Hey folks, I wasn't going to do this, but thought I'd document as best I can remember and just maybe i'll come across something you have not in your time.
I've been following Soulrider911 & cosmokramer with awe and close watching their skill level, time put in and commitment. So, i've been banging away at this for a over a month so far, here and there. Between a vacation, my two boys (aged 13,14) hockey games, practices, tournaments, playoffs, etc. I'm at the rink in some shape or form about 5 days a week. So the pinball refurb is "my" time, I love to get into the zone with my parts, cleaners, a beer, and just pick away. Here's some starting pics, mid-way pics of what I've done.

I'm not going to call this a restoration, as i'm not going as far as that. I am going to try to do this the best that I can with the parts, ability, I have. the difficulty to an extent is ordering parts, we get effed in that department quite bad, so making orders are tough. Here comes the trials and tribulations...............................

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I have already, stripped the PF, de-glued it, there wasn't any raised, lowered inserts amazingly enough. Applied decals, I am going to clear it later.

Also, there is NO missing parts, which is great, hearing of the horrors of missing a fishing rod plastic or a gun handle, topper, etc, sucks. So i'm ahead in that dept.

Already stripped and cleared the Boat playfield, BUT I need to sand down a bit and re-coat to get rid of a little bit of planking.

Have many new parts here and a couple in transit yet. New boat ramp, stainless cabinet rails, pop colors, trough light, new speakers, crossover, and volume adjustments, retro-refurb decals and others.

I have wet sanded and re-grained all my guides with 600, then Barkeepers friend polished them, they look great.

I have washed all boards with simple green, a tooth brush and hot water, they look brand new.

I have rebuilt, cleaned, re-sleeved... one by one, every assembly under PF and put back in.

I have read vid1900 's Playfield and Cabinet resto threads extensively. I will be using many ideas from both, that I know for a fact. The back bottom of my cabinet is ass, I will need to be using some fiberglass resin repairs to strengthen corners and fill in lockbar holes and other bangs, dents and otherwise awful caretaking of this pin before it came my way.

More cabinet sanding, I took a couple pics, I have been going with 80grit, slowly but surely taking the glue down, it almost just balls it up into tiny balls and I just keep sweeping it off the wood, I took the pic with the light angled so you can see what I took off and what’s still left

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Sanded for a while this evening. Glue gone, actually got to sawdust, wow. Cabinet is so rough, going to need lots of glue, big clamps, patience, better skillz

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Started stripping the paint and such off the back of the cab last night, couldn’t even sand it was so thick, two layers of furniture stripper and still didn’t get to the bottom of the paint, must have been a few rattle cans of black over the years. Time to sand....sand......

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Yeah, i'll pull them off, thx. Just tried the stripper quick to see, didn't have the right tools at my workplace shop I have it at.

Slowly but surely! Not doing any cabinet work until weather warms up, been the worst winter in Sask so far uggggh
Polished up all the wire forms this afternoon, Barkeepers friend and a microfibre cut small worked well! Going to put them away all clean awaiting the rest, next is a good plastic cleaning and polish. Simple green and some Novus1 to finish

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Outside!!! Awesome weather finally, got some considerable sanding time in this afternoon. I should be golfing but I got out Friday and Saturday already

I don’t quite know how far I really need to go sanding, do I go as far as having no black paint residue left at all? It’s smooth as balls,
I’m sure I can prime over that minimal black before repainting he black? Any thoughts?
Time to fill & repair and sand again!

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Well, I’m slower than molasses on a cold January morning but I’m picking away at the cab. Picked up some dowels today to plug the numerous holes from a lock bar and someone trying to firm it up with angle iron once. Doing some more ding filling with some ProBond Max, this stuff gets nice and hard.

The three monster holes on right side I think I’m going to fill in with the fibreglass resin kit I bought a while back

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Prepped the holes using vid1900 ‘s instructions from the cabinet repair tutorial. I used a burr bit on my “chinese dremel” and reamed the holes a bit and screwed in some #4 screws to give it “teeth” and something for the resin to adhere around.

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Little bit of front/back give and flex so I pull the wood away a hair, squeezed Elmer’s wood glue in and used these beauty clamps to tighten the unit up more

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Bit of a crack in the mdf where the screws went for the glass slidey thingy, used a pointy dremel end and reamed out the crack and re-glued and clamped it also. I’ll sand it down nice for primer later.

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This beautiful reel handle showed up last week also!!

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Pulled the head out today and got it sanded up, just relaxed and let the sander so the work. Some repairs to do with some filler. You’ll notice like I did as I did the back, the yellow caution paint started to appear, someone rattle canned most of the back and touched up the sides many moons before I owned it.

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Just a little work this evening after supper. Sanded a bit on the cab and touched a few more spots with the wood filler (I want it smooth!!). The bottom was sagged a bit, so I put a bead of glue under the cross arm and flipped it up and did one of the most Canadian things I probably could have, I couldn’t find anything heavy enough to press down, just happened to have a couple curling rocks hanging around, we’ll laying around.
Did some filler in the head, did some wood glue then mixed in some wood filler and put the squeezers on the two spots the head bangs on the cab rails, used some wax paper to keep the sticking away.

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Thx a lot. I'm so frickin' slow though!! Too much life involved between my pinball work. I'll get it done. Going to try to get to paint and such, then cab decals in the next short while. I have my new HVLP gun to try out soon, I have a spare portable air conditioner/de-humidifier a buddy is using, i'll get it back for a while and make my garage a better place for clearing the PF and painting the cab. Might be better for my weak assed quality control!

