Here where I live , Cyprus , Getting an EM pinball in good shape is close to impossible. When I took a look , not a very close one , at this Gottlieb Surf Champ , I figured that I would just remove the Mylar , make some local touch ups and finish with an auto clear coat.

_DSF4216 (resized).JPG

_DSF4218 (resized).JPG

_DSF4196 (resized).JPG

_DSF4217 (resized).JPG

_DSF4205 (resized).JPG

_DSF4207 (resized).JPG

_DSF4223 (resized).JPG

_DSF4224 (resized).JPG

_DSF4226 (resized).JPG

_DSF4238 (resized).JPG

_DSF4221 (resized).JPG

Some " restoration " has been done on the left hand side of the playfield !!. I knew that this was going to be my major problem. My intention was to remove the green paint with , either ME and alcohol , or , if that would not work with some careful use of some paint remover. White areas under the plastics would have to be taken care also.

_DSF4200 (resized).JPG

_DSF4201 (resized).JPG

_DSF4203 (resized).JPG

_DSF4204 (resized).JPG

_DSF4213 (resized).JPG

_DSF4214 (resized).JPG

_DSF4252 (resized).JPG

Have to admit ... the guy that TOUCHED up the playfield was an artist !

20181017_161232 (resized).jpg

20181017_161240 (resized).jpg

20181017_161258 (resized).jpg

Removing the Mylar was a nightmare. Heat seemed to be working better than freezing , but paint lifting was really bad. Not only this but almost all inserts came up with the Mylar. I do not like to mess with the inserts but to be on the safe side I removed every single one and glued it back flash with the playfield with some epoxy from underneath. After my first restoration of a Fast draw ( https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fast-draw-playfield-restoration-first-ever-attempt- ) I am feel more competent in proceeding with this ! A big thanks again to all that share their knowledge , and especially to VID . His playfield restoration @Bible@ was a huge help for me.

20181021_123423 (resized).jpg

20181021_123451 (resized).jpg

Things are getting better and better

20181019_211349 (resized).jpg

20181019_211354 (resized).jpg

First of all I have to remove that ugly splash of green of paint . The only thing that worked was some paint remover.
So removed carefully the previous "touch ups" , cleaned the playfield with ME and alcohol , touched up some keylines and black lines , and applied the first coat of 2PAC .

20181104_111052 (resized).jpg

20181104_111258 (resized).jpg

20181104_111306 (resized).jpg

20181104_111400 (resized).jpg

Black lines and curves restored with black pencil , pinstripe and french curves and some black opaque Createx paint , ( Big thanks to VID for indicating the use of Createx .. a beautiful paint)
The lines will look perfect once surrounding paint is applied and everything @ties@ together.

20181104_125106 (resized).jpg

20181104_125121 (resized).jpg

20181104_125131 (resized).jpg

20181104_125147 (resized).jpg

20181104_125205 (resized).jpg

20181104_125211 (resized).jpg

Before proceeding with the first application of paint I scanned the whole playfield. The yellow area in particular will be impossible to do manually. Yellow does not cover well and the letters and numbers would make the job super difficult. So I will airbrush the yellow , and then apply all numbers and letters with decals. knowing where to apply the decals after everything is covered with yellow will be made with an overlay that is to be applied and secured on the playfield before the paint is applied. more of that later.
But first I will start with the light blue. I used a combination of pinstripe , frisket and painters tape to cover the playfield and not only Frisket because Frisket is super hard to find locally and had to be ordered over the net taking more than 3 weeks to get delivered. Painters tape was wrong . if applied to the edge it does not remove cleanly enough.

20181109_142712 (resized).jpg

20181109_142806 (resized).jpg

20181118_145842 (resized).jpg

20181118_145912 (resized).jpg

20181118_145924 (resized).jpg

If the letters or numbers are big enough I prefer to frisket over them , because matching colors later with decals is not easy.

20181118_145855 (resized).jpg

Applying a light layer of white to hide dark imperfections and make subsequent light blue application more even .

20181118_155951 (resized).jpg

20181118_163833 (resized).jpg

Applying light blue. I applied several light coats with heating in between.

20181118_170816 (resized).jpg

20181118_174758 (resized).jpg

20181118_174813 (resized).jpg

Leaving the paint to dry overnight I slowly removed the frisket and tape. This was taken after I stared working on the dark blue and red.

20181120_200823 (resized).jpg

20181205_174004 (resized).jpg

More work on dark blue and red areas and also on the white letters with some 5/0 and 3/0 brushes. Also the white ares under the plastics are been painted manually. After all is finished I will apply a second layer of 2PAC, Frisket , and apply the Yellow. The weather is getting cold here and , since I do not have a dedicated spray booth , I will have to wait until spring to apply that second coat. Unless I get lucky and the temperature rises during the next week.
Some minor imperfections with the white small numbers and letters will be sorted out on the final application of blue paint with a 10/0 brush.

20181205_174017 (resized).jpg

20181205_174052 (resized).jpg

20181205_191657 (resized).jpg

20181205_191701 (resized).jpg

20181205_191721 (resized).jpg

20181205_191727 (resized).jpg

20181205_191734 (resized).jpg

I will do my best. After restoring my Fast draw I have all the tools in hand

Found some time to work on the playfield. Dark blue is finished , red almost finished .

20181205_174052 (resized).jpg

20181223_210705 (resized).jpg

20181223_210717 (resized).jpg

Bare wood was very dirty and impossible to sand clean so I did my best to cover the wood with some acrylic paint .

