I have always been apprehensive to publicly post my process, for fear of people putting me out of business. Lately I have had to write this out 2 or 3 times a day, and I am not smart enough to just cut and paste it for some reason.
I will leave out a couple trade secrets, but here is the jist of it
If it is a reproduction that was just made, it needs to cure they don't look like they do when you first get them, say after 3 months. So they have to sit in a ventilated area over 70 deg. after a while I sand off as much of the clear as I can, until I get in to ink. The highest points of ink are the black keylines around inserts. many or most of the time I get in to at least one of those insert keylines. many times when I sand the clear level to the inserts there are cracks around the inserts (hairline). many people don't deal with them. I think the whole effort is a failure if there is a hairline crack around the inserts. On nos pf's, most of the time the clear is older than its designed life time of 30 years. Sometimes you cant see it, but it is cracked and you don't want it to be the foundation of your new clear, so I sand that all the way down. In this case I always get in to the inserts with the sander because the inserts are not level. Most nos pf's have at least half of the inserts with cracks around them.
I put the pf on the light table and check if the text on the inserts is dark enough, also if the insert is centered enough that wood is not showing when lit. I fix that stuff.
I mask all of the inserts on the back and I seal the back of the pf with 3 coats of a different material than the front, that will soak in to the wood. This stops future planking, moisture, and dirt from sticking. If you have done a swap and when all done there are finger prints everywhere, you will be happy with one of my pf's.
some pf's need the inserts leveled, and many of the mid70's and earlier need regluing. if one insert is loose, I do them all, because it wont be long before another will come loose, and if that happens after the clear coat, you are up a river.
Most of the reproduction pf's have the roll over star inserts clogged with clear enough that if I test it with my star than has the nub cut off the end of the stem, they don't move like you need them to.Fixing this issue is time consuming and delicate. Most people don't do this either.
It is so important to get the first coat right, that is the foundation for the next 30 years. On some reproductions, they use a sealer before they clear to stop the inserts, from crackling. this is a brown syrup material that you can not sand, if you do it will look like horrible scratching. so I cant sand down to the bottom of the clear because if I hit that sealer, I am screwed, and it will look horrible. So unfortunately on some reproductions, I cant get to the place where I want for my foundation, but you cant always get what you want. My point is lets say the edge of an insert is a little lower than the surface, your da sander will not get in there, and even though it is just 2 mm, this is where ghosting comes from because clear will not stick to unsanded surface!!!!!! not for long, and not when a ball smacks it.
So just this year I started a new sub process that is hand sanding to get all the little places that are still glossy because they are below the surface, like dimples, drilled holes edges, whatever. Even if a screw is going in there, I figure if the clear lifts anywhere it will be where a screw is pulling up on it. so the areas that I thought were not too important actually are very important. Its just a matter of time. the more time you spend the better.
My personal process comes from 11 years of doing it full time, along with a couple classes at PPG training facility. So I spray 2 coats in a set, and then I allow to cure for 15 days, sand and do everything I mentioned above, do it again. I build up 8 coats. at this point it looks awesome, so I sand it down and make it ugly again. the clear grabs on to the edges of the cut outs and makes little lips or ramps. So if I didn't sand level it would be all over the place, like the tourist trap the mystery place, even though I sanded between each set of coats. After I go thru all of the grits, then I wet block sand it up to 3000 grit.
Now the crappy part. I run a buffer on it for 6-10 hours. after an hour or so I can do a final quality check, and about 15% of the time I am not happy, and I sand it all down, clean my compounds, and re coat, and try again. If it passed, I continue polishing until it is like glass.
Here is another rare thing, I then take it in the house and I run a towel thru all of the holes and clean the compound out of all of the cut outs and holes. quality check again, and them do a final polish and seal with a poly sealant similar to carnuba wax but for clearcoats.
If there are any flaws on the art work that is no problem but they have to be fixed. I don't do different levels of quality, only my best on each plank. so for art work, I don't touch up. I repaint that color, and the whole area of that color effected. I don't paint on top of clear because of the effect of the floating touch up. I charge hourly for that. Otherwise the process is $550. If there is less than 1 hour of painting, like the cracks on some inserts, I do that for free. if more than an hour, or matching colors, I have to charge a shop rate.
All pf's that have my clear have to be shipped in a wood crate. you can make your own or buy mine.
So there it is. I write this out several times day, so I am thinking some of you may read this and then say I am familiar with your process. Others may not have to ask why it cost so much. With the new hand sanding every set of coats, it brings the man hours up to 24-30 without art.
Right now I am booker over a year on restorations. I put clearcoats first, and I set aside a week a month to work on restorations (generally) sometimes twice as much, sometimes less.
A clearcoat job takes around 12 weeks.
so there is a hole bunch of info for you all, as well as a recipe to be my competition.
Payment is due upon completion. If you buy a pf and want it cleared, I ask for payment of the pf, and then I bill you for the clear and the shipping. I encourage people to pick up their pf's in person if they can, and I can share some info or help on installation, and maintence.
lastly, I also drill and dimple pf's that are not drilled and dimpled. of the 7 nos pf;s I bought last week, only one was dimpled. (this version of dimpling means to drill a small hole about 1/16 in deep where screws go. Like pilot holes. I do countersinks on the side rails holes and the pop bumpers lug nails.
That took me over an hour to write, but I am going to save it, so don't be surprised if you see it again somewhere.
cheers, kruzman.
Lastly. if the pf or the clear cost more than you paid for the game. You are lucky, and I don't care or what to hear it. it is not relative to my job or the cost of the pf. CPR charges the same amount for a medusa as a Addams family. A pf's cost has nothing to do with the cost of the game generally. Every single day after I write out my spechiel, it get the same reply. "THATS TWICE WHAT I PAID FOR THE GAME WITH A NEW BACKGLASS!" That is the reply I got for a $575 nos SnS pf without any clearcoat yesterday. Some folks don't know the difference between luck, and reality.
Thank you for the years of support. I don't do this job for the money. I do it because I love pinball, and I love making machines awesome, and people that are proud to own my work. That is worth a lot to me. cheers, rk
Galesburg, MI
