Quoted from sethbenjamin:Don't misunderstand, Iām not trying to challenge the validity of your statement. I'm glad you've got a trouble-free playfield!
From my experience (as someone who likes to think he knows what heās doing (couple dozen full restorations, full spray booth, taught by a professional finisher), itās hard to imagine how anyone could remove all of the topcoat without damaging the art layer below. Again, I say I "like to think I know what I'm doing" not to be snarky, just by way of saying I do this work as well. I'm always ready to learn new things though, and reach out to other people doing finishing. I'm by no means an expert.
On the other hand, what you're bringing up raises interesting questions for me: was your playfield one that would have held up well regardless? It isnāt *every* Mirco that fails, after all.
Or, did the finisherās work help the playfield longevity more from removing some of the clearcoat? (i.e., a thinner layer is less prone to cracking or lifting.)
I agree with other comments here that clear coat applied too thick invites problems. It didnāt seem terribly heavy to me on the WH2O playfield I installed, though - but that's only an isolated example.
Kruzmanās process is highly regarded, but it also takes a few months. On the other hand, given how many people are allowing months or a year of ācure timeā on playfields anyway, if new playfields needed that from the factory, I bet buyers would respect a lag time between time of purchase and date of delivery. Certainly better than feeling like they had to then spend additional money to have someone redo the topcoat.
Mirco, if you are listening: there are people out here like me who see the quality you are striving for and respect it. If you cannot work with individual owners to replace defective playfields - you say these are very few in number, so it shouldn't be enough to hurt your business - then you shouldn't be selling playfields, just stick with JJP production runs. I want to buy your products, but I need to know that they are reliable and that on the rare chance that I receive defective merchandise, you will stand by your product. Seriously.
I hear what you're saying I've done a number of complete resto's also, there is no way I could have resolved this myself though.
The "trouble free" playfield was actually a massive pain in the ass. I got absolutely shafted by Mirco, he refuted my claims, refusing to acknowledge any issue, leaving me to spend MANY $100's of dollars to resolve. I've since gone out of my way to turn people away from supporting this monumental ass clown. Regarding your questions of my playfield. I had line art missing which I don't care too much about, the clearcoat however after waiting 6 months to cure was still soft. Like soft soft. There was also distinct sinking of clear around majority of the inserts. I know another Aussie who bought the same repro approx the same time. Did a full playfield swap only to have excessive pooling on every post, resulting in clearcoat cracking, absolute mess. From memory, Mirco did offer a solution of sorts with him. Still a disheartening and huge waste of time.
In all honesty I probably shouldn't be promoting re-clearing so haphazardly as a reliable solution. My clearcoat guy was very hesitant to even touch it. I do know however, majority of the Mirco clearcoat was removed. Exact details I don't recall, but it's thankfully been perfect since. Kruzman seems to be the world guru on all things clearcoat, pinball is lucky to have such experts to clean up the inadequacies of douche bags like Mirco.