I would soak in evaporust, then use a maroon scotchbrite pad on it

Evaporust

The machinists at my work swear by Must for Rust.

I've found that Brasso cleaner and polish works great for a quick improvement, without the need to separate and remove the part for soaking. Brasso is available inexpensively in grocery stores.

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Using an appropriate size plastic tub I would soak in Evaporust overnight then if necessary use 1500 wet & dry on the door face. The good thing about Evaporust is that it penetrates all those areas between the metal sections which are normally inaccessible.

I looked at buying the Evaporust. Witch one does everyone here use original or industrial?

Original.

Thank you.

Depending on how anal you are and what condition the rest of the game is in you may also wish to call Steve at PBR and ask about getting a new door. He's got them and they are really nice. Take the front of an otherwise meh game and makes it look sweet. Just another option all be it more expensive

+1 PBR's doors & door parts are VERY nice.

If you want to spiff up your existing door, I would soak it in Evapo-Rust overnight. If you want a brand new door, buy one from Pinball Resource.

PBR door is great, if you want to spend the money.

Otherwise, Evaporust, then use wet/dry sandpaper on it. Start at 600, go up to 800, then to 1000. It will take some work and it won't look like new, but it will clean up really nicely.

Like others have stated, Evaporust is excellent.

I would never recommend anything more abrasive than Mothers Mag Polish on a plated finish coin door though. Scotchbrite and sandpaper will scratch the finish. Remember, this is a plated door. The abrasives are fine if you are working on the base metal. I cringe at putting scratches in a plated finish though.

I would use steel wool (Fine) and liquid Barkeepers Friend.
Thats just my technique
After polish clean with alcohol.
Then wax.

I'd use Evaporust and nothing more abrasive than a tired green scotchbright type pad.
Using abrasives will likely spoil the plated finish and that door isn't too bad compared to many I've seen so worth a bit of elbow grease to get it nice. Then finish with a wax type sealant to stop the fresh surface protected from the atmosphere to stop it oxidising. And finish up with a nice new red anodised replay button and a chrome reject rod, etc and that will look great!

If you look closely at that door, it already has a lot of vertical scratches in it on the hinge side. In addition, you can see the rust damage in the center section.

When metal rusts, it gets pitted. You can polish that with chrome polish, Brasso, what have you, until the end of time, and you'll never remove the pitting damage the rust has caused, or take the scratches out. The only way to remove those scratches and help mitigate the pitting caused by the rust is abrasives.

When you start with the more abrasive 600 paper, which is actually categorized as a fine sandpaper itself, you're going to have some scratching. But as you progress up to the superfine level, even up to about 1000-1500 grit, those are basically going to polish out with the paper and you'll end up with a smooth, and pretty shiny, surface.

The plating on that door, such as it is, is pretty much toast already. You aren't going to make it much better trying to polish it. It will clean up some, but not to the level you're going to want. I've restored a lot of games with a lot of rusty coin doors, and this has worked great for me. If I can't get them to my satisfaction, I find a better used door. So far, I've never had to buy one of Steve's. I'm sure there's a point where I'll eventually have to do that, but so far, no. Also, this is the exact method I use on siderails and on lockdown bars.

In fact, right now I'm working on a coin door for a Flip a Card I'm restoring. I'll post some pictures of the finished product. It takes some work, you're not going to get this done is 10 minutes.

And finally, as far as scratching goes, this is the method car restorers use to polish out newly refinished cars. They use polish and buff at the end, but up to that point, it's wet sanding with a progression of finer and finer grit paper.

Here's a look at the door at this point. I'm going to work on it a bit more, but it's getting close

The other door is not the same door, but pretty representative of how this door looked when I got it in.

door before (resized).jpgdoor after (resized).jpg

Have been looking at these doors, and noticed that the door has a graining or brushed effect on the raised areas. The indented area is usually just shiny with no graining or brushed effect.

Correct, that is what the PBR repros look

There is a way to get that brushed look back on the raised areas, but I don't have the tool to do that. A lot of that is worn badly by the time we get these doors, so unless you have access to the tool that can produce that look, you're pretty much resigned to just making it look as smooth and shiny as you can.

The inset part of the door is shiny when new, and the Gottlieb logo on there would be white when new. If you look at Steve's doors, you can see it. He sells a paint stick if you want to try and fill that area back in with white. I might try it on this game.

I don't think the original coin doors on Gottlieb games were quite as shiny as Steve's, but it's been so long ago I really can't remember exactly what they looked like when new.

Truthfully, if you get a door that is lightly rusted with no dents or bends on the edges from clowns trying to pry the door open, you're really in pretty good shape. Almost every door I've dealt with has been rusted to some degree, and almost all of them have dents or pry marks on them.

I agree with your statement. Could be a plating process done on the new repo doors. Original doors are not as shiny unless they are buffed out with a power ball. A almost mirror like effect can be brought out of the indented area.

As for the Gottlieb Logo. A White paint Sharpie or use a small detail paint brush with enamel paint. Brush in the engraved area. Wipe carefully off any excess with a small amount of thinner and a tight/flat fiber cloth.

You could have your existing door re-chromed.

If you want the original appearance and are going to have it replated go for nickel plating. As Mike Chestnut explained to me nickel plating is the layer just before they dip metal for chrome plating.

None of the standard metal on a Gottlieb EM was chrome plated.

A friend had his coin door and ball shooter housing on Jack In The Box chromed. Those pieces look fantastic with chrome!