Yea don't worry about those pin holes just wipe it down really good with naptha and get all that dust out of them. Give it a few days and lay down another session (can) 2-3 coats and then ditch that electric sander because it will knock it down too much, give it a few more days then lightly wet sand with 2000 grit with a small block about 2" x 2" then hit it with an orbital polisher and polishing compound, you can polish out the wet sanding scratches by hand too if you don't mind your arm falling off lol. I highly recommend the Meguiar's ultimate compound, no swirl remover nothing else just wait a few weeks then finish it off with this stuff Happy Sloth (the 2 oz car & bike wax only) off ebay I love it! It just adds to the Super High Glossness of the whole job and I think it feels better and applies better than 300 grand or a more expensive wax, it seems to have more Beeswax than Carnuba which is perfect for clear coats in my opinion...I wonder if they'll send me a t-shirt haha.

ebay.com link: HAPPY SLOTH CAR BIKE WAX 2 oz SAMPLE SUPER HIGH GLOSS NATURAL CARNAUBA WAX

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You should use a eyedropper to fill them out out.

After some trial and error, I have determined the easiest way to collect the SprayMax clear from a can for use with an eyedropper.
Take an old white Spraymax nozzle and remove the black "insert" with some pliers. Keep this nozzle handy. When you are finished spraying with the standard nozzle, swap nozzles and gently depress this "wide open" nozzle until it slowly leaks/sputters into a glass container (you will only need a teaspoon or so so don't try and fill the container). Stir slowly for awhile with the glass eyedropper or glass rod to ensure that the propellant is entirely gone. If the container still feels ice-cold and or the clear won't stay inside the eyedropper, the propellant is still there. Work slowly, ensure no bubbles are added to the playfield via the dropper.
Most importantly, if you are adding to a fresh layer of clear, don't steady yourself by leaning on the playfield! Still can't believe I did that

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I have also used the Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, and I confirm that the stuff is amazing. I use it with a white polishing sponge pad connected to my cordless drill at low speed. Polish just to dryness; when the sponge pad starts to chatter on the playfield. A big thanks goes out to gmkalos for recommending this product to us.

You can just turn a generally empty can upside down AIR IT OUT COMPLETELY (you can confirm this by being able to dent the can with your hands) then just pierce the can and cut it open with tin snips there will be plenty of clear left inside to use with a dropper man.

When you have minor imperfections when you have made a full pass along the pf and its wet just go back to those areas and spray into them. Watch this video of this guy spraying the 2nd WW pf and how he goes back and sprays into certain areas, as long as the coat is wet you can add to it.

Optimal results will occur with the addition of the Beasties in the background while applying.

Excellent info. Thank you!

Did my first application of SprayMax 2K today....weather holding out in Canada!
Got some fish eye around bumpers where some woodgrain platters had been glued....rats.
Guess I'll be sanding this coat and applying another!
Race against time/weather at this point.

Also I found that the spray pattern is the opposite to what I thought, horizontal nozzle outputs vertical pattern. So definitely need to do some sanding now!

I'm very happy the weather is cooperating here in Canada. I might even have time for one more coat before the snow flies! I thought I was actually done spraying this year - but 3 weeks after my previous application I am now just starting to see some significant dieback.

Put down 1.5 cans of clear on my BTTF playfield today, sanded between the coats but I did not like how the sandpaper was dragging the clear and smudging black dust into the clear. Had to naptha and sand that out. It’s a little rough up close, so I guess it needs sanding and more coats? Advice?

Here’s an exaggerated picture using flashlight and macro:

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I would have said not enough material but 1.5 cans should have been enough. The clear is “hot” as in loaded with solvents so it should melt into itself and flow out. Removing not enough material, my educated guess is you were spraying too far away (or possible moving too fast)from the surface. If you’re too far away it creates a “dry” spray. The result is what painters call sugaring. When you get the hang of it, you’ll see the spray melt into the overlapped areas from the previous pass. It was mentioned correctly before by gmkalos that you need to overlap your pattern by 50% and keep a wet edge. Im curious on the black dust you reference. What were you sanding with? Wet or dry? Are you sure you weren’t sanding ink from the playfield?

