to love the most. They are not as easy to sell quick, and dont appreciate as much. Case in point. My fav games right now are elvis. 007, and dr dude, batman forever, eldorado city of gold, dragon, and a game I used to hate gottlieb Monte Carlo. In this case, it may be the nicest one in existence, (with topper). A lot of times when a game has been restored or in amazing condition, that will go a long way on my enjoyment of the title as a whole.

I am guessing a lot of you may use your games in the same way. I do know it is a great way to get the wife/partner on board when trying to justify shelling out a butt load for a pin. So there is my tip of the day.

Yesterday I was starting the prep on a NOS TAF pf. One of the first things is to remove the existing finish and level it out. also sand the smooth areas for the clear to bite on to.
You may be able to see in the first pics the planking that is getting started. look up at the blue in front of the bear rug. The whole pf is like this. The grain of the wood has swollen. The best way for me to explain it, is I see the grain as mountains and valleys. I not only have to get down in to the valley to level, and remove the clear, but also to get rid of the gloss. leveling all the way down to the lowest valley will level the area (except where there is an insert, which can be way up or down) so I have to be super careful because it is easy to sand in to the paint at the top if a mountain while trying to get the lowest valley.

If I level this out and seal the pf so moisture is not an issue, it will do a lot to stop it from progressing. If I dont sand out the valleys, I will have a bonding issue as well as it will look like crap and will show the planking under my clear. as long as the paint/ink has not cracked, it will not show, after sanding." It takes a gentle hand" and experience. This is an example why it is important that if you are going to hire someone to clear, a body shop guy will know nothing of this.

Many of the inserts will have a low spot that is below the edge of the wood surface. if I dont sand that, all of the same issues apply plus there will be ghosting in no time. When I feel I am getting too close for comfort, I hand sand to minimize damage. after sanding I can see the cracks around the inserts, and if this pf was 5 years older I would be painting many of the insert key lines. Inserts are shaped to pop up when the wood squeezes them rather than to crack. so after years of expansion and contraction, they are never level. After I do this I have to hand sand all of the edges of the cut outs, ball holes shooter lane, ramp divots, and all of the dimples for drilling during installation.

Another time I encounter this chore is after a reproduction pf gets here, after is has just been released. I learned the hard way to put it in the closet to dry and cure before doing my clear. many of them develop this wood grain texture in 2-6 months. If I cleared as soon as it got here, it would do its thing under my clear, and that would suck. really only one of the major repro pf makers has this happen all of the time. The other rarely has it. I don't know if it is better wood or the wood is drier when printed

The last 2 pics show that I needed to remove the t nuts rather than leave them in and plug the holes. I couldn't get a good sand because they are high. Part of my procedure is to dremmil out the clear out of the t nut holes until the last 2 coats. That way t nut installation is much easier

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as promised for karri.
This is straight out of the spray room. It will still be block sanded from 600-3000 grit, then polished out, then run a rag thru all of the holes to get the compound out.
This pf was done, but its didn't feel right. It didn't feel as heavy as it should, and there was not enough clear on it. I dont like thick clear. One of the repro makers, makes his finish too thick. that doesn't make it stronger or harder at all! Think about a Damascus knife blade. its strong because of hundreds of thin layers. anyway I just didn't have a good feeling about it, and the customer has been kind enough to be patient, so I sanded it down and did 2 more coats. Now I am very confident.
Before the last coat, I use my" handy dandy install kit" (trademarked) to remove most of the clear in the t nut holes and the countersunk pop bumper nail/screw holes, and the ramp lip recesses. You don't want that stuff with 10 coats of clear in it. I don't have a way to measure but I would say it is thinner than one of the most popular repro makers clear, or about the same thickness. For some reason, I have spent soooo much time trying to figure out why, but nos pfs come out best with my process and sterns really work well.

Lastly. The studio work is relatively light right now. less than 12 jobs in house. so if you have been waiting for a time to send a pf in. now is the time.

If you hate to send your priceless pf in the mail, I can make you a heavy duty ship crate, and sent it to you with the packing. you just need a drill driver for the screws. it will take you less than 5 min to pack it up, and I have never had one damaged in 10 years with "the crate" (trademarked).

as always thanks to every one for the support. Also feel free to post anything pertaining to pfs on this thread. It keeps it relevant.

