So my good friend Dave (MrKegflex on pinside) convinced me that I should share the story of my Strikes and Spares restoration that I have been working on for about 6 months. I'm new to pinside so here goes....

It all started when I found the machine on CL... It was in an extreme state of disrepair... But who am I to turn away a good challenge. Like all good projects it turned into something bigger than I had imagined, but I am extremely happy with the way it turned out.

As you can see from the pictures, the back glass was extremely bad and the playfield was beyond typical repair. I was fortunate enough to find a near mint replacement glass about 200 miles from my house, but what to do with the playfield. I knew CPR was eventually going to reproduce it, but I wanted to try my own restoration technique (if I screwed it up big time, I knew I could get a replacement from CPR anyway). I scanned the playfield artwork and redrew it in the computer (time consuming), sanded the old artwork off, and had a local sign shop print new vinyl artwork. Following that, I laid down 6 coats of PPG Omni quick clear, block sanded with 1000, 1500, 2000, then polished.

I reassembled with the standard replacement posts, pop bumpers, etc. I also replaced all of the capacitors on the playfield switches (a topic for another post... I'm an Electrical Engineer and found some interesting findings). Every metal piece polished, every screw machine polished, etc. etc. etc.

Here are some before and after shots.... I hope you enjoy.

Jeff

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More pics

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A couple more

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I had a PM asking for a few more details on how I did the PF restoration and figured I would share them with the rest of the forum.

I scanned the playfield in multiple overlapping sections using a flatbed scanner, then stitched the images together in Photoshop CS4. I then took several measurements of key areas on the playfield and made sure things lined up the same way in the computer. Once I was satisfied that things lined up correctly, I traced (using the Pen tool in Photoshop) all of the black part of the artwork. This was the most time consuming part of the whole restoration. I made a couple of test prings at my local FedEx store to check to see how things lined up, made a few adjustments, then drew the other color layers. The file I ended up with could likely be used by CPR or another silk screen capable shop to reproduce the artwork as originally done on the PF. CPR wouldn't be interested in the file (they already have one) and the costs to do the screens and do one PF would have been astronomical, so I went the route of the vinyl overlay. The Photoshop PSD file with the paths for the artwork is about 40MB in size.

There are a couple of inserts that don't line up perfectly, but to be fair, this is probably because i used two different printers (FedEx for the proof and the sign shop for the end result). I view everything as a learning experience so my take away here for next time is to have them do the test prints too on the same printer (if possible) so that it will be absolutely perfect next time. Still, the differences are fairly minor and I'm totally happy with the end result.

There are two major monetary things to consider when factoring the printing cost: The print and the auto clear. The local sign shop, was fantastic and spent a fair amount of time with me so that they understood what the end result should look like. The vinyl print was a 20" x 42" die cut decal and with tax ended up being $103.79. 1 quart of PPG Omni Quick Clear (MC260) and hardener (MH167) purchased from a local Car Quest store was $60.56 including sales tax.

If you have never shot auto clear before, there are other items required to do it (safely.). You would need a decent air compressor (2HP 15 gal should be fine) with a desiccant water filter attached, HVLP paint gun (the Harbor Freight one works well), and a good respirator... Auto clear isn't something you can shoot in the house. I shoot in my 2 car garage and remove nearly everything from it when I do it.... Clear vapor gets everywhere and sticks to everything. I have used Varathane before on other restoration projects and I don't like it. I haven't been able to layer it very well, humidity has a big impact on how well it dries (and how clear it is) and the colors just don't pop like they do with the auto clear. Shooting auto clear is a bit of an art and I'm getting better at it, but I wouldn't say I have mastered it. My brother paints cars, so I have learned a lot from him... but I still have a way to go It takes *a lot* of work to get a mirror finish... and most of that is with block sanding. In my experience, clearing an auto body panel is orders of magnitude easier to do than clear coating a pinball playfield when trying to get the same end result.

Let me say that the auto clear route is a nice finishing step, but with the way the sign shop put the decal on and the protective coating used, it's not completely necessary to have the clear coat.... it just looks nicer and that's the look I wanted.

After sanding the original artwork off of the playfield, I put two coats of Omni Quick Clear on the playfield so that the decal would have something to adhere to. The sign shop said this was a requirement because the decal probably wouldn't adhere well to unfinished wood. In my case I let it dry then block sanded it with 600 grit so that the next layers of clear would adhere. When clearing, sanding between coats after the clear has dried is an absolute must, otherwise the new coat of clear won't adhere to the previous one. If one were to not go the route of the clear coat, a couple of coats of polyurethane or Varathane would be sufficient I think.

I learn by reading about what others have done and then trying it out for myself, making modifications as I find necessary. I appreciate what others have shared and hope that this will be helpful to others.

-Jeff

Letting go of that Strikes and Spares was not easy. As you can imagine, I put many many hours into that restoration and feel like a little part of me went along with it. Thanks for the kudos. I sincerely enjoy talking new pinball ideas with you. You are an extremely creative person and have given me some great ideas for the next restoration project

Jeff

In the artwork, I have paths created that the print shop used when creating the vinyl print by a plotter that cuts out the areas where there are inserts, holes, etc. The tricky part then was to shoot a couple coats of two part automotive clear, then level the inserts (the vinyl is rather thick). This step is very laborious. Following that, more clear coat to get the whole playfield nice and level. In the end, it turned out very nice and I would do it again (with a few slight modifications.... everything is a learning process).

Jeff