Diner art is pretty tough. Lots and lots of little details and halftones to reproduce. Not as tough as some of the newer fields, but it is challenging. After basically redrawing the entire field I understand why the art package is taking some time to finish.

The decals I made match the field pretty well. I printed a set of pantone color swatches then matched the playfield colors best I could to my printer specs. I will agree that orange is almost impossible to match using this process. But the only big orange area is under the pop bumper skirts. So it's kind of covered.

I haven't decided yet but I was debating selling the touched up field to offset some of the cost for a new CPR one. Having the original field doesn't really matter much to me so I wouldn't mind parting with this one if the time comes.

I've always struggled to match onscreen colors with printing. I don't know much about properly configuring a printer. I went to my printers website and was able to download Pantone color swatches ( about 13 sheets) I opened each sheet in Illustrator and printed them out. I printed via illustrator because I was getting different colors printing through windows. So I figured I'd print the swatches using the same method I would print the decals with so colors would be similar.

Once the swatches were printed I trimmed them right to the edge of color using an exacto knife. This way I could put them swatch right to the color I was trying to match. I was able to get pretty damn close on yellow, red, blue, green, and purple. Greys and oranges were a bit tough so I had to settle with the best I could. You'll very rarely get an exact match using Pantone colors.

I didn't get as far as I wanted to this weekend but I started placing the decals on the field. Still a long ways to go but its coming together nicely. I also included a few shots of the cutting system I'm using. That tool has been invaluable as far as accuracy of the cut and time saved. I definitely recommend one for those who make their own playfield decals.

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I'm using a Xerox 6010n LED Laser printer. Colors come out really vibrant and pretty accurate. Thanks everyone for the kind words !

~ John

Most of the large decals are now on the field. I tried placing the individual letters tonight, but it's going to take way to long to do. So I decided to break down and buy the insert decal sheet from Bay Area Amusements. Not really what I want to do but seems to be the ideal situation at this point. Sorry my phone camera takes lousy pictures. Just to summarize below are the areas that are covered in a decal:

'Top 5' entrance way black lines
EAT roll-over switch area
The grill
Lower Bubble ramp
Checkered ramp area
Center food drop target area
Left Food drop target area
DINER Lights
Diner guests
Center Diner guest w/ waitress
Left and right Inlane art
Left and right 'Extra Ball' quarter.

I still need to apply the top bubble ramp with the spinner insert frame. Hopefully the decals get here in a few days so I can clear the field over the weekend. Thanks !
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Decals are finally done ! Hope to clear the field this weekend weather permiting. Its been awfully rainy and humid all week. More to come .

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Yea I was a bit worried with the DINER and Guest inserts because they seemed a bit washed out to me in certain lighting conditions. After looking at some photos online of the field all lit up, they look pretty similar to the original.

I debated this on the drive into work. I may spray late tonight around 9-10pm when things have cooled off some. Its a 3-4 hour process depending on cure times and layers I want to do. So it would make for a long night.

Thanks for the offer, but I already have everything ready to go. Before I did the decal layer I sanded the field with 400 grit paper. So it goes Clear > Airbrush and touch ups > Clear > Decals > Final clear. I really just need to clean of any left over water residue and I should be good to go. I have it wrapped in plastic atm to keep dust to a minimum until I'm ready to clean.

I decided to try this out ( http://www.kbs-coatings.com/DiamondFinish-Clear.html ). I came across some pretty good results on another forum. I like the fact that it is one step. So far I'm pretty happy with the results I've been getting.

Here's a better shot of the field as it is now. Tomorrow is D-day. Its been a very very VERY long road to get to this point.

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Clear coat is done. Directions say it can be sanded after 24hrs, but I'm going to let it cure for a few days before wet sanding. Pretty smooth finish with minor defects that should buff out nicely.

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Those are the ones I drew . I figured I went through all the work to redraw the sides it would be a shame for them to go to waste. So I contacted PPS and sent them my files.

Ive have been working on getting the cabinet finished up while the playfield clear coat settles. I finally finished the Cabinet side art and printed it out. Ended up going with a luster finish as flat was too dull and glossy looked to shiny. Before you say PPS now sells the decals now I know, I drew them. It was suppose to be a quick turn around to receive my set from them that turned into a few months sitting and waiting ( I'm guessing MMr is taking up a lot of resources). I wanted to finish the cabinet around the same time the playfield was ready so I decided to print them them myself. OF COURSE as soon as I did, the damn decals show up in the store that following Monday. I knew it was going to happen so I wasn't surprised.

The cabinet had been sitting for about a month and when I came back to it this week I noticed some grain raise in spots . So I had to take the cabinet back out into the shop, sand it down, reprimer the bad spots, and sand smooth. I decided to do a few layer of clear over the paint this time to hopefully keep moisture out. Had I know I was going to do a full cabinet side and not just the strip on top of black paint, I would have just sanded the cabinet, patched it, cleared it and been done with it. Oh well now I know.

I'm glad I took the time to fix the problem rather than just decal over it. I will keep an eye on it for a couple of weeks before placing the decals to make sure the problem doesn't come back.You can see the fixed areas in the pictures below. I'm using a special vinyl that has a grey adhesive backing as opposed to white. This will keep the areas that are no longer black from standing out once the decal is applied.
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Still chugging along here. Finally have all my parts laid out in my assembly room at work.
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Did some work on the cabinet today including attaching the back box to the cabinet, polishing and installing the side rails, attaching the coin door, and cutting away the decal for the metal leg protectors. Some of the paint came off when i peeled away the decal, so I had to paint the areas where the brackets install. Should be able to attach the legs in a day or two.
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Now I may loose some of you on this, but hear me out. I know the standard is to make a cabinet super smooth and glossy before applying decals, but since these had a large area of solid black I thought it looked a bit too fake and 'plastic-y' for my liking. So before applying the decals I roughed up all surfaces with a fine sanding sponge going with the natural grain of the wood. Since the decals are rather thin, they pick up the false grain nicely. It's just the right amount of texture and I think turned out pretty nice. It's hard to see in pictures, but here is what the cabinet surface looks like before applying decals.

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They already have an artist working on it.

Just cleaned it a few times with windex and a rag.