Thanks vid1900
Another question, I have been trying to find this in the thread but I have been unsuccessful.

I found the post with the recommended gear needed for clear coating: mask, goggles, etc, but there was no mention of ventilation which I presume is a big issue, when doing this at home.
The obvious solution would be to wear a mask and doing this in the garage but I was wondering if anybody has attempted to set up a booth somewhere in the house and spray during the cold month in the warmth of my home shop.

I was thinking of setting up a booth in my basement, and enclose it with plastic, but I am sure the fumes will find a way to escape and the last thing I want is clear traveling in my HVAC...
We are only spraying a small playfield so I am wondering if I could get away by doing this in a very enclose area (as tight as possible with plastic tarps, plastic sheet, etc) and just get it done...Should I be expecting a lot of overspray to escape this paint booth if no ventilation fan is used?

Rapid-tac rapid adhesive remover.

https://www.amazon.com/RapidTac-Rapid-Adhesive-Remover-Fluid_Ounces/dp/B006RU65UG/ref=mp_s_a_1_3

thank you vid1900 and @pinballinreno.

Asking because I just got this game (pic attached) and it has 2 PFs and the one in the game now is covered in mylar, and one insert is chipped (see in in the pic, green in color).

I am planning on swapping the PFs as the other one is a NOS never used and I am hoping to repair this and eventually use on a different Indy.
If I understand correctly the best approach to fix this chip is by filling it up with clear and then level sand, then reclear...

The other thing that I will need to do is remove all the mylar that someone decided to put on pretty much EVERYWHERE on the PF, everything is covered with pieces of mylar. I am not sure how these will fair but I am hoping that nothing will be pulled off when removing it.

Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance, this thread is amazing can't thank you enough for all the information I have been gathering.

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To echo @pinballinreno, this Rapid Remover appears to be legitimate. I had a System 11 that I took the mylar off of and it left all of the glue on the playfield. No amount of alcohol and flour was getting that stuff off. Goo Gone more like Goo Yawn. I rubbed some of my fingerprints off trying to get that glue off that playfield.

Based on pinballinreno 's recommendation I picked this stuff and it just WORKS.

PXL_20210714_014701435 (resized).jpg

For the Rapid Remover test in an inconspicuous spot, and when you feel comfortable, spray a section, wait 60 seconds, and use a plastic razor blade or decal scraper and get the glue off. It doesn't come off in sheets, but it does ball up like... well wet glue.

I used the Rapid Prep as a pre-clear before naphtha, compressor airing, and tack clothing before 2pac clearing. No fisheyes and the 2pac laid great, so it *seems* safe. I don't know if Rapid Prep is overkill or not but I cannot say enough about Rapid Remover.

Rapid prep is fish eye insurance and a wax/silicone remover.

Its not overkill at all, it removes invisible chemicals that ruin clear coat.

It's more effective than naptha, wont harm most paints, rubber or plastics.

And its not toxic, environmentally safe.

Body shops use a lot of it.

Eastwood swears by it.

Rapid remover is the finest glue remover for modern high performance adhesives.

It was designed to remove decades old, sun baked adhesives without damaging the surface.

It works where all other systems fail.

As always, test things before using.

Freeze spray and a plastic razor blade will remove all the mylar.

The key is to never pull on the mylar.

Let it klink off with gentle pressure.

When the temperature is correct the mylar will seperate from its glue with very little pressure.

Patience is the key.

Glue is removed quickly and easily with rapid remover and a naptha wipe down.

Freeze spray, rapid remover, rapid prep and naptha is all I use to prep for clear coating.

I have frozen factory mylar to remove it off a high speed. ( it was applied after the game was played. In those days the mylar shipped with the machine separately)
I have used a heat gun to remove aftermarket mylar from 6 million dollar man.
I do not think there is a hard rule one way or the other but i would start with the freeze method if it were me.

Freeze spray is the best first choice.

Heat works, but is way more dangerous and can lift inserts and artwork.

I prefer the freeze spray now.

I believe Freeze spray is canned air, is not it?

any thoughts on repairing this chipped insert? just filling it with clear and sand, reclear... ?
anything else?

