Bobby Orr's Power Play
Bally, 1978
Gilligan's Island
Bally, 1991
Space Jam
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There is a TAF near me that was recently listed for sale and I'm pretty interested. In one of the images it appears that a section of clear coat is missing on the "Hit Cousin It" insert (shown below). Can anything be done to repair/stabilize the area?
To preface, I've read this entire thread. So far pretty much all of the info has been in regards to a complete restoration where the playfield is removed and depopulated and the whole thing will be clear coated.
My question is, can some of these techniques be used on a fully intact and working machine? I have some photos below of the worst areas on my TZ playfield. The macro lens makes these defects look like the grand canyon, but during normal play most of them go unnoticed. To the naked eye the rest of the playfield is in very good shape. These are the main areas I'm concerned with.
So, right now I have no plans on removing the playfield and clearing the entire thing because the game works perfectly and plays great. Do I attempt some restoration so the areas don't get any worse, or do I just leave them alone?
P.S. A huge "thank you" to all the contributors of this thread especially Vid! Even if I don't go forward with any action, the thread has been a great learning tool.
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Quoted from vid1900:That's called "insert wear".
You can scrub the wax out of the cracks with a soft toothbrush and Naphtha.
Then use a detail brush and opaque black paint to fill the cracks (leave the lamps in test mode so you can see any cracks you missed).
Top off the black painted cracks with some 2PAC to protect it.
That was pretty much what I thought I needed to do. I've already purchased the Createx opaque black and my plan was to get a can of the Spraymax 2K and spray it into a glass container then use a dropper and maybe a pin to fill the cracks. I wasn't sure how it would turn out since pretty much everyone in this thread puts an entire layer of clear over the top of these spot fixes.
Do I sand and polish the repairs after they cure? My main concern is how the edges will look compared to the stock playfield surface.
Quoted from vid1900:You might just get a quart of 2PAC from the local auto store.
The whole can of 2K will be hard in a few days, for the few drops you are going to use.
The 2PAC will be good for years as long as you don't get any activator into the clear can.The edges are going to be way more shiny than your playfield.
But as you play, it will dull down.
If you are skilled, you might be able to sand it flat, but I'd probably just leave it.
Do an insert way in the back first. Don't do your learning front and center.
The power payoff insert has a small chip that looks ideal for a practice run. I'll post after pictures...if it turns out. 
We'll I'm calling my experiment a success. Below is the original insert:
I first painted with Createx opaque black and then put a thin line of clear on:
Then I masked off the raised clear line with frisket so I wouldn't damage the surrounding area:
This is after the first very light sanding with 400 grit:
I went finer and finer to 1200 grit and finally Novus 2:
And the finished product:
It isn't perfect, but it's way better then when I started. Hopefully it will help protect the area as well. I'm working my way to all the other trouble areas and I'm going back over to hit the small corner of "The Power" insert where I sanded through.
I'd worry about the foam roller creating bubbles in the clear. Maybe test the process on a spare sheet of ply and see how it goes. My guess is it will cause more problems than it solves, but you won't know for sure unless you try.
Edit: I just noticed you wrote brush and not roller. I'd still test the process.
Spraying question...approximately how many ounces of clear does it take to do a light "lock down" coat and how many for a "flood" coat?
I have a question about cupped inserts. I understand the process for plain cupped inserts, but what do you do if they have text on them? I would assume there are at least three options:
1. Leave the text as is, fill the insert, and do a waterslide of the keyline
2. Remove the test, fill the insert, and do a waterslide of the text and keyline
3. Leave the text as is, fill the insert, and do a waterslide of the text and keyline
I think I would do option 1 if the text is in good shape and option 2 if the text needs repair. I would also guess option 3 might cause double image issues if the cupping is too deep, but maybe not?
Am I on the right track here or should something completely different be done?
Note: I haven't done anything with this playfield yet.
Has anyone used the trycolors website to get good starting point when mixing colors? I stumbled across it today while researching mixing paint. You can choose any color and it will give you the ratio of primary colors needed to make the color. It could be useful to get a good starting point.
