Ok, it's time for me to start thinking about paint as I try to resurrect this great old game. I am interested to see if any of you have painted an Atlantis and can give me recommendations for paint colors.

I've had suggested an antique white for the base coat, which I'll likely do. Any particular kind/finish of paint you recommend? (I do not have a sprayer, so I'll need to either roll on the base coat or rattle-can it).

I've also had suggested Krylon Pistachio for the green, and a Burgundy color for the "red" (both in Satin?).

For the spatter, I've had recommended a Krylon gloss black and then using the technique of dipping a firm brush into some of the paint sprayed into a cup and flecking it on that way.

Would love suggestions. Thanks guys!

Sorry for the delay in updating this thread. I've made good progress, albeit slowly, in painting.

I completely stripped the cabinet of the old paint. Used Bondo to fill in a few imperfections.

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Did lots of block sanding, and then put on two coats of white primer, sanding in between.

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After that I did two coats of antique white base coat, sanding in between, and then did the black spatter paint using Clay's technique and a stiff brush. I'm very pleased with how that part turned out:

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My stencils from Pinball Pimp arrived, and after laying them out flat so they could "relax" after being rolled in a shipping tube, I got to work on the first color. Atlantis uses a "Burgundy Red" and a "Sea Green" color for the stencils. The stencils are designed such that you do the red first and then overlay the green.

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So far, I've only done the red on one side (this evening) but so far so good. I have a tiny bit of over-spray on one fish's tail, and a tiny bit on the sea-plant closest to the flipper-button hole. But I'm not too fussed about that, as even the factory machines often had some over-spray.

Very slowly, it's starting to look like a Gottlieb Atlantis cabinet:

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I also wanted to see what the Sea Green color looks like with the antique white and so went ahead and did the pedestal, which turned out nicely:

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Good call. I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. The small exposed edges on either side of the inside of the cabinet, correct? Will have to do some judicious taping-off and carefully do that, but should be pretty doable. Thanks, Dirt!

Thanks Mike. I really appreciate it. I have never done anything like this in my life, so I'm going very slowly. Since I'm new at this, I know I won't do it perfectly, but I am happy so far with my progress. I'm learning alot! Hopefully by this time next week I'll be done painting and can start to assess what I'll be doing with/for cabinet hardware. I'm probably going to buy a new door and coin entry plate from PBR, and new legs. I will use Evapo-Rust and fine steel wool to clean up the existing side-rails. But I'm getting ahead of myself. More painting pics coming soon...

Thanks GPS. I have a LONG way to go, but so far so good, I think.

Got the second color done on one side today, and also the green color on the front panel. I also got one of the inside top areas painted the antique white (pointed out by DirtFlipper, above), and will do the other side and speckle-paint both of those strips tomorrow. Again, not perfect, but looks really good overall and I'm pleased with it, especially since it's the first one I've ever painted:

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Well, the Painting Phase of this Atlantis restoration is finally done.

After finding the donor cabinet, head and pedestal, stripping all the old paint, doing minor wood repair, bondo, lots of sanding, two coats of primer, two coats of base paint, black speckle-painting, and then using the Pinball Pimp stencils and rattle-cans of Krylon Burgundy and Sea-Glass (green) paint, I am pleased to show the final results:

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I have to wholeheartedly recommend the Pinball Pimp stencils. It's a very high-quality product that's easy to use, and his video online makes it very easy to understand how to use them right. The instructions also are excellent and it was well worth the $140 price-tag, in my opinion. I'd buy them again in a heartbeat.

Now I move to Phase 2: Cabinet hardware. I'll see if I can salvage the legs, door, coin-entry plate and shooter assembly after each spends some time with Evapo-Rust, but my guess is I may buy all-new. The only exterior metal parts I'll likely re-use from the original is are the side-rails. But we'll see -- I might be surprised after some time cleaning these up. STAY TUNED!

I just emailed him to ask if he had stencils for Gottlieb Atlantis and he said yes. Was great to deal with!

They're low-tack but difficult to reposition once you have them on without stretching or tearing them. If you line them up correctly and put them on per the video he has online, it's close to fool-proof I think. I was able to do some minor repositioning when I needed to, but I'd be nervous to try to take it off and completely reposition it.

Yeah, I'm strongly leaning towards getting the new metal.

Hey guys, can someone with an Atlantis (or parts catalog) confirm the correct color for the two "100 Points When Lit" bumper caps on that game? I'm putting together a (rather massive) parts list for Steve and want to make sure the various pictures I see on the Internet are correct. Thanks!