I saw this post earlier in the thread and was curious about this process, you had responded to me with how the chisel is used I am still not sure if what I am seeing if what I am supposed to see but I think you make just scrape the perimeter of the insert with the chisel... This is scary to me as I feel if will leave a very uneven surface full of craters.

I am not arguing with your process, I am just not sure I am ballsy enough to try it on this particular PF because other than this little chip, the rest of the PF is in really good condition and would hate to ruin this insert, especially it being so close to the player.

So I was hoping for a less risky approach, please correct me if I am off here:

I am planning on clear coating the whole PF anyways, so these are the steps I was thinking...

Sand the Insert lightly to get some tooth, including where the crack is
fill the whole/crack with syringe, make a little clear 'dome'.
Give it day to dry, then, level sand.
Clear the entire PF

Would that work?

Just use freon to freeze the mylar.

I can vouch for Vid's advice (not that his advice needs vouching for, lol) about using a chisel this way - a couple years ago I did a ST:TNG playfield restoration which had the same kind of clearcoat chipping as this, and just this winter I restored an Indiana Jones which also had this problem. In both cases I used a 1/2" chisel (with a good edge honed first), and it works very well - very controlled, as Vid mentioned. I can see where this would seem scary at first - you're being told "take a sharp thing and scrape the playfield with it" after all. But it's going to give you a much nicer result to get all that flaking clear removed first. You might scratch the surface of the insert a little bit as part of the process, but don't worry too much if you do. You can lightly sand the insert to minimize the scratch, and once the clear is on, surface imperfections like that will become far less noticeable. One thing to bear in mind is that you will want to fill in the insert with an eye dropper, so that you don't have a low spot on the scraped area. I sprayed, droppered, sanded and sprayed again. (I don't think anyone else mentioned this so far, but I also did a light scuff sanding on the whole playfield before shooting any clear, to promote better bonding. Also, on pinballinreno 's advice, I have been using adhesion promoter spray on the playfield before clearing - the most important places being bare inserts, but it's quick and easy to just shoot the whole playfield with it.

To echo what has already been said about mylar - I removed the mylar on the IJ and STTNG games I worked on using canned air (the so-called "freeze spray") and it really does work well. A hemostat is your friend if you don't want to freeze your fingertips as part of the process. Go slow and just encourage the mylar; if you're pulling it means you're being too conservative with the spray. I got a little bit too far ahead of the freeze at one point and lost some clear on the "Buried Treasure" insert, which meant having to scrape it and re-apply the lettering - not sure if that was my fault or if that clear would have separated anyway, given the same problem was presenting elsewhere on the playfield, but my advice as others have said is go slow, don't spare the freeze spray, and don't be too hard on yourself if you lose some clear on other inserts. All these things are pretty minor inconveniences and very fixable.

I have been planning a spray booth for a while now. I've been consulting with the guy who has to date done much of my spraying for me, at a local cabinet shop. They've got a fancy booth, and much of the time I am content to let him handle this stuff *for* me, but much is contingent upon how busy things are in their shop, and when it comes to doing things like cabinet stencils, I don't want to ask that of the guy. Too much labor, and it needs to be *my work* in the end. Despite the fact that he's been great about shooting clear coat for me, there are times when it would be great to just shoot a layer and come back to it the next morning or whatever.

I'm planning to use a 12" explosion proof in line exhaust fan, which can then be ducted through a 14" stud bay without having to re-frame anything in the wall. 12" duct pipe will allow relatively unimpeded airflow (you want to keep bends in the ducting to a minimum.) I will be building a filter wall which the fan opening will be behind.

I have spent a *lot* of time pondering over how best to do it; then I found this guy on YouTube who built one super simply and dirt cheap. I'm not going to make something as flimsy as he did - I need it to last, after all, and be able to take some knocks. But the general idea is basically sound (though I could have told him right up front that a 4" air duct wasn't gonna cut it, lol.)
Anyhow, this is worth a look if you're pondering on a DIY spray booth:

Rattle can spray paint is one thing. I spray in my attached garage all the time.
I would not personally feel comfortable spraying 2PAC inside my garage and i have 3/4 hp exhaust fan with make up air.

