What to do with a ruined repro TZ PF

I have a repro TZ PF that I bought and put it In the closest for a year. When I took it out every inset was milky white. I sent it to someone to see if they could fix it and it could not be fixed. I tried sanding it down very slowly as an experiment but you know wheat happened, I just sanded into the ink and that was the it. I never threw it away but the o my thing I could think of it being good for is for someone to make a white wood or a returner out of it. Ideas form you creative people?

#2 6 years ago

TJK

grbgemen

Pinside member

Lincoln, NE

11y 51,800 395 2

I would use it as wall art.

#3 6 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

11y 158K 58,797

It could be sawed into several pieces and a nice planter could be made out of it.

#4 6 years ago

MOO

snakesnsparklers

Pinside member

9y 92,800 4,828

Draw some pickles on it

#5 6 years ago

OYA

mcluvin

Pinside member

11y 87,050 7,052

Why couldn't you just pop the old inserts out and then install new ones? A pain in the ass, but would have saved you a grand.

#6 6 years ago

PVC

patrickvc

Pinside member

Phoenix, AZ

15y 71,350 2,156 22

I’d be contacting I’m assuming Mirco and ask about getting a replacement

#7 6 years ago

PVC

patrickvc

Pinside member

Phoenix, AZ

15y 71,350 2,156 22

Inserts would’ve ghosted in or out of the game I’m sure. Good thing you didn’t install it. That would be a ton of wasted work

#8 6 years ago

DAC

dhard

Inactive member

Imlay City, MI

8y 59,800 1,542 7

Contact playfield guru Ron Kruzman and see what he advises

#9 6 years ago

ODB

Gryszzz

Pinside+ Frequent

Indianapolis, IN

10y 120K 13,263 9

I'm a little cornfused. Why would the inserts do that in a dark closet?

#10 6 years ago

VIC

PinMonk

Pin Monk

9y 183K 30,207 16

Quoted from Gryszzz:
I'm a little cornfused. Why would the inserts do that in a dark closet?

Bad clear or bad process. Happened as it cured over time.

After a year or so you're pretty much safe, but anything can happen in that first year.

#11 6 years ago

???

ccbiggsoo7

Pinside+ Frequent

10y 91,050 6,065 37 10 2

do you have a heater or anything in the closet? i had a pair of $200 boots and the soles melted off them after 2 yrs sitting in the closet. It didn't get hot or anything, must of been the humidity i guess???

#12 6 years ago

---

ForceFlow

Pinside Moderator

9y 238K 31,362 268 14

Assuming it was made by Mirco, try contacting him about the issue.

That reminds me that I should probably check on the repro playfields that I have had stored away for a while...

#13 6 years ago

VIC

PinMonk

Pin Monk

9y 183K 30,207 16

OP
Quoted from zr11990:
I have a repro TZ PF that I bought and put it In the closest for a year. When I took it out every inset was milky white. I sent it to someone to see if they could fix it and it could not be fixed. I tried sanding it down very slowly as an experiment but you know wheat happened, I just sanded into the ink and that was the it. I never threw it away but the o my thing I could think of it being good for is for someone to make a white wood or a returner out of it. Ideas form you creative people?

I would have tried this first:

If the foggy appearance wasn't due to contamination, it might have worked for you.

#14 6 years ago

ODB

Gryszzz

Pinside+ Frequent

Indianapolis, IN

10y 120K 13,263 9

Quoted from snakesnsparklers:
Draw some pickles on it

Still laughing

#15 6 years ago

OYA

mcluvin

Pinside member

11y 87,050 7,052

Quoted from Gryszzz:
I'm a little cornfused. Why would the inserts do that in a dark closet?

I assumed it was stored improperly. Otherwise, why not just contact the seller for resolution vs. everything else he did.

#16 6 years ago

DVE

Blitzburgh99

Pinside member

10y 111K 4,955

Quoted from snakesnsparklers:
Draw some pickles on it

What???? Lol

#17 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member

No, it wasn't stored improperly. The seller and I wont mention his name as to not beat a dead horse did send me another one but it had a silver dollar size bubble in the clear that I had to have fixed. I know this guy makes great stuff but it seems that every time I buy from him I get a bad PF. He is good about replacing it however. The mini PF I got with the PF had ghosting on it as well.

