First playfield touchups. Yikes!

TOK

Well-known member

Donor 2011
Joined
May 28, 2004
Messages
4,772
Reaction score
241
Location
Pennsylvania
I was just about crapping my pants over screwing this up when I started! This is by far the worst area of my Pinbot playfield. Next I'm going to do the white to the right of the gray (that area is down to the wood), then the black stripe between them. If this all goes OK, I'm going to start trying to match the blues and stuff to touch up the "cable" that links the inserts inside the gray.

The paint on all of the playfield is too far gone to ever be perfect. Trying to get this looking and playing a little better until the Classic Playfield Repro gets done.

graytouchup1.jpg


graytouchup3.jpg


graytouchup4.jpg
 
looking good. I'm going to do the same on my Williams Comet. I wonder how fast it will wear if you do not clearcoat it.
 
If you're using acrylic paint I would expect it to start coming off fairly quickly. Clear coat or mylar is a must (IMO).

I used oil based enamel. Planned on waxing it, but not clearcoating... XNIF, I'll let you know how it holds up. I want to wait at least 24 hours before I mask over the new paint to do the adjacent stuff.
 
Wow, I'm working on the same pin. I was touching up in that very area last night.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37127387@N06/sets/72157626701612476/

This game is a reimport, but the field is pretty decent. I've laid down one coat of Varathane, and am slowing making progress matching colors. I'm getting some good matches with the Americana acrylics, but I know that won't work for you without clearing. I'll be watching this thread, good luck.
 
Your playfield looks in way better shape than mine. Thats actually going to be very nice. Mine has one older touchup that looks weird. They did something by the left extension of the satellite then put mylar over it.

Judging by the condition of the existing paint, I'm sure it will lift if I try to take the mylar off.

I'm kind of doing the touchups I can without the playfield stripped because I'm really hoping the CPR comes out good. I love Pinbot and plan on keeping it, so I don't mind ultimately spending more than its worth to get it really nice.
 
I actually just went back and looked after looking at your relatively clean satellite area. Mine is messed up way worse than I thought. Its both sides and it looks like a marker fix then mylar over it. I knew it had been touched up, but I never really stared at how much was blacked out until I looked at yours. :(

satellitebase.jpg
 
Holy sharpie!!

Someone went nuts with it. I pulled quite a bit of mylar off mine and it came up excellent. I used a hair dryer and went very slowly. There was a huge piece by the pops and a couple in front of the slings. If you look at my pics of that area and the increase energy insert you can see it was flawless under there. The exception being the area really close to the pops. Lost maybe a couple tiny flecks of black.

I would pull that mylar. I bet you can get it off with no major damage. I also would bet you could clean that sharpie off with out damaging the original art. Goo gone would probably do.
 
I have a mostly pristine day 1 mylar Pinbot.....except it has that exact same wear mark at the 50k insert leading to the top left captive hole as the pic posted by TOK. A horizontal wear line to the left of the insert.

I can't wrap my head around what would cause that wear pattern....anybody know?

I need to pull the mylar, cuz it's starting to lift on a few of the inserts. But it's probably not going to happen this summer....
 
I have a mostly pristine day 1 mylar Pinbot.....except it has that exact same wear mark at the 50k insert leading to the top left captive hole as the pic posted by TOK. A horizontal wear line to the left of the insert.

I can't wrap my head around what would cause that wear pattern....anybody know?

I need to pull the mylar, cuz it's starting to lift on a few of the inserts. But it's probably not going to happen this summer....

That is odd. There's no way it's from the ball. Is it from changing rubbers or doing a shop job? It looks like it lines up with the metal ball guide, but you wouldn't need to remove that. Seems like something has scraped across there.
 
Pretty nice work!

Looks like someone put the decal over the grid area. Did they also put the decal in the lock area?

You can get it looking pretty good without replacing the playfield. Why spend $700 on a new PF and freak the first time it gets scratched?

Touch it up, play the hell out of it, and enjoy :)

Chris
 
Hey Chris... The grid is heavy vinyl and is pretty nice. I don't think the spot under the visor has a decal on it and the wear isn't that bad. The worst two spots are where I'm fixing and the base of the satellite. There are various parts in the black that are crazing. They will be tough to touch up because it's areas with fine lines that overlap different colors.

I'm on CPR's list for the repro playfield. I think I'm more worried about it coming out half ass than the price since they sub all the art out to volunteers. It'd still get played a ton with a new playfield.
 
That is odd. There's no way it's from the ball. Is it from changing rubbers or doing a shop job? It looks like it lines up with the metal ball guide, but you wouldn't need to remove that. Seems like something has scraped across there.

I know. It makes no sense that it is ball wear, but that mark on TOK's playfield is an exact replica of mine. It does line up pretty good with the wireform, but my wireform is solid in the playfield and doesn't appear molested. Oh well, another of life's mysteries.
 
when color matching, i mix my color on a piece of clear sheet so i can hold the color right next to/on top of the original for a more precise comparison

looks great !
 
I have a mostly pristine day 1 mylar Pinbot.....except it has that exact same wear mark at the 50k insert leading to the top left captive hole as the pic posted by TOK. A horizontal wear line to the left of the insert.

I can't wrap my head around what would cause that wear pattern....anybody know?

I need to pull the mylar, cuz it's starting to lift on a few of the inserts. But it's probably not going to happen this summer....

I was working on the white border around the grid today and think I have the answer to the scratch. Very much related to what Dr. Gonzo said. There is a bulb behind the top insert and the hole. It looks like when people access that bulb, they pull the ball guide from the bottom and pivot it across the playfield.

In the process of wrestling a bulb into that tiny spot, the playfield gets the scratch. It even has a slight arc to it that follows the line of the ball guide if you look close.
 
I was working on the white border around the grid today and think I have the answer to the scratch. Very much related to what Dr. Gonzo said. There is a bulb behind the top insert and the hole. It looks like when people access that bulb, they pull the ball guide from the bottom and pivot it across the playfield.

In the process of wrestling a bulb into that tiny spot, the playfield gets the scratch. It even has a slight arc to it that follows the line of the ball guide if you look close.

Good work Sherlock :D

Too bad people aren't more careful. Are you going to pull that mylar?
 
I did the white border around the grid last night, but haven't played the game yet. I still have the black line to touch up that separates the gray and white. I'll fire it up tonight and let you know how it holds up.
 
Back
Top Bottom