Sure thing! It looks worse on the pictures but could be better for sure. Since finished the coin door I got a bench grinder with wire brush and cotton wheel along with.a variety of sandpaper. I will revisit that portion at the same time I will take care of the lockdown bar. The side rails were sanded to remove most of the scratches the re-grained. They turned out pretty good.

70s Williams door, was pretty scratched up before

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Another angle though you can see scratches...try as I might I can’t get rid of them. Is it possible?

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Looks great. I have been able to polish SS to these levels too.

Can you share your method?

This is from a Williams Space Mission. It looks very similar to yours. At some point I started to think of the little scratches as character.

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Polished with a random orbital 600 grit to get deep scratches out, then wet sanded 800-1000-1500-2000-3000 and finish with Mother’s polish.

Wow the inside of your door looks pristine. Did you replate the parts or zinc paint them? My coin door internals have lots of plating loss.

Would you recommend the same technique to try to remove deep scratches on a lock down bar?

Lots of great tips in this thread but not much regarding repairs to the original door skins.

Perhaps I'm overlooking this, but is there someone reproducing classic Stern door skins? I haven't been able to find one, so I'm pretty sure they aren't.

My door is drilled & I'm debating how to repair it. Either going through the trouble of having a friend weld it & grind it flat.... or just saying oh well & plugging the hole with a rubber stopper.

In either case I need to remove the original paint. I don't have a sandblast setup, so any suggestions what chemical to use to soak & remove the paint?

I've done it on a lockdown bar (1964 Heat Wave) with success! And side rails for that matter.

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Nobody reproduces this door.

To remove paint, I use the Jasco spray on paint remover. Just spray it on (outdoors or in a garage, it reeks) and wait 15 minutes and the paint will come off with paper towels and a putty knife.

Nice! I’m definitely trying that. Thanks

I disassembled everything, removed the rust, tumbled and then painted.

Cannot believe I have not posted here yet!

A couple before/afters from a Stern Galaxy (minus credit button decal):

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Before/After from a Stern Meteor:

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Before/After from a Stern Nine Ball:

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I'll have another post coming with some Bally Doors.

A couple before/afters from a Bally Paragon:

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Before/After from a Bally Fathom:

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Shameless plug for a Bally/Classic Stern Coin Door Restoration Guide:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/classic-bally-stern-coin-doors-step-by-step-guide-to-restoration

The Hammered finish covers so well that I usually don't remove the pain underneath. I clean up/sand down then paint on top, looks great

Ok I'll play...

This was my first ever FULL tear down, with no re-paint. Just an attempt to de-rust, clean, flatten, and re-grain. I did "good enough!"

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/resto-space-odyssey-mof-20190630

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That door deserves a repainted cabinet.

Spin the carriage bolts in a drill on some Mother's mag to shine 'em up!

Anyone successfully repainted the red "W" in the Williams coin door plate? What's the technique?

Wow...that's gorgeous.

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My first attempt. Happy with the results.

A lot more time than I would have ever imagined.

Has anyone used hydraulics or an arbor press to remove dents in a coin door?

Thank you sir. No idea what I was doing but read a lot of tips on this forum. Ended up buying a ultrasonic and a bench polisher from harbor freight. Used a lot of evaporust, mean green, and mother’s mag. Just glad I was able to figure out how to put it back together. Definitely no such thing as taking too many pictures when taking it apart.

Is there any way of preventing the polished parts from getting nasty again? I refinished my Bally KISS and my inside coin door has looked great for several years now but want to keep it that. I assume alot of the nasty discoloration/rust/grime/etc that we clean up to get the perfect shine is a result of the original arcade environments and just lack of cleaning over the years so with continued care and better environment it should last.

Chrome polish is your friend.

The graining on your Williams door is what I feel as spot on to the look of those doors out of the factory... could you pop us a 20,000 foot view of your process?

You could CAMEO it (send me a stencil....cough, cough)

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I’ll probably end up doing this....paint mask and airbrush. I’ll post results after I try it.

I am super happy how this turned out. I used rattle can semi flat and gloss, using the Bryan_Kelly method of spraying the spatters. This is a System 11 Elvira and the Party Monsters build.

Before
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After

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Sorry I never saw this request. I don’t have a solid process. I usually just start sanding and work my way up til I’m happy.
Here my most recent coin door on a xenon and I list the grits I used:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/thruster-i-just-met-her-xenon-restoration-/page/3#post-6073452

Here is the link to that Firepower coin door you referenced:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dumpster-firepower/page/2#post-5434862

That one was just sanded with 1500 grit.

Stern Meteor, still missing decal and lock.

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Before and After Coin door resto on a Bally Doctor Who from 1992. Cabinet got new decals. Door got sanded and painted. Tardis coin return buttons added from vendor here on pinside. I had extra Tardis Door decals that I added to the door blanks.

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Nice job, Cosmo!

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Does anyone ever use the black hammered finish rustoleum? I have used the silver to great effect on my old stern coin doors. I have a Gottlieb System 80 that needs some work, and I'm wondering if that will do the trick. I'm up for any suggestions.
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'65 Williams Big Chief before and After
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'79 Meteor Before and After
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'79 Trident Before and After
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Side by Side
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As far as I can tell, everyone goes with paint instead of polished metal on classic Stern doors. Is this just for the original look, or the is there an obvious reason you wouldn't do that on those doors?

I'm also in need of two coin reject trays (the part that looks like a funnel) for classic sterns. Does anyone know where the heck I can get them?

50% because that was how it was originally
50% because the hammered paint covers minor imperfections very well

Only the coin slot bezel is plated from the factory and gets shined up.

You could send out a Stern coin door to strip it down, blast it, and get it plated, but it's going to need a lot of work to get out all the dents and creases and such so that when it is plated it doesn't look like garbage.

I think the shiny look is more of a Bally thing. You can buy brand new door skins for Bally's of the same era that are perfect and shiny.

From my Midway White Lightning. I found the unobtanium sticker inside and it cleaned up pretty nice!

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That’s good stuff!

What kind of paint and did you clear it also?

Hammered gray powdercoat. I coated it at my local hackerspace many months ago, can't remember what caused the defects to the left of the coin slot.
Going to try to touch it up with the hammered paint can!
Getting good coverage in the coin return is hard, then I get the hinge lightly and then saturate the rest.
Some powders don't have gloss, this one does! The hammered effect looks very nice.

Very cool!

I purchased a new door from PBR for my 1959 Around the World pin and then cleaned, polished or painted the other parts.

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Finished my Black Knight coin door this weekend and this pretty much completes the restoration. Time to play!
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Here is mine. 1st attempt on a door resto. CCM Casino.
Minor fail on the slot decals - to be continued

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