The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: andtan on May 13, 2012, 09:25:00 PM
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I've finally taken the plunge and bought myself a project pin. Being new to the restoration side of things I reckon I'm going to asking for a lot of help *!@
As you can see in the photos, there is a fair bit to do on this pin, and I am under no illusion that it's going to take me some time. In fact I'll be realistic and say it will probably take me at least 12 months. Having a look at the boards, I can see that there are a number of components that are missing. It doesn't seem to be anything major - just odds and ends such as a few rectifiers, all fuses and ribbon cables, couple of pin headers, some resisters etc.
At the moment, I'm just working out what's actually missing, and scouring the internet looking for parts. So far I've got a hold of all the parts for the missing ball popper and multiball assembly, and I think I have found a replacement for the missing bi-direction motor board. So far it looks like I will be able to source all the missing parts, and replace those that are too far gone - I just need someone to do another run of cabinet decals.*%*
Before I get too far ahead of myself, is it better to start on anything in particular with a resto, or is it an individual thing? I was wondering if I should get the boards up and running first - or is this something best left until I have all the missing parts installed? !@#
Later I'll put up a few more photos, and hopefully down the track some photos showing it in better condition!
Andy
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That's a great fun game, good luck with the restoration.
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Get straight into the restoration. Don't worry about fixing the game now, as all the faults will be addressed during the restoration process. Take your time and enjoy the process. Male a list of the parts you need as you go along. There's nothing worse than placing an order and then realizing you forgot something !
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Get straight into the restoration. Don't worry about fixing the game now, as all the faults will be addressed during the restoration process. Take your time and enjoy the process. Male a list of the parts you need as you go along. There's nothing worse than placing an order and then realizing you forgot something !
Make sure to take heaps and heaps and heaps of photographs as you go. You may find yourself 'in the groove' and before you know it 3/4 of the playfield is stripped. As Nino suggested, take your time, label everything and be careful as those ramps are expensive...
Make a list and try to do your orders in one hit. There will always be stuff you forget, Greg (RTBB) normally gets about 3 orders after my main order of little stuff like shooter rebuild kits etc which I sometimes forget in the main order.
What are you doing re cabinet art?
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What are you doing re cabinet art?
I'm hoping to get a full decal set - I can find heaps of references to them on different websites - it just seems that no one has any at the moment @.@
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I'm sure I have a set I can sell you, but won't be able to check for you until Friday. Let me know if you want them.
Good luck with the restoration, Whitewater is a great game, I'll never sell mine.
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Cheers Pinballer #*#
PM Sent
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Get straight into the restoration. Don't worry about fixing the game now, as all the faults will be addressed during the restoration process. Take your time and enjoy the process. Male a list of the parts you need as you go along. There's nothing worse than placing an order and then realizing you forgot something !
This is a bit of the opposite of how I do it presently. I like to get everything working first, so you aren't questioning your restoration work if something doesn't work once the pin is put back together.
I've done it both ways, it works both ways, but I thought I'd share an alternate theory for consideration.
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Get straight into the restoration. Don't worry about fixing the game now, as all the faults will be addressed during the restoration process. Take your time and enjoy the process. Male a list of the parts you need as you go along. There's nothing worse than placing an order and then realizing you forgot something !
This is a bit of the opposite of how I do it presently. I like to get everything working first, so you aren't questioning your restoration work if something doesn't work once the pin is put back together.
I've done it both ways, it works both ways, but I thought I'd share an alternate theory for consideration.
I'm in the JW corner on this one. I like to have the game functioning, at least to the point of the known issues, so the new ones I know are my work!!
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Get straight into the restoration. Don't worry about fixing the game now, as all the faults will be addressed during the restoration process. Take your time and enjoy the process. Male a list of the parts you need as you go along. There's nothing worse than placing an order and then realizing you forgot something !
This is a bit of the opposite of how I do it presently. I like to get everything working first, so you aren't questioning your restoration work if something doesn't work once the pin is put back together.