20181223_210654 (resized).jpg

20181219_230552 (resized).jpg

20181223_210749 (resized).jpg

Gottlieb logo was painted by hand. Needs another pass of white to be completed

20181223_210729 (resized).jpg

After finishing the red and white , I will airbrush all the yellow. I will have to come up with a solution to correctly align all the decals thar are on the yellow area. I plan to do that with a translucent overlay on which I will mark the start and ending of all the decals. As a last resort I can use the scans to measure the position of every decal.
Since I must apply a layer of clear in order to proceed with the yellow , I hope that the weather will allow me to do it.

Beautiful condition ! For 150 bucks I would probably just get the 4 legs here in Cyprus

After airbrushing the yellows, I will have to wait for the weather to warm up and then apply a nice clear coat , sand , apply all the decals , clear coat , sand , polish and repopulate.

Thanks a lot

Finishing the bare wood restoration with a combination of acrylics and brush.
Magenta/red really brings the color really close to the original.
Left some of the underlying defects so as to look natural

15460944291682605119734985697896 (resized).jpg

20181219_210130 (resized).jpg

After sanding the first layer of clear I was hasty to start painting . Instead I should have addressed all the small recesses with a sandpaper pad before proceeding.
A scratch pen makes it easy to roughen up small areas without damaging adjacent painted areas , making sure that clear will stay put.

20181229_173047 (resized).jpg

20181229_173104 (resized).jpg

I am waiting for the weather to get warmer so as to lock all touch ups with clear coat .
After that , all the yellow areas will be airbrushed. All the black lettering will have to be put back as water slide decals. In order to register every position of the letters on the yellow area I will mark the position of every word before airbrushing so as to be able to place the decals in exactly the same position as the original lettering.
A small hole on the start and end of words on the transparent paper will help me mark with a pencil the start and end and correct orientation of the words on the playfield .
I think is the only way to make sure everything is placed in the correct position.
The paper is secured on the frame holding the playfield. The playfield is locked in the frame so no movement is possible.
The red numbers will be covered with frisket.

20190112_154919 (resized).jpg

20190112_154948 (resized).jpg

20190112_155039 (resized).jpg

I will have to finish this one first
The weather is starting to get warm here so I expect to get another coat of clear really soon.

Weather got warmer so I managed to do another clear coat , to seal everything that had been done so far.

20190501_082759 (resized).jpg

20190501_092908 (resized).jpg

20190501_093102 (resized).jpg

20190501_092809 (resized).jpg

Forgot to protect the star rollovers ,but after checking for clearance everything seems to work ok. I will make sure that I cover the gap with reversed plastic stars for the next clear coat.

20190501_093039 (resized).jpg

Mean while cleaning the side wooden bars was mandatory. I will use shellac later to bring the color close to the original.

20190501_112648 (resized).jpg

20190501_112715 (resized).jpg

20190501_112712 (resized).jpg

20190501_123227 (resized).jpg

20190501_123239 (resized).jpg

Using the scans from a "magic wand" ( not the best tool to use but ..) I created all the decals for the letters and numbers in the yellow areas in Photoshop.
Some of the lettering was created by finding what font was used for the letters by uploading the scans to whatTheFont site.
That made recreating all the numbers from 1000 to 10,000 really easy ! The keyline circles were created with the Ellipse tool.
Checked everything for fit , digitally by superimposing the created decals with the scans from the playfield.
Then by printing them on regular paper I checked them for fit on the actual pinball.

SC-Black-white-decals (resized).jpg

SC-Black-white-decals-2 (resized).jpg

SC-Black-white-decals-3 (resized).jpg

Everything seems to be ok ...

20190511_170531 (resized).jpg

20190511_170957 (resized).jpg

20190511_171357 (resized).jpg

20190511_174451 (resized).jpg

20190511_171936 (resized).jpg

20190511_174414 (resized).jpg

The next step is to wet sand the table with 400 grit sandpaper , recheck the placing of the transparent paper I used to mark the position of all the letters and numbers that are to be covered with yellow createx paint. Use frisket to cover everything except the yellow area. use the airbrush to apply the paint. do another clear coat. wet sand again , apply the decals , do a final clear coat , and progressively sand the table to a smooth 2500 grit finish.

Will try my best to get it in original new condition

I love EM games . Looking and playing one of them is traveling back in time !

I made sure the playfield will stay put by using some angle irons.
The overlays are fixed to the case that holds the playfield and I had to make sure that everything stays aligned.

Now I must frisket carefully the yellow area and airbrush a beautiful yellow color.
Then all is left to do is apply the third coat of clear , wet sand, apply the decals correctly , position wise , with the help of the overlay and apply the final fourth coat of clear.
Getting there...

20190529_191552 (resized).jpg

20190529_191700 (resized).jpg

20190529_191645 (resized).jpg

20190529_191531 (resized).jpg

20190529_191627 (resized).jpg

Found some time to use frisket for the yellow area .

20190619_184558 (resized).jpg

20190619_184659 (resized).jpg

20190619_193056 (resized).jpg

I also covered the red lettering , because I was not sure if I would get the red color right with the decals. I can always touch them up with a 10/0 brush .

20190619_193019 (resized).jpg

20190619_193035 (resized).jpg

I checked and rechecked 5 times . Everything is covered except the yellow area.
That will be all for tonight . I did spend 8 hours in total for the yellow area ready to be airbrushed.

20190619_202233 (resized).jpg

20190619_200944 (resized).jpg