Help with restoration

Abstract3000

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Hello, I just got my very first pinball machine for next to nothing it is "Alien Poker" The machine currently dosent work but I have a friend that used to own an arcade as well as had his own route for many years and he stated he would overhaul the machine for me so with that set aside he told me he was no artist and gave me little info on playfield restoration.

I have looked up all sorts of methods, There is no pre printed mylar available, No repro's available, Cant find any used, most the people that do it are very expensive and very few even left doing it so its pretty much up to me to hand paint. I have included the graphics below of the problem areas on the playfield but I have a few questions as well.

The playfield overall is good just those problem areas but there is also mylar patches all over (Do these effect the play of the game?) as the playfield isnt the smoothest is there anyway to smooth it out? and notice the pics of the little triangles the ends seem to be coming up from the board as it appears the glue might have worn off, what do I do about that? And what would be someones overall opinion as to what I should do with this playfield and restoring it?
Thanks

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I believe you can sand it down and then get a reprint of the board and apply that. Don't quote me on that as I'm just getting started with pinball myself.
 
It's a labor of love, dude. Or...a labor of cash if you have it. :D

I redid a completely dead, beat to crap pinball. I used here, byoac, and the pinrepair guides to do the whole thing. I had absolutely zero experience with a pinball up to that point.
So, I am highly confident that if you read the pinrepair restoration guides thoroughly, you can end up with quite a nice looking pinball. The only catch is that you will only notice the flaws. Everyone else will just see a great looking pinball.

To answer a few of your questions:
-Take off the mylar patches. You can use the freeze method (covered in pinrepair guides) I used a heat gun very sparingly.
- Level all of the playfield inserts (covered in guides). I didn't, but none of mine were sticking above the playfield like yours. In the end, I leveled the whole playfield through the process of clearcoating. Any low spots showed up during sanding, then got direct applications of thick clearcoat. The final 2 or so thick coats of clear leveled everything out perfectly.
-
In closing, you can totally restore that playfield by yourself. You will feel super awesome about it, and learn a ton of stuff in the process. Be prepared though, because it is a considerable amount of time and work.

Good luck!
 
It's a labor of love, dude. Or...a labor of cash if you have it. :D

I redid a completely dead, beat to crap pinball. I used here, byoac, and the pinrepair guides to do the whole thing. I had absolutely zero experience with a pinball up to that point.
So, I am highly confident that if you read the pinrepair restoration guides thoroughly, you can end up with quite a nice looking pinball. The only catch is that you will only notice the flaws. Everyone else will just see a great looking pinball.

To answer a few of your questions:
-Take off the mylar patches. You can use the freeze method (covered in pinrepair guides) I used a heat gun very sparingly.
- Level all of the playfield inserts (covered in guides). I didn't, but none of mine were sticking above the playfield like yours. In the end, I leveled the whole playfield through the process of clearcoating. Any low spots showed up during sanding, then got direct applications of thick clearcoat. The final 2 or so thick coats of clear leveled everything out perfectly.
-
In closing, you can totally restore that playfield by yourself. You will feel super awesome about it, and learn a ton of stuff in the process. Be prepared though, because it is a considerable amount of time and work.

Good luck!

Exactly what shardian said. I went through almost the same situation after he did: no pinball experience, picked up an abused system 1 game, and dove in and restored it.

You'll be referring to this guide a lot:

http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/index.htm
 
ok so im reading the repair guide trying to get a better understanding of how it all works and Im to the part in testing coils with a DMM, but I'm not sure of what coils he's talking about, I don't see any on the CPU, Driver Board, Sound, or Power Boards? What am I looking for? heres the page:

www.pinrepair.com/sys37/index1.htm
2b. Before Turning the Game On: Check the Coil Resistance.
 
ok so im reading the repair guide trying to get a better understanding of how it all works and Im to the part in testing coils with a DMM, but I'm not sure of what coils he's talking about, I don't see any on the CPU, Driver Board, Sound, or Power Boards? What am I looking for? heres the page:

www.pinrepair.com/sys37/index1.htm
2b. Before Turning the Game On: Check the Coil Resistance.

He's talking about the coils under the playfield throughout the game that make the ball move around. Like the flipper coils for example. Or the pop bumpers, slingshots, etc...

These things:
al_coil.jpg


That is going to be an extremely difficult playfield to restore. Touch up work is really an art form and not everyone is going to be capable of doing a good job. Pretty much anyone can restore the electronics and mechanics of a pinball but touch up can be tricky.

I wish you the best of luck and I hope it turns out great! I really like Alien Poker. I got a flyer for it when I first started collecting and it always fascinated me. I never thought I would own one but I have one sitting in storage waiting to be restored :)
 
He's talking about the coils under the playfield throughout the game that make the ball move around. Like the flipper coils for example. Or the pop bumpers, slingshots, etc...

These things:
al_coil.jpg


That is going to be an extremely difficult playfield to restore. Touch up work is really an art form and not everyone is going to be capable of doing a good job. Pretty much anyone can restore the electronics and mechanics of a pinball but touch up can be tricky.