I have an 11 gallon compressor, should be fine if I take a breather every little while?

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I’m now considerable slower than “The slowest Globetrotter restore”. I’ve been a pinball piece of shit for the summer. Lake, golf, beer, kids sports, add everything up, haven’t touched thisnhing in two months. Uggggggggghhhh. On a really cool note for the kids sports thing, my youngest won Provincials in PeeWee AA hockey this season, and then went on to win Provincials in PeeWee AA Baseball also at the end of July, so super neat.

Pulled it out of shed, put it in garage. If I’m slow I’ll get in shit from the wife because she can’t park in garage. NEEDS to be done in next month, before it gets cold. Want all cabinet and playfield work done soon so I can put it back together inside during the close months. Need motivation!

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Well, doing a little bit of work for the PF today - sad, sad thread below

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ft-playfield-im-a-dumbass

I have snapped pics, got dimensions, and have sent our print shop in town everything they need (hopefully) to create a very thin vinyl decal I can put in to cover my mess. I will be clearing it with SprayMax2k after to seal it in, maybe it'll go great for me for once.

Some corner repairs today. Bought and mixed up fibreglass resin for the first time ever today. I took a few tips from vid1900 and applied them.

Tried to just get the resin to be convex above the holes to minimize sanding after. Reamed the holes a bit, out in a couple small screws to hold everything.

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Well, gave it the ‘ok college try on the mess that is the back bottom of my cabinet. It was just shredded. I built a big dam behind it and filled it with fibreglass resin today. I got it very roughed up, put a couple small screws in the corners for the resin to grab and harden to. What a frickin’ mess I made, going to need some sanding and clean up. #disaster. Created more work for myself, but hope it holds strong!!

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SO I’M PRETTY ELATED!!
I cracked off my dam and have a big solid fibreglass square back now. Used my knife to cut a bit back while it’s not rock hard and easier on the sander later.

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Well, happy today again, did some sanding and corner shaping on with the hardened resin. Had a couple corners, one in backbox and one on bottom front corner of cab that got below surface level, so a scratched up all of the hardened surface on both and reamed in a couple spots for the resin to get deep and harden into to shore them up flush. Sanded the back bottom where it was a disaster, got it close to very nice.

Using this resin is as a easy to use and basically shitkicks the strength of wood filler IMO. Great use on corners.

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Shits starting to get real! Picked up a roll of medium poly roll to make my spray booth in the garage. I’ll tuck tape in a couple furnace filters for an entry and exit of air movement. Also grabbed some tack cloth for PF prepping

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Really ? 29C?

Thx man, walking through it is easier for me to follow along, I have always had trouble reading and following directions that are not linear, or put right on front of me. Makes me seem like a dumbass, but it must be how in wired. I'm a smart guy in an extremely technical job, but i seriously need to see it the first time layed out like a dummy right in front of me. thx!

Naphtha

Made my murder scene ‘er I mean my temp spray booth tonight!!!

Getting closer, nerves coming! But damn I want to get this complete soon. Once cleared and cab painted I can take all the time I want this fall/winter to put it back together

Have the intake and exhaust filters installed. Fan will blow out the window right there and create negative pressure flowing through hopefully!

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Well, went back into the murder tent this evening to do something I missed, glad I was perusing around the SprayMax or Vid's playfield resto thread. Sanded down the PF with 400 and got it all matte hazy lookin'

I wiped it many times with a naphtha cloth during and after. Did a full naphtha re-wipe after sanding complete and installed old bulbs into the sockets.

Going to leave it overnight to think about it before I finally spray the SprayMax2K tomorrow. Day off, so I will be able to get to the first coat at a reasonable time.

I'll be going tomorrow night to the rematch of the Nipawin Hawks and the Humboldt Broncos from last nights season opening game in Humboldt, wow, was that something if you caught it on tv.

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Gearing up, just did another one last naphtha wipe down of PF and boat PF, giving it a few mins to evaporate/dry before I suit up and giv’r shit here. I think I’d rather be in front of 1000 people doing a speech, LOL. Bought a better smaller box fan this am to put right flush with exhaust filter to keep the area vapour and dust free better.

I think I’ll video this and post it on the thread, see if the “pros” around here have any better suggestions for me between my next coats and sanding, etc.

Here is my first coat. Looks ok so far.

So, i put the video to 2x speed, but i'm an idiot as I did some commentary.

Waited 20 mins or so, finished the can, just started to spatter at the end, so I stopped, there was still a decent amount in can maybe as I could feel the weight. The boat PF is about a foot farther than the PF, I cleared it also. I looked through the plastic after and I could see 1 splatter dot on the boat that I will have to clean up. Maybe a baby bit of orange peel on the second coat. The first coat looked clean and shiny everywhere, took a good peek at it before I started the second layer.\

ALSO< WOW, is this shit potent, all previous info regarding that - vid1900 and others saying over and over to use PPE, -------- USE PPE, this is rank. Glad I built the murder tent.

Just popped into the scene. From early indications, it looks smooth and looks to have adhered to the PF very nicely. Very, very happy with that. I can see how the clear reacts to to higher/lower points of the PF as it goes with it. I took a couple pics, and you can see how the clear is quite higher where the new decals are. It doesn’t fill the PF smooth. These are the places I will have to level out with the sanding. Not a big deal, should be easy enough. I was mostly nervous about spots where the clear didn’t “take” on the surface after reading many horror stories.

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