I just thought someone might want it.

#18 6 years ago

???

Pickle

Pinside member

Pearland, TX

11y 78,800 3,002 5

With reproductions available probably cheaper than the cost it would take to fix it...kind of sucks. Wall art or a good candidate for someone wanting to learn restoration on.

#19 6 years ago

WTF

fast_in_muskoka

Pinside+ Frequent

Muskoka, ON

10y 77,800 1,299 1

any pics ?

#20 6 years ago

PNX

xeneize

Pinside+ Frequent

11y 104K 1,418

Send it to John Wort. He'll either fix it or ruin your pinball experience.

#21 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member

What I want to see is someone take it and do a black and white TZ PF out of it. I don't want it. I have the other one and I cannot spend money having it done.

#22 6 years ago

DHF

fosaisu

Pinside+ Frequent

10y 142K 10,349

OP
Quoted from zr11990:
What I want to see is someone take it and do a black and white TZ PF out of it. I don't want it. I have the other one and I cannot spend money having it done.

You should PM @GAP, maybe he'll want to run another one of those.

#23 6 years ago

WOT

Atari_Daze

Spd

Houston, TX

7y 141K 10,053 7

Quoted from xeneize:
Send it to John Wort. He'll either fix it or ruin your pinball experience.

LMFAO

OP
Quoted from zr11990:
What I want to see is someone take it and do a black and white TZ PF out of it. I don't want it. I have the other one and I cannot spend money having it done.

Hmmm, sounds like a good project... I am "local" too.

#24 6 years ago

ROB

Rdoyle1978

Pinside member

7y 117K 18,144 14 6

OP
Quoted from zr11990:
What I want to see is someone take it and do a black and white TZ PF out of it. I don't want it. I have the other one and I cannot spend money having it done.

That is a great idea

#25 6 years ago

OYA

mcluvin

Pinside member

11y 87,050 7,052

OP
Quoted from zr11990:
No, it wasn't stored improperly. The seller and I wont mention his name as to not beat a dead horse did send me another one but it had a silver dollar size bubble in the clear that I had to have fixed. I know this guy makes great stuff but it seems that every time I buy from him I get a bad PF. He is good about replacing it however. The mini PF I got with the PF had ghosting on it as well.
I just thought someone might want it.

Oh, my bad. So he replaced your defective playfield with a slightly less defective playfield? That doesn't sound cool.

#26 6 years ago

TDK

TomDK

Pinside+ Frequent

11y 87,800 1,913 30 1

Quoted from patrickvc:
I’d be contacting I’m assuming Mirco and ask about getting a replacement

That would be a normal reaction. I would write friendly and ask for support .... if it is a process fail, I am sure he will help you out !

#27 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member

Quoted from TomDK:
That would be a normal reaction. I would write friendly and ask for support .... if it is a process fail, I am sure he will help you out !

I would contact him but I don't know how to convince this man that the I received another defective PF when I 3 out of the 4 PFs I have bought from him had issues. At some point I would think he would stop giving replacements. He never asks for me to return the original so as far as he knows I am BSing him and selling them for a profit. I sent both the original and the replacement to be fixed and one looks good but the original one looked worse then it did before. It sucks because it was one of the pinkish TZ PFs. I wouldn't believe it even with pictures.

#28 6 years ago

COS

cosmokramer

Pinside member

11y 120K 8,462

*** cosmo nervously walks to his closet to look at his Mirco TOM playfield that has been curing for a few months ***

#29 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member

Quoted from cosmokramer:
*** cosmo nervously walks to his closet to look at his Mirco TOM playfield that has been curing for a few months ***

Lol

#30 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member

Quoted from Atari_Daze:
LMFAO

Hmmm, sounds like a good project... I am "local" too.

You want it, come get it.

#31 6 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

I'd love to see some pics and possibly take a stab at a repair.

#32 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member

Here it is. It looks like something got spilled on it. It was out in my garage. Someone asked for it but I would like to see it repaired and used in a game. Hopefully something like the planked Monster Bash. It would make me happy just to have donated the pf to that cause.

7EFD6BD8-DE75-4310-8B32-B264501D524D (resized).jpeg

#33 6 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

Wow, that's not what I expected it to look like.