I wish you the best of luck and I hope it turns out great! I really like Alien Poker. I got a flyer for it when I first started collecting and it always fascinated me. I never thought I would own one but I have one sitting in storage waiting to be restored :)

Hey Lindsey real quick, When folks say there pin(s) are in storage like in your case do they (you) mean like stored in your garage or is it like a rented storage place? The reason I'am asking is wont weather effect the pins if the storage there in is not climate controlled? I'am outside of Phoenix, Az. and I would not think of putting a pin or arcade machine in my garage in the summer I get temps in there up 120+ degrees when it's 105+ outside, and it does get below freezing in the winters here in the desert, believe it or not. Iam assuming yours are in climate controlled storage. Jeff
 
Thanks for the help I knew what coils were I guess I just didnt realize he had moved to under the playing field quite yet so I was wondering if he was still on the main boards. Thanks. And I do know it will be allot of work but at the same time even if it dosent look the best I would just like to own my own pin.

Thanks again guys I reply when I need help next
 
Abstract3000 I had the same thing on my pin as well, wear down to the wood just not as bad as yours. What I did and I know it's not the right thing was use some sharpie pens to cover the bare wood, turned out ok and if you look at my pic's in the thread High-Speed pic's you can't tell unless you hover over the glass and focus on that particular area, I had flipper bushing wear down to the wood by the flippers, and used a black sharpie there and it turned out good. I applied wax right away after letting it dry so far it's holding up. I tried paint pens but never got smooth enough for my liking. I really have not had the time to do it right or my artist ability just isn't there either and to have it redone professionally I could purchase another pin(s). Also dont worry about your inserts coming up from it's locations I have a few 3 inserts that are barely risen up so I really dont effect nothing. I read on here that you can use a hair dryer to heat it up and then bang on the insert with a something flat, but heres what I dont get, How much stuff do you have to take off so you get the hot air where you want it for a small insert, and with the playfield up how do you bang on it, plus hair dryers are somewhat bulky plus all the wires and other things under the playfield in the way? Do you heat it then lower the PF down and then bang on it with something flat? It just dont seem right as I may mess something else up or melt something else while heating the insert. So I just left it alone instead of making it worse. I guess later in time when I have remove something to replace I may tackle this and take it on though. Good luck and if you know of an easy fix let me (us) know. Jeff
 
Abstract3000 I had the same thing on my pin as well, wear down to the wood just not as bad as yours. What I did and I know it's not the right thing was use some sharpie pens to cover the bare wood, turned out ok and if you look at my pic's in the thread High-Speed pic's you can't tell unless you hover over the glass and focus on that particular area, I had flipper bushing wear down to the wood by the flippers, and used a black sharpie there and it turned out good. I applied wax right away after letting it dry so far it's holding up. I tried paint pens but never got smooth enough for my liking. I really have not had the time to do it right or my artist ability just isn't there either and to have it redone professionally I could purchase another pin(s). Also dont worry about your inserts coming up from it's locations I have a few 3 inserts that are barely risen up so I really dont effect nothing. I read on here that you can use a hair dryer to heat it up and then bang on the insert with a something flat, but heres what I dont get, How much stuff do you have to take off so you get the hot air where you want it for a small insert, and with the playfield up how do you bang on it, plus hair dryers are somewhat bulky plus all the wires and other things under the playfield in the way? Do you heat it then lower the PF down and then bang on it with something flat? It just dont seem right as I may mess something else up or melt something else while heating the insert. So I just left it alone instead of making it worse. I guess later in time when I have remove something to replace I may tackle this and take it on though. Good luck and if you know of an easy fix let me (us) know. Jeff

Sharpie markers can be a lifesaver... but they're limited in what they can do. I've used them for lines around inserts and very small black areas but beyond that their limitations start to show. You don't want to use them on larger areas or areas that are down to the wood. They can also run with clear coat and will come off the next time you shop out your playfield, if you wax over them.

To level the inserts you'll want to heat them from the back and then push them slightly above the playfield. Then use something flat like a small piece of plexi and a hammer to tap them down flat. Then glue them from the back with super glue. If you're going to clear coat the playfield you want to get the inserts as flat as possible before clear coating. Ideally you want to do as little leveling with the clear coat as possible.

Here's some more info on inserts:
http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/index3.htm#sunk
 
Hey Lindsey real quick, When folks say there pin(s) are in storage like in your case do they (you) mean like stored in your garage or is it like a rented storage place? The reason I'am asking is wont weather effect the pins if the storage there in is not climate controlled? I'am outside of Phoenix, Az. and I would not think of putting a pin or arcade machine in my garage in the summer I get temps in there up 120+ degrees when it's 105+ outside, and it does get below freezing in the winters here in the desert, believe it or not. Iam assuming yours are in climate controlled storage. Jeff

I have games in my garage and in a rented warehouse. Some are climate controlled and some are not. Ideally I would like to have everything at a constant temperature but unfortunately that's not an option.

Rapid temperature change is more of an issue than extreme highs or lows. Extreme highs that can melt plastic would be a problem but fortunately it doesn't get that hot here. A slow gradual change from high to low temperature is far less of a problem than a rapid change that may occur when you buy a game, drive home in the cold and then bring it into your warm house. That could do more damage than several years in "cold storage" where the changes are very gradual.
 
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