I kept a wet edge and thought I was close enough, but maybe I was moving too fast and not laying down enough of the 2PAC. After watching the video above I have a decent idea of speed to go now. I believe the smudging marks were dust from the 800 grit sand paper. I was dry sanding, and definitely not getting down below the clear as far as I could tell. It's HARD, as I think about it, perhaps the clear coat was sanding the paper, not the other way around. What concerned me was the difficulty in removing that smudging, took some more sanding and naptha to get it out of the clear. How long should I wait for a coat to dry before sanding between the coats? Maybe I didn't wait long enough?

First off you shouldn't be sanding between coats with anything other than 1,500-2,000 grit paper you're just making big scratches that you will have to sand out stepping up to 2,000 paper and basically taking off all your clear coat you just put on.

That looks almost identical to my earlier issue (scroll up and check out the similar texture on my Sinbad). Embarrassingly I did mine that way on purpose as I was attempting to put down a “very light” coat of SM2k over decals.

The buggest drawback with SM2k is you really can’t get a lite coat (which is not the same as a lite pass, which was my confusion).

Anyway, since I just recovered from this last of many errors, I’ll share my solution. I was able to get my playfield nice and flat and smooth by wet sanding with an electric mouse sander or my random orbit at 400 grit. I don’t get any scratches or black dust. It looks great now. I use 400 for all layers to give them tooth. Final layer I just started with 800 since it was smooth. Never stay in one place and go the same direction as much as possible.

Also: wet sand! Once I started wet sanding it really makes the process a lot smoother too. Just a bit more messy. A couple of squirts of water gets all that dust out of your sandpaper and keeps most of it from flying up in the air.

The “black dust” is a concern.. could your sander be burning up? I can’t imagine that your clear coat was harder than sandpaper at this point. Maybe a bad batch of sandpaper?

What is the procedure for fixing fish eye? I have some areas....scuff, and fill with a pipette?
I guess the most practical would be to buy some regular 2PAC to do that job.

I see some contradictory information about spray distance. The can says 10 inches while the application sheet says 10-15cm (4-6 inches). I sprayed about 4-5 inches away and got a smooth glossy surface (where it didn't fish eye!).

Thanks for the info gmkalos and quinntopia !! I think I did spray too light/fast and that is the issue. I'm glad to hear it's recoverable. I was dry hand sanding on it, so I don't think I was being aggressive enough - it wasn't making it perfectly smooth even. I'll try wet sanding and more coats and see how it goes.

I leveled my CPR Fish Tales with Spraymax this week-end. Thread here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fish-tales-cpr-leveled-and-cleared

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Wish me luck, rare 70° day here in New england!IMG_20171102_214037 (resized).jpg

Nice! My Genesis PF is on the CC project list for next summer. Are you planning to do any special masking to the robot window opening? I've been pondering for awhile and worried that the CC layer thickness will make it so the plexi won't fit back into the hole.

Edit: Also, nice Black Widow in the BG.

Looking awesome.
Please report back in a couple of months and tell us if inserts have moved and edges are back.
How it the gloss compared to cpr?

Gloss is definitely improved as is without polishing.

I won't buff and polish until a few weeks/months and will report back on the inserts for sure!

thanks, i just took the plexi off and taped it off real good. Used an x-acto to really get close, worst case i have to sand a little. Its coming out real nice, clear is laying down great!

How long are you guys waiting to install and use your game? I ask because id like to do this to my shooter lane but I'm not interested in waiting weeks/months to play it again. Thoughts?

Bueller?

I'd wait at least 2 weeks.

Dude you can wait like 3 days to play on and finish polish/fine sand the surface. But I also like to give it 2 weeks after I have polished the surface to fully harden just because. It's kind of been the rule of thumb for any kind of encapsulation/painting in general. After 2 weeks the material seems to have evaporated all of the thinners that keep it soft to use. SM2K is a near perfect blend of acrylics and resins, kinda the best of both worlds. It will remain flexible thanks to the resins but hard from the acrylic.

Anybody notice any yellowing after a few months? Years?

Anybody know what stores sell this stuff in Canada?

I've done a few clear coat jobs now and have had no complaints. My own PZ I sold recently almost 1 year after I cleared it had 1K plays, no ball dimples (PZ is airball city), no surface scratches and looked as good as the day I sprayed it! This is the pic after 1K plays I took of the PF when I sold it.

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No yellow after 3 years

I think some folks get it via Amazon but I just get mine locally:

Maple Air Brush Supplies (here in Edmonton)
Website: https://www.mapleairbrushsupplies.com/products/spraymax-2k-gloss
They will ship to Winnipeg.

