Stern Dracula restore; PART 2

[Mr Pinbologist]

Ok.. I decided to start a new thread documenting the rest of the restore of my Dracula machine. Next after the playfield restore was to be the cabinet repair/repaint.

First thing I had to do was to make the stencils for the cab/backbox art. So it was off to the newsagents for tracing paper and white cardboard that I normally use for this. The following pics show my stencil making progress… Only one set of two stencils (yellow and black) was needed for the cab sides, backbox sides. So with the cab front set that’s a total of six stencils. Using the cardboard allows the side stencils to be reused on the opposite side of the cab/backbox, since the paint soaks into the cardboard fairly well and once it dries, there is no danger of it ruining the opposite side paint. I have used this method of stencil making for years, and any problems of reusing side stencils to do the opposite side, and having them stick to the cab have been due to my own impatience!! (wanting to do too much too quickly). So if anyone tries this.. make SURE the paint is properly dried before attempting to do the opposite side!!

After tracing the art onto the tracing paper, I then lay this onto the cardboard sheets. I have to tape two and a third of these cardboard sheets together to get the size I need to do a cab side art stencil. I use wide masking tape for this. This can be seen in the second pic.

Once the tracing paper is taped down, I lay the stencil onto a sheet of MDF and cut out the shapes with a scalpel. I also use some hole punches as well (3rd pic).. these are good for really tight curved spaces that would be tricky to cut with the scalpel. I simply place the punch onto the curved area and give it a whack with a hammer, leaving a neatly cut circle. I can then simply cut to the edge of the circle with the scalpel. Last pic shows one of the finished stencils sitting on the cabinet side.

[Mr Pinbologist]

Now for the cabinet repairs. Not a great deal of repair was needed, just tightening a couple of loose joints and filling a few dents/scrapes. The front had a couple of screws with cup washers in it which I promptly removed. I then carefully spread the loose corners with a screwdriver.. just enough to allow some woodglue into the join, then clamped and put in a few nails just for good measure. Same deal for the cross braces in the bottom of the cabinet, a couple of the joins were a bit loose so these were glued, clamped and a couple of nails. Back panel and backbox mount were checked and repaired as needed. I filled the nail holes during the next step covered in my next post.

[Mr Pinbologist]

And now for the part I most dislike… stripping the old paint!! This, to me is the most painful/messy part of a restoration.. prepping a cabinet for paint!! Its only when i start spraying the base colour i start to get a sense of relief!  After stripping off all of the old paint with paint stripper and wiping down with methylated spirits, I left it til the next day before I sanded it back with 60 grit sandpaper. I then filled all of the dents and gouges with auto body filler. After that had dried I block sanded the filler smooth with 60 grit and refilled any spots I’d missed, or anywhere there were low spots that I could find.

After that I block sanded the whole cabinet back again with 220 grit paper, dusted off the cabinet completely and gave the whole thing a couple of coats of K&H brand enamel primer. When dry I gave it a sand back with 220 grit and filled a few small scratches that showed up after the primer had been sprayed, using “Septone” brand automotive spot putty. After that had dried, I block sanded back the putty back smooth, then, once again sanded back the whole cabinet with 220, before wiping down the cabinet with Prepsol and rags and giving it another coat of primer. I then left it to dry for a day, before sanding the primer back with 400 grit paper, wiping it down with Prepsol then spraying on the purple base colour in about four coats. The paint I used was Plasti-kote brand enamel spray paint, bought from Bunnings. The colour is called “African Violet” and was a fairly good match for the original unfaded colour found under the siderails and on the inside of the cabinet. I gave the inside of the cab a coat of this colour as well, since the whole inside was painted on this cab.. so I thought I should tidy it up too!

I’ll now leave this for a few days before I do the stenciling. This cab had no “splatter” pattern paint on it so there’s one step I don’t have to do! In the mean time I’ll go thru the whole ordeal again with the backbox!

[Strangeways]

Amazing Mitch !

The only difference between our menthods is that you use Cardboard, and I use acetate sheets. I think my method takes a bit longer !

Keep the updates coming - I enjoy resto threads

 

[Mr Pinbologist]

Another quick update: after leaving the cabinet base colour to dry over the weekend I decided to make a start the stenciling. (I’ll start on the backbox next weekend!). I started with the left side of the cabinet, laying on and aligning the yellow stencil. I weighted  the stencils down with washers/nuts, sockets/spanners etc… anything I could lay my hands on that was small and heavy..lol.

Once again I used Plasti-kote brand enamel, so as to make sure the paints were compatible with each other, to make sure there would be no problems with crinkling paint (reacting with the base coat).

I sprayed each colour on in several light coats… allowing about 10 minutes between coats, all the time making sure to use just enough paint to cover evenly and no more. As mentioned first the yellow was done, then the black. This paint dried fairly quick, even so I waited 24 hours before doing the black. While the black was drying on the left hand side I did the stenciling on the front. The 1st pic shows the front stencil for the yellow positioned ready to be done. Again I let this dry 24 hours before doing the black. remaining pics the side stenciling progress.

[Mr Pinbologist]

After I’d let the left hand side dry for a few hours, I turned the cabinet over to do the right hand side. The yellow stencil was done first, and allowed to dry  I was going to leave it for a few days between doing each colour… but patience is not one of my strong points
Even so it came out pretty good, with no major overspray getting under the stencils. What little overspray that DOES get under comes off easily with some Re-Po paint doctor auto polish and some soft cloth, or cotton bud in small areas. I find Its best to do this before the paint completely dries (I did this step after about an hour, and had NOT been done in these pics).