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This question is exactly what I wanted to experience in this thread, besides sell my wears. I am not going to give out trade secrets, but a specific question like this, is something I like answering because it tells me the poster wants to do awesome work. It took a long time to figure this out. Sometimes I think about stuff like how did man figure out yogurt. I have heard there is a special bacteria in the bladder of a goat that makes the milk turn to yogurt when warmed from hanging on the side of a camel. Nomad travelers would use a bladder to bottle their milk in and hang it on the side of the camel. One guy didnt clean his freshly gutted bladder, and it still had the bacteria in it. what are the chances someone figures this out? and then ate it? I mean soap? how did they figure that out so long ago?

I was working just inside the big door at the shop because it was cold as hell but I wanted my dustings to go outside so I had a fan blowing out but the furnace blasting. anyway, by standing in the dark shop looking out at a 45 degree angle down on the pf, with bright light outside, it shows the slightest gloss that I may have missed. When I am working planking yet dont want to get below the paint, I will work at that spot. Otherwise I have a table set there for me to take the pf to set it down and inspect. I can never match the light of the sun, even millions of miles away( I learned that from indoor growing and then later prison).

So great question. whats the next question for stump the chump?

I check my email every morning, so you can write thru pinside, but if you want to send pics, or want me to send pics, its better to write me at [email protected]
that way I can save the email. Please put the title of the game in the subject and I wont have to get hassled when I dont know the owner of a complete job.

On those cpr firepoower, as well as cyclone and one other title, cpr got new inserts and didnt sand the edges or use the right adhesive on the hot dog inserts and they popped out. They are tapered to pop out rather than crack, and when they do under clear, I do not want to fix it. I have my cyclone pf here from years ago. some places the clear will peal off some places it bites in to the ink and takes it off. total mess. so just keep an eye out for that. after the initial shipments they took care of the problem I believe and they allowed folks to send in theirs to get glued. I dont read the forum, or keep up on new stuff, so I pulled mine out of the closet. ( I always put the repros in there for 3-5 months to cure) and I had a surprise. and I tried to repair it so I wouldnt feel right contacting cpr to get assistance or refund.

so on your firepower, I will epoxy the inserts from behind either way, to be safe.

I want to post some good news:
I know cpr is transitioning from screen printing to digital printing. Kev anounced it like 9 months ago, and I thought he meant they were going to do it then. He said they can do runs of one pf of any title. (you can find the press release in the archives here) I was sending folks to them, but I found out that its in the future and they are still doing screening.

But here is the good news. I am doing a EATPM for a customer, and I think the print looks really good. I dont know if itis digital or screen (maybe someone knows) but kudos to kevin and his folks at cpr for a nice job. That is a great game that looks play as important part as function. When a title has a beautiful woman, or great artwork (which is becomming very rare in the recient releases) then a lot of the enjoyment of the game is the looks and condition. This one probably can make the numbers for people who do them for a living, to do spec games. If I could I would buy one. I thing bill in dorr MI still has my game and I will kindly have that back please!

Maybe someone who reads this thread is in the printing biz. I need to get some kruzman pinball playfield stickers made for the pfs. I have a couple designs, although I am not absolutly cracy about them. they have the essentials. So if you are in the print biz or have a great printer and can make them please contact me. Thanks in advance. K

I had a guy make UPC stickers for when I do wpc games and quite often they dont have them installed which screams repro. Repro is not bad, but I like to make it confusing, so I install the upc stickers. On the pics above you see that nos TAF pf has no sticker. so when he sent pics and asked for advice, the first thing I saw was no sticker, but there were a bunch of tell tale signs that said WPC which it is. After working on them for over a decade I can tell real fast if it is in my hands, but with pics. (people say a pic is worth a thousand words... yes plenty of them lies) I saw Anna Nicole Smith in real life once when I lived in santa monica

Have a great day. play some pinball. or buy a pf!

happy sat morning. I want to post a link to an inspiring pf install. the guy doing the work is doing a super top notch job, and sweating the details. He also bought one of my pf install kits ($85 shipped) and it is really helping with the finish quality, as well as smooth progress, it seems.
Also I think sys 11 games are really worth restoring to this level. They didnt yet have the memory or display, but its an era of amazing titles from all of the manufactures of the day. here is a link

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/elvira-and-the-party-monsters-playfield-swap-refresh#post-5025917

I know its kind of a pain in the butt to take pics and document the work, but this serves to show people how to, as well as give a reference as to the level or quality you can achieve. Its a stock cpr pf (which I am not a huge fan of that clear) but this title looks beautiful, and everyone has numbers and budgets they have to stay within, or customers with the budgets.

Take a second and check it out when you have time. it inspires me!