Ed Chung is working on a Totan restoration check it out Here

The subject of POTC, and how to make $$$ to get one came up on RGP and this was the following conversation quoted from icetre

I’m going to be pretty in the hole when POTC comes in, and some have
inquired about my restore services. Rather than reply individually, I
figured I’d post my rates and descriptions directly.
Obviously since I’m in the hole, I prefer CASH, but I will consider
trades, and much like I’m doing for Marcus, I’m willing to talk about
working on multiple machines, for a trade worth more than a single
service being rendered. IE, I’ll decent restore 3 machines for your
demo man.

Prices are estimates: But this isn’t a real business for me, so you can
be pretty sure it’s going to be whatever I tell you. IE decent restore
of a Cirqus, I’ll estimate at $500, and that’s the price you’ll pay. If
it is going to change for some reason, I will call and inform you of
the problem, the reason for the change in price, and change in price. But
within reason, I’m pretty fair, and if I said 500, and it takes an
extra hour, oh well.

If you’ve been to Marcus’s house, you’ve seen some examples of my work.

His getaway (no cab work was done) is a fairly decent shop, and the
Whodunnit, was a spot clean.

Obviously, the better the starting platform, the better (and cheaper)
the results will be. I in no way claim, I can take that auction
junkyard dog, you’ve purchased, and turn it in to HUO. I’m a hard worker, and a
talented engineer. But I’m no miracle worker. ;)

I usually charge 500 for a decent restore. If you want the CH
treatment, without clearcoating, I charge 1k, and with clear tack
another 500 (hey it’s a *LOT* of work to get all those parts off the
board so you can spray.)

For a Spot clean, and shop, I’d have to see what the deal with the
table was, but I’d go 150~200 for something average. Figure 35-50 for parts
depending on what all you want done.

The decent restore is a fairly decent deal for you, it’s a terrible
deal for me, considering in my main line of business I make $50/hour, and in
this sideline I make like $2/hour. ;)

Usually included in a decent restore:

Ball shooter and kickout lanes sanded clean, and repaired, refinished
to a nice butter soft shine using a 30 coat process (usually 40-50 before
I’m satisfied.)
average repair on upkicker holes (spider hole, slot machine, etc) is
included, but as this requires art repair, and the art repair is best
effort
All mechanics repaired (parts extra)
All topside hardware tumbled
Flame polish ramps
Full teardown, of the playfield, and cleaning of every topside part, 3
step polish of the playfield to a mirror like shine, rebuild.
Small cabinet problems, (ie chips, delamination at the corners, etc)
repaired, but major carpentry is extra.
Ball trough, cleaned and burrs filed

Also much like CH, I take pictures, and usually for my convience, it’s
just easier to put them up on my website, which you can access from
home, giving you the benefit of seeing the progress on your pin as it
is restored. These pictures remain on the website, but are also burned to
cd-rom, and you recieve with your finished pin. This is a great asset,
as if you ever need to know what color a wire leading to the 3rd
flipper coil lug is red or orange, you have a reference.

*Also I have some general policies*

Any part that ends up in my hand, ends up disassembled and cleaned
any part that remains on the board untouched does not. (pop bumpers are
a usual example, they almost never get totally rebuilt, cause they
don’t usually need it.)

EVERY part on the topside is disassembled and cleaned in a restore,
always.

This is a best effort service, and I as such can not be held
responsible, if say a part that’s irreplaceable falls apart in my
hands. (never happened before on big stuff though I have lost for instance, a
pop bumper spoon, and I’ve cracked a plastic once. Just making sure I
limit my liability. I mean, this is 10 year old PET plastic we’re
talking about here, it can be very brittle in many cases.)

I don’t transport the tables, you bring them to me, in my shop in
I’m willing to transport but that’s extra and best effort
(never hurt a table, yet…) .

I don’t regrain metal ramps. If it fits in the polisher great if not it
gets cleaned and that’s it

I don’t do EM’s

I don’t take any responsibility for mylar removal. I’ll do it, but you
sign a contract that I’m not responsible no matter what happens mylar
removal and cleanup is extra. It can be a lot of work also (TZ full
mylar takes about 5 nerve wracking hours to 1 to pull and about 4
scraping every surface with a pool of goo gone and a plastic razor
blade)

Decent restore is can be applied to most pins, except TZ. TZ is the
biggest nightmare of a shop job I’ve ever done. Seriously. It was like
3 in one. I’ll only do it as a Full restore, but then you get sanding,
interior cab repainting, and pretty much every surface cleaned, wire
loom cleaning, all parts, top and bottom clean and repaired, boards
cleaned, etc etc etc.