I've done it both ways, it works both ways, but I thought I'd share an alternate theory for consideration.
+3 for some reason I always get everything working 100% before teardown.
Good luck with the resto, great game
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Good luck with this restore.
Its a GREAT game when all running nicely ^^^
I did a massive restore on mine a few years back and have PLENTY of reference pics etc if you end up needing them.
PM me if you need any help on this one
*%*
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Good luck with this restore.
Its a GREAT game when all running nicely ^^^
I did a massive restore on mine a few years back and have PLENTY of reference pics etc if you end up needing them.
PM me if you need any help on this one
*%*
Thanks for the offer Wotto, and to those that have given me advice. I reckon I'll be asking for a lot of pointers along the way. Being my first resto it is a bit daunting, and it's always in the back of my mind as to whether I'll muck it up. The support you guys give to others gives me confidence in that I'm sure that whatever issue I have, someone will be there to help. ^^^
While I'm still in my parts gathering stage, I've been looking at the boards to work out what's missing. It appears that many parts have been harvested - probably to get another board up and running. All the game and sound ROMS etc are in place, it's just things like resistors, caps, Tips, fuses, and Bridge rectifiers that have been taken off - and carefully by the looks of it.
About the only thing I'm unable to source at the moment is the heat sink for the Regulator LM323 5v at Q1 on the power driver board (P/N: 5705-12637-00). Does anyone know where I can get one, or suggest a suitable alternative !@#
Cheers
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This heatsink may fit
http://www.futurlec.com/Heatsinks/TO3.shtml
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Aavid Thermalloy's P/N 552507B00000G looks real close to original. I don't know where you'll find this in your neck of the woods, but perhaps have your favorite electronics supplier see if they can acquire some.
I got a lot of 5 of them off eBay US just now for about 13 bucks. I'll post back once they arrive, and I can ship you one if needed.
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Looks like that driver board requires a MAJOR rebuild - this isn't a bad thing as they cause a lot of resetting problems in this era of machine anyway.
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Aavid Thermalloy's P/N 552507B00000G looks real close to original. I don't know where you'll find this in your neck of the woods, but perhaps have your favorite electronics supplier see if they can acquire some.
I got a lot of 5 of them off eBay US just now for about 13 bucks. I'll post back once they arrive, and I can ship you one if needed.
Thanks for the pointers with the heat sinks John,
I already have the one from Futurelec - it doesn't quite fit as every second 'finger' is offset causing it to touch the surrounding components. I am going to try and heat it up and see if I can straighten and re-bend the fingers to make its footprint a little smaller - but I have a sneaking suspicion they will just break. The one from Aavid looks a little more promising - I'll grab one if the other option doesn't work.
Looks like that driver board requires a MAJOR rebuild - this isn't a bad thing as they cause a lot of resetting problems in this era of machine anyway.
Yes Mike I think I definitely got the 'Project' I was after :lol Oh well, I wanted a challenge, so I'll chip away at it and see how I go. At least I know if I get totally stumped, there's plenty of help available here *%*
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They arrived today, and are exact. Send me your mailing address and I'll send one out Tuesday. Monday is a holiday here in the states. The other 4 should last me a LONG time, I won't miss one
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PM Sent $#$
Thanks John ^^^
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Hi Andy. . . as mentioned before I'm doing a resto on a WH2O as well. Can you recommend a store / supplier for Williams screws and nuts and bolts. Or am I best just trying to find replacements from Bunnings? All advice appreciated.
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Best parts place is www.rtbb.com.au
All your stuff at Bunnings will mostly be metric which won't be any good for the US spec stuff on your game.
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Best parts place is www.rtbb.com.au
All your stuff at Bunnings will mostly be metric which won't be any good for the US spec stuff on your game.
Yep, as pinnies4me stated - RTBB have lots of that stuff, however for the items that RTBB don't have, I have been Googling the part numbers. You'll find that they will come up at some of the other places that specialise in pin parts.
