Clear Coating questions

KCHVAC GUY

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I have watched the "This old pinball" video and checked out a few other you tube videos on this subject. I have restored a few games but never took on this task.

1. I have color matched pretty darn close but the colors aren't 100% and they of course look flat being acrylic. From what Ive seen is they don't have to be 100% and after clear coating the flat acrylic paint will match the rest of the board. Just wanted to get some more first hand accounts of people who tried themselves.

2. In none of these videos have I seen or maybe I missed advise on covering play field screw holes. I know the obvious play field lite fixture holes need covered etc but not sure on the tiny play field mount holes. On one hand I think it would be good since often the screw holes are loose after many years of play. On the other hand I see a potential receipt for disaster drilling through the new nice thick layer of clear coat.

3. The best method seems to be automotive clear coat by Omini for a smooth field. I have no old crap play field to practice on and sure don't want to try on these for the first time. Has anyone on here took a play field to a auto body shop and had success? I know a good reliable body shop near me and they are willing to take a look, but still have not with the touch ups incomplete. I can go through a entire game take every part out put it back in a 2-3 weeks time. Its taken me two months to get these two play fields touched up to my standards and still not happy 100%!

Any advise I would appreciate. Thanks!
 
I would get a crap playfield to test on, no matter what, if either you are doing it for the first time or you are sending it to a shop that has no history of doing this. The last thing you want is irrepairable damage to a playfield you've spent hours touching up.

The paint finish will be obscured by the clear, as the top finish is what you see, not the coats under it. The exception is glossy vs. flat, but I see no reason anyone would use glossy paint for touch up. Matte finishes actually take bonding with clear better.

Drilling out holes in hardened clear should be no issue and frankly should be more time effective. You don't want to install parts until the clear sets up hard (which takes weeks, not days), so a sharp drill bit should pose no issue with clear cracking. I would use a portable press attachement for a cordless drill to prevent the bit from wandering and scratching you clear.

Clearing is not hard. Prep and sanding is what is the time consuming issue. If you have a clean playfield to start with and take care to sand carefully and clean the surface between coats you will do great. Bad clear jobs are the result of dirt and lack of patience in waiting the proper amount of time to spray between coats.

Just my opinion.
 
Just curious what method of clear coating the field did you use? I know they make roll on clear coat which looks to be a lot less of a health hazard. I'm not really wanting to spray a toxic chemical that can completely dry out your lungs and eyes out in my garage. They all say outside spraying is required, that would be good until a bug, leaf, or whatever lands on your wet board.
 
Just curious what method of clear coating the field did you use? I know they make roll on clear coat which looks to be a lot less of a health hazard. I'm not really wanting to spray a toxic chemical that can completely dry out your lungs and eyes out in my garage. They all say outside spraying is required, that would be good until a bug, leaf, or whatever lands on your wet board.

HVAC guy have you checked out Clay's docs on pinrepair regarding this topic?
 
Yes i have, just seems like i always screw something up when it must be perfect the first time.I just want to get some success stories or horror stories from part time restoration guys like me.
 
I agree I've not done any playfield repair yet. Just Novus and Carnuba.

I need to on all of my pins to some degree but this will be the very last thing I do for that fact alone. I have heat sunk plastics that affect my game play not just playfield ink. I'll probably buy a few playfield's to practice on first.

These have to be perfectly level, the sanding also makes me nervous (prep work before clear).

Good luck man and interested to see how you do with this.

OHEMIO
 
Well my madison square was mildew damaged needed all new lamps under the playfield and backglass. The biggest total restore I've taken on. Mechanically I'm confident it's fun, now everything else is painstaking tedious trial and error. I put some pics up I'm nearly done just need to retouch some parts and find a matching color for the upper blue/green whatever the hell color I've tried a variety of mixes just gonna go to hobby lobby and grab as many colors that may match. I know pantane colr chart is a good investment if I do anymore.
 
I used this guys method with decent results http://www.duo-county.com/~rob/pinball/clearcoat.html. I have some advise that is not mentioned when using this product. So far the firepower playfield plays great and fast but did have some not so great touchup spots where I goofed up on applying this product. So far my madison square looks great and I think I learned a lot from doing the Firepwer first which I'm fine with my errors. If your thinking about using this make sure the temperature is over 70 degrees mine was a little low my first spray. My second advise is light coats and unlike what is advised for other brands more than 3 coats is not a problem I called the manufacture to double check. I'm not sure how the guy who wrote about this used two cans for one playfield with only three coats but one can could have done two of my playfields if I had it timed out correctly. His turned out good so maybe he knows something I don't. But from the manufactor they say going over a water base acrylic you need to build a base clear coat up if not it will take some paint off which it did on mine. Another bit of advise is to start off with 1000 grit not 600 for wet sanding they said most car guys would dare go lower than 1000 for clear coat wet sanding so they don't understand why its suggested for this application. I'm not a pro on restoration and just my thoughts and advise from manufacture.
If I had someone local who offered this service proffesionally for pinball I would pay to have it done. Not having that I'm satisfied with this product and my results.
 
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