nevermind i think i found my solution

That was during the Wiliams mafia days operators of games
could only buy Bally /Williams games at certain areas to only
certain distributors. The bar code was a way to track who bought
what where and to penalize either the operator or the distributor
for selling and/or operating a game in "out of zone" local.

That was during the Wiliams mafia days operators of games
could only buy Bally /Williams games at certain areas to only
certain distributors. The bar code was a way to track who bought
what where and to penalize either the operator or the distributor
for selling and/or operating a game in "out of zone" local.

So they would literally dig it out of the clear coat? If so, you'd think they would do a better job of it. Are there more examples of this out there?

You are dealing with operators, not artists.
It's what's in the cash box not what is on the playfield.

Hey Vid. Thanks for this great resource. I've been studying and applying your methods now for quite some time. As a result, I'm fairly adequate with the procedures I've been tackling. Where I fall short, however, is using a photoshop program to make decals. I've tried self educating myself but about all I've accomplished is removing red eyes and making multi-colored hair.

Can you provide any insight on how/where to learn how to use photoshop programs for the purpose of making decals from scans? Any particular program you prefer than others?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Larry

Thought I'd share my progress with you all.

The nastiest repair job on this Rollergames was the down-to-bare-wood ball wear to the left of the J-E-T lanes. I used a combination of VID's methods plus a little bit of ever-so-steady detail brush painting to perform the repair. First, I used frisket to mask off all but the specifically damaged area. I airbrushed a fresh layer of base yellow. Then, I used a very fine detail brush to re-establish the blue-on-blue stripes. At that point (and after a couple of other spots were prepped, which I'll describe next), the playfield got another sealer coat of clear. Once I scuff sanded the area with 1500 grit, I was ready to apply a waterslide decal which was prepped in Photoshop Elements. I had to take it to the copy center as I only have a b&w laser printer; I had them print it a bunch of times as I haven't done waterslides in years and figured I might want to have more than one shot at it.

It worked pretty nicely! If I was to do it over again, I would have painted a larger area with the base yellow and covered a larger area of the halftone dots with the waterslide decal. However, if you go on IPDB, you can see that this area of the playfield is almost completely concealed once the game is reassembled, so the extra effort involved isn't strictly necessary. (File under: "amateurs ruining playfields", LOL)

Anyhow, have a look. Pretty satisfactory result, I think. Interestingly, playfield scans I was sent by a fellow Pinsider show the same ball wear, but not to the point of paint loss. So the repair shows that mild discoloration, but I can totally live with it.

IMG_6938 (resized).jpg
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IMG_7019 (resized).jpg

A little less tricky, but still varsity-level to the first timer restorer, was this worn-to-bare-wood spot. I decided to repaint both the white and the florescent pink using the frisket and airbrush method. Frisket really is very good stuff; I was able to preserve much of the black line detailing with careful xacto knife work.

After the paint repairs were made and the area got a sealer clear coat, I then printed a waterslide decal of the black line details that I lost in the paint repair. The #5 on the skater's back I painted in by hand (a white Molotow paint pen would have been easier, if I had one), and a few black line spots I drew back in with a black Molotow paint pen.

(A word about Molotow pens: they're great. I saved hours of work on inserts using one. I shone a halogen work light up through the playfield - a little glarey, but shows all the light leaks - and simply drew in the areas that needed touching up. The seams between the inserts and the playfield surface were very easy to touch up, and I even was able to fill in worn spots on the lettering this way. Once cleared, you really REALLY can't see where the paint pen was used.)

See photos for "Skater #5" repair:

IMG_6984 (resized).JPG
IMG_6994 (resized).JPG
IMG_7043 (resized).JPG
IMG_7045 (resized).jpg

Seconded, good job bro!! Esp. for a first-timer!!!

Vid, you probably mention this somewhere in your guide by I can't seem to find it - how many finish coats of clear do you typically recommend? I'm going to ask my finish guy to knock down sand between the first and second coats, then use his discretion if he thinks it needs more between second and third coat. Should I ask for more beyond a third?

^^ He can call me that because he is, in fact, my brother.

Thanks! Just dropped off the playfield to the finisher, should be all set tomorrow sometime! Then...I get to try to put all this stuff back together...

The last thing that I needed to address on this restoration was another halftone repair and replacing some worn/missing insert lettering.

The "Atomic Whip" kickback lettering was worn through, as was the art above it and the "special" insert lettering. I had repaired the red scaffold image to restore the worn paint back when I was doing my other paint repairs; after airbrushing, I went in with detail brush and Molotow paint pen to touch up the missing black outline on that art.

Next step was to frisket mask and lay down some grey in the area to be halftoned using decals.

I had too-hastily had this playfield seal coated with clear, and so had to cut through the clear to scrape off the lettering. That was accomplished quite quickly, though, with a chisel used as a scraper. But it meant I now had to have my finish guy shoot the playfield again with a thin coat, to cover the inserts and to seal down the paint work on the repairs I posted about above. (At least the white areas were now sealed over and protected.)