If you don't have a copy of a White Water Manual to get part numbers from - try here http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=2768 (http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=2768)
Andy
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They arrived today, and are exact. Send me your mailing address and I'll send one out Tuesday. Monday is a holiday here in the states. The other 4 should last me a LONG time, I won't miss one
Hey John,
The heatsink arrived today and yep it's a perfect fit #*# Thanks again for sending it out - hopefully I can repay the favour sometime ^^^
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Good deal! Just pay it forward when you have the opportunity, and the universe will remain balanced :)
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Just a bit of an update.
I've finally stripped the playfield - top and bottom - phew :D It has taken me about 2 weeks to get it to this stage, and now I'm there I'm not sure if I should feel happy or not. I've got a plastic tub with 75 zip lock bags full of parts, about 150 photos, a wiring harness with more tags than I can poke a stick at, and what seems like a million things to do. Oh well, I'm in no hurry (too bad if I was %.%) so I'll just keep plugging away.
The PF doesn't look too bad...... ::) it will need a bit of touching up around most of the inserts which appear to have sunk a smidge and you can see a gap between the PF and inserts. The lost mine wear has been coloured in with what looks like black texta and had mylar stuck over it. I also have a few screw holes in the PF to plug where someone decided that a stripped hole could be easily fixed by using an oversize, overlength screw..... who cares if it sticks up through the PF @.@
The cabinet needs a bit of work, mostly re-gluing the joints as some of them have become loose. The rear of the backbox - the chipboard part - may have to be replaced as the part where the latch bolts on has been torn off - looks like someone tried to close it with the latch done up. I'm in two minds with the cabinet repairs at the moment as I have only been able to source the side art for the cabinet (thanks Mark C <..>), but the back box, and coin door decals remain elusive. I don't really want to sand it all back as it could stay bare for a looong time. Crappy art probably looks better than none at all.
I've got a few repairs to do on the boards, as previously mentioned, they have had a few parts harvested. I've sourced a large number of components, and two spare driver boards, so I should be able to make a start on those soon.
I have had a lot on fun stripping it down, and so have the kids, who have been eager to help wherever they can. I'll throw a few more photos up later, but to start with here is one of a really grubby PF.
Cheers,
Andy C
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Very Cool andtan. Your making some great progress there. *%* I reckon it must feel a little intimidating looking at the bare playfield and a bucket full of parts! Good luck with the rest of the restoration, I look forward to seeing more on your future up dates.
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Great progress . ^^^ .
You will be amazed at how good that PF looks after a clean and polish and no doubt that will help with keeping the motivation going .
Yep, it is somewhat intimidating having a pin in pieces but the satisfaction when its all back together and playable is priceless.
Just don't do what I've done and burn yourself out doing too many restos in too short a time . (in my case more than 1 a year for several years) as you will lose your mojo .
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Lots of detailed photos of restored pinball machines at treasure-cove.net.
Here's the link to a restored Whitewater :-
http://www.treasure-cove.net/ww1.htm
Good luck with the restoration - you certainly have your work cut-out for you with your one!
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Thanks for the link Bolty, I hadn't seen that one.
I have removed all the mylars (wasn't that fun *.*) and hit the playfields with a heap of Nifti, Orange Power Sticky Sport & Goo remover, and Novus 2. They look a lot better, but I still have a way to go to polish out the ball trails around the top loop and No Way Out entrance. There was a lot of really ground in muck, but it is slowy coming out.
I have sanded the underside of the mini playfield, and will do the same to the main playfield as they are covered in black dust / grime which seems to go everywhere. I haven't removed the pop bumper screws as I am worried that they will damage the artwork, so I will leave them in and just work around them.
Every little step I take forward is rewarding, the hardest bit is actually finding the time to sit down and do it!