Am I crazy? didn't somebody make a WORD file with all of VID's posts from this thread...
This thread is so good but it is hard to navigate from within the forum, if somebody can guide me towards the .DOC that I think I saw someone talking about, I will be very thankful.
thanks!

Thank you very much for these 2 last posts, very much appreciated!

This was a fun little nonscientific experiment. I wanted to test the color properties of different paints, especially acrylics from craft stores, just to see how they look after a clear.

PXL_20210715_171213037 (resized).jpg

From top to bottom, we have a red Createx opaque acrylic airbrush paint (brushed on), a purple Molotow acrylic marker, and three craft store acrylics, all brushed on. Also note the Sharpie writing on the right. The wood is untreated and porous.

PXL_20210715_183019433 (resized).jpg

And there it is after I ran out my 2PAC clear. The LEFT side was covered with painters tape and is not cleared, the right side is. Can you see the color differences? Also check out that Sharpie marker. WOO.

PXL_20210715_183042127 (resized).jpg

NOW can you see some color differences? It looks like the Createx and Molotow hold their color properties treated or untreated. The white loses a little brightness, the orange gets a little deeper, and the light blue turns a much darker shade.

PXL_20210715_183057643 (resized).jpg

Here is the same cleared piece yet sprayed with naphtha. The Createx and Molotow don't really change much, the three lower acrylics suddenly match their cleared colors.

PXL_20210715_183112653 (resized).jpg

Regarding the Sharpie, you can see how much that stuff runs on untreated wood, but on the left side I cleared and sanded the same wood, then wrote on it with Sharpie, Molotow, and Elmer's Acrylic markers. I then cleared it again and left it for three years. You can see the Sharpie has faded over that time, while the Molotow and Elmer's have done quite well. Here is the original the day it was 2pac'ed:

3d201354329bc2046139c2f91c99e8f284414216 (resized).jpg

looking for some advice here. I will be doing my own clear coating because 'reasons' and I will be following Cary Hardy's advice:

He is using a harbour freight paint gun and a small compressor. I do not need nor I am interested in owning a big ass compressor so I am looking at doing what he did, however, I am confused as to what the real requirements to run the gun are...

Does anybody know what the CFM of the compressor he is using are?

I want to buy the smallest compressor possible and the most portable one, so would be interested in using one with the same specs, but he did not say the model nor CFM it was rated for.
I just do not want to buy one that is not going to cut it...

Not sure what the guy in your video uses, but here is what vid says on the topic:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration/page/5#post-725962

Hi folks,

I just acquired a beautiful LOTR LE and it's in stellar shape, but I am noticing two tiny little raised pocks on the playfield just to the right of the "DESTROY RING" lamp. Picture attached.

They are a little bit raised and you can notice by touch. I'm guessing it's from an airball? It almost feels like a plastic surface has come up a tiny bit but there is no plastic or mylar there that I can see.

Anyway, any thoughts on this? Maybe I should cut a little mylar strip to size? Or do I just accept that's the nature of the beast for a game that's 10+ years old.

Thanks for your help!

playfield (resized).JPG

Hi there, I think they do? They are very small, kind of like tiny pockets creates by divots.

Many, many thanks for responding and for being such an incredible resource for all of us.

I'll have a very close look and if thy flatten significantly enough to give that a go, I will definitely attempt.

Many thanks!

what an awesome thread this is, I have not finished all the pages yet as I have been busy with work. All that to say @vid1900, thank you very much for your previous and ongoing contributions to the forum.

Oy - looking for help here.

Doing a Meteor playfield swap with a CPR. Starting to drill in the dimples for posts, etc. 32 of them went just fine. On the 33rd one, the post screw BROKE OFF in the damn hole behind the METEOR drop target bank. I'm using the original 42 year old post screws until my Marco order comes in, but I didn't expect them to be weak enough to break off going into the new hole. Bad assumption, I guess.

How do I get this out? I've used a screw extractor tool before, but never on anything this small. Is it even possible? What are my options?

