Stripping cabinet...

[vbtalent]

Looking for some suggestions on a little clean up on the coin door...

It looks like the original owner left this machine out in a garage or where the humidity could get to it as the coin door looks like hell!!

Anyone have any good suggestions for cleaning this metal? (see pics)

VB,

 

[vbtalent]

I'm hoping someone can still give me some ideas on cleaning the coin door in my post above.

I also thought I would post some completed pictures if anyone was interested...

It came out nice! but I'm a little disappointed in the color match or the lack there of... I might have to do the head now since there will be such a large disparity in colors... aargh.!

VB,

 

[vbtalent]

some pics of the first color...

 

[shardian]

Looking for some suggestions on a little clean up on the coin door...

It looks like the original owner left this machine out in a garage or where the humidity could get to it as the coin door looks like hell!!

Anyone have any good suggestions for cleaning this metal? (see pics)

VB,

There are plenty of methods.
- There are chemicals you can get that will clean off surface oxidation and rust.
- Find a local place that can sand blast them for you, but then you'd have to get them recoated too. There is a newer technique called Soda blasting that uses baking soda. It will remove paint, rust, oxidation etc without really damaging the metal. I saw the kit for it at Harbor Freight yesterday.

- Use mag polish wadding, or just crack out a dremel and a polishing kit. This is the most labor intensive method, but the most accessible for the average weekend warrior.

 

[metahugh]

Looking for some suggestions on a little clean up on the coin door...

It looks like the original owner left this machine out in a garage or where the humidity could get to it as the coin door looks like hell!!

Anyone have any good suggestions for cleaning this metal? (see pics)

VB,

Your cab is looking great so far!! Much better than what it looked like prior.

As far as the coin door goes for the inside of the door I would start off with some 80 grit sand paper on a random orbit sander. Sand it down to get all of the surface rust off. Next hit it with some 200, 600 and finally some 1000grit. It will come out nice and shiny. Unfortunately it will not be perfect because the rust has eaten into the metal. You could send it off to get plated without having to do any work if you want it to look really nice. http://www.zplating.com is a popular plate to send parts to in the pinball world.

Personally since this is the inside of the cabinet I would prep it the way I have described above. It will look perfectly fine once all of the parts are reinstalled.

 

[metahugh]

Also for some of the other parts that aren't easy to sand with a RA sander I would first spray it down with some Westley's Bleech White (for cars) and then take a wire brush attachment for a drill and clean it up. For the smaller metal parts my recommendation is to purchase a tumbler and tumble the parts in some crushed walnut media with some Kit Scratch Out as the tumbling additive.

Cabela's and Berry both make a nice vibratory tumbler.

 

[metahugh]

Anyone have thoughts or experiences with the decal paper application?

VB,

I haven't personally but I have heard that water slide decal paper is the best way to go... unless you need to print white (since your inkjet cannot print white)

 

[vbtalent]

There are plenty of methods.
- There are chemicals you can get that will clean off surface oxidation and rust.
- Find a local place that can sand blast them for you, but then you'd have to get them recoated too. There is a newer technique called Soda blasting that uses baking soda. It will remove paint, rust, oxidation etc without really damaging the metal. I saw the kit for it at Harbor Freight yesterday.

- Use mag polish wadding, or just crack out a dremel and a polishing kit. This is the most labor intensive method, but the most accessible for the average weekend warrior.

Cool, Soda Blasting... never heard of it. Anyone ever use that rig from Harbor Freight? so the difference between it and sand blasting would be the silicone beads vs baking soda..

The funny thing is that Cleopatra isn't the greatest machine but it was in desperate need of attention and now that I got started its hard to stop.

Next is the playfield, I've got to do a better job of matching paint or it will look terrible...

Thanks for the suggestions and comments.

VB,

 

[shardian]

I had never heard of the soda blasting until yesterday. I was talking to our welder/resident metalhead about getting some pin parts sandblasted and/or powder coated.

He mentioned the soda blasting that he knew of some buddies using, and how they spoke so highly of it.

