Bally Fathom Restoration - Number Two

[Classicpinballs]

Nice job 

I had planned to restore my own Fathom, using a Halifax playfield that I had clearcoated and a new set of playfield plastics, but time is against me so I've decided to sell them on. Does anyone know of a good place to advertise them please? [I'm in the UK ]

Cheers all,

Doug.

[Strangeways]

Cabinet Stencil - Green

The cabinet is going to be a lot harder, and as Gav found out, most of the other sellers of these stencils have got it wrong. For the cabinet, the stencils need to GREEN before BLUE - which is the reverse of the head. So first I wipe down the cabinet and then apply the GREEN stencil.





Light coats - my touch up gun gives a wide but even coverage.





Remove the stencil and we have the green done





Here's a good picture of the finish - what I dislike are the repaints of games with good color match, but very poor matching of the original finish. This title is a satin finish - almost a flat finish. It is EXACTLY the finish of the original factory finish.





Cabinet Stencil - BLUE


This is how I lined up the BLUE stencil - I had the registration crosses - I asked Gav SPECIFICALLY for them for this game - and he gave me THREE ! So it was REALLY EASY to line up. Start from the top, line up the crossed and slowly hang the stencil and smooth it out as I peel the backing down ;





Half way done - I'll fix the bubbles as I go along (not done in this pic)





Peel off the transfer tape - slowly.





and there we go - ready to paint !





Always paint out of the sun ;





BLUE paint done ! Now to remove the stencil !





Here is the finished side








Detail ;





In the sun ;








BLING !





WITHOUT Gav's stencils - this could not be done. The other one that is available is WRONG. This is EXACT to the original artwork, and i know Gav put a lot of time into the stencil. This is good for me as I have another FATHOM to repaint - MINE !

 

[Crashramp]

Another stunning job Nino. The artwork on this machine is awesome so it's good to see it done right.
I often wonder looking at your restoration pics outside, do you ever have neighbours asking what your up to?

[Mr Pinbologist]

VERY nice Nino.. Very nice indeed 

[Caveoftreasures]

Looks excellent. Top work as usual. 

[goodolddays]

Great looking result there Nino 

[oldskool1969]

The more I see and hear of this title and the great resto you are doing, makes me want one soooooo bad as it is an era of pinball my collection is sadly missing.
AWESOME work so far Nino.

[swinks]

Great looking machine, beautiful work nino

[Steve2010]

Hey Nino, no question the challenge of reproducing the same pattern is right up there with Fathom.  So many intricate patterns for sure.

Don't shoot me for bringing this up, and I'm hoping I am wrong, but there are differences between original and the results.  The 3 images below are from the original paintwork of a Fathom, and the circled areas are examples of where alignment is different.  On the left hand and right hand sides of the cabinet, the first thing that drew my attention to this was the different alignment of the bolt heads with the patterns.  Maybe there are slightly different patterns out there for the Fathoms produced?

[Strangeways]

Hey Nino, no question the challenge of reproducing the same pattern is right up there with Fathom.  So many intricate patterns for sure.

Don't shoot me for bringing this up, and I'm hoping I am wrong, but there are differences between original and the results.  The 3 images below are from the original paintwork of a Fathom, and the circled areas are examples of where alignment is different.  On the left hand and right hand sides of the cabinet, the first thing that drew my attention to this was the different alignment of the bolt heads with the patterns.  Maybe there are slightly different patterns out there for the Fathoms produced?

First of all you need to define "original".

All four Fathom's I've owned or I've restored have all been different. As you are aware, Bally changed their color from GREEN or YELLOW on some production models. This stencil is easily the most difficult and challenging stencil produced for any Bally - Maybe Xenon would compare.

Shay or PinballPal's stencils are wrong. They are completely incorrect. There are many differences that they didn't address. One drastic difference is that the color application for the Cabinet and head are swapped around during production. This was not reflected in their stencils and that's why I wanted Gav to do them properly.

Here's a picture of one of My three Fathoms in storage that the art was used for - which is DIFFERENT from yours (gap is narrow, and much less GREEN);





Your photo of the front of the cabinet is not square. There will always be variations when the source art is not square.

Here's part of the many hours of artwork that was redrawn by Gavin, based on my original photos - that were not 100% square ;





At this point, I'd like to bring up some important differences in cabinet repainting - and this is evident in the numerous titles I have in storage.

 - Cabinet dimensions are seldom exactly the same. Bally used several different suppliers to build cabinets. some are longer by 20mm. some are higher. All are the same width.

- Cabinet painting was done by holding a brass stencil over the cabinet and spraying with a paint gun. This was done by several different suppliers, on different cabinet dimensions, using different paint from different suppliers. This process took several minutes - not several DAYS.

All three of my Fathoms and the THIS Fathom were all different. Colors, finish and registration. I asked Gavin to complete this project based on an mean average of the positioning of the stencils based on my ability to provide the photos as square as possible, There were mistakes - but according to which of the four DIFFERENT cabinets / colors / finish ?

This is the ONLY stencil available at this point in time that is faithful to the original - but the problem is that no two Fathoms I've seen are EXACTLY the same. The hours Gavin has put into this solution are massive. There's not one aspect I would change, and my own personal machine will be repainted exactly the same.

[Steve2010]

I think you will find that as you attach the siderails, it will become evident that the pattern (as seen along the bottom edge of the siderail) is not sitting right comparing old and new.

For example, on your Fathom near the right hand side flipper button, there is a painted section whose top edge is traversing across the flipper button hole.  On the original paintwork, the top edge of this same section is well below the bottom edge of the siderail edge.  It's out actually by quite a bit.  And I think you will find the same for some parts along the bottom edge of the left hand side siderail (example of this is the painted section near the rear set of two bolts - the top of this section will sit below of the bottom edge of the siderail, whereas on the original this top edge was mostly concealed by the siderail).

As for the front, even though the image I provided was not square, it does show a large gap between the two painted sections (in the circled area).  On yours, the image you provided of the original paintwork also shows a very similar gap.  On the now painted Fathom, they are virtually touching.  Again, quite a bit out.

Again, I will certainly recognise that Fathom would be one of the most challenging stencil sets to come up with.  I looked at the pattern again last night, and it would give me a headache just even contemplating tackling it.  Hats off for sure to Gavin for his efforts, and as always Nino, you do amazing and very thorough work to be commended.  No disrespect at all.  But, if my comments are correct, then in my opinion there is still improvement that can be and should be made to the stencil.

[Strangeways]

I'm very pleased with the stencils. They are easy to work with, and the results are better than original.

[ktm450]

That cab looks minty fresh, very nice 

[pinball god]

A question from left field but can playfield artwork vary as well? I have two si playfields and believe I have found variations on areas I know have not been touched up etc. And I haven't gone through it with a fine tooth comb either.

[Jimmie Dimmick]

awesome job on the cabinet respray and restore

this is skill and artwork beauty all rolled into one machine.

the fathom playfield colours are OUTSTANDING and match perfectly with the job