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Dont forget to sand the front edge of the upper PF and the cut out ledge the ramp sits in. Finishes the game off nicely *%*
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Update
I've been doing some working on my boards - and yesterday I finished the CPU board #*#
Repairs / mods that I have done include:
- Replaced U11, U12, U13, U14, and U15 - and socketed all the chips
- Fixed some dodgey traces, and removed the wire jumpers that had been in place on the rear of the board
- Replaced the U9 - 84 pin socket, as the original one had a crack in one corner
- Replaced U6 with a new LH6 ROM - from 'That Pinball Place' - thanks johnwartjr ^^^
- Replaced the 0 ohm diode at W18 - because I'm too lazy to learn German
- Made up a remote battery holder
After all that I hooked up an old PC power supply to J210 - and............ nothing !!! All three LED's stayed on, no flashes, no nothing - Bugger!!!
I pushed IC's, pulled out the ROM, ASIC, and checked all my soldering - but it didn't want to play.
Today I sent Beaky a message for some assistance, and as the good bloke that he is, he came back with a few tips to follow. Before I ventured down the path of more IC replacements, I though I'd have another go at booting the board, but this time with a different power supply as the first one I had tried was only putting out 4.95 volts instead of 5.00 volts.
Not feeling too confident, I hooked up the next power supply which was putting out 5.35 volts, and voila! - the board booted, and now the LED's were all doing their thing. #*#
I would like to thank Beaky for taking the time to answer my questions, and hope that as I go on he'll be happy to answer more #@#
Here are a couple of before and after photos of the CPU - now to finish off the rest!
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Looking good! It will be up and running in no time.
Did you find an A-15680 (bi-direction motor board)?
It is now on my list of "boards to make next"
Please let me know if I can help
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Looking good! It will be up and running in no time.
Did you find an A-15680 (bi-direction motor board)?
It is now on my list of "boards to make next"
Please let me know if I can help
Hey Mike,
Yes I did find one - in jolly old England of all places, but a spare would be good.
Have you been able to source some opto's for the flipper boards yet? I think I can get my hands on some if need be.
Cheers,
Andy
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Congrats on getting the CPU board running Andy ^^^
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Looking good! It will be up and running in no time.
Did you find an A-15680 (bi-direction motor board)?
It is now on my list of "boards to make next"
Please let me know if I can help
Hey Mike,
Yes I did find one - in jolly old England of all places, but a spare would be good.
Have you been able to source some opto's for the flipper boards yet? I think I can get my hands on some if need be.
Cheers,
Andy
No optos found - I need them in bags of 200pcs - I can get a few here and there but that's no good for ongoing production.
I will bite the bullet and redesign the boards so 'ordinary' optos can be used....I should have done this in the first place really.....oh well!!!
Probably have new boards ready in a few weeks
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Hey Andy, no updates on your project here for a little while. How's it all going? I imagine its brought its fair share of challenges.
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Yes, an update woudl be good....my update is I have both the motor driver board and the flipper boards built and in stock - for future reference.
Driver board: http://www.homepin.com/A15680.html
Flipper board: http://www.homepin.com/fo.html
Also the re-designed type 2 flipper board: http://www.homepin.com/fo2.html
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Well I have been busy, but I must admit I have been getting side-tracked with the three other pins that I have bought since starting on the WH20 #@#
Anyway, as I have been called on for an update.........
After removing the PF and stripping and bagging all the components, and having a tinker with some of the boards, I began to think I should start to work on the cabinet. I thought it would be better to get the cabinet ready before working on and reassembling the PF.
I wasn't in too much of a hurry to strip down the cabinet as I had a lot of trouble sourcing the cabinet decals as no one was making any. All I could find on e-bay and the likes were incomplete sets, and I was concerned that if I tried to make up a set, the colours wouldn't match. Then in January I happened to be browsing through Planetary Pinball and low and behold they had begun to supply next gen sets. Now that I had a complete set of cabinet decals I started the task of repairing the cabinet.
The first thing was the back box. The artwork on the sides had seen better days, and the chipboard back section had obviously been exposed to some moisture over the years and was swollen and flaky. So I decided to replace the backboard with a new piece of ply, and reglue all the joints where the glue had failed.