Im pretty happy with the way this turned out. The original base colour was slightly “redder” than the colour I used, though I dont think it looks too bad. but it did, as I said match the colour under the side rails and insides reasonably well. Anyway its only a pinball machine after all… lol

Next.. the backbox rebuild and repaint… stay tuned!!

[ddstoys]

MAN that looks bloody awsome i hope my cabinet restore on my marathon turns out even close to that ill be happy

[Strangeways]

Looks great Mitch. Well done.

question - The stencils are cardboard - so how do you line up the stencils so well ? They need to be "spot on" - as your results show, but how do your set the registration of them ?

[Mr Pinbologist]

Looks great Mitch. Well done.

question - The stencils are cardboard - so how do you line up the stencils so well ? They need to be "spot on" - as your results show, but how do your set the registration of them ?

When i trace the artwork onto the tracing paper, i also trace the outline of the front, back and bottom edges of the cabinet onto the tracing paper with a black marker pen (see pics in 1st post of this thread, also notice the arrows marked in the corners), sometimes i'll align the edge of the tracing paper to an edge of the cab, as i've done here on the cab bottom. From these, i mark these edges onto the cardboard with the marker pen and a ruler, (front, back and bottom.. the front stencil pic shows these lines in my 2nd last post).

Then after i remove the tracing paper, with a ruler i draw the cabinet edge lines onto the stencil, right to the edges, so i can copy these onto the opposite side as well. Usually i'll pick one edge/corner and mark this on the stencil as the alignment edge, i do this on both sides of all of the side stencils.

I ALWAYS double check these on both sets of stencils before i spray any paint onto the cab with them.

Hope i explained that sufficiently... i can add some pics of how i do this when i do the backbox stencils if need be...

Cheers and thanks... Mitch

[Strangeways]

Interesting Mitch.

Sounds a lot easier than the method I used to use with Acetate sheets !

[Mr Pinbologist]

Quick progress update: On Friday on my day off I got a start on the back box. First thing to do obviously was to trace the stencils, which I did the night before.

So come Friday morning it was out with the paint stripper and scraper for some stripping. The paint came off fairly easily as it did on the cabinet. Once that was done I wiped the backbox down with methylated spirits and rags.

The backglass surround section on this game had been water damaged at some stage of its life, so naturally I just had to replace this. It was made from MDF originally, as have been every other Stern machine I’ve seen,  so I used MDF again to remake this section. I didn’t get any pics of what it looked like before.. it wasn’t all that bad really, but being the perfectionist I am I decided to repair it anyway! 2nd pic was taken after this work had been done, and while the dent repairs were in progress.

3rd pic shows the backbox after several coats of primer, done today. While that was drying I decided to repaint the legs. I bought a can of Septone brand hammer finish spraypaint. No primer was needed for this paint so it was as simple as stripping the crappy old paint off with my clean n strip disc in the drill, giving them a wipe down with Prepsol and giving them a few coats of the paint. Las pic shows the end result. Tomorrow I should be able to bolt them onto the cabinet!!

Also I got a start reassembling the cabinet. I polished the side rails with Autosol polish and refitted them. I managed to save most of the twist nails so I buffed the heads to a nice shine before putting them in. a couple of them broke removing them, luckily I had some spare nails in my spare parts boxes. Late this afternoon I started refitting the ground braid back into the cab, and that’s as far as I’ve gotten. Hopefully I’ll get some paint onto the backbox.. Should be able to post more pics tomorrow!!

[Strangeways]

Nice work, Mitch.

I used a similar Hammertone paint from Bunnings for my Meteor - and I also did the door with this paint - It is almost an exact match.

http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=49.15

[Mr Pinbologist]

Thanx Nino.. i remembered that thread, it gave me the idea to give the hammertone paint a try in the first place .. That and i found it the other day when in Supercheap Auto

[Mr Pinbologist]

Backbox base coats are now done..Yay!!  first thing this morning I sanded the primer back smooth with 400 grit sandpaper, then a wipe down with Prepsol to get it ready for paint. Before the purple went on I masked off the front backglass surround section as this was to be painted black.

First I sprayed the back of the backbox and allowed it to dry, before laying it onto its back (supported by some wood offcuts under the edges) and spraying the top, bottom and sides in several coats, allowing about 20 minutes between coats. I then left this for several hours to dry. 2nd pic shows the front surround done, picture taken late this afternoon.

While the purple backbox paint was drying I went into the garage and started some reassembly of the cabinet. 2nd pic shows the mylar protectors I made to help protect the cab paint where the legs bolt on. This is something I started doing on my last few restores.

[Mr Pinbologist]

And heres the crappy looking lock down bar assembly in the first pic before any cleaning was done to it.. rusty and caked on black enamel paint! I bought a new clean n strip disc today  as the other one was worn out, and this made short work of removing the paint and rust (I removed the opening lever first before cleaning).

After cleaning I decided to give it a coat of the same hammer finish paint I used on the legs, just to pretty it up a bit, as can be seen in the 3rd pic with it installed into the cabinet. While the paint was drying in this I did some more cleaning of the various bits and pieces that belong in the cabinet, including the wiring harness and tilt mechanism, knocker assy etc and installed each item as it was cleaned and/or repaired.

I’ll let the backbox dry for a few days before I do the stencils. In the mean time I’ll strip, clean and repaint the coin door.. it was done by the previous owner but im not happy with the job that was done on it.

I reckon in about another two weeks the game should be very close to being finished!!