Cabinet / Backbox decals, all the same?

[Crashramp]

Hi All,

 I'm currently looking at a Bride of Pinbot machine which has quite faded cabinet decals and I know that these are available to buy but was wondering if different suppliers have different quality decals or if there all produced from the one place? If there is, as I'm guessing good, bad and otherwise quality available for these things, who sells the good ones?
 I'm currently going on pictures of this machine and wont get to see it in the flesh until tomorrow and as there's a bit of travel involved I want to make up my mind whether or not to buy it then so i'm also interested in the process of applying the decals. Videos I've seen have had the playfields pulled out and everything out of the Back box. Is this necessary? As everything else on the machine looks very nice (at least in the pic's, will know more tomorrow). Would it be possible and would you still get a good job by pulling off all the buttons, trims, glass including anything else in the way of the decals being removed/reapplyed but leaving the playfield as well as the contents of the back box in place. Any advice/tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

[swinks]

There are various companies making them and yes some are supposed to be better than others. But at the end of the day it seems different companies get the rights to certain decals from Planetary Pinball for Bally / Williams products.

Phoenix Arcade are one that has a good reputation - check out the info on this link for some general knowledge info that may help you search or determine what you are after. The recent Creature sets were made by these guys and we awesome.
http://www.phoenixarcade.com/printing.htm


Bay Area Amusements are another good one though use the printing technique but still very good quality - I got a set of of WH20 from them which we very good and postage (US to NSW) was $38 a year ago for these and well packaged.
http://bayareaamusements.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=BAA&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=GS-BOP11-1002-50002NG

To put new decals on, takes a bit of elbow grease, and when most people go to the trouble they would sand and prime and sand perfectly flat then paint the base colour of the decals so edges blend in, remember any defects in the cabinet in the process of removing the decals etc will show up in the cabinet under the new decals and pull the quality of the cabinet down.

Hope that helps.

[MartyJ]

I have purchased probably around 8 or more sets over the years. Different manufacturers etc.

I found the screen printed decals scratched very easily.

The best by far were the 'next gen' decals available locally.

Cab prep must be 100% or no matter what the decal it will show faults

[swinks]

I have purchased probably around 8 or more sets over the years. Different manufacturers etc.

I found the screen printed decals scratched very easily.

The best by far were the 'next gen' decals available locally.

Cab prep must be 100% or no matter what the decal it will show faults

can you post a link for the 'next gen' decals?

[MartyJ]

They are on eBay made by the Pinball Factory in Melb

[Crashramp]

Thanks guys, that's a huge help.