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Next was the cabinet itself, which I found out after the first five minutes, was going to be a long fiddly process to remove the old decals. In the end I found the heat gun / scrapper / razorblade method to be the best.
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After the decals came off I gave the cabinet a sand inside and out, as the decals had been laid on bare wood and their removal had made the surface a bit rough.
I then moved on the task of repairing all the cracks, divots, and failed joints where the glue had let go. I found the best way to glue many of the joints was with a syringe and needle filled with high strength (outdoor rated) PVC. Most of the time I found I only needed about 3-4 ml of glue to get the job done as I was able to be very precise with the application of the glue.
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With the back box and cabinet reglued and sanded a number of times, the next step is to get them ready to paint. I’m looking to spray them with a water-based primer / sealer, but I will need to wait for a warm day over the weekend. As I live in Canberra, the temps have started to drop and the mornings are becoming foggy. Given the directions from the wife – I’ll be spray painting outside. :lol :lol
As I haven't done a lot of spraying, I’m going to be practising a bit before I take the plunge on the cabinet itself. Hopefully I don’t chicken out for too long and can post the results soon.
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Great work so far Andy. White Water is a great game and well worth the time and effort. Besides that you can't beat the sense of satisfaction you get when you look back and see it all coming together.
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did you find the replacement decals yet?
very interested in this project
looks like a fun machine
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did you find the replacement decals yet?
very interested in this project
looks like a fun machine
Reproduction decals have become available at Planetary Pinball, and once I get my undercoating, and colour coat done they'll be going on. Unfortunately the -4 deg overnight temps, and freezing foggy days are slowing me down in the painting department.
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I could be wrong but Mr pinball in Oz may have had them if not made them. He has a printer for this and other decals so maybe try him next time as postage is probably a lot cheaper????
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I could be wrong but Mr pinball in Oz may have had them if not made them. He has a printer for this and other decals so maybe try him next time as postage is probably a lot cheaper????
Postage is possibly cheaper, but the decals were unfortunately much to high to buy locally.
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I could be wrong but Mr pinball in Oz may have had them if not made them. He has a printer for this and other decals so maybe try him next time as postage is probably a lot cheaper????
Mmm, I see he Mr Pinball is still advertising the Medieval Madness rerun as "In Production" http://thepinballfactory.com/
I'd be getting my decals from the states FWIW.
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Well it's been a long while between updates, so I thought I'd better do one.
Since my last post, I have under-coated the cabinet and back box, and then started what I thought would be a quick process of getting some blue paint matched.
Unfortunately the blue is one of the most difficult colours to get matched, and every place I went to I got the “Yeah, we can match that”, which soon ended with a “Sorry, we can’t do it”.
My initial hope was that I could get a paint that I could spray myself, but I soon found that my only option was going to be an automotive 2-pac style paint – which unfortunately I can’t spray. With that in mind I sourced a local sprayer to do the blue for me, which he reckoned he could do in mid-January, which was going to be great as I had 3 weeks off from Jan 13. But as luck would have it, the mid-January booking has had to be delayed until the 2nd week of February as the spray-painter has a few more urgent jobs to do.
With that unavoidable setback, I then decided to tackle to playfield clear coat as I had done all the repairs. I found a thread on playfield clear coating (on the other Aussie site) in which a 1-pac clear coat called ‘KBS Diamond Finish Clear Coat’ was used. There is an extensive thread on this by a guy called ‘Darksoul’ – who is also an infrequent AP member.
The thing that appealed to me about using the KBS clear was that I could put it down with a brush or a roller and still achieve great results. KBS clear can be sprayed, but it has the same issues that 2-pac does.
So today I took the plunge and laid down the first coat – using a roller. I reckon I re-read all the info I could find before I started, and found a heap of excuses to not go ahead. I started having second thoughts and got that uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach as I've never done this before. The sort of feeling you got as a kid when you climbed the 10-m diving tower at the pool and first looked down. I suppose my biggest fear is – “What if I stuff it up, what then???”