Insert Leveling is extra Again, no liability, best effort.

I’ll do minor PF touchups, but I’m no artist.. If your really picky,
you might be better off sending the board to a restorer/clearcoater, such
as Bill Davis. I feel I do a serviceable job in most cases, but I can’t
repair major problems, Only minor spots. I’ll tell you if I can do it
on a case by case basis. I have examples of what I can do. Once again,
best effort.

Cab Decals are extra $300 plus the label for the whole cab, quote for
single pieces

Cab stenciling is 500 plus the stencil

So what does your shop job entail?

Here’s a mod to Whitewater that I may have to do to mine.

Just seems to be more fun?

Darin of phoenixarcade.com posted the Original Films of STTNG. Hopefull ready before Christmas.

I am seriously droolin..

http://members.aol.com/azarcadegames/1.jpg
http://members.aol.com/azarcadegames/2.jpg

According to Clays Guides, Lightning Rust Remover is the way to go to get rid of rust, and make lockdown bars and legs look like new. A few more tips were given as follows

1) “The Must For Rust” from Home Depot can also be used

2) Make sure you buy a plastic wallpaper trough long enough to accomodate a leg

3)
Real Products Mfg., Ltd.
3480 State Route 15
Ney, OH 43549
1-800-659-2459 Fax: 419-658-2334
www.realproductsmfg.com

Straight from the RGP’s mouth, Big Time Cabinets have announced:

Given the improving environment with regards to available artwork, and
many requests from customers, we are once again making the effort to supply
your cabinet needs. It is therefore with great pride I am happy to announce
that BTC is back, and I am in the facility again full time!!

So, many probably are asking “what happens from here?”

PLAN: Our plan is to first get a feel for the market needs, much like the
folks doing playfields have. Please write us at
sales@bigtimecabinetsNOSPAM.com, or chrismunson@bigtimecabinetsNOSPAM.com
and let us know what you are looking for. The web site is NOT current and I
do not anticipate this will change in the near future, so email inquiries
are best.

ARTWORK: We will focus as before on WPC-95 cabinets for which authorized
artwork exists. We invite customers to supply artwork to save us
buying/stocking and shipping same.

PRICING: Available through email. Expect pricing similar to what was set
in the past.

QUESTIONS: If you are looking for something in painted wood only, or just
a head, or something apart from the full assembly, let me know - I may be
able to assist you. YES, we will STILL silkscreen backboxes for those
needing this service.

I may have to get one for my White Water ;I

Kevin Steele @ Retroblast.com has a cool little article on Twilight Zone Mods the cost and where to buy are included in the article..

Now if I could just find all the pieces to mine and put it back together again ;I

Bruce Nightengale is selling a Pinball Lift that goes with a Sears ATV Jack. Part of me is interested, the other just wants to wait for the Harbor Freight dolly to go back on sale.

Also avialable at http://www.pinballlifter.com/

Treasure-Cove is selling Restoration Label Kits for any class of Williams Pin. These allow you to replace the stickers/signs that adorn most williams machines.

I think I’ll be grabbing one or two.

Ryan Leonard restored this T2 apron.

Nice work.

For all of your playfield restoration needs

Testors Complete Airbrush System

Coupon Code: PC7110

Make sure you uncheck the club.

While not totally a pinball related post, this is coin-op related (of which I love).

A guy went and detailed how he restored a Pacman cabinet to pristine condition.

Kudos…

Dave Pauk Posted this Playfield restoration tips to RGP Good info

I’ve recently embarked upon reviving the playfield on my SO76. When I
first got the game 2 years ago, I did some spot touch-ups to worn areas
with acrylics and Varathane and it looked okay, but now the playfield
is at a point where it needs a full clearcoat. Plus, I was
never really satisfied with the color matches on the touch-ups I did.
FWIW, I’ll be using Varathane for my full clearcoat.