Cool thanks!

Making progress, albeit slowly, this weekend. Now that I'm done with the painting, I've assembled a big parts list for PBR and will divide it into two parts (due to cash flow needs) -- one for all the cabinet stuff I need, and then another for playfield stuff.

I hope to order the cabinet parts this week. Meawhile, I found some smaller things to work on this weekend, starting with cleaning metal parts with my ultrasonic cleaner and Krud Kutter, and polishing them with Mother's metal polish. I have the interior parts of the coin door I'll be buying ready to go, as well as some of the parts I mention below. I'll start working on polishing the side-rails this week.

This weekend I was able to install the metal hardware back inside the head, including the track for the door into the bottom of the head. Remember: This was an old Rack-A-Ball head, which has the slot in the wood for the slightly longer door, not the metal track. I wanted to use the metal track from the original Atlantis head I had (the termite-infested one) and also so it could have the correct door. So I used slightly longer screws that went through the holes in the metal track, spanned the gap created by the Rack-A-Ball slot, and penetrated the wood beneath it just perfect. The track holds very firmly and I tested the metal door from my Top Card wedgehead and it fits perfectly. I also installed the hasp for the lock at the top and it locks correctly too. So that door will be part of my first parts order.

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I also re-attached the paper instruction cards about the patents pending, etc, and I temporarily installed the piece of wood that holds the reels, lights and mechanicals in the head (installed the brackets and everything, but later removed them) as well as the back-glass to make sure everything lines up well and fits properly. Everything looks good! I removed the mechanicals, glass and brackets later because I have not yet started working on the head mechanicals yet.

You will also notice (above) I had to drill four new holes in the bottom to align the Rack a Ball head with the holes in the repurposed Sky Jump cabinet. I am in need of two more head-bolts (the Atlantis only came with two). Any suggestions on what I should buy for those?

I also cleaned, polished and reinstalled the tilt unit (sorry, very slightly out of focus):

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I'm in the process of doing the same for the Chime unit. Question on the chime unit: The plastic tub has a hole cracked in the bottom of it as shown below. Can this still be used? Will it still make the chiming sound? Can I fix this (cover with electrical tape or?) or do I need to find another tub?

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Thanks!

Great idea. I'll even paint it black first!

Thanks -- I'll ask Steve if he has one and may add that to the order.

Thanks Ryan!

Thanks Dr. of Style! I just followed Clay's video/suggestions. I practiced once on a piece of posterboard to gauge how far to be from the surface and how much paint/how fast to move the brush, and then just did it. Probably took 5 minutes. The key (one of them, at least) is that LESS IS MORE. Don't over-do the paint.

Great pics, and very inspiring! I have a long way to go, but eventually I hope to have a very pretty Atlantis to play and admire!

Thanks. I'll be retaining the playfield and glass from the one in Florida (plus mechanicals) and replacing everything else (cabinet, pedestal, head, legs, door, shooter, playfield parts, playfield glass, etc.) with new parts.

No, if you read the beginning of this thread you'll see that the one I bought and had shipped here had major termite damage. So I found a donor cabinet (formerly a Gottlieb Sky Jump) and a donor head (formerly a Gottlieb Rack-A-Ball), and a donor pedestal and set out to do a complete cabinet restoration, which I've now completed.

The metal parts from the original Atlantis are pretty much unusable due to rust, but the side-rails from the donor Sky Jump are usable, and I'll buy new metal parts for the rest (legs, coin door, etc.) from PBR.

It appears I'll be able to use all the mechanicals from the Atlantis I bought, as well as the playfield, after tune-ups and restoration. The back-glass is also in good shape.

No, it's actually a Krylon color called "Sea-Glass". I can post a photo of the can if that's helpful.

Ok sorry about that -- shows I don't read packages well. Anyway, the color turned out great!

Continuing progress last night. Had time to disassemble, clean (by hand and in my ultra-sonic cleaner) the chime unit. I then applied Mother's Metal Polish and reassembled it, used a strip of foam window-seal to replace the worn-out beer-seal piece that the chimes strike (have done this on several games and works like a charm), and now mounted and ready to be wired in when I get to that point. I also went through the Operating Manual last night and confirmed all the playfield part numbers I need. Went on PBR and confirmed all the cabinet parts, so I have a massive list ready for my call to Steve. I think I have the $ now as well, but probably won't place the order until right after Christmas since I won't have time to work on it until then.

Should be a flurry of activity and progress, though, around New Year's. Here are the chime photos:

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