After a bit more stalling, I finally opened the KBS tin to prepare the mix. When I opened the can, it was sort of like opening a bottle of soft drink, as thousands of tiny bubble started appearing it and rising to the surface. Here’s hoping that’s a good sign.
Using a large horse syringe, I then put 150-ml of the clear in a glass jar, and using a smaller syringe added 45-ml of KBS #1 thinners. My reason for using syringes is that it helps maintain accuracy with the mix, and prevents getting the clear in the tin/lid channel as apparently if the clear gets in the channel you won’t get the lid off again. The horse syringe was about $4.50 from a horse supplies store, and the 10-ml ones about $0.50 from a chemist.
Once mixed the clear is quite runny, probably similar to a really runny honey
To apply the clear I used a 160-mm medium density foam roller that I got from Bunnings and a 180-mm paint tray which I lined with foil. I lined the tray with foiled as I wasn’t sure if the clear would react with the plastic tray.
I then applied what I believe to be a thin coat (as recommended) and left it to cure – which apparently should take a couple of hours. The clear is supposed to be ‘self-levelling’ and any bubbles that form should burst before it cures, unless the clear is applied too thick or isn't thinned enough.
Having looked at the playfield just then after 50 minutes of curing (at 29 degrees and 29% humidity) it appears to be relatively flat, but there are heaps of ‘divots’. The thread that I read states that these divots will be ‘filled with the second thicker coat’. Fingers crossed on that one.
Later I’ll give it a light sand (800 grit) and then look at putting on a second coast this afternoon.
Andy
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Funny, reminds me of the many hours I spent trying to colour match the light blue colour for my touch ups :D
Look forward to seeing how the clear comes out, I would be a bit scared rolling it on too *%*
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Great stuff Andy, I know what you mean about the blue. I've had all sorts of problems matching the blue on my Kings of Steel too. The red, orange and off white were simple but I think I'll have to take it away to be matched for the blue.
White waters a great game, I bet your looking forward to having it playable again.
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Unfortunately the blue is one of the most difficult colours to get matched, and every place I went to I got the “Yeah, we can match that”, which soon ended with a “Sorry, we can’t do it”.
It's amazing how the seemingly simple things turn in to a pain in the neck. Very interested to see how your play field turns out. Good luck with it.
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Well the first coat has cured.
I've given it a light sand which has gotten rid of any dust particles (oh for a clean air room ::) ) which has made it fairly smooth. Even prior to the sand the clear did have a nice feel to it. The dimples however were still visible and could be felt, so here's hoping the second thicker coat fills them in. The dimples are pretty much like an orange-peel look, but I'm not exactly sure what is causing it. The playfield was lightly sanded and wiped over with Shellite prior to coating, it possibly may be the dust in the air !@#
So far I've mixed a total of 250-ml of clear plus thinners, and with the two coats I've done I've got about 75-100 ml mixed clear left. If the second coat doesn't level out / hide the dimples enough I can always put a third one on. I'm assuming the worst case scenario is that I have to do a bit of sanding to get a better finish. I have 2000, 2500, and 3000 grit wet and dry and plenty of time so I'll see what happens. Even so, I'm happy with the general look of the finish so far, and as per Darksoul's thread, there was a bit of sanding to be done to get a flat surface.
The second coat I put on thicker, which is actually hard to gauge as the clear is difficult to see - suppose that's why is called clear %.%. I basically loaded up the roller and using its own weight covered the playfield. I cant do anything with it now until 5.30 pm so I just have to wait and see.
Andy
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White waters a great game, I bet your looking forward to having it playable again.
Yes it will be good to finally get it going and have that first game, as that will actually be my first game - I've never actually played WH2O *.*
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White waters a great game, I bet your looking forward to having it playable again.
