Hey all,

  I just picked up this pin from Jim. A fully working Bally Playboy. Considering that this machine is 30 years old, it's condition is quite good. Other than needing a shop job, it is pretty good as is. BUT... this machine is for my cousin, so I want to make it as top-shape as possible. It shouldn't be a very hard project. Here's a breakdown of the condition:

- Backglass is near mint. Just needs a good cleaning.
- Playfield has some wear around the bonus area and slings. Nothign major compared to most Playboys. Filthy though. Plastics a bit warped but OK. 1 plastic has sticker residue on it. Apron a bit faded.
- Bottom cabinet is very dirty inside (aren't they all...), some rust on metal parts, and bottom of the cab has minor damage (typical chipping wood around the edges of side panels, causing the bottom to start to drop down). 1 leg is bent, but I have spares.
- Coindoor a bit dented, nothing major, but very dirty
- Backbox paint a bit rough around the backglass supports, but otherwise very good
- Boards look good, but have a couple of broken solder joints that will need attention.

Here are a few pics...

More pics...

Last pic.

So the plan is to touch-up and clearcoat the playfield, repaint the cabinet, and polish all metal parts to make this game nice and fresh. So I started tonight by completely dissassembling the top of the playfield in order to give it a good cleaning. I already did some test areas (in the previous pics, the one of the center of the playfield, I used the Magic Eraser and alcohol and it came out nice).

I then put the playfield aside and am now concentrating on the cabinet, bottom one first. All metal parts are removed, and going through the polisher as I write this. I will polish all the big metal parts later on, and start creating stencils for the cabinet. I have a wood side rail from the playfield which I will use to get a color match at Home Depot later on this week. Other than that, white and black. Easy enough.

The other pics are of the in-progress cabinet work. Yes... I removed the siderails...

I could pick up some stencils from pinballpal for it @ allentown if you want... 120$

actually I think 10$ less since I'm probably going to pick up some for BK

Quoted from Mrhide

I could pick up some stencils from pinballpal for it @ allentown if you want... 120$

actually I think 10$ less since I'm probably going to pick up some for BK

Thanks for the offer, but no... the graphics on this pin are not that difficult to reproduce on acetate. If it were an EBD or Xenon, then yes, but Playboy is pretty straightforward. Besides... I don't know who painted this cab at the factory but it must had been a rough night the day before, because there is massive amounts of overspray.

I will take a trip to Omer DeSerres today and pick up 20$ worth of acetate. I will use the 100$ saved on the plastics.

Well, I started with the cabinet stencils tonight. If anyone is wondering where to get the supplies, here goes:

- Sheets of 25 x 50'' of thick acetate are found at Omer DeSerres at 7.95$ each. Smaller 20x25 sheets of thinner acetate are 1.95$. You need to add a bit of smaller acetate to the larger one since a cab is 53 inches long, or something like that.

- Get yourself an X-Acto kit from Canadian Tire or any other hardware store... great to have for other projects as well.

In the case of Playboy, for the bottom cab, since the art is reversible, I only need to make one set of stencils for one side and simply flip it over (after the paint dries on them, of course) to do the other side. So, 2 large acetates (1 for purple, 1 for black), 1 small acetate (to extend the large ones a bit), and one small acetate for the front of the cab. I also got 1 large acetate to do the backbox. I have more than enough to do 4 stencils with one sheet, and the thicker acetate won't move around.

Simply lay your acetate on the art, and trim the sides so that you eliminate any alignment problems later on when painting. Then simply use a thin sharpie and trace. I put a transformer on the acetate so that it doesn't move around when I trace.Once done, grab a piece of cardboard and lay the acetate on it. This will permit an easier cut with an x-acto as the blade won't hit anything hard when cutting through the acetate.

Painstaking? Yes. But best of all, REUSABLE!!!!!    I have done it this way in the past and used 1 stencil kit on 3 Alien Poker cabs. Worked good!

Best advice to follow is that when you use the stencils, spray light coats!! Also use old nuts and bolts, or even rocks to hold the stencil in place.  

Once my stencils are done, then I can work on the wood of the cab. I will post in the Tips And How To section on a couple of tricks I use, namely how to fix the bottom of a cabinet on which the wood of the side panels is chipping off and the bottom panel is falling out.

I hope you take some pics of you job, i'm just curious to see the 'before and afther' cabinet....

