Repro Decal Installation

PDXGeek

New member
Joined
Feb 3, 2010
Messages
166
Reaction score
0
Location
Oregon
So I got some new decals from bay area amusement for my white water, and after I removed the boat inserts, I realized the new decals do not contain any of the color graphics that are on the original! What to do? Is this a normal practice? Am I supposed to find a way to remove the original worn decal without damaging the colored art work? Anyone done this before?
 
TAF Insert decals

I have the exact same question, different game. I am looking for insert decals for my TAF, but all I have seen for sale are B&W ones. I think it would change the look of the mansion quite a bit. I hope someone points us both in the right direction!
 
It really seems to me that the decals that the local guys have are all meant to be peel and stick over the ones already there. This would be the only way to preserve the color.
 
It really seems to me that the decals that the local guys have are all meant to be peel and stick over the ones already there. This would be the only way to preserve the color.

Ah so you are talking about replacement art for the playfield.

FYI: What is on the playfield original is not a decal. Its screened INK, the entire playfield is screened. So putting on a decal is not equal to what is on the playfield from the factory.

There are many problems with insert decals:

1. Most of the time they are not accurate
2. They are not completely opaque
3. They won't fit the insert size wise
4. They are thicker than the INK on the playfield.

You will find even if you can get the decal onto the playfield it will sit above the surface of the playfield a bit. That is because the substrate is thicker than the ink. The only way to get it to sit level with the playfield is to lower the insert. That is easier said than done.

Back to your original question. Is it common practice for insert decals to not have the colored portions reproduced? Yes. Since these are meant to go over the insert itself colors typically aren't added so that it doesn't darken the insert when lit up. Whitewater has yellow inserts so once you put the decal down it should look correct. Now if you are talking about paint that surrounds the boat then that won't be reproduced in any decal set.

Sometimes you will find the way a playfield was screened will determine what portion of the insert was covered with ink. Sometimes alignment is off from one playfield to another and on some playfields the entire insert is not exposed allowing light to shine through. Here is where insert decals fail miserably; they won't fit perfectly from one playfield to another.

How bad was your playfield in the beginning? Sometimes its much easier to just do spot touchups with acrylic or enamel paint than to remove all of the art and replace with a decal. IMHO the only way to fix significant wear is to take the playfield out of the game and send it off for restoration. Spot wear you can do yourself but depending on how nice you want the end result to be will determine if you need to get a professional to fix the issues.

Reproduction playfields were made for Whitewater (with some issues though) so if you really wanted to you could buy one and swap it in. You could also find an original and send it off for restoration and then swap that in once it comes back. The advantage to an original is the holes are already drilled properly so its easier to swap back in. All of these suggestions are for a pinball that you will never sell, you will find it very hard to recoup any of that money spent.
 
Thanks for the great response metahugh.

So, I wanted to update on what I have done. Since there is no way to get the color right, and I did not want to lose that original art, what I did was to take a dremel and sand off the original art up to the color that I wanted to keep. This was a very slow process and I used 380 fine sanding wheel. I set the dremel to speed 15, and go slow. One sanding wheel would only last about 2 1/2 inserts. Anyway, they came out really well, and I am quite happy. I also found that the inserts are just old, and the plastic itself is quite discolored and cracked from heat. Using the dremel again with some plastic polish stuff called Plastic X scratch remover (for headlights) really cleaned them up quite well and brought some shine. I have attached some pics of the process to show how it came out. Pretty fun!

The pics show before and after, then a completed insert next to one before cleaning so you can see how much difference it made.
 

Attachments

  • Original.jpg
    Original.jpg
    97.4 KB · Views: 25
  • IMAG0173.jpg
    IMAG0173.jpg
    87.1 KB · Views: 22
  • IMAG0174.jpg
    IMAG0174.jpg
    89 KB · Views: 21
  • IMAG0175.jpg
    IMAG0175.jpg
    95.9 KB · Views: 25
Back
Top Bottom