Yes it will be good to finally get it going and have that first game, as that will actually be my first game - I've never actually played WH2O *.*
Wow! Well your in for a treat when you get it going. Great shots, great call outs, great ramps and the best jackpot feature in pinball IMO.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8jVYEWotJWk
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Nice Project Mate will be a Keeper for Sure..
Divots could be caused by a few things,
one Is the clear simply filling all the holes and cracks between the inserts etc which may take a few coats to fill,
The other Dreaded cause of whats known in the paint industry as "Fisheyes"
This is generally caused by silicone still on the surface as a resuidue from polishes..
When painting automotive paints you add silicone remover drops to the mixed paints..
I personally would also use prepsol over shellite to prep the surface too..
Im not 100% sure on shellite may still have an oily residue ....which will cause fisheyes
Just my .02c
Good Luck! *%*
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I personally would also use prepsol over shellite to prep the surface too..
Yeah, I might give the Prepsol a run on my next attempt.
After three coats of clear I still had dimpling issues with the KBS. I tried sanding with 2000 wet n' dry but couldn't get a satisfactory finish, so I sanded the whole playfield back with 800 wet n' dry. *!@
I spoke with a KBS rep today and told him about the issues I had with the clear not self-levelling very well. The rep thinks that it is probably being caused by the fact that air temperatures are quite high in Canberra at the moment, and suggested that rolling in temps over 20 degrees may not allow the clear enough time to level as it is going off too quick. He said that at any other time of the year there would probably be no issue. Having a look at the threads relating to KBS clear on AA, they were done in March and May so the cooler temps may have helped.
His suggestion was that I thin the clear out to 50% (even though the recommended maximum is 30%) to aid in the levelling - and roll the clear with the biggest roller I can get (good quality short nape roller or foam roller), at as low a temperature as I can get, say early morning / late night where temps are closer to 10 degrees. He believes that this should allow the coat to level before it goes off.
The only other advice he had was if thinning to 50%, he recommended that extra coats be applied to build up the level of solids, but said despite the advice on the can saying to do additional coats within 6-hrs, they can just as easily / effectively be done once a day. I asked if I should sand between coats, and he said 'no', as the clear being self-levelling should self-correct with successive coats.
The end untouched result from being rolled won't be as good as it would had it been sprayed on, but he said once I had a number of coats it could then be sanded to give the desired finish.
So armed with that advice I'm going to give it another go, I just now have to wait for a run of cooler overnight temperatures, and hope the humidity isn't too high.
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Yep thinning more will def make it level better,
But will also make it " hotter " so to speak..
If you have touched up any artwork or used any decals it could possibly lift it.
I learnt this the hard way on my F14 resto posted on here!
Other thing to be careful of is re coat times,
If you don't leave enough time between coats you can trap solvent inbetween and cause issues too.
Obviously the rep should know his products so follow his guidelines.
I wouldn't be afraid to block Back Inbetween coats either the flatter u can get it between coats the better the end result will be.
Just a suggestion but do u know any of the local spray paint/panel shops in the area?
Finish will be sooooo much better if final coat is sprayed..
If u take your materials etc you might get it done for a carton of beer possibly... *%*
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Update.
Well the playfield is finally clear-coated - using KBS Clear. I used a roller, but for any future playfields I will look at spraying it. Whilst it looks and feels nice it isn't 100% perfect when compared to a reproduction WH20 (CarbonRods) playfield. When you run your fingers over the playfield you can feel the undulations, but they are not noticeable when a ball is running over the surface. Perhaps I'm being a bit fussy as it feels way smoother than an original playfield with Mylar.
I've just finished the blue top coat (2 coats) for the cabinet using automotive acrylic lacquer (thinned to 50%) and it looks great. I painted the main cabinet more for the practice and to see how it looked rather than for necessity. As I had a litre of paint it wasn't like I was going to waste it. Looking at the decal compared to the paint, it's not a bad match. I was told that it wasn't going to be possible to match the decal perfectly as the decal uses a sign-writers / printers type paint/ink and the brilliance is to hard to match. All in all I'm pretty happy with how it looks. ^^^
Now I just have to let the paint cure - which will probably end up meaning I won't touch it till next weekend, and then I will tackle the decals.
