Oh I have no doubt it is worth it, I am just trying to get an idea of how much it could set a person back, again knowing there are a ton of factors for each one of these.

i thought that it was a ball park $13,000? That includes the cost of the base machine.

I am assuming you would provide the machine to Bryan, so I would take that cost out of it, just looking at the work to be done portion.

I have a TAF also, so following this closely.

LOL, yea, well wanting to do it and affording it are two totally different things. I've had the machine pushing 20 years now, but don't play it as often as I should.

Great thread, thanks for sharing!

Yeah, what he said. Love to have Bryan do my EBD. Especially since he's about 25 mins away from me. Maybe some day soon if he can make time for it......

Assuming you have the cash. If not, there are ways you can take your game to the next level without breaking the bank, particularly if you are handy. The top restorers on this site are very generous with their time and tips/information and there is plenty you can do on your own.

Yeah, I've been tempted to ask Bryan because EBD is never leaving, again, and I would love to have it MINT. Than I'd have a really nice casket too. . . .

Ummmm, possibly

No longer a cool secret but a great restore tip! Bryan always amazes me with new tricks with each restore.

Oh, That pencil technique is most awesome!

Looking good!

I don't know what this one will cost until I'm done, but I tell everyone, you can figure on at least $6000. With all the mods around and people wanting plated and powdered trim, color DMD, etc., they're getting more around $7000. I've done them for more than that too.

Interestingly enough, cost is the same for most any game done. That's WPC and WPC-95 games, which is most of what I do. I pretty much do the same thing for every game, so title makes no difference.

Thanks Bryan, at least that gives me a starting point/idea of how much I would need to save up for something like this, that is exactly what I was looking for.

Phil

And just to clarify, $6000 or better is the restoration cost. You provide the game. It can be a $2000 FT or a $8000 MM. They all cost the same to restore.

They are all the same color on the inside...

I've never tried sanding cabinet decals off, I use a heat gun and a scraper. Anyone have opinions on which way is better?

I have only ever sanded them off

Would using paint stripper lift the original silkscreened decals right off?

Not sure but doubtful. Silkscreened cabs were heat laminated vinyl. It's on there good. Sorry to derail op.

It all depends on what you're dealing with. Prior to the early 90's or so, the artwork was screened directly on the plywood. Then, Williams started using plywood with an outer vinyl material installed from the manufacturer and that's what the artwork was screened to. Most people think this is a decal but it's truly not. I think the only games that got decals installed were CC and MB. On these, the artwork was screened on decal material, then the decal was installed on the cabinet. It's one reason why most of these games had wrinkling issues.

What they used doesn't follow a timeline either. While IJ was made before AFM and has the vinyl material, AFM does not. And some games had the vinyl material on the head and not the bottom cabinet and vise versa.

I've never restored a TAF that had the vinyl material. On this one, you can see in the pics the ink slowly being sanded off. There was no glue involved. If the white had been vinyl, I would have that to deal with.

If screened on wood, I always sand it off. If the vinyl material is used, I'll remove with heat and putty knife and then sand. I've never tried any kind of liquid and never will. I'm too afraid it would drip or run onto the inside or outside of the bottom and cause a stain. I spend too much time making those look nice to have that happen.

I've got more detailed info about artwork about half the way down on page one.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ij-restoration-started

I notice you use the ROS without a vacuum so I assume you get a decent amount of dust, my shop is smaller and many times there are games nearby that are close to finished so I need to work clean. I have an electric ROS not one that uses compressed air. The way I've tried in the past is heat gun and scraper to remove the decals followed by sprayway 909 orange power plus de-greaser and then scrape all the glue off, then I would sand. Never had problems with raising the grain. This time I tried skipping the de-greaser and scraping and sanding it off using my ROS hooked up to the shop vac. I did 1 side yesterday with 80 grit and it was slow going and used a lot of sandpaper, today I tried 60 grit on the other side and it went much faster. Hooked up to the shop vac the dust wasn't too bad.

McCune uses a festool ( there's a vid on youtube:

) The festool aint cheap so not jumping into that but sure looks quick and easy. But I don't think scared stiff was decals so I'm not sure if you could do this on a decaled game. I know I keep calling them decals but it's really vinyl ( or whatever) coated plywood and the art is silk screened but it's easier to call them decals

Not sure how HEP does it. Anyway hope I'm not hijacking the thread, just trying to share my feedback.

Not a single spec of dust. I am still blowing dust out of my nose from a week ago!

Lots of different ways to strip artwork off a cabinet. Use whatever method works with whatever tools you have. I'd love to own a Festool. I think it's about the quickest, cleanest method. I just can't justify the expense.

This is a thread with both Bryan Kelly's name as well as him, so there are some required images.

Brad

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