Broken Post Screw 03 (resized).jpg

This happens.

Its not the end of the world.

Its a 90 min fix.

Measure carefully where the screw is from the bottom of the playfield

Be exact.

Use a plug cutter from the bottom.

DO NOT CUT ALL THE WAY THRU THE TOP.

Around 1/4" deep should be enough to grab the screw with needle vise grips.

Use the smallest one that will do the job. 1/4" is good enough. Sometimes 3/8".

https://www.harborfreight.com/plug-cutter-set-4-pc-60613.html?cid=paid_google|||60613&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&gclid=CjwKCAjwuvmHBhAxEiwAWAYj-JE57xoV1z0MukRiwTWaAnWzujnvK_8YbdWVTnwTtiJeYfMFYTgI2RoCSWgQAvD_BwE

Or:

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/screw-extractor-1-4

chisel out the plug and unscrew the item either down or up.

Whichever goes easiest.

Fill the hole on the bottom of the playfield with a piece of dowel. Or make a plug that fits snug.

A too big dowel chucked into drill motor and spun down to size with sandpaper works well.

Epoxy it in, sand it flush.

Drill a new hole.

Even new fasteners break.

The key is having the right pilot hole size.

Id rather strip out a hole than break off a screw.

You sould be ok.

Cover any unsightly damage on tbe top with a washer.

If there are gouges fill with epoxy and scrape off while wet for an acceptable finish.

Clean with acetone.

Thank you for the clear step-by-step and the link to the tool....going to give it a try. Will report back soon on results - probably a week or so for the plug cutter to get here and for me to get up enough nerve to do it.

Its not as bad as it seems.

It takes more time to set a piece of dowel than to extract the screw.

But with 5 min epoxy and about 2 hours or overnight to harden fully.

I have had seamless repairs.

The key is to not molest the topside, but to work from the bottom.

As long as I've got you here....what size drill bit would you recommend for a pilot hole for a #6 post stud? I've been using a 5/64 brad tip bit. Next step up (3/32) seemed like it would be too big and maybe not leave enough wood for the #6 to bite? Are my pilot holes too small or did I just get unlucky with the broken off post stud?

Found this chart....is a playfield considered a hardwood or a softwood?

Pilot Hole (resized).jpg

Hardwood, at least Baltic Birch is. The center layers of ply may or may not be hardwood but the faces are supposed to be.

Its hardwood. 3/32" pilot hole.

Never worry about stripping out. A piece of bamboo skewer or toothpick and titebond 3 sorts that out quickly.

File this under learning opportunities: When cutting my frisket my exacto dulled and started digging into the playfield, leaving scars here and there. I've painted over them but didn't fill them in ahead of time. Do I trust that these won't be visible after clear or do I redo this, sanding these areas flatter between paint coats?

PXL_20210727_172052905 (resized).jpg

PXL_20210727_172030969 (resized).jpg

Thanks Vid!

I haven't revisited screw extraction in a long time lol.

After looking at that woodcraft extractor it got me thinking.

I remembered that luthiers often just use a roll pin with a couple nothches/burrs cut on the end that fits snug over tbe screw and run it backwards .

This would lead to very minimal wood loss and you can extract from the topside.

T&L tools makes a set but you can just put a couple teeth on a roll pin.

Unscrew-ems.

https://tltools.com/

I havent tried it but it looks very cool.

I will definitly try this the next head that pops off under the playfield.

Hey....that looks pretty cool. Just bought me a set and I think I'm going to try that first....seems really minimally invasive.

All you folks screwing those post screws into new playfields: get some screw wax! Seriously. A small amount of screw wax on the threads will make a tremendous difference in the force required to seat the post screw and prevent breakage. Like this stuff: https://www.fastcap.com/product/screw-wax

Just a dab will do - and the screw doesn't have any tendency to back out or loosen due to the wax.

It looks like the basic set is everything you would need.

are these going to make a hole through? so these would only work for those situation when the repair is hidden, correct?

so if you come from the bottom the tool does not need to go through to the other side? is it possible to make partial holes with it?
that is the part I do not understand about the process