Almost 3 years to the day..
Finally, I re commenced work on the Pro Football that I started back in 2008. I'm VERY happy that I'm back on to this restore. A month ago, I took the ONLY part of the old cabinet (you might have to start from the beginning of this restore to find out why..), because it has the EXACT original colors that were hidden behind the coin door scratch plate. To my dismay, the original base coat was NOT WHITE. Not even "off white". The Gottlieb ORIGINAL base coat for this game is more of the high gloss cream. I had the color matched by a professional, and it is a perfect match for the original base. So my previous effort on the Jacks Open was not faithful to the original.
Here is the EXACT color on the only piece of the cabinet I saved. Look on the routed section where the red and blue is - not the topcoat which was house paint ;
This morning, the weather was perfect. I had prepared the cabinet by filling and sanding with 180 Grit. Not the cheap crap from bunnings, but the automotive sandpaper. I found that this sandpaper was so good I only needed a small amount. Here is the cabinet, ready for the primer undercoat.
One light coat, and then two heavier coats
Here's a picture of the oldest Pinball Restorer in Australia ! My Dad ! - 89 this year, and we worked together on the repaint. He is passing on all his knowledge "old school" to me on these repaints. We are sanding the cabinet with 800 grit after the third primer coat was finished in preparation for the basecoat.
There's a run on the front panel, and he was not happy
No problem. It was sanded out
The basecoat was an automotive acrylic lacquer. The first coat was a thin mist coat, and then two heavier coats applied. It dries VERY quickly. You can touch it after 3-4 minutes. Heres some pictures after I've returned the game home.
(Shadow is from the sun)
All this was done within 3 hours. Most of the time was spent cleaning up !
The game will remain in the garage for a week until the stencils are finished (Hi Gav
). I'm REALLY pleased with the outcome, and hopefully it won't be another 3 years before the next update