I wonder if they used water based clear and it did not survive a freeze?

#34 6 years ago

HEY

indypinhead

Pinside member

Storing a playfield in a garage might not be the wisest thing to do. That area isn't as temperature/humidity controlled as inside the house. My guess is, since it was stored in the garage, that's probably was caused the issues.

#35 6 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

I've seen a similar effect on guitars that had been refinished with water based clear and left in a van for a week in the cold.

#36 6 years ago

WOT

Atari_Daze

Spd

Houston, TX

7y 141K 10,053 7

OP
Quoted from zr11990:
You want it, come get it.

I've only done one full pf restore, but would sure take a crack at doing something with it!

Like the bumper sticker says, ain't skeered

#37 6 years ago

MIK

Micky

Mad Mickys

7y 168K 3,064 42

Wow, that really sucks. Hope someone can grab it and fix it up for you.

#38 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member

It wasn't stored in a garage before it ghosted. It was wrapped in a sheet and put in a dry closet along with 4 others. I got it out and all the inserts had turned white. I sent it to someone to fix it and it only got worse. Since it was garbage already I decided to sand it down and see what happened and you can see what happened. I left it in my work garage as trash. I saw it the other day and thought I might ask you creative people if you might be able to salvage it. I have seen you do more with worse.

#39 6 years ago

BOY

vid1900

Pinside member

What did mirco say was the problem?

Did he offer any guesses? Did he mention water based finish?

Bad Merco playfield (resized).jpg

#40 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member

Quoted from vid1900:
What did mirco say was the problem?
Did he offer any guesses? Did he mention water based finish?

No, he just sent me another one. I wanted to salvage this one if I could instead of it going to waste

#41 6 years ago

HEY

indypinhead

Pinside member

I'm scared to death to check on the 8 CPR playfields I have in the closet.

#42 6 years ago

AXE

YeOldPinPlayer

Inactive member

Unknown

8y 111K 6,454 4 12

Are all the repros pre-drilled for the third magnet that wasn't installed on most Twilight Zone?

#43 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member

It wasn’t a CPR PF. I have never had a problem with those

You can buy the TZ PFs with the 3rd hole or not.

#44 6 years ago

FRX

Frax

Pinside member

Conyers, GA

12y 103K 16,662 2 9

Hope someone takes you up on the offer. Me....I'd just polish it up best I could and stick it on the wall.

#45 6 years ago

HUG

metahugh

Pinside member

15y 73,050 1,304

Quoted from indypinhead:
I'm scared to death to check on the 8 CPR playfields I have in the closet.

Did you leave them in their shipping boxes? If so I'd remove them and let the clear properly cure. Store them flat or install some hardening rails if you need to store them vertical.

So ZR... if you sanded the field did you buff it out yet or did you just leave it sanded? Looks like the latter to me.

#46 6 years ago

HEY

indypinhead

Pinside member

Quoted from metahugh:
Did you leave them in their shipping boxes? If so I'd remove them and let the clear properly cure. Store them flat or install some hardening rails if you need to store them vertical.
So ZR... if you sanded the field did you buff it out yet or did you just leave it sanded? Looks like the latter to me.

All of my playfields are still in their shipping boxes.

#47 6 years ago

???

kruzman

Kruzman pf's

Galesburg, MI

12y 112K 3,985 29

If you store a pf with automotive clearcoat, and you keep it in the box store it so nothing is putting weight on the clear side. packaging and the weight of the pf and packing materials are enough to bogart a finish. especially when it is curing for the first couple months

#48 6 years ago

HEY

indypinhead

Pinside member

Just removed all of my playfields from their boxes. Gave them all a quick look over...everything seems fine.

#49 6 years ago

HEY

indypinhead

Pinside member

Quoted from kruzman:
If you store a pf with automotive clearcoat, and you keep it in the box store it so nothing is putting weight on the clear side. packaging and the weight of the pf and packing materials are enough to bogart a finish. especially when it is curing for the first couple months

I've had some of these playfields since 2015. They've always been stored in their shipping boxes and the boxes stored on their sides. I'm guessing the curing process would be complete by now.

#50 6 years ago

JWL

zr11990

Pinside member