1980 Bally Space Invaders Cleanup

[Retropin]

I do like the custom drops... very nice touch

[Strangeways]

Custom targets = nice touch Jase - coming along nicely !

[goodolddays]

This game is coming along really well .. gonna look sweet when finished  .. great work on the custom drops 

[Jango]

Another progress update on my Space Invaders

I worked on the apron and ball shooter gauge and stripped both using paint stripper.  These were given a light sand and I gave each piece 3 coats of White Knight Super Primer, followed by 3 coats of White Knight Satin Black.  I had ordered apron and ball shooter decals from Classic Arcades in the US and I installed these and finished them off with 4 coats of White Knight Gloss Acrylic.  I did notice that the apron decal from Classic Arcades is not a perfect fit around the ball entrance / gutter region and therefore I will need to use my scalpel to cut a little there.  Here's a pic of the ball shooter installed.  I will upload a pic of the apron when I get a chance to photograph that













I was able to remove all ball swirl using Isocol and a Magic Eraser (again I got this tip from Nino after reading through threads) and it worked beautifully.  It only took around an hour and I have been able to remove it all.  The colours (beautifully depicted in the lower playfield) really shine through now

















































The playfield was completely stripped and I cleaned and polished this using my Treasure Cove kit.  I was very happy with the results and the field is really shining



















I rebuilt all 4 x flippers with rebuild kits from PBR and took Nino's advice re installing the Advanced EOS on the lower flippers.


I removed all wire guide lanes and cleaned and polished these.


Each and every assembly has been removed, taken apart and cleaned and put back together.  The machine has all new coils.  More pics to follow in the next few days.  I am not totally happy with some of the leaf switches, particularly the left and right sling switches and I will order new ones and install soon


I removed the faded black wooden timber playfield "fence" around the playfield perimeter and the smaller one adjacent to the shooter lane.  These were all sanded and where there were any chunks taken out of the wood, I used some builders bog and sanded back post hardening.  I gave each piece 3 coats of White Knight Super Primer, followed by 3 coats of White Knight Satin Black and finally finished each piece off with 4 coats of White Knight Gloss Acrylic.  I've installed these and as you can see they look sensational














I started to rebuild the playfield today and have basically used all new parts where ever possible.  All of the bumper assemblies including bumper caps, flippers and red finned posts are new as is most of the screws and other metal.  All other parts have been cleaned and polished.  I've also ordered the new 19 piece repro plastics set that CPR did a few years ago - that was hard to track down

[Jango]

There are some inserts where the black circle around the insert has worn and I am tossing up whether to leave it alone, touch it up using a Sharpie texta or sand it off and use my insert decals that I got from Classic Arcades.  Any advice would be appreciated guys,  If I sand back the insert I may just attempt this whilst the insert is still in the playfield as I do not really want to remove these.  Any experience there would be great guys.

Also, there are two small wear marks at the top of the field that someone has tried to touch up with a texta.  I can live with them as they are small but wondering if a decal printed into clear sticker paper would come up good.  Anyone have any luck doing this in the right colours and to scale on a Spacies before?

[Homepin]

Did you keep any of the passive caps (4 along the top) as I have a broken one and would happily buy a couple of second hand ones if you want to part with them?

Progress is GREAT....

[Retropin]

Thats a different playfield to the one you emailed me... did i miss something like a PF swap anytime?

[Jango]

Ha - yep playfield swap mate.  I bought another machine as the other playfield was a little better with minimal wear.  Should have a top notch machine in the end and looks like I will probably be cleaning up the other after this one... 2 x Spacies will look good together..

[Jango]

Homepin - mate PM me your mailing address mate and I'll send you the best one I have - no charge

[ktm450]

There are some inserts where the black circle around the insert has worn and I am tossing up whether to leave it alone, touch it up using a Sharpie texta or sand it off and use my insert decals that I got from Classic Arcades.  Any advice would be appreciated guys,  If I sand back the insert I may just attempt this whilst the insert is still in the playfield as I do not really want to remove these.  Any experience there would be great guys.

Also, there are two small wear marks at the top of the field that someone has tried to touch up with a texta.  I can live with them as they are small but wondering if a decal printed into clear sticker paper would come up good.  Anyone have any luck doing this in the right colours and to scale on a Spacies before?

Depends on how far you want to go and how your skills are, the decal would be my last resort, I would use an artists brush with long bristles and do the touchups by hand, colour matching as I go, mix paint and paint onto a small piece of card then use a hairdryer to dry fast then compare to original colour, use some automotive clear coat to lock colours in.  But if you would rather not do that you can get reasonable results with the sharpie, just be careful if you want to clear over the sharpie ink as it can bleed and make a real mess.

[Strangeways]

Jase - looking good !

Wotto made a really nice decal for the worn horse-shoe area. Maybe PM him when he gets back from O/S.

[Retropin]

Happy to make any insert stencils you might need so you can airbrush the circles back in

[Steve2010]

Looking very nice .... keep it going!

[ddstoys]

Looking great really wish I had purchased the last one I seen 

[goodolddays]

Looking great