Some Cabinet work. The inside of the cabinet was cleaned, repaired and repainted (on the inside). The lock down bar is stripped and polished. New decals installed.
Door is scratched and will need to be repainted. This door is painted a flat black with a gloss black "speckle". Really easy to achieve after experimenting.
When repainting a door, I rebuild the door and replace anything broken. To achieve a professional finish, there are no shortcuts. The finish to the door is almost exactly the same as a brand new door. I have a NEW door to compare this against, and it is very close !
Here's the reason why this restoration came to a grinding halt. The inserts simply looked bad and I could not put my name on this game without attending to it. I had my clearcoat guy check out the playfield and he noticed that the factory clear was so thin, you could see the serial number stamped into the playfield ! I had no idea they did this during production. Thankfully, his advice was crucial to the next step.
1 - Remove the decals and replace with a new set and then place mylar on the playfield
or
2 - Remove the inserts, level them and then place non laminted decal inserts and finally clear the playfield.
The customer
and I weighed up the advantages and disadvantages, and I believe we made the right decision - CLEARCOAT !
Although this represented a large amount of time to prepare, I was happy to spend the additional hours (not factored into the restoration) to achieve a really nice result.
Here's the wear that I'm referring to (the camera shots really highlight how bad it is. It is not this bad in person);
Each insert affected was removed one by one. Then the insert was sanded with 600 grit wet / dry and and residue on the insert and the insert hole was removed.
Then each insert was re inserted and levelled ;
The damaged area in front of the time expander was repaired. I've touched up the area - even though this will be covered with a Cliffy, It STILL needs to be repaired or the Cliffy will take the shape of the damaged area. This is another "pet hate" of mine - Using Cliffys to cover up damaged outholes - That is NOT what they should be used for. The outholes SHOULD be repaired, and then a Cliffy installed to prevent further wear.
The rest of the playfield will be dis assembled, and then it is off to be clearcoated. A quick clear to "seal" the work, and then I'll place the insert decals before a final clear is applied. Worth the extra effort in my opinion
