I forgot to mention that I used a 2nd can later on. The initial coat I did with the Spraymax, the seal-in coat, was done in multiple light passes. I sanded that down, did my waterslides, then laid on thick for the 2nd & final coat.

On my Centaur, I did 2 cans, both heavy, and ran into a bit of trouble with the orange peel. I probably could have sanded it down further in hindsight, but the paint was so flaky on it I was afraid of sanding into the 30+ hrs of work I did restoring the art everywhere. I am okay with the orange peel. I saw another thread where someone used 3 cans and got near perfect results. I probably could have lightly sanded and done that, but it is already assembled and working, so I'm content. Lesson learned for the next one.

Vid, earlier we talked about how I should handle repainting the grey road on my Taxi playfield. It's two-toned due to years of the non-mylar'd paint getting dirty and yellow. I figure the best approach is to re-paint the whole road. The problem is both with the art assets on the road (I'll use the Tow Truck as an example) as well as the passengers on the clear inserts (such as Gorbie).

Laying frisket on top of them could result in a bunch of valleys where the grey dips down onto the original art, so I'd need to knock down those edges to make sure the transitions are smooth. After that, I'd need to lay down more frisket for each color inside the assets I want to air brush, creating more little valleys, until it becomes a big, valley'd mess. Even if I chose to forget the airbrush and use a regular paint brush, there's still be a mess of valleys and brush strokes to deal with for each and every little art asset on the road.

The alternative is to paint the whole road grey and then apply decals. You had already mentioned that this was probably the way to go, but I wanted to see if you could think of any reason not to do it before I started covering everything up with grey.

On a related note, I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with the clear inserts that the passengers sit on. I can't just cover those up with paint and then put decals over them, otherwise the light from the clear inserts won't come through. I've considered trying to use a printout of each decal on hard card stock to act as a "stencil" for some underlying frisket. This would allow the grey paint to cover up part of the decals (such as around Gorbie's body) but that would lead us to the valley problem mentioned earlier. Maye that wouldn't be so bad with just five passenger-shaped valleys that I'd come along and put decals inside of later (with some clear on top to even the valleys out).

So while I think I know the path to take with the road and all the little taxi cabs on there, how would you handle where the road and the passengers meet over the clear rectangular inserts?

Really, you could probably ignore my babbling and just talk about how you would approach restoring a Taxi playfield with each of the passengers missing from their inserts and a road that needs to be complete re-painted.

Yes, I know I'm not Vid... But do you have pics of that area you're talking about? Threads like these are so much better with pics!

EDIT: You mean these pics... https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration/page/21#post-1820302

I did some looking into where I would get this primer and 3M Plastic Primer P591 Black is all I could find in the relm of plastic primers. Could you tell us where you would go to replace what you currently have. Thanks,Charlie

I have some Loctite 770 I ordered from Amazom coming to me this week. I can report back on how it works. It's about 17 bucks for a 2oz. bottle, which should be all you need for a long time.

BUMP!

Vid, thanks for the wet sanding tips. I tried dry sanding my clear coated FH playfield but after polishing I was left with a dull shine and I could still see lots of scratches. I wet sanded using water with a drop of dishwashing liquid. I started at 1000 grit, then 1500, and finished with 2000, using as little water as possible to get the job done. After sanding I polished with Novus 3, then Novus 2. I’m very happy with the results, thanks Vid!

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Damn that looks good!

About the sanding.
How can you tell for how long you can sand the playfield?
I still see scratches on my project but I am in doubt if I should sand them away with wet 2000 or using a more effective polish and polish pad? I think it will be way faster wet sanding it, but I dont know if it is taking to much clear of?

Did you really mean "a 1/4 drop" of liquid dish soap or was that a typo?

I'm not even sure how you would do that.

I have a garage that goes partially under my house. I built the common paint booth that everyone seems to be building, PVC and the cheap plastic sheeting that Vid recommended. Wherever there is a seam, I used duct tape to seal it. It is built in front of window, where I have a box fan with furnace filters ventilating. It is sealed tight, minus the entrance (as I need to actually get in and out of it), but even that has overlapping plastic that hangs down.

Question -

I just started clearing today, actually on something other than pinball that needed clearing (good practice for my PF clearing I will be doing later in the week) and within minutes, we could smell the faint scent of the clear in the room that goes partially over the garage. This is the only place I can set this up and I am not sure what else I can do to keep the fumes more contained.

Ideas? Tricks? Thanks everyone!

Automotive clear coat is extremely volatile and will migrate. More fan power may help your situation. Keep the area upstairs well ventilated until the smell subsides.

Vid,
I have a decal question for you. I have a larger area in the center of the playfield that I am putting a waterslide decal. I decided to cut it up into smaller sections so it is more manageable. I have the first decal applied and it looks great. My question is how long should I wait to apply the second decal. The decals will all be "touching" each other but there should be no overlap. Just worried about the new water messing up the dried decal but it seemed like putting 4 wet decals next to each other and trying to get them all flat and positioned seemed like a nightmare. Or should I airbrush clear over each one before I move on to the next one?

The playfield will be getting a full clear coat if that makes a difference. I have already cleared it during the restoration and will have to do it again. So I am not worried about spot clearing. I know that is not something that looks good if nothing else is done.

Thanks

Thank you for a awesome answer!
When sanding, are there any "best practices". Should I only do it one direction, circles? Or can I do it just as I want?