I now had to apply waterslides of the half tone dots. The nice thing about this particular repair was that the spots that needed repair are bordered, so I didn't have to worry about covering a large area. The less nice thing was that these stickers were so tiny that they were pretty hard to handle and position. To make matters worse, the scans I took them from didn't overlap , so I had to actually put two partial stickers together on the upper triangle. Amazingly, I was able to get it seamlessly aligned.

I had hoped to finish up these repairs yesterday, while I was doing the other waterslide work, but when I applied the insert decals and turned on my lamp behind the playfield, I realized that my printer simply wasn't laying down enough black to make the stickers truly opaque. It really looked bad, so, lesson learned: take your decal paper to the copy shop and use their much-nicer-printer-than-yours to do this part. I had the "economy" modes turned off but it still wasn't good enough. So this morning I went up the street and paid a guy $1 to reprint my insert decals. Came back home, and in 10 minutes had finished up with the decal work. A onceover with my trusty Molotow pen, some last-minute scuff sanding on any spots that looked too shiny, and the promise to myself that this was a perfectly reasonable place to "call it" (perfectionists be damned, this thing's gonna look and play great once I'm done with it), and it was back over to the finisher. With any luck, it will be all set and ready to start re-populating after tomorrow.

IMG_6915 (resized).JPG

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Somebody is gonna get on me about the fact that I didn't go as far as I could have on these halftones. And they're right, I didn't. Had I realized how easy it was going to be and how successful I would be with these repairs, I absolutely would have done the whole thing over. But, it's my first time trying this, and now I know for next time. Already scheming on my F-14 Tomcat restoration; mine is in decent shape but should have the peeling mylar removed. Now that the inserts are available from PPS it's kind of calling out to be done. Now that I see that I can do this work successfully, it makes all the sense in the world to go ahead and do a restoration rather than shell out for a whole new playfield, as nice as I'm sure those are.

Regarding mylar: I can definitely see the wisdom of adding some mylar to known wear areas and have no problem with adding some here and there (particularly in the spots that you aren't going to get to to clean and wax as often - like the JET and skater spots on this game). Pinball Life sells pop rings and a couple other high-dollar, purpose specific pieces, but I'd like to get some adhesive mylar sheeting that I can cut to the specific purpose I need. Is there any reason not to use this:

https://www.amazon.com/mil-Blank-Adehsive-Backed-Mylar-Cutters/dp/B017S0HFCU/ref=sr_1_2

The item you linked on amazon is 4 mil while Marco's mylar sheets are 3 mil. The question would be if the extra thickness is a good thing (more protection) or a bad thing (ball hops). Maybe someone with experience with the 4 mil can advise. I've always used the 3 mil.

Yeah, I wondered about that. There is also this stuff:

http://www.staples.com/Avery-Letter-Size-Self-Adhesive-Laminating-Sheets-3-mil-50-pack/product_262691

I didn't see sheet mylar on Marco, just the playfield cutouts. Seems to me there must be a totally usable product without it having to have the "pinball seal of approval". On the other hand, 50 sheets is a LOT of mylar...

The 3mil marco mylar has worked for me pretty well, but in a slow area it can interfere with ball travel. I wouldn't want it any thicker.

Ah - found it:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=mylar+sheet

I'd still be interested to find the same mat'l in a roll, but for a single project, this is probably the way to go.

Here is the by the foot: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/66-MFT

Or from: http://www.pinrestore.com/Supplies.html

So it looks like the previous owner of this game wanted to move the outlane post. Rather than unscrewing it after removing the bottom nut it appears that he tapped it with a hammer or something. The post grabbed the wood and/or clear and started lifting. Fortunately he stopped before the damage was too severe.

I used to fix things like this by injecting CA glue into the cracks in the clear, covering with wax paper and clamping with a block of wood for 24 hours. Unfortunately I am not going to be able to get the dirt out of the cracks unless I carefully cut away the clear a little bit and clean it which means I would have to fill the divot with CA, clear or some other adhesive - see below. I think at this point I'd rather leave it rather than risk making the damage worse.

Is this still a viable way to repair or are there better ways now? I know I could use some 2PAC to do this but I don't have any handy and don't want to buy any until I am ready to do some clear coating since the activators go bad even if you've never opened the can.

There are also some newer adhesives on the market based on trimethoxysilanes. These are supposed to dry crystal clear instead of leaving the milky haze that CA's can leave. They are also supposed to be more resilient to shocks, water, temps, etc. Has anyone tried any of these adhesives. One brand is Loctite G02 Glue. I have a bottle and one downside I see is the liquid is rather thick, rather than water thin like CA which would make it more difficult to get down under the crack.

I have the playfield completely stripped for a major shopping and polishing, so I'd like to get this repair done as soon as I can.

Opinions?

Thanks..

