About 3 years ago I picked up a Paragon from a guy who had it since 1985. Overall it was in pretty good shape; the cabinet had faded a bit but not too much, little wear on the playfield, and backglass in perfect shape. He also put in a new Alltek MPU board. The only major problem was the inserts cupping, the large "PARAGON" inserts being the worst.

I decided to fill them with Varathane using a pipette. Bad idea. I waited over 2 months for it to cure but the stuff remained soft and developed cracks. I took a plastic razor and actually peeled the varathane off of the inserts. Unfortunately it took a lot of the ink with it. At this point I swore to never use water-based stuff again.

Soooooo, I popped out all of the inserts with a heat gun and several dowel sizes, leveling them in the process and some slight sanding to remove the remaining ink. The inserts looked really nice, and the white ones were now bright white instead of yellow. The only problem was no ink.

I bought insert decals off of ebay, but was not happy with them at all. I decided to roll my own. I made laser water slide decals. My wife who is a brilliant graphic designer found the font and measured the inserts so the text and the decal would line up exactly with the inserts. (If anyone wants the Illustrator and pdf files let me know.)

Using Vid1900's playfield restoration thread as a guide, I sprayed a light coat of clear to lock in the wood and provide a surface for the decals and small touchups. A few days later, I applied the decals and my wife did the touchups. I decided to spray the reflective areas on the game as Vid had mentioned. This was the first time I used Frisket paper and it certainly kicks ass! It was the first time I used an airbrush too.

I used spraymax 2K clear in a can, did a few mist coats, another couple slightly heavier, and then the final coats.

I'm really happy with the way it came out. I also want to thank Vid1900 for sharing his knowledge and experience...and replying to my emails. I greatly appreciate it.

Now the playfield looks so good, I HAVE to redo the cabinet lol.

PF_CC.jpg PF_Bonus_CC.jpg

The pf was in pretty good shape when I got it. Just dirty and with small wear spots. Worst wear being next to the saucer kickouts. The worst damage was done by myself and the varathane.

Enclosed are some pre restore pics. An the mess left behind from the varathane.

For addressing the cupped inserts, I used this advice from a guy (I forget his name) on RGP: "Heat the insert until pliable and take a dowel of the same size and gently push down until flat. Let cool." You have to be really careful and not let the insert turn to goo. I don't think you can heat these enough with a hairdryer so you will need a heat gun. You also want to do it on a flat smooth surface otherwise you'll leave an imprint in the insert.

SprayMax 2K is great and really easy to work with. The nozzle on the can isn't like the rest of the spray can stuff. This actually fans out rather than coming out like a round spot. You can change the direction of the line flow as well, either vertical or horizontal. I have an HVLP gun that I use for larger projects but never cleared with it. Maybe I'll venture clearing with it one day. Just make sure you wear safety gear. I used, a respirator mask, goggles, (with the vents taped), gloves and a tyvek suit.

Have any of the pre restore pictures? I'm looking into spray max 2k as well, was it pretty easy to work with and how did you handle any cupped inserts?

PF_Varathane_Rubber.jpg PF_Pre_Bonus.jpg

Thanks!

Wow, that looks beautiful!

I lightly sanded the pf with 800 and 1000 grit before the first layer of clearcoat. I waited a couple of days then hit that coat with 1000 grit and applied the decals and touchups. Then did the final coats. Now I'm just waiting for it to cure. I'm definitely not going to sand the final coat. I'm not sure if I'm going to polish it either. My experiences with final sanding even with 2000/2500 grit were never positive ones.

OK, so I had some imperfections on the playfield, namely some slightly uneven inserts and areas around the inserts (where the edge of the insert meets the wood on the playfield) where the cc seeped into creating a groove. I think I was a little bit too excited about the decals looking so great that I overlooked this.

What I needed to do was build up the layers of clearcoat and do the final cut and buff method. I was really worried about mucking this up and contemplated on not doing it. But what the hell, you have to learn sometime.

I sprayed 2 more coats of clearcoat, sanded with 600 grit, sprayed another 2 coats, sanded with 600 grit. I filled in the edges around the inserts with a pipette. Since I was using SprayMax I had to spray some material in a glass jar, and then use the pipette. It actually worked really well. Sanded the areas with 600 grit. Then sprayed final 2 coats. I sanded down the last coats with 800-->1000-->1200-->1500-->2000-->2500. Then Meguier's Medium Cut polish, followed by Swirl Remover, followed by Novus 2. This looks better than I imagined! I bought a Wen buffier and some terry cloth bonnets to do the job. I figured, I can buff out my guitars too Now it looks like the there really is a sheet of glass over this playfield.

PF Shine1.jpg

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Cabinets:

The cabinets weren't in terrible shape and the fading was minimal, but after the way the playfield, came out, I the cabinet didn't look that great anymore lol.

So, I sanded down to the bare wood. Bondo'd all imperfections and gouges.

I decided to go with oil-based paint and matched the paint with pantone chips, and spray using a Rockler HVLP gun.

Sprayed 2 coats of Kilz primer.

Sanded with 220 to smooth out surface.

Sprayed 2 coats of Gold…wait that doesn't look right.

Unfortunately the Gold was not close at all to the color I picked. There was more gray in it making it much darker--it looked different than when it was wet in the can. The guy at Sherwin Williams told me that oil base is harder to match than latex/enamel. For reasons including EPA regulations etc there is a shift to move away from oil based paint and matching oil based paint is getting harder. I don't know how true that is but, the lady who mixed the paint originally didn't tell me this. Either way I decided to go with latex this time. Sherwin gave me my money back so essentially the latex paint was free.

Sooo I decided to strip the paint using chemical stripper and sanding--much easier than just sanding alone.

I sanded smooth, applied primer and sprayed the gold. This looked really nice. I sprayed 2 coats and had great even coverage. I have to say, this stuff from Sherwin Williams costs more than the stuff at the big box places, but damn it is so much better quality.

I needed to recreate the gold spatter/splatter on the cabinet and found the perfect match with Martha Stewart's Vintage Gold Metallic. I used the toothbrush method and the results were very nice.

BodyCab Base 1.jpg
Head Cab Base 1.jpg
Head Cab Base 2.jpg

Next, I applied the stencils and colors. During this time I was starting to regret repainting the cabinet and realize why many people opt not to do it. The graphics came out nice but having used stencils from a few different places, I can say that they are all a pain in the ass to work with. To be fair the Paragon cabinet artwork is fairly intense, but nothing beats the metal stencils originally used. If I'm going to continue to re-paint cabinets, I have to find a better way to do it.

After the stencils were done, I clearcoated the cabinet using Minwax Polycrylic. I used 4 coats so the artwork wasn't raised anymore.

BallyParagonBodyCabSide.jpg

BallyParagonHeadCabSide.jpg

BallyParagonBodyCabInside.jpg

Final assembly and all done. I put colored bulbs on parts of the playfield and I think it accents the game really well.

Maybe it's all in my head but the game plays really fast and is so much more responsive. My wife hates it though because it's too hard lol.

Next up….Space Invaders……

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BallyParagonLit.jpg

Thanks for the kind words guys.

It was a lot of work but very satisfying in the end.

I mentioned this before but if anyone needs the artwork file for the inserts let me know.