Stern Galaxy Restoration

[Sinbad79]

Hi all
thought id document my process of repairing my warped & dented coin door from my 'terd' of a galaxy, which i have decided to 'polish', lol
The coin door was painted black at some point in its life, possibly to hide how bad the coin door had been damaged.
This is the process i have followed to date to repair it.

Firstly remove the door and frame from cabinet, strip the door down to just the skin and rear webbing. Paint strip using your favourite paint stripper, i use a citrus stripper, and assess the damage.

Edit : change title.

[ddstoys]

What a piece of crap ;)

[Sinbad79]

Once paint was stripped, i placed a straight edge across the door face to see how badly damaged and the extent of repairs needed. Though you cant see it from the photos, the door had both low and high spots, which couldnt be reached from the back side due to the door frame/webbing.
I also noticed surface rust on the underside, so i decided to drill out the spot welds and separate the webbing from the door skin and address the rust issue...

Bit extreme, but needed to be done. Its either do this, or throw away and replace.

[Sinbad79]

From here, door skin will be sent out for straightening the 'ol fashioned way, and the webbing re-spot welded.
Drilling out the factory spot welds has meant the skin has a bunch of holes drilled in it, but that will be addressed later....

More to come in the next few days, however in the meantime, sand, prime, paint the many rear coin door parts

Before priming, use wax and grease remover on all parts, and use an etch primer when priming bare metal.

[flippnaussie]

Great work. Good to see some panel work going on.

Simon

[Strangeways]

I've done quite a few Classic Sterns and there is a White Knight product which is an exact match - It is the Hammer finish you can buy from Bunnings.

Here is a link to one of the threads - http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=1256.30

The before and after pictures ;







You can use this paint for the legs as well.

[Sinbad79]

All over it already Nino, thanks. The photos in my third post are parts already painted.

Any idea where i can get the credit button and stern door decals locally?
Other than marcos or pbr.... cant seem to find them

[ddstoys]

That's the same paint I use for all my internally rusted part restores

[Strangeways]

All over it already Nino, thanks. The photos in my third post are parts already painted.

Any idea where i can get the credit button and stern door decals locally?
Other than marcos or pbr.... cant seem to find them

 

Credit button is here - http://www.pinballrescue.net/Decals_Coin_Door.html

PBR and Marco might be the only place to buy the logo decal.

[Sinbad79]

I knew that was going to be the case....wish these parts were available locally.

[studley67]

i give you a 10/10 for dedication as dan said what a piece of crap.so YOU can polish TURDS.lol

[studley67]

hang on thats nino's door.nino can polish turds.lol;

[Sinbad79]

So after a week or so, got the cabinet door back from the 'panel guy' who flattened and rewelded the door.
It is worth noting that there is a tendency for metal to re-warp during the welding of the webbing to the skin which is what happened here, so be warned.
After some spray putty, the door has been sanded flat, primed and painted.

Assembly as per the following images. This process has been by far the most work, i concur with Ninos comments that the coin door is the hardest part of a restoration, but definitely worth the work.

Only thing left from here is to have the front metal shroud and coin return flap re-chromed and stick it all back into the caninet.
Enjoy

[Sinbad79]

more pics

[ralph67]

Swinks has remade the coin insert plastics , pictured below, They really look the part. Nice job on the door btw