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OK, the Rollergames playfield is on the curing rack at the finisher's.
The first topcoat since applying the waterslide decals went on yesterday. I stopped by to have a look, and noticed a very mild "puckering" or crinkling around the edges of the inserts. It wasn't terrible, but you could see that it wasn't perfectly smooth around the perimeter of the decals (sorry, I should have taken a photograph). However, I knew I wanted my finisher to give it a level sanding anyway, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
Today I went in to have a look, and the crinkling was almost 100% gone in every spot. The only place I could still see it a little bit was on the pink "skater #5" repair spot. And even there I had to look for it. I'm going to put some mylar over that spot in the end as well, so...bullet dodged, I suppose.

He offered to buff out the surface for me as well, which I'm inclined to take him up on.

My two remaining questions at this point:
1) I don't know how long he left between the the thin coat over the decals and when he proceeded to spray the full coat. I'm assuming he perhaps didn't wait long enough as he knew to go light initially. Is there an ideal time window?
2) Is there any reason I should *not* have the playfield buffed at this point? How long should it cure?

Thanks - I'll post pics of the finished playfield when I get it back!

Did you happen to use setting solution for the decals? Did you coat with anything before? I plan on using a very thin coat of clear spray lacquer that I use for my models to seal the decals. I know for sure that stuff doesn't wreck decals, and it also stays clear.

I thought about just leaving it, but I am concerned about the crack growing longer. I am also worried that my buffing wheel might snag the edge of the crack and really make a mess of things.

I did everything according to Vid's recommendations. Next time around I'll remind the finisher to go lighter on the initial coating.

Vid, should the first "dusting" coat be allowed to cure to X amount of hours before going for a full coat? Just want to be able to give him specific feedback for next time.

Vid, the guy who does my base clear coat said that I could seal my color touch-ups myself with very light coats of acrylic lacquer between colors and only bring him back the playfield for final clear. That sounds like an ideal situation to me.

Would you advise against it or it is OK to use lacquer under those circumstances?

OK, so my finisher was weirdly reluctant to buff out the finish for me. He might have done it if I'd pressed him to do it, but I didn't want to push. It looks very nice, but I'm assuming once buffed it will lose the "waviness" in the reflectivity and become more mirror like. I could just live with it as-is, but once you start rebuilding the game, you'll never get the chance again. So...

I already own a variety of random orbit sanders, including two Festool rotex sanders which feature a rotary mode as well as random orbit mode. They make buffing pads for these sanders; what do I need to know about how to proceed? (Apologies if this is covered elsewhere on the thread, I haven't found the info if it is.)

Hey Vid, have you ever come across mylar glue residue that simply won't come up? I showed you photos of a Devil's Dare earlier where the edge of the mylar was lifted and filthy. I did as suggested and carefully cut the the dirty edges off leaving just the glue residue. I've literally spent over 3 hours trying to get it off. I've soaked the area in alcohol at least 5 times but that did nothing to soften it. As a result, rolling it up in flour as suggested did nothing. I've tried a heat gun with no success. I even tried freezing it off. Again, nada. The only thing I've accomplished is wearing down the surrounding paint. It's almost like it's turned into a hard acrylic that won't even chip.

Before I break out the jack hammer, I thought I'd check with you for any suggestions. I'm thinking since the surrounding paint is now damaged, I might as well break out sand paper and sand it down. What do you think?

Thanks, Larry

That's the conclusion I came to as well. I've gone ahead and sanded it down and will repaint those areas along with the other areas that need it.

Vid, For Stern playfields 2003 and up how would you go about repairs small spots that are down to the wood bordering inserts? This is the field in question and the wear is on the right side at letter's I and N inserts where it reads PINBALL. You will probably have to save the photo and zoom in close to see it.

IMG_3721 (resized).JPG

If it was my FG, I would touch up the bare wood with an air brush the best I can, wax the area and put a circular piece of Mylar (centered on the N, slightly larger than the insert so it covers the orange) on top to protect the repair. The Mylar will not only protect but also make the touch-ups less obvious. There should be Mylar there anyway and I am going to put a circular piece on my game.

Interesting how there are two wear areas from the scoop eject, like the eject strength changed.

I can touch it up by airbrush no problem, what I want to do though is level the wear spots to the playfield. They are basically small craters right now.

Mask off the area, cover everything with towels,
Fill small craters with liquid bondo or 2pac and sand with a pen sander:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3912D86396&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC-_-pla-_-Tools+-+Other+Power-_-9SIA3912D86396&gclid=Cj0KEQiA5bvEBRCM6vypnc7QgMkBEiQAUZftQM2QgZdTmIXYRFz2KivXNwaM87zX9p7LUeL2SoyXsOoaAhho8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

Then airbrush the color.

pensander at amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-28594-12-Volt-Pen-Sander/dp/B000NDGUXU

I love this thing!

Really? I don't understand. I mean I understand what you are saying to do, but it just sounds strange. Why not fill the hole to level it with the field with some type of filler, paint, clear, then mylar?

Using a filler requires it to actually adhere and have some bite. It would also require finishing.. which in itself will make the repair area bigger... and your paint will look different on different surfaces. Clear will melt itself into the existing topcoat so that will be it's bond.. and should avoid most finishing steps because of its self-leveling and melt. It will be easier to sand/finish if needed.