Pickering, ON
Quoted from La_Porta:you and I may have the same issue...
I believe we all have a little hoarder hiding deep inside of us.
(Topic ID: 158125)
Linked Games
Firepower
Williams, 1980
Topic Gallery
Seattle, WA
Quoted from La_Porta:That is generous of you. If I think they will look truly awful, I make take you up on that. My massive collection of old Apple computers makes me thing that you and I may have the same issue...
I think a lot of pinheads probably have that issue lol .. myself included. "Bbbut it might be useful for something!!!"
Quick, late-night update before I go to bed: I have removed almost all of the clear coat on top, and have now started taking out some of the inserts that need touching up. The multiplier numbers are all in various states of yellowing, and after seeing how much paint around the inserts came off when sanded (see the thousands and 300 w/lit pics), I decided to remove them to remove the top coat and sand off the yellowed printing. So far, the 20 is all that I have sanded down, but I will get to the others in a few days. You can see the stark contrast between the freshly sanded one and the others that are waiting. My new blue "Power" inserts are on their way, as well as a new orange "Shield" one.
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Question for those of you out there: what have you guys used to re-attach your inserts? I can't for the life of me find that 3M plastic primer, so I am hoping straight epoxy to sanded surface will suffice.
Anyone know a source for the "FIRE" and "POWER" inserts? Mine aren't horrendous, but there is some graininess from the inside and I was wondering how easy it would be to replace them.
I couldn't find the primer either. I went with epoxy to sanded insert. Have not seen an issue...yet, but it's only been 6 months or so. I don't think the Fire/Power inserts are available...if you were desperate, I suppose you could source and cut some 1/4" thick colored Polycarbonate or acrylic (these aren't molded inserts). I think mine were also "grainy", but I let it slide, sometimes you just have to live with it, or never finish 
Of course, if by "graininess" you mean yellowing of the top coat, much like on the 1-20, you could sand down and re-decal the Fire/Power... That would of course probably lead to redoing the Fire Again, and the Shield, and the...
Quoted from La_Porta:Anyone know a source for the "FIRE" and "POWER" inserts?
I remember looking for them at some point. I think I found one of the two at an online store located in Australia or something crazy like that. They are very difficult to find.
Someone suggested getting coloured plastic or plexi and cutting and shaping your own. Not sure how you would level them with the playfield. I guess if the plastic was the same thickness as the depth of the original inserts, that would work. You would have to test how much light they would transmit at that thickness and see if looked right.
(setzkor posted seconds before I did, basically the same idea)
It's really not a huge issue, I was just thinking that if they were readily obtainable, that I could swap them. Since they aren't, I'll use what I've got.
For attaching inserts see vid1900 post on playfield restores. I was not able to get the 3M but I have been using the Harbor Freight stuff that he suggests with great results. I have done 4 playfields with his guide and suggestions.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration#post-551302
Quoted from La_Porta:Been using Vid...what primer does Harbor Freight have?
Sorry for the primer I use Loctite 770 plastic primer. Get it on Amazon
Well a lot of good stuff showed up recently: the plastic primer, decal paper and bonder, brad-tip drill bits, blue and orange inserts, 12" c-clamp, etc. I am going away next week, but will get in a lot of work the week after.
Question for anyone: some of those opaque white 1-20 inserts are a bit yellow from a plastic standpoint (not from top coat). Has anyone tried to bleach these things at all back to white?
Quoted from La_Porta:Well a lot of good stuff showed up recently: the plastic primer, decal paper and bonder, brad-tip drill bits, blue and orange inserts, 12" c-clamp, etc. I am going away next week, but will get in a lot of work the week after.
Question for anyone: some of those opaque white 1-20 inserts are a bit yellow from a plastic standpoint (not from top coat). Has anyone tried to bleach these things at all back to white?
are they yellow only on top? if so, maybe if you sand them down by removing the clear.
2 weeks later
Ok so a small update. I haven't had much time because I was on vacation, and my not-quite-four year old daughter requested that her dad make her an airplane, so I am working on one of my models for her at the same time! I took out, sanded, and re-glued most of those inserts, and they came out pretty well. I am working on a few others right now, and I plan to start filling roll-over wire divots with milliput as well when I get a change. Stay tuned!
1 month later
I've been quite busy as of recent. I have spent the majority of my free time the past two months working on a side project. My not-quite-four year old daughter requested that I make her a "pink, shark airplane." I had to come up with something creative in the form of a P-40...and I think it turned out quite well! You can see it below.