Sand blasting has a few media you can use of varying grits. Yep, you buy a huge ass bag of baking soda to use with the soda blaster. HF has 15 lb and 10 lb soda blasting setups. It is a tank you load up, and hook into your air compressor. Compressor charges up the soda tank for use.

 

[vbtalent]

A few more pics if anyone is interested.

I skipped the soda blaster on the coin door and just went with a brass wire brush and elbow grease.. what a pain, the results are decent.

I've reinstalled all the trim and what not on the lower portion of the machine and I must say it looks pretty nice.

The playfield tear down is next...

VB,

 

[metahugh]

A few more pics if anyone is interested.

I skipped the soda blaster on the coin door and just went with a brass wire brush and elbow grease.. what a pain, the results are decent.

I've reinstalled all the trim and what not on the lower portion of the machine and I must say it looks pretty nice.

The playfield tear down is next...

VB,

I think that looks excellent! Are you going to repaint the inside of the cab too?

 

[vbtalent]

Thanks, no I'm not planning on painting any more unless the head is drastically different than the cabinet.

VB,

 

[vbtalent]

Well I got started removing parts from the playfield tonight just thought I would post a few before pictures...

The wear really isn't that bad, its dirty as all get out but the outholes are the worst.

The thing that really is bad is the inserts, they are cupped to no end - how the heck do you flatten them out??

VB,

 

[OTTOgd]

The thing that really is bad is the inserts, they are cupped to no end - how the heck do you flatten them out??

Have you visited Clay's restoration guides? Here's an example: http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/jjpf.htm. Many more: http://www.pinrepair.com/ under Pinball Restoration Guides. Good reading!

 

[vbtalent]

From a painting and playfield touch up guide this Jumping Jack (http://www.passionforpinball.com/jjresto.htm) restore has to be one of the best I've seen, sorry I couldn't find the owners name, nice work! I've been trying to follow it and I think I can solve the cupping problems now that I've read his guide.

Tomorrow I'm going to try my hand at airbrushing... I'll try to update again with some pictures.

VB,

 

[vbtalent]

I thought I would add just a little more of an update to the progress I've made.

The playfield is ready for some touch up work and I've applied some frisket to the affected areas to be painted. After the frisket is applied I've carefully trimmed the areas that needed to be removed, these pictures reflect the ready to go surface. In this case I will be painting the Lion areas Yellow.

I also have the paint colors that I think match as close as I can get them, I'll need to mix the Purple to get the correct color match.

Once I've painted the affected areas I have some water slide decals that I created in Photoshop that will be applied, adding back the black trim lines, etc.

VB,

 

[vbtalent]

Some images of the decals. These decals are actually full color, I'll be using ones without color.

Since this is my first time trying this I hope it works! I'll be using automotive clear after this is completed to seal the deal.

VB,

 

[vbtalent]

Its been a while since I posted to this thread so I thought I would give an update if anyone was interested.

As I was going down the path of creating decals and airbrushing the playfield I got the smart idea that maybe I should check to see if anybody had a playfield for sale, as it turns out someone did and I bought it.

The new playfield has MUCH less damage than mine and is in considerably better shape, 10 fold. It will still need to be touched up and cleared but I think it will be more manageable and realistic undertaking for a first timer.

However I'm still going to practice on my original playfield as I want to see if what I was going to do was going to work, now I just have less pressure if it doesn't come out the way I expect... My last piece of work on the old playfield was with some spot putty.

Here are a few pics.. of the new and my progress on the old...

 

[craigmack]

That new playfield looks good, I think you'll end up with 2 nice ones when your finished though. I'd still be interested in a set of those decals for mine when I finally get to it after this Power Play...

 

[vbtalent]

craigmack,

Did you get the PM I sent you?

....

The green is still a little faded but overall the PF is in great shape. The older PF has a lot of pits in it, my guess is the the ball had a nick or something and just chewed it up... so if its going to survive its going to need a lot of airbrushing... we'll see now that I have a test playfield to work on.

Let me know when you get to Cleopatra and I'll send you the images that I have for the decals.