Note: Thanks to using acrylic paint and Varathane intially, I was able
to easily remove my previous spot touch-ups with Goof-Off without
harming the original playfield artwork.

Like many, I use the information on the Marvin site as my guide for
stuff like this, so I’d like to share my experience as a supplement to
the excellent info Clay has already provided.

Tip 1. As per the Marvin site, I was using craft acrylics that can be
bought at Walmart or Home Depot. I’m very good with paint matching but
what I found is that I could easily match the “shade” but not the
intensity of the factory artwork. It turns out this is due to the paint
I was using.

The colors on SO76 are very intense blue, red, and yellow. No matter
what I tried with the craft paints, it always ended up looking dull (
not because of the flat finish, but rather the intensity of the color).

At the suggestion of others, I went out and bought artists acrylics (
the brand I used was Liquitex) and with some slight color adjustments
the touch-ups came out perfect! Apparently, these paints have a higher
pigment load. Well, there’s no comparison to the craft acrylics, these
paints are excellent for matching the original screened colors on a
playfield. Yeah, a few more dollars but totally worth it.

Tip 2: To do my paint matching, I used a small piece of wood. I found
this helps with getting the correct match because the paint looks
different on various surfaces. I was using a piece of white cardboard
and clear plastic initially, but found that when the paint was applied
to the worn areas on the playfield, it wasn’t the same shade as on the
cardboard. So, since the touch-ups are going over wood, it makes sense
to use a wood piece for testing the paint match.

Tip 3: As we all know, acrylics dry darker. Having said that, I think
it’s also important to apply your clearcoat to the paint match on your
test piece (if you’re using Varathane) because this also changes how
the color looks. The last thing anyone wants is to touch up an entire
playfield, and then realizing the touch-ups look “off” after
clearcoating the whole playfield.

Tip 4: The center kickout hole on my game was chewed up around the
edges, giving a jagged look to the bevel. I found that a great way to
smooth this out is to use a couple of layers of Krazy Glue as filler,
sand it out, and then repaint the edge of the hole. To reproduce the
look of wood, I used a light tan color as my base, then drybrushed a
lighter shade of tan on top, and then finally drybrushed a median shade
of tan. The end result looks just like wood. This drybrush technique
can also be used to “freshen up” other small areas of wood
grain if it has darkened quite a bit over time. This effect still lets
the woodgrain show through, but gives it a lighter appearance.

Tip 5: This may be up for debate, but rather than sand the playfield
first and then do touch-ups, I’m doing touch-ups first with the
acrylics and brushing over them with a thin coat of Varathane before I
sand. This ensures two things…that I have no worries about whether
I’ve achieved the correct paint match before spraying the whole
playfield, and also protects the touch-ups when I do lightly sand the
playfield before spraying. I should mention that I’m leaving the black
outlines until after sanding since I don’t have to worry about matching
this color.

Tip 6: If you have a digital camera, take a few pictures of your
touch-ups to make sure they’re matched correctly before doing the full
clearcoat. Cameras pick up nuances in the colors that you may or may
not see in regular light. There’s been a couple of times where I swear
the match is dead-on, then taken a picture only to find out it’s a
little too light or too dark. The
camera does not lie. If it’s not right, dab a small artists brush with
Goof-off, remove and re-do.

Plus, you’ll know for sure that your touch-ups won’t stick out like a
sore thumb when you share photos of your game with your pin buddies ;-)

Anyway, just some suggestions that may help others as they do this sort
of thing. If anyone’s interested, I’ll post some pics in the near
future.

Dave
http://usergallery.myhomegameroom.com/gallery/dmp65

He was then asked if cleaning of the playfield, which he replied.

Yeah, I did the Magic Eraser (with alcohol) and Naptha wipedown on the whole playfield prior to doing the touch-ups. Keep in mind, I’m only suggesting you cover the touch-up area with clearcoat initially to ensure color match, not the entire playfield. Once you’re satisfied with the result of your color matches, then lightly sand the touch-upped areas, Naptha the entire playfield again, tack cloth, and
then spray the full playfield clearcoat

Here are some various pictures of a Kiss being restored

Over on on RGP Joe’s Pinball posted a new tool called a PinPan

Tempted… I’m very tempted….