I finally realized that I may as well just bite the bullet and do the whole 2PAC thing if I am really going to get this off the ground. I ordered a 4-pack of the 2K Spray Max gloss stuff so that I don't have to go the whole spray gun and compressor route. Now I have to get the board ready and prepped for the first lock-down coat after replacing the inserts. I'll get pictures soon. I'm on vacation this week, so hopefully work will move more quickly.
Things are coming along pretty well. Replaced the three shield inserts with new ones, as well as the "Shield On When Lit" insert. I also removed and sanded off the ink on the "S" inserts. The biggest job so far was removing and sanding down the "FIRE" and "POWER" inserts. They had become proud of the play field, and had significant chipping on their far sides. Now they are flat and look good! Now, I am tossing back and forth if I want to remove the number inserts, or just glue them flat and sand them as is. Any suggestions?
With the amount of work so far, it would be a shame to have an insert come loose. I would say reglue the triangle especially... For the green, you'll be fixing the keylining, so if you are going to do that with a decal I would say and them too.
1 week later
Been doing quite a bit of work: filling divots with putty, sanding the shooter lane, re-gluing other inserts and such. I filled in a small crack in the shooter lane as well. The area where the ball is ejected into the shooter lane has been filled in as well; there was a depression presumably from the ball rolling over it for years. The shooter lane isn't too bad, it does have some of those gray lines in it but a light coat with some almost translucent paint should cure that. All of the divots that thew roll-over lanes receive were filled in with epoxy putty, as you can see in the pictures. The closer I get to having to clear this thing and re-paint...the more nervous I get. I just hope that I can get this thing in as good shape as I want it.
1 month later
More updates: every last insert has now been leveled, primed, epoxied, and clamped back down into place. Now, touch ups have begun. I am starting to fill in the key lining, bit by bit. All of the multiplier circles have been outlined, and now I am making my way around the board. IMG_3842 (resized).JPGIMG_3843 (resized).JPGIMG_3844 (resized).JPGIMG_3845 (resized).JPGOnce all of that is done, I can fill the cupped inserts with clear, sand...and start the clear coating!
2 weeks later
The primer that I used was Locktite 770, and the epoxy was some generic 2-part, 30 min set stuff from my hobby store...nothing special.
2 weeks later
Finally made some good progress: sanded down the inserts and the play field, fixed some dips around the inserts, and got ready to clear. One of the inserts was sunken and with crack lines; this had to be scraped off with a chisel and re-cleared. Tonight, I was able to set up my spray booth (in my shed), clean it up, and spray. It came out pretty good so far...I hope it looks good tomorrow!
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Ok, well....the clear came out great! No fisheye, no orange peel, almost perfect! Now I have a pressing question for you: there is some cracking evident in the black space area that I thought would go away with the clear, but did not. I don't think it is awful, but others might notice. Would you leave as-is, or go through the daunting task of respraying black and trying to recreate the star field? Note: this will be my machine pretty much forever, it's not a professional restoration.
You can see it well in the lower left hand corner of the close up: that's how almost all of it looks up close.IMG_2003 (resized).JPGIMG_2004 (resized).JPG
I also hand painted it... And I agree, I would leave it. It's really not that noticeable in the pictures. But then only you know what will bug you down the road.
I figure I'll leave it alone. What is a huge pain in the ass now is sanding down the raised-up fill in the inserts...
Quoted from La_Porta:I figure I'll leave it alone. What is a huge pain in the ass now is sanding down the raised-up fill in the inserts...
Good call -- and yep on the inserts. Alternatively, knocking the cupped ones out and sanding down with sucsessive grits to 2000 grit or more is also a pita so either way you're screwed 
Quoted from La_Porta:Ok, well....the clear came out great! No fisheye, no orange peel, almost perfect! Now I have a pressing question for you: there is some cracking evident in the black space area that I thought would go away with the clear, but did not. I don't think it is awful, but others might notice. Would you leave as-is, or go through the daunting task of respraying black and trying to recreate the star field? Note: this will be my machine pretty much forever, it's not a professional restoration.
You can see it well in the lower left hand corner of the close up: that's how almost all of it looks up close.
Beautiful work! If you need to replace any plastic, I can help you with new repros!
Started on the touch ups, and, man, how great the Createx colors are! I’m first working on planet and ship touch ups, and I can’t be happier with how they are coming out. The largest area I’ve painted is in the lower right corner where the apron had gouged the play field over time and I had to fill with epoxy. All that is left to paint over is the darkest blue. You can see the area get covered by more white and blue in the side by side pics. You can also see where the paint by the right outlane rollover was scraped off, I repainted the turquoise and added new dot pattern. More photos tonight!
