Preparing to Mylar PF - help or suggestions?

[Ric]

I have finally reached a stage where I am going to mylar my Super Star playfield

A bit of background. This was purchased many years ago in a relatively rough state. There was wear to the wood around all jet bumpers and some of the "star" playfield rollover buttons, playfield was very dirty and had bad areas of ball swirl.

I have now filled the wood and touched up the playfield. It is not perfect as many of the colours have dulled with fading and through dirt from the ball swirls.

I opted with mylar as given the amount of touchups and some disasters along the way, I have bad feeling that clearcoat may react with some of the paint.

However, this is my first attempt at mylar. Other than removing the rest of the playfield parts (ie slings and bottom bracket screws, what tips or suggestions does the group have?

attached is a phot of what it looks like now. Thanks as always

[ktm450]

You will definately need to remove anything protruding from the playfield especially the slingshot arms or it will all end in tears, they are only 3 screws each anyway.
As with anything, preparation is 95% of the job

[Homepin]

In the days when machines were bought new for use by operators we were NOT very anal about 'mylar'. We used ordinary, household book covering plastic known as 'contact'.

We simply traced by eye, directly onto the PF glass using a marking pen and used that as our template for cutting the contact.

Rip off the backing paper, quick spray with a water bottle with some detergent in it and slap it on the PF. Rub out any bubbles and leave overnight.

They always looked GREAT and doing this stopped the wear.

We used to be paid $10 cash for each machine we did after work over a few beers by our boss at the time and it was dead easy to do one or two machines each afternoon in an hour - maybe hour and a half.

All this talk of 'mylar' covering playfields is mostly fancy pants BS - in the day we just used cheapo contact. Yes, some pinball manufacturers supplied small pieces of REAL mylar to add around kickers etc but we mosly chucked these and opted to cover the whole playfield with contact.

[Mr Pinbologist]

You will definately need to remove anything protruding from the playfield especially the slingshot arms or it will all end in tears, they are only 3 screws each anyway.
As with anything, preparation is 95% of the job

Yes as mentioned, remove the slingshot kickers, as well as the flipper bushes, i usually leave the rollover buttons in place and just cut the mylar later on close to the edge of the hole with a scalpel. So long as the touchups are nice and level it should all work out nicely If you're using the 3M brand "mylar" like bumper action sells, its fairly thick and absolutely fool proof to apply, and nice and shiny once the protective clear film is removed from the top.

When applying, just peel the backing from one end, and apply slowly from one end to the other, rubbing it down with your fingers as you go, as well as peeling the papar backing off as you go.

Also make sure you cut around anywhere anything screws down onto the pf, ie posts etc, and remove the mylar in these spots, otherwise the mylar WILL bubble and lift anywhere something is screwed down onto it, have a look at any of my resto threads for more info

hope this helps!! cheers... Mitch

[FirePower]

Can't help with mylar, but the pf looks good - any chance of a before picture?  Also can't help but notice what cruel spot to put the Down Centre Post roll over, very mean.

[Strangeways]

Playfield has to be completely flat and clean. Use compressed air to remove dust, as it will stick to the playfield and stand out. Use a dry method and take your time. Have a rag handy to press down the mylar.

Mike is 100% right - I remember the NIB KISS, Mata Hari, Eight Balls, Paragons were removed from their boxes and stripped of all their playfield parts. The contact was applied in one sheet and an exacto knife was used for all the holes for globes etc. He used a hand held dial press (as he called them), which was a cylindrical pipe with a sharp edge. This was placed over the area of the posts, and turned in a circular motion. It would cut out the contact, so that the posts were screwed down DIRECT to the playfield. If this was not done, the contact would turn and lift. Don't ever try to screw in posts ON TOP OF MYLAR. It WILL turn the mylar around the post.

The first machine I recall the contact being applied was Stern "Pinball" and "Melody Lane".

He used to apply the woodgrain contact, white or colored contact around pop bumpers on woodrails and EMs. He made the "effort" of matching the contact with the area around the pop bumpers  

Thankfully, contact is REALLY easy to remove. The Paragon that was covered in 1979 had one wear spot, and the contact was actually two sheets, as it was not wide enough with one sheet alone ! I still have this machine in my gamesroom, and it is the best original Paragon Playfield I've seen.

[Retropin]

My take is that if you are going to cover the PF with plastic sheeting, then use contact not Mylar.
Contact comes up much easier and will do the same job. Mylar is a bitch to remove sometimes and often takes much of the paint with it

[Ric]

Thanks for all the info.

Final prep will happen in the next two days and then I will lay it down. I have bought the thicker mylar from Pinball Resource, so I really only get one shot.

I have so before and after photos and will do a more complete post once it is all together.

Thanks

Ric

[Boots]

Just make sure the playfield is super clean before starting