We have one NAPA Auto Parts location (South Edmonton) that sells Spraymax 2K. You could check with your local NAPA store to see if they can bring some in.
Edit: Each NAPA is "unique" so maybe call first!

Thanks guys! Heading to NAPA now to get my hands on a can or two.

Napa/CMax (CMax is the auto paint division of Napa) Don't think they will have it in regular Napa stores. Not around here in Qc anyway.

Mylar removed and pf scrubbed to bring up the colors, then extensive touch-ups were done on this job. lol First can of clear is on (4 coats), going to spend some time wet sanding and prep it for the final 4 coats!

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How far are you guys going de-populating the bottom of the playfield with these? Thinking about trying my hand at a a stern stars playfield but wasn't sure if I could cap off the GI sockets and put some kind of protection over the playfield holes (drop targets, flippers, slingshots) without totally removing the bottom mechs as it'd be a pain to do it halfway either de-soldering the big mechs or completely removing anything attached to the harness. If the mechs and holes can be protected without removing hardware, how are you doing it?

Also, is there a repository anywhere for playfield scans or vector files for printing waterslides?

You can tape off and plug up whatever you want just make sure nothing is protruding or it may catch the spray and make a run.

Wet sanded with 1,500 reveling all low spots that the first 4 coats didn't quite level out. This pf was in trouble with significant wear but is unobtanium! Back into the booth for the 4 final coats (can) and 3-4 hours baking time...followed up with a good finish polishing, wet sanding with 2K, then machine polish with Meguiar's ultimate compound finished with a good waxing using my fav stuff happy-sloth!

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Looking great! Love that game! The art is very unique, to say the least!

I hate to seem like a dope, but what game is it? The artwork is unfamiliar to me but it is very cool.

It's a rare game called Time Fantasy, here's a cool video...

Good day, i'm getting ready to pull the trigger on some SprayMax cans, I have found them on amazon for about $30 bucks shipped in CDN funds, which I think is pretty dang good.

I'm doing a Fish Tales playfield that is in decent shape, new decals added and it's basically ready for a final cleaning and a clear coat. I want to give the SprayMax a shot.

1. How much will I need to do a few coats on this?
2. How long after I spray can I spray again for another coat?
3. How long after I spray can I sand?
4. Then how long do I cure after I sand to do a second round of clear and a final sand / polish?

Sorry if this is shitloads of questions OR if they aren't real questions as its all relative somehow to other factors and there isn't a "real answer" to them.

Thx so much in advance !!

Is freezing during shipping a concern? If so wait until temps warm up to order...

Well, regardless of the time of year I buy it, the temperature at 36,000 ft if its on a plane will be freezing as it is anyway. We don't have delivery here, it'll be sitting in the post office waiting for me.

My 2 cents:

1. You'll need 1 FULL can to do the equivalent of 1 thick wet coat. I suggest splitting your first 2 coats through your first can to be gentle on the decals. I also suggest 3 cans total with sanding in-between. For the wet coats, use the full can and watch out for atomization irregularity when your can is near empty. Try to shoot in different directions from full passes to full passes. Some people prefer using 2x 3/4 can to do a wet coat (more expensive).

2. For the first can, I'd spray lightly, wait 20 min and then do the rest of the can. Wait a few days then lightly sand for tooth for the next can/wet coat.

3. I'ts easier to sand when it's not fully curred but better if it has sit a few days imho. I would wait 1 week before the second can and 2-3 weeks ideally before the final can. The clear will continue shrinking over time so even if you sand flush and shoot right way, you playfiled might end up not as leveled as you thought/wanted.

4. Do the final sand and polish another 2-3 weeks after the final coat, more if you can wait. Some poeple will only wait a few days or a week between coats. It really depends on how downtime you can afford in-between.

Again, only my personal recommendation. Next time I'll shoot spraymax, I'll use this technic.

Awesome info, thanks. Basically great "rough estimates" info I was looking for.

Glad I could help. I too sprayed a Fish Tales last fall. See post somewhere below.

I can report that inserts have sunk back in a little. Not as bad as before though. I'm on the fence if I'm going to try and just sand flat or shoot another coat all together.

You do have to watch out for freezing temps, it can cause your inserts to pop up if the pf gets too cold.

I'd spray another coat..you cant have enough clear!