I am thinking about sanding clear.
I have found sanding in circles to be very effective but did not know if it was a bad or good idea.

Sorry for keep talking about sanding, but I am starting to get very very frustrated.
I just sanding the whole playfield once again with wet 2000.
After that the are a lot very fine scratches and some minor scratches, they are more visible but they do not catch your nail. The very fine scratches disappears but not the deeper scratches.

I have tried:
- Novus 3
- Treasure Cove 3
- Meguiars Ultimate Compound

I have tested all by:
- Hand
- Dual Action
- Shinemaster Pad (Treasure Cove)

Nothing works!
The fine scratches will not disappear? Is it the clear that is rock hard? (14 days ago I cleared it) What am I doing wrong? This is driving me crazy...

Any advice on decals not sticking very well. I let decals dry for 6-7 hours and when I go back it takes almost nothing to get them to start lifting. For instance if I want to trim one with an exacto knife it takes nothing for the decal to come up. I have also lost decals by just blowing air over the playfield to blow the dust off. I am using a popular paper and am even putting some Elmer's glue in the water to help adhesion. I am worried about larger decals delaminating over time after I clear coat.

Any advice?

I am using pretty new paper from Papilio. The instructions only mention water so that's what I used. So do you soak them in water and then put the Microset on the surface before you out the decal on? Can you "re activate" a decal once it comes up?

The surface is clear that has been sanded with 320 grit.

I have some decal mounting solution but it says nothing about what is in it and it doesn't say anything about setting. I put it on all around the edges that came up when I trimmed. Kinda got sticky as it dried. No idea if it is the same stuff or not. I also put some all over the rest of the decals and edges and let it soak for a bit and then wiped the decals down.

If they stay down well enough to clear then will I be ok? Seems like I remember you saying the clear kinda melts into the decal. I really dont want to do this again as it looks so good right now.

I will definitely pick some of that setting solution up and I will sand the decal areas with 1000 grit next time.

Well it doesn't "reek" of anything so I am assuming it is just to make it easier to slide around.

Its the little things.

Just wanted to give a conclusion on the problem if it helps other people.
I was using a Dual Action Polisher and the problem was cheap and bad Pad's for the polisher!
I bought a cheap combo but the pads where worth nothing!
So today I polished with a better Pad and all scratches are gone and the result is great

Man, reek is the correct word.

At some point in the last few weeks, the conversation moved to wet sanding, but I don't see wet sanding as a prescribed action by Vid anywhere in the thread. Vid, when would we wet sand versus dry sand during the restoration process?

Speaking of sanding, the first layer of clear, that is done before painting and decaling as far as I understand it.. Should it be sanded as well? Feels like it shall be as flat as possible just wondering. I'm doing lots of research now to begin my first try on a PF. Very interesting!

Alright! Thanks =) basic thing that need to be learned before hitting this project. And thanks again for this thread and baring all the noob questions!

I just put down my first real shiny layer of JC661 clear, and 45 minutes later it's still a bit tacky to the touch. Is this normal?

How long between the first coat of clear and the light sanding? Also, do I light sand before waterslide decals?

Thanks. Gonna do this today. I am excited.

I guess the post above mine answered my first question.

Hi Vid,

Thanks as always. To be clear though (no pun intended), from previous information in this thread, a thin layer of clear should be shot down before decal work, correct? If so, do I sand that layer after it hardens before I add the waterslides? I am using Shoplin JC660 and the fastest hardner, which I think is JH6670.

I will mildly sand or rough with 800 grit before I put the first layer of clear. Couple more touch up paints to do.

** ALSO - note to anyone getting waterslide work done at a commercial printer. One time I had really good luck at FedEx Office, the waterslide images came out perfect, couldn't have asked for better. The next time I went, they destroyed almost all of my waterslide sheets with images that didn't fuse to the paper worth a damn. I think the person you get to assist you really matters. Find the genius, who will be a lifer there. They might not be fun to go out and drink with, but they never makes mistakes on customer jobs and destroy $10 worth of waterslide. **

Hi Vid,
I'm going to mylar over this pf issue, and I was wondering how far in excess of the damage would you suggest that I cut the mylar. The damaged area is about 1" across and .5" high. Would .5" on all sides be enough, 1" on all sides? Thanks

FH PF angle 2 8-23-14.jpeg

Two questions!

1) Earlier, you have a section on post-coat sanding, and you don't mention wet sanding anywhere in there at all. When do we wet sand with 800 + grit, and when do we dry sand with 800+ grit? Can we avoid having to know when to do what and just wet sand at 800+ all the time?

2) Do we still need to wear a Tyvek suit and respirator while wet sanding?

Sorry to ref something from a few pages back, but I just want to say THANK YOU VID for the tip about Creatix paints. I've been building scale models for years, in which I've purchased more brands and types of paints than anyone should justify. They all have their strengths and weaknesses (and intended purposes) but DANG, I have never used anything like the Creatix before. That stuff is freakin' amazing... and sooo easy to use. The consistency and coverage is just wonderful. Wow, I wish I'd heard of this before. I'm not sure how useful it will be for models, BUT "model" (and craft) paints aren't always ideal out of their realms either. Either way, this stuff will be a go-to project paint from now on.

Might I also point out that quality brushes make a BIG difference as well. You'd think a brush is a brush, especially a small one, but... the $5 for one brush as opposed to five brushes for $1, is worth it.