Quoted from NightTrain:What makes you think there is rust under the powder coating? To me it appears there is rust on the bare metal and happened after powder coating. Grab a little sand paper and clean her up.
As far as the corner of the cabinet goes, grab a sharpie and move on. Life is too short. Enjoy the game!
A sharpie won't fix the fact the lockdown bar does not fit - what if there is a void in the plywood where the locking miter edge is? Keep crushing the top of that joint whenever I need the glass off (which if you saw the other thread, is pretty often with stuck balls) and I could loose a section off the front of the cabinet.
The corners of the cabinet are both this way, they need sanded to the proper angle to accommodate the lockdown bar and prevent further damage. This should have been done when those miters were created and fitment at the factory saw how off this is.
Some of the powder coating flaked off right where it appeared the oxidation was tracking under the coating, revealing even more oxidation. The extent of oxidation is unknown, which is why I am concerned.
Over nine grand for a pinball machine. This is the only expensive luxury we have where it seems I'm supposed to just "move on."
It's not like I'm complaining about adjusting roll over switches, moving opto sensors to actually be in-line with the hole so they could see the sending unit, unscrewing lane guides because they were torqued into the clear (and to place washers), having to tighten posts that were holding on by a thread, tightening all the flippers because with each flip the flipper shaft rotated from the ideal position.
We are doing what our distributor said, wait to hear back from Stern before doing anything to remediate these issues.
rust on my NIB limited edition with flaking powder coat is not acceptable and neither is screwing up the finish on those mitered edges - that lockdown bar barely fits and is crushing the corners of the cabinet.
Apologists can feel free to downvote this ad infinitum. I know the story, "this is pinball" and "you are ruining this hobby."