So I just picked up this BEAT and I mean BEAT Continental Cafe for $50. Girl who sold it to me said it was in her arcade owning family since it was new and she just didn't have the time or interest to fix it up, but it had sentimental value to her. Used to reside on the boardwalk in Wildwood NJ was the story (looks like it resided outside under a porch too, mildew stink!!). I almost passed on it, but I was looking for something to "try" my restoration skills on before trying them on other games. I bought it, so here I am. Playfield is OK, not terrible but back glass is real bad. About 1/2 is missing. Some water stains, mouse droppings, rust, and the cabinet paint sucks too. BEAT all around. The only thing is the inside looks pretty good and not too hacked up.

Before you tell me to turn it into a Whoe Nellie machine, I thought I would see if anyone had a real nice photo (high res) of a good condition backglass. Something I could use to Photoshop and possibly make a new one. They don't sell them and personally not looking to spend a lot on a machine that will never be good, but could be OK and fun to play. I took a 22MP photo of what I have. Was playing around with some decent photos from the internet, but they are just not high enough quality.

May be looking for some parts too, especially the playfield plastics which were REALLY beat, melted in fact. Does anyone have any high res scans of these?

Figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Sorry guys, busy at work. Here are some picts of the beater. Thoughts?IMG_2538.JPGIMG_2539.JPGIMG_2540.JPGIMG_2541.JPGIMG_2542.JPGIMG_2543.JPGIMG_2544.JPGIMG_2537.JPGIMG_2535.JPGIMG_2545.JPGIMG_2545.JPGIMG_2535.JPG

Yea, just bringing something back from the dead is worth the $50 and what I learn along the way. I can't believe she wanted $500 for that POS. She said it was working a few months back but that was a bunch of BS. Getting there with the general cleanup with the help of my 8 year old daughter, deciding what to touch up on the playfield and then probably a clear coat. Any suggestions on what works the best?

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Joe, thanks for the idea to contact the Paris Pinball Museum. Can't hurt to try.

Will get the backglass photo, had to do that at work with a nice 22MP camera. Photo is not on my computer. Believe me, there's really not much to see. Probably 1/2 of it flaked off, most likely while being stored on the screened porch the last few winters.

Dana, the girl selling it, tried to tell me that it was worth thousands. I chuckled at that.

I'm assuming maybe the sun got to it a bit? Maybe not, you may be right, 50s plastics were not very good.

Much better than the outside. Will get a photo and post later.

I got some skills in Photoshop and trying some stuff on a large format printer. Can easily make the playfield plastics if I can get some hi-res scans of them. I really don't want to part this out. Not sure how good it will play, but want to find out.

Anyone have any ideas on playfield coating. When I cleaned and waxed a section it just seemed that there were too many cracks where the wax was stuck making white streaks, kind of weird. It doesn't look bad right after cleaning when wet, colors are mute but look real cool. That's why I'm thinking of repairing certain sections and then clear coating it.

He got back to me already, doesn't have one. But he gave me a lead to someone who does. Thanks Joe for your lead. Let you know if it pays off.

I know this is an old topic but I finally got to painting the cab on the beat Continental Cafe. Other machines happened as well as home repairs (boring). Anyway, I wasn't idle! I did a bunch of Photoshop work on the plastics and backglass, cleaned/fixed up the board, and color matched the cab colors. Stripped to bare wood and priming right now after fixing (glue and screws) cracks and gouges. Since it was so bad I couldn't save much of the "patina" that made it look old which my teenage daughter commented "made it look cool". I was resigned to sanding out all the scratches and filling which I did until I got to the last one on the top frame. In huge letters was gouged "Diane + Thomas J." It would take me a while to sand it down, but part of me thought twice about this and maybe keeping it.....thoughts? And before you reply just do what you want, I know that, just interested in reasons to sway my decision. Thanks in advance.

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Right on the top of the machine, above the backglass top of the frame. Just finished painting the base coat of the cabinet and was just about to sand out the letters as I started to agree with wayner on getting rid of the letters as I think they will stick out too much. There is still a nice "Joe" scraped into the lockdown bar that will add to the rough history that this machine lived before I got it.

Was going to see if anyone who did a Whoa Nellie conversion has a better playfield or backglass that I can get my hands on for a reasonable cost or even free

UPDATE: Just finished painting the cabinet. Took awhile to figure out the best way to do it. Ended up making stencils, drew up the designs in AutoCAD and then laser cut them from sheets of chipboard. Worked well, little bit of overspray but not much different than the factory. Originally ended up using latex but the sprayer I used just didn't work well enough and it was a royal pain to clean up. Started looking online for more variety in paint colors and ended up using Montana Colors (MTN) 94 (graffiti paint!!!). Got a swatch book and was able to match the colors pretty well (comes in 174 colors!!, matte finish, different spray tips, they also have a glossy paint). The matte finish looks real nice on it, the paint is awesome. Has anyone else used them? Curious to know. Used spar varnish on the wood, in the process of putting back all the hardware, then putting the board back in.

Thanks for the people who gave some input into the carved in names. Ended up sanding the crap out of it and it was still there, so I left it. Can't really see it that much but it's there, which I think is pretty cool. Anyway, on to the playfield.....

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Not really sure what the color "should" be for the legs as they were red when I got it. But I saw the picts online had cream legs, so I painted them; twice. Almond Rustoleum was the color.

Here is the swatch book from Montana Colors. Going to try the Hardcore Paint which is glossy on my next pin paint, Domino. Again, anyone using them?

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That's why I got the swatch book. Matched it up, ordered online, had it in a couple days. Killer paint. It dried so fast I was able to paint the sides, all three colors in 2 hours. That sold it for me.

Well figured I would update this old post covering my old beat Continental Cafe which was supposed to be a "learning machine". In the past year since I painted the cabinet I was able to get a beautiful playfield from ZNET (thanks again Bruce) then read a bunch of posts and pondered a bunch about restoring some worn sections and finishes. Ultimately I did some repairs, touch ups and clearcoated the playfield. Did a swap (first time doing it, thanks for those who posted experiences, that helped) then cleaned all the playfield parts. I did need to get a few new and old parts as a bunch were just melted beyond use from sitting in the sun on a screened in porch for who knows how long. I also painted the apron (more times than I wanted as the paint would "wrinkle" as it dried) then applied a decal from Pinball Rescue. Been working since Christmas on getting it up and running. Slowly it is returning to life.

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I should if I could find her email, she would complain that $50 sale was too cheap!

Thanks, I agree. I was so new to pinball at the time I bought it I didn't even realize it was the donor game for WNBJM. It's a shame that it was used that way since it is a good looking game. At least they could have used an Atlas from that year, speaking of ugly (maybe that's just me).

They just used the game because that's what they had laying around and it was a fairly simple design. They designed it around what that machine had component wise from what I read and understood.

Didn't play it yet since I'm still having ball count stepper issues. Hopefully this weekend. I'll check back with you later.

Bruce you can hijack my thread all you want, lol. Machine would still be a POS if you didn't have that beautiful playfield.

For anyone else reading this I played the Whoa Nellie, very awesome job and you should be showing people the crazy amount of work you did to get it looking that great.

Thanks to everyone and their kind words. Been playing it a bit working out the little gremlins that were hiding in there for the past 20+ years. It was set on high tap so I left it and I like the game play, not as terrible as I was told. Just try to avoid the gobble holes and nudge it like crazy, pretty fun for what it is. So Joe jrpinball to answer your question, I really like it!