is Novus #2 safe on painted wood play field?

CykoMF

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I got this late 1940's woodrail project I'm working on and would like to clean up the playfield. The paint is not peeling but there are some light marks in the wood surface.

I've heard of clear coating these but am not really sure on the exact proceedure or recomended products. Can anyone point me to a good source of information about this?
 
Not just NO but HELL NO!!!

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

Novus2 is NOT safe on '40s playfields. Waaaaay too aggressive and cuts right through the paint.

image-7.jpg


(that's Novus2 right below the 'when lit')


Remove dirt and musties with Novus1 and accept whatever is left as 'patina'.
 
Don't listen to him. I've used Novus 2 on pinballs from the old no-flipper woodrails of the late 30's and early 40's, thru the later EM's of the 60's and 70's, to the new pinballs of today. I have NEVER had a problem like he shows. Either he was too aggressive in his application, used too abrasive of an applicator, or had a playfield that was so damaged already that ANY cleaner would have caused similar results...
 
Don't listen to him. I've used Novus 2 on pinballs from the old no-flipper woodrails of the late 30's and early 40's, thru the later EM's of the 60's and 70's, to the new pinballs of today. I have NEVER had a problem like he shows. Either he was too aggressive in his application, used too abrasive of an applicator, or had a playfield that was so damaged already that ANY cleaner would have caused similar results...

I agree. I have used Novus #2 on all ages of playfields without any problems.
 
I agree with Mod, I have never had a problem with Novus 2 on a playfield that wasn't already flaking. I am very careful with the flaking ones usually avoiding touching it as much as possible...
 
Well he certainly seems concerned about it and I seem to remember someone else told me a horror story once upon a time.

Hard to tell from the picture but
it looks like it might have scrubbed paint from the high spots or
embedded into small depressions in the wood surface.

I'll try a dab in the corner and see what happens.

Anyone got a 'filler' recommendation for fixing this...
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I don't see any paint missing due to Novus. Use an old t-shirt type of cloth and just use light pressure in a circular method (like waxing a car). Let it dry then buff to shine.

As for the groove caused by the flipper - 1st adjust the flipper so it won't happen anymore. You could try filling it, but if it doesn't match exactly, the repair will look just as bad as the scratch. Might be better to leave it alone. True collectors would rather it show signs of play than signs of unexpert repairs...
 
Don't listen to him.

Did the neighbor's four year old help you write that?


Anyway....

Yes, it was a soft rag.

No, I wasn't rubbing hard.

Yes, it just started to cut off the high spots. And we're mostly seeing it because of the close-up pic with the p/f glass off.

No, it isn't flaking there.

Yes, the paint is extremely thin - and without any sort of factory clear.

No, I will not use Novus2 on antiques in the future. Newer stuff? Yes, fine, wouldn't use anything else even. Relics? No. Still no.

If I'm going to screw up, I prefer to err on the side of caution.

YMMV.
 
Novus #2 is not abrasive. If it takes the paint off your playfield then the paint was loose and would probably have come off with Novus #1.

Any claims of "use this" or "don't use that" as hard and fast rules are bullshit. What to use on any playfield totally depends on condition. A game from the 40's could be in perfect condition and accept magic eraser treatment where another of the same game could have the paint coming off in a light breeze. Experience is the best teacher and experience is expensive.
 
Novus #2 is not abrasive.

I disagree. Novus2 is merely less abrasive than Novus3.

.... and Novus1 did a decent job of removing a half-century of Seattle basement musties without further harm to what was left of the paint.

..... and there wasn't much there to begin with. Genco wasn't exactly a top-of-the-heap brand - everything is thinner/cheaper than what Gottlieb used. The conversion kit decals are tougher than the factory paint.



Experience is the best teacher and experience is expensive.

I may consider changing my sig. line.
 
Right... I shouldn't say "not abrasive". I should say, so mildly abrasive that it won't remove paint that wasn't already doomed. My main point, which is still valid, is that there are no hard and fast rules to playfield restoration. I don't know the specifics of what people were doing in their examples. There are too many variables to just say "don't use Novus #2 because it's too abrasive". That's just not true in my experience. I doubt it was the abrasive qualities that caused any damage.
 
As mentioned previously, it just started to cut the tops off the high spots and that's where the Novus2 got put away.....

.... and beat on long-gone Genco some more for literally having the thinnest paint that I have ever seen. Really. It was only a couple molecules thick to begin with.


I'd bet ya a plugged wooden nickel that Novus2 would have a brand-new Genco p/f (fresh from the time machine) down to whitewood in seconds.


One thing I will never ever use on playfields any more is Wildcat 125.

That stuff is truly horrible. That and MillWax. <puking smiley>
 
I'd bet ya a plugged wooden nickel that Novus2 would have a brand-new Genco p/f (fresh from the time machine) down to whitewood in seconds.

You would definitely lose that bet. Without question. If that were true then the pinball would have taken the paint off the first week out of the factory.
 
That stuff is truly horrible. That and MillWax. <puking smiley>

when i bought my first pin, the guy selling it to me threw in a half-full bottle of millwax, thinking it was a big favor. he's a really nice guy, and it *was* a very nice gesture, but from everything i've read it wasn't such a big favor. i never used it; it sits in the box, while Novus 2 gets used all the time :).
 
I tried a little dab in a few places and it polished up real nice, however it left behind dirt down in the depressions. Didn't seem to bother the paint any, yet.

What's the recomended cleaner for heavy ball traffic areas?
Basic wood finish that's slightly pitted.
 
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