Is it best practice to airbrush all the colors and then clear over all of them, or to do a light coat of clear between each color? On page two of the guide it sounds like the first option, but in post 4269 you say you sometimes do a thin layer of clear between colors. Can you go into more detail as to when you do either option?
Quoted from vid1900:A light color that has to go down first is a good reason to clear over it, before shooting any other colors.
Putting frisket directly on fresh paint could be dicey (lets say 2 new colors are touching each other) so that could be another reason to clear between colors.
Other times 5 different colors can be shot all over the playfield, before needing to lock them down.
That makes sense. One last one (for now), do you usually sand the new paint before clearing or just shoot right over it?
Just be aware that the Wicked colors (at least the red I used) seem to be much more transparent than the standard opaque colors. In order to get good coverage, I had to put the mixture I made using Wicked red on much thicker than my other standard colors.
I think next time I'll lay a base of white down first to provide a more even starting point.
Quoted from vid1900:It can, depending on how naturally oily you are.
Clean off any fingerprints with Naphtha
Reading this after reading the "pinball is gay" thread gave me a good chuckle.
Quoted from vid1900:Dry sanding on fine grits just clogs up the paper in a few passes.
Wet sanding allows the dust to be carried away by the slurry, rather than clog the abrasive.
When I wet sanded, the wood swelled around some of the holes causing me to burn through the clear and paint before I noticed what was happening. Any tips to avoid that?
I just wanted to say thanks for all the great advice in this thread. I've wanted to try my hand at a restoration for a while and I just finished up my first project (Old Chicago). I'm really happy with the results and I've learned a lot through the process. Of course, I can see every little flaw I made, but I think it turned out pretty good for my first effort.
Quoted from La_Porta:Microscopic flaws only you can see or not... it's a hell of an improvement over where you started!
Thanks! I had a blast going through the process. This type of thing is right up my alley. The Old Chicago was a pretty simple first project in reality. Lots of big areas of a single color and the cars were the only really detailed area.
I have a pancake compressor that I use for clearcoating, but with a twist. I placed an 11 gallon air receiver in line to increase capacity. After both tanks are full, I can easily get a full coat on a playfield before the pressure drops too low.
I won't be painting any cars with this set up, but it gets the job done now.
Quoted from pinballinreno:Much like they sell 5 min epoxy, squirt some into a cup, mix and go.
Id buy some.
Here's a 4
double syringe that would be a good start:
https://www.indigodental.com/en/products/accessories/double-syringe-10-ml-41-white/
I'd like to share a new trick that I discovered this weekend. I have a Stars playfield that I'm working on for a friend who wanted a simple touch up and clear-coat. The problem is that after cleaning the playfield with alcohol and ME, I was left with a lot of white semi-circles in certain areas. The ball swirls were obviously through the paint layer and the alcohol cleaned out the dirt and paint all the way to the white layer under the art. This is right after cleaning and a light sanding, so no clear coat yet.
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The thought of frisketing off the area, airbrushing black, and then repainting the white stars was giving me a headache. I did a test area anyway hoping that I could still see the stars through a light layer of black and then hand paint them with new white. No dice, so I grabbed some alcohol and ME and cleaned of the test airbrushed black area. After the light cleaning, I noticed that the ball swirls had been filled in and it looked pretty good. This gave me an idea. I grabbed a rag and dipped it in a tiny bit of opaque black and just rubbed a small area like you would when polishing your dress shoes.
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Sure enough, the ball swirls filled in. I did my best to stay away from the blue areas, but some still got slightly covered. I cleaned the whole area with alcohol and ME and I'm really impressed with the results. This should be a huge time saver.
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The white ball swirls are throughout the various colors, so my plan is to try this all over the playfield. With luck, I'll only need to frisket and airbrush the really bad areas. The rubbed areas should blend in nicely after clearcoating.
Quoted from beadwindow:looks good. clay utilizes the same technique in one of his guides for the same reason-to avoid masking and airbrushing.
Just like Columbus, it turns out I wasn't the first one there.
I'm not familiar with Clay. Can you point me in the direction of the right thread?
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