Queen Of Diamonds

[mark jackson]

Here's a couple of 'before' and 'after' photos. ... I hope.  If they post ok, I will give a few details on the project later. Mark

[Ford Fairlane]

wow that looks fantastic!!! cant wait for the details 

[Strangeways]

WOW !

Did you pictorially document the restore ?

You removed the metal side rails and replaced them with wood rails - Great work.

 

[illawarra_steelers]

That looks awesome Mark! It was excellent to finally meet you at the Expo.

Was this the game that Lee had?

[ajlaird]

Nice result there. It's a pity the before shots are a bit small; do you have them at a higher resolution?

[ddstoys]

Thats a great effort i have a machine which im going to remove the steel rails and return to wood after seeing that i definately have to now

[bossninja17]

Outstanding!!!
This is the sort of thing that would be great at the next expo.

[mark jackson]

Howdy all, The Queen Of Diamonds ......... here's a few details.... I bought this from Lee a few years back. It was as you can almost see in the 'before' pics.... (they're not great but they sure give the idea). Anyway, I bought it for a couple of reasons .... it was a wood rail (I believe that the steelrails were added later, after that hideous shade of red which you can see), and there was a good playfield... good in the sense that it was protected by a quick and nasty shellac job which had been slapped on years before with a 4" brush, without removing any playfield parts, ... of course. Did I mention that it had turned a yucky shade of brown and was from 1mm-4mm thick. Very troublesome...... But it had one really bad thing going for it ..... someone had covered all the gobble holes with their own home made plastics, and had changed the wiring of the game, and cut wires etc. And in putting in these plastics had 'hacked' about 4-5 mm of the playfield out, to fit the homemade plastics.....
         So it was almost not worth trying, but I thought I could do something with it. Here's my memories of what and how I restored this oldie but goldie.
         Lee put me on to a product called 'pedigree' fine filler. It great as it is as hard as a rock, yet will sand with ease. When I did the cabinet I firstly glued, then screwed here and there as there were a couple of chunks of timber missing around the bottom and rear of sides. Then, when its all stable from gluing etc, I used the pedigree to fill what was needed. I sanded the whole cabinet, of course and on the way, I got a drawing of the original design and colour. ..then finish sanding.
        These days, the only spraying I'll do is what comes out of a can and even then I don't like breathing those fumes. I use sponge brushes for two real coats of undercoat, then 2-3-4 coats of the cream colour. I lightly sand between about every second coat. This keeps everything smooth and under control. My wife Kerrie usually cuts the stencils on original 'contact' paper.... Don't use cheap contact as it will lift from the surface and you will get lots of 'bleeding' that you don't want. We usually cut all the lines on the contact in one session, but then tape over all second colour sections before putting the sheet of contact on the box. ...Actually, it's probably smart to temporarily tape over the 1st colour sections, too and then its a whole lot easier to 'lay the contact on the box as the sheet is still one 'solid' piece. Anyway, after the colours, I touch up anything that bled, or other imperfections I see. Be patient; at this point as it should mostly be looking good, and there's a tendancy to 'rush' in all of us. After touch-up I wait a few days for paint to 'cure'....one final light sand and check. ....... then I do 4-5 coats of a water based clear, to 'push back' all the colour and give all the paints one common sheen. It's just 'more pinball'. I lastly nail  some felt stoppers on the back of the cabinet as I hate scraping pinball cabinets in transit etc.
           Guys, I'm going to stop now. I'll talk a bit about the playfield next time, and some other stuff about these wonderful machines. I hope some of this was helpful. There's as many methods as there are restorers so it's finding what works for you. ....... I enjoyed the Expo. Well done to all involved.    Cheers, Mark
           







 

[illawarra_steelers]

Thanks for posting the start to your restoration thred Mark,

How did you remove the shellac from the playfield without damaging the original paint? I have 2 playfields - a Foto Finish and in part a Sweethearts with the same issue.

[mark jackson]

Hi y'all,    ...... Sure, Tony. I will talk a bit about the removal of shellac from playfield(s). ....This was a huge problem on the Queen Of Diamonds. As I mentioned before, it was really just slapped on with a wide brush and an impatient hand. Over the years it had turned brown and really detracted from the whole thing. It's not rocket science but there's a few things that have worked for us. I guess the grade paper you start with depends on how thick the layer is. On the case of QoD there were some parts as thick as 3-4 mm, and other areas about 1-2 mm. So, for the thick parts, something around 220 paper might be enough to 'knock it back' a bit. I only use small pieces of sand paper, and only work in a small area, moving from your thickest areas, giving them the most attention, down to the areas where you may start with say, 400 paper. That grade is about right to be the 'start' of 'normal' rubbing back.
          A few things to bear in mind ........ 1. patience ... don't scrub like a washer-woman or you'll probably rub away the paint, and wouldn't that be disappointing. 2. Your eyes ... get 'down' and use them to look at where you are rubbing and judge how it's going.
         From the 400, I move to 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000. ... So, getting down to the final grades (1200 -200) you should be starting to win. The sanding time on Q of D was about 2 weeks, I think. We just did a bit every night, and you will be able to see the shellac turn to dust as you keep at it.
         Some good news .... when you get down to a really fine layer only, if you rub your finger up and down in a spot, the natural heat in the finger and the rubbing will often remove the very last layer of shellac. I hope you know what I'm trying to say here, but it does work if the layer is thin enough.
         When in doubt, be conservative....in the case of Qof D, the area where the playing cards are down the bottom playfield .... if you look really hard there, you'll see that that is the one area where there is still a very light essence of shellac left. And guess what? It doesn't detract at all, you can't even notice it unless I mention it, AND, none of the cards were damaged in any way. ... A fair enough compromise, I'd say.
 

