Job 8: Decals

Painting was done, but some of the finer details required the application of decals.

First, I created a page of decals - mostly the black circles that go around the new inserts - and printed it on special waterslide decal paper. It's the same thing you get in a model plane kit - just cut out the decal you want, soak it in water for a minute, place it where you want it, and gently slide the backing paper away, leaving the thin, clear printed film in place. Then I brushed some setting solution over top of it to smooth it out and help with adhesion.

I started with the bonus inserts in the middle of the playfield. Here, you can see that I've decalled the top four.

Here are the top rollovers mid-process, with the right one done and the other two ready to go. It's a dramatic difference.

These are the two Special Scoring inserts on the left.

The decals by the roto target needed to include custom type.

The 1000 bonus tag was tricky and it took a few attempts to get it placed correctly.

Voila!  Looking great!

 

Job 7: Painting

This is where the project gets complicated, messy and expensive.

I decided to start the painting process by going over the white areas under the plastics. There are several reasons for this choice:

1. I could use straight white paint - no mixing or color matching involved
2. Whitening the areas under the plastics will create greater reflection of the general illumination, resulting in a brighter overall playfield
3. These five areas comprise the largest area of solid color and they're bordered by black lines, making it a little easier for my first attempt at painting
4. If I mess up, they'll be covered by other stuff later on

Painting a pinball playfield requires smooth, even application of paint and the best method for that is to use an airbrush.  I started by applying frisket over the white areas - it's a thin clear adhesive film that acts as a mask for the paint. I then used an X-acto knife to cut the frisket around the white border.  Then, I taped scrap paper to the playfield, as seen above, to prevent any accidental sprays. Against the white paper, you can see how the original white paint has discolored to a shade of ivory.

It took a little effort, but I got the airbrush working. I placed the GI bulbs back so paint wouldn't get into the sockets.

Then, I removed the masking paper...

...and peeled up the frisket...

 ...and was underwhelmed by the results.  Luckily, the paint that I used is heat-set, meaning that even though it's dry, it's not permanent until I hit it with a heat gun or hair dryer.  I was able to clean up the edges and re-paint the outlines with a liner brush. It's not perfect, but it's not better and it will do.

I also used frisket to touch up one other spot - the 1000-point bonus tag.

You'll notice that mixed a taupe color, rather than white, so it matches the other tags. So much easier than re-painting all of them.

I also touched up a bunch of other little areas, including the worn spot between the lower pop bumper and the kickout hole.

That blue is hard to match because it wore differently in different areas of the playfield. It's slightly lighter in some places and darker in others.

Again, it's not collector's quality perfect, but it's better than when I started. Here's a final look:

  

Job 6: Clearing the Playfield

In preparation for the next steps in this restoration, I'd need to clear the playfield, removing everything until I'm left with a flat surface.  Here's where we stand:

It was mostly a matter of going under the playfield and unscrewing the mechanical pieces from the bottom. I then secured them, along with their corresponding screws, to the underside with tape or zip ties. Then I covered the holes with more tape.

The pop bumpers required some special care. Here's what they look like from below:

I removed the coil and still had to unsolder these two wires, which connect to the light socket, in order to remove the top mechanism.

Here's what the playfield looks like sans targets and rollovers:

Finally, I needed to remove the wire ball guides and nails. A gentle pull with a pair of pliers and they came right out. I made sure to number and label each one so I can put them back correctly later.

Here's what the playfield looks like totally stripped:

Flat and ready for painting!

 

Job 5: Replacing Inserts

Every one of the 21 inserts on this machine are concave and/or discolored thanks to the heat of the bulbs over time and it really affected the path of the ball. In fact, a light plunge to the top would sometimes get stuck on one of the top inserts.

. The first job was to remove the old plastic discs. First, I traced the edges with an X-acto knife and then, with the heat of a hairdryer to weaken the glue and a little pressure from behind, I popped each one out.

Here are some of the old inserts. You can see that three of the red ones are a lot more faded than the fourth.

The new inserts needed to be worked over with various grades of sandpaper and the edges needed to be roughed up to better accept the new glue.

A coat of plastic primer on the edge of each new insert and strong epoxy inside the holes and each one found its new place.

Beautiful! Here's a look at the whole playfield with all-new inserts:

 

Job 4: Initial Cleaning

The next step in the process is to clean up the playfield and see what it looks like all shined up. This machine had years of accumulated dust to deal with, as you can see with my fingerprints, after I removed the apron.  No need to do a complete teardown, but I did remove all of the plastics, rubber, and bulbs.

I set those parts aside in their relative places, to make it easier to re-assemble later.

Here are some of the old rubber bands. As you can see, it was a mix of black and white and all had lost their bounce over the years.

These are some "before" close-up photos:

You can see streaks of brown grime on the surface, especially in that first photo.

I started by wiping the playfield down with 90% alcohol on a cotton cloth, gave it a polish with Novus 2 and hit the deep dirty spots with alcohol on a Magic Eraser. Here are the "after" photos:

Much better, but not perfect. There's quite a bit of planking and ball swirls, which are especially visible on the white and yellow bits.  That might take some re-painting.  But overall, I'm happy with the results.

I re-assembled the playfield just to get everything back in one piece but, since I knew that I'd be taking it apart again before long, I didn't tighten anything too far or add in the bulbs or rubber bands.  Next, it's time to order some new parts!

 

Job 3: Adjusting the Transformer

While the cabinet mechs were removed and easy to access during the re-finishing process, I took the opportunity to make an adjustment to the transformer.

These machines leave the factory with the main power line (the upper red wire) set to the "normal" lower-voltage output node on the transformer.  So I clipped it and re-soldered the wire to the "high" output node.

This should give the pop bumpers and kicker some extra power and maybe spin the wheel a little faster.  A simple adjustment that will make the game quicker and more fun!