In the meantime I will continue on with re-populating the playfield and adding to my growing list of odds and ends that I still need to buy. @.@
Cheers,
Andy
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Lookin Good ^^^
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Nice work! After trying applying decals the wet and dry methods on acrylic lacquer I found the dry method gave me the best result.
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Nice work! After trying applying decals the wet and dry methods on acrylic lacquer I found the dry method gave me the best result.
I'm not really looking forward to the decal application - but I will take your advice and perhaps try the 'dry-method'. Everything so far for me is the 'first time trying' so I generally have the first time nerves to go with it. @@^
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Looking good !
If you want to match the factory color, just take the stripped (of parts) to a professional paint supplier and ask them to match the color and the finish. You will be surprised at how much you can learn with a professional. I never used 2 pac on any of my restores as that's not how it was done in the factory and it is overkill. Most of a DMD is covered with decals, so it is never a huge issue.
I have seen a few playfields cleared with a roller, and the general comment is always "I'll never do it this way again". %.% But as a cheaper alternative, I can see it could be useful.
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Fantastic work andtan. I've been trying to find a WH2O in the ACT but with no luck - looks like you have one of the only ones! Reading your post has got me scared for when I will (eventually) have to do my own repair/restoration work. Sounds like a nightmare! But I'm ready for the challenge.
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Here is a few more photos, not long to go now #*#
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Looking good Andy! I hope when it's done I can takes some video and share a few games. Keep up Th e good work. Z
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Great work @@* nearly there.
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awesome work
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Update:
Well the playfield has gone back in and all the wiring connected so the time came to fire the ol' girl up. As I had not ever had this pin running before, I decided to do it in stages, with fingers crossed:
- Transformer with nothing connected, then
- CPU board - yay it booted #*#
- with GI connected
- with solenoids connected
No house fuse tripped, and no 'magic smoke' escaped, so I was pretty happy.
So far so good, so I now decided to put it into test mode to see how things were going. Here came my first problem, the 'escape' and 'up' buttons didn't work. A few hours later and some jumpers on the CPU board between U13, U14, and U15 and I had all the coin door buttons active.
Next I tried the solenoid test, this was mixed, some fired, some didn't, some were intermittent. I found that a number of fuse holders were loose, so tightened them up and a few solenoids started to fire and the intermittent ones stopped being intermittent. I still have to find what's stopping the lower jet bumper and diverter from working !@#
The next test was the flippers - Hmm, only one working, which was the upper right. Both the lower flippers didn't even budge. I had hoped it was a fuse issue again, but it was not to be. Someone managed to solder the outside coil wires the wrong way around @.@. That little rooky mistake cost me a few fuses, a couple of drivers on the fliptronic board and new diodes on the coils.
I still have a number of lights to trouble-shoot, but I am hopeful that many of these will be simple little problems. I was thinking that the pin would be ready for a game in the next few days, but it's probably going to be another couple of weeks. I still need to order a new set of mountains as I'm a couple short - hopefully he will be back from fishing soon. &&.
That reminds me, seeing as there are a few people who aren't topper fans does anyone have a white water topper tucked away? I know I've got buckleys, but thought I'd ask (beg). Maybe Twisted Pins will finally get their repo made soon :tumble:
Cheers,
Andy
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This is looking excellent, well done so far ^^^
I think I want one now lol
The next test was the flippers - Hmm, only one working, which was the upper right. Both the lower flippers didn't even budge. I had hoped it was a fuse issue again, but it was not to be. Someone managed to solder the outside coil wires the wrong way around @.@. That little rooky mistake cost me a few fuses, a couple of drivers on the fliptronic board and new diodes on the coils.
If it makes you feel better, I did the exact same thing by soldering the wire back to front lol
Not sure how I did it but I soon found out when fire works came from the back box !!!