[mark jackson]

It's Mark again ... oops.... computer pilot error.... Back to sanding for a second ..... When it's getting down to the serious part of the deal, you should be sanding at about 1000, 1200, 1500 by now. When using papaer, check often for a trace of colour on your paper. There's a good warning that you need to stop sanding there....
      OK, from memory, that's the story on the sanding of the playfield on the Queen Of Diamonds. Next time, I'll give you the adventures of the gobble holes. What a scene that was! Happy Trails, Mark

[illawarra_steelers]

Sh*t....you make it sound easy 

Thanks for taking the time to post that Mark, very much appreciated...now I just have to build up the courage to attempt it. Luckily it's a few games down the track in the restoration queue 

[bossninja17]

This is a work of art. Great job. I wish I had your patience and skill.

[mark jackson]

Greetings pinball lovers,    ............ Q of D restoration...... Carrying on from where I left the playfield ...sanded. At this stage there was only very minor touchup required, as well as a couple of big scratch marks around the gobble hole red area.  BUT ....the gobble holes. Somewhere down the line, a guy had taken out 3-4 mm circular section around the gobble holes, (to fit his oversized, home made plastics whose job was to cover the holes). ...but only through to about half thickness of the playfield. In other words, the size of the holes was still correct half way through the playfield. Hence the use of the 'eject hole rings'.
            These I cut a section out of so there would be the natural space where the light globe from under the playfield gets the chance to light the hole. I ran a metal ruler over the holes to adjust the height of the metal rings. They were glued. I then did the filling of the space between the playfield surface going from the 'hackout' point to the metal ring. I used Pedigree bog, which Lee put me onto. Sets like a rock and sands like a dream... The bog was sanded and the playfield painted back on. ...black circles and a bit of red and yellow from memory. Tricky, but not impossible as the paintwork was relatively easy to put back....
            By now, the playfield looked consistent and calm, as it had no shine on it at all, This playfield was clear coated with automotive clear. (All playfield art work was done with automotive paints.) This was a first for me. Lee uses them very well, but for me they are hard to work with, they dry from the brush to the playfield, and the fumes will kill you. Don't get me wrong. They did a great job, and if you're a better artist than myself, they may work just great, but I'm taking a different tack on my current playfield restoration. However, on Q of D I applyed a generous amount of clear....probably more than I normally would do, but what with the 'surgery' to the gobble holes, I thought it only wise.
           I notice that there's a discussion about Clear Coat V's MYLAR on the site..... After doing both, there's a lot to say for both methods.... After weighing up the pros and cons I'd have to say that one sheet, quality mylar is probably less invasive to the machine, it keeps the machine in a pristine condition, and it doesn't 'pit' or mark the way ANY clear coat surface will eventually. My Sweethearts was done with Mylar maybe 15 years ago and it looks just as fantastic today as it did on the day it was done.... and I had it at my nephew's and neice's for quite a few years. ... But Mylar doesn't sound 'right' for 60's and 70's machines ... It's too quiet. In the end it's all a compromise somewhere. Clear coat surfaces sound better, and for home use, with regular waxing, a playfield should NEVER wear out.
           In the end, every machine presents its own problems, and hopefully its own solutions. It's now a few years since I did Q of D and there's a few little 'chips' appearing around the gobble holes..... Solution.... next time I do the touchup, and add a bit more clear in these 'high wear' gobble holes, I'm going to do this .... cut myself three mylar 'rings' which I'll place around the gobble holes ...about 6-8mm wide should do the trick. This will give that added protection to this most problematic area of this great machine. ...only problematic since the hatchet job was done on the holes.
           To finish, ..with a lot of sweat and some patience, we were able to get a butchered and tired looking playfield back to looking really fine and handsome. .... this was a hard one I must admit... To all out there, please don't carve, chop, drill, hack, or cut into a playfield. If you don't like the game, sell it and get another. ...or buy a white board and make a game you do like.
            I hope some of this is interesting and helpful. If so I'd like to mention a few other things I do as I restore a machine......next time. Happy weekend. Mark

[illawarra_steelers]

Once again thanyou for taking the time for posting here Mark.

This forum was made for guys like you and I'm so glad a guy with your restoration skills is here.

Lee offered me this game years ago and I passed because I honestly thought it was beyond restoration - it was hammered. Just shows you what is possible.

Very inspirational stuff