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Got a ton of work done today! I don't have time to post it all right now, but I will soon. First, here are pictures of how I repainted the red laser stripes. I used frisket and created, just as per Vid in his guide, and it worked perfectly. I used multiple, thin passes and it really came out nice. Also, as you can see, I really am trying to keep things original, so I went through the trouble to keep the colors that bled into the red lines from the original screening process.IMG_2068 (resized).JPGIMG_2070 (resized).JPGIMG_2071 (resized).JPGIMG_2072 (resized).JPGIMG_2073 (resized).JPGIMG_2074 (resized).JPG
The lane roll over slots were my big project. If you recall, I filled in the divots that they all had on the ends, and filled them with epoxy putty. Now, I re-created a wood-like color to put over the putty where wood once was. I filled the rest of the detail around it. I also made no correction to the register of how much black was on either side of the holes: my goal here was originality. The paint is a bit raised, but I hope leading and sanding will level that.AA8777C8-0DAC-4AFF-8DBD-581E2DBDBE52 (resized).jpeg179BECC9-B592-4DDE-B2B5-56217A3EA693 (resized).jpeg80253C80-2074-46BF-82D1-16A7F62AAF22 (resized).jpegA3C0621A-9BAF-42C3-A1C5-6C8B5184E35A (resized).jpeg52100427-121A-438E-8EDF-10E66920764C (resized).jpeg
Over the past two days. I sprayed the general illumination areas white again, and today just put on another layer of clear. In two days I will sand it flat and then coat again, place the decals, and five the final coat of clear. I just cut out the decals, too.9B89E903-45D8-4BB2-938A-CE0D84FEDD42 (resized).jpeg
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3 weeks later
Well, a LOT has happened over the past three weeks. I got the decals on, sprayed the final layers of clear, sanded and polished, and now I am re-populating the field! The first pictures are of the sprayed and finished table prior to sanding:
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As you can see, the decals came out pretty well, better than I had hoped, in fact. Although there were a few bubbles, etc, those eventually were sanded out.
The sanding didn't come out as well as I had hoped, and I think this may have been because the final coat was not entirely dry. Thankfully, after some hand polishing with some serious scratch remover, I was able to remove most of it and bring out a mirror finish.
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Once that was done, I started work on re-populating the play field. It has been incredibly satisfying putting the pieces back on; much more so than repainting the thing. I also ordered and replaced the slingshot mylar, pop bumper mylar, and elected to place roll-over mylar pieces as well.
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The other thing that has taken up much of my time: polishing! I know that the original steel was simply machined, but I have decided that it would look a LOT cooler if the interior parts and rails were all polished to a mirror finish. You can see the results below:
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Next, I have obtained wood to duplicate the rails, but in better quality without veneer on it. Stay tuned for that!
Quoted from feveredpinhead:That turned out looking great. How did you polish all the metal pieces?
I used 320-400-500-600-800-1000-1200-1500-2000 grit sandpaper, then used the buffing wheel. Really makes a nice mirror.
3 weeks later
Not too sure where to begin even...I have gotten so much done over the last few weeks. I fabricated my new wood rails! The local mill found suitable pieces of wood, which I then cut to size and made new holes in with my drill press. I finished polishing all of the rails, and they came out really nice as well. I had a tough time attaching them to the wood because there is nowhere to swing even a small hammer to get the nails in...so I used a clamp to progressively press them into the pre-drilled hole.
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I test-fit the apron, and it goes on fine. However, looking at it now, it looks a bit ratty, I think that I at least want to get rid of the rust where the play field hooks meet up with it. Anyone have experience re-doing the apron? I'd gladly take any help. The whole thing looks tantalizingly close to completion so far.
Now, I have started transferring over the mechanics. The first thing was to disassemble, rebuild with new parts, and install the pop bumpers. I ordered new bodies, caps, springs, sleeves, etc...almost all but the rings themselves, which I sanded and polished. I also replaced the capacitors on them for future proofing. Labeling all the wires was a lot to do!
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Next will be to transfer all of the wires: I will do that this weekend. Stay tuned!
Damn! I didn't even think to use a clamp to put those stupid nails back in after I fabricated my replacement rails. I used a nail punch and tried to gently hammer them back in hoping they would stay straight. I know a couple of them are a bit crooked but it worked out okay.
If anyone else wants to make their own rails, Home Depot (at least in Canada) has hobby oak that is the perfect thickness. I just ripped it to the right height with my table saw and went from there. I think it cost me less than $20 but you (or a friend) need the right tools!
Keep up the great work!
3 weeks later
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