OK... 4 hours of tracing and cutting, and my stencils are done. I now can start working on the cab!!!  


I started by fixing the bottom of the cabinet. Typical wood chipping and the bottom was starting to sag down in a couple of places. Check out the repair here:

http://archive.maaca.org/s107351202.onlinehome.us/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?m-1209784931/s-0/

...Good as new!!! Tomorrow, I should be able to start sanding down the cab and working out any wood imperfections.

OK... here's what I got done tonight...  

- sanded the interior of the cab quickly, vaccuumed it and painted it, with 4 coats where the inside of the cab is visible with the playfield inside

- sanded the exterior completely with 60-grit

I now have to fix any rough spots with Plastic Wood and resand with 220-grit.

I used Rust-Oleum semi-gloss oil-based spray paint for the cab. Simple white. I also got the same paint in black for the details. I also had a pint of purple/pink paint done. i had the color mtched just right from a spot on the cab which was covered, so the paint wasn't faded or altered. I was lucky that I found a correct color chart and found it easily. Using CIL oil-based paint, and the color is Fuschia-Berry. I will use my paint gun for that one...

got your plastic set

Nothing new since the end of the game? Must be still in mourning. Habs are a great team to watch, consider yourself fortunate you didn't have to watch The Luongo's.
Great thread - very interested in your progress.
ooops sorry if hijacked

OK, update I guess...

I finished painting the bottom cabinet white late last night. I used a Zinsser Stain Killer Bond Coat primer... this stuff covers anything. Available at Home Depot in a spray can. Works great, and covers a lot on one spray pass.

Then over a course of 3 days, I put on 4 coats of white paint (by spray can) and making sure of letting enough dry time between coats. What I did was 3 thin coats and then one heavy coat. This worked out great since it eliminated most of the undesirable overspray effect when using a spray can with quick-dry paint. The only inconvenience is that your surface must be flat, and you make sure you give it 24 hours to completely dry before turning it over or manipulating the cabinet.

I should start putting on graphics soon, after painting the backbox, but I want to test my HVLP gun with the pink-purple paint first on some cardboard, in order to eliminate any goofs... should be OK though, just have to find an optimal pressure setting in order to ensure good coverage, but not blow the stencil clean off the cab.

I will post pics tonight of the backbox with the original color and the fresh new white... what a difference. The backbox will probably get sanded down tonight. I already painted the front panel after removing the displays and properly taping, and using old electrical marrettes I had to plug the light holes... wouldn't want any paint in the light sockets... I simply used the primer here. No paint. Looks clean, no more burn tracks from the lights.

I removed all the boards and the power supply from the backbox and I will be bringing them to Mindstorm88 for a complete refresh and updating. As for the displays, I am still tinkering with the idea of getting PINLed displays... not sure yet though. I might just try and dig up a couple of nice displays or rebuild them. They have seen better days. I can always test the ones from my Eight Ball (which won't be done for another couple of months...).

...I bet you anything that this Playboy will fetch a fair price when I will be done if my cousin decides to sell it...

Update time!!!

Thanks to my wife for bringing the kids biking, she left me some quiet time at home to tinker around the garage... she said it herself that it would be great to get the graphics on the Playboy as I put a lot of time and hard work on making the cab look nice and clean... I love that woman.  

So here it is...  over a week ago, I finished painting the entire cab with a fresh coat of white. Now comes the time to finally lay down some graphics.

First off, I want to give a huge thanks to Magneto (Luc). He came over recently to take pics of the FG playfield (he has one he wants to fix...) and we got to talking about paint. I told him I had an HVLP I bought from Princess Auto but had no idea on how to use it. He then told me he had the exact same gun (!!!!   ) and gave me a quick rundown on how to use it, and what consistency of paint I should have. He said he painted his motorcycle with it ( a SWEET 73 Triumph Bonneville!!!) and it came out great. Because of him, the whole thing went down flawlessly!!!

I taped up the cab and layed down the graphics for the pink (... Fuschia Berry!!!) on the side. I mixed the paint with Varsol in order to obtain the thickness of about 10% cream. Put it in the gun and tested it on some cardboard panels I got from the dollar store. Ready to go...

I did use some stencil spray tack, but HATED IT!!! It made the acetate warp somewhat, so I ended up using lots of old nuts and bolts to hold it in place. 2 thin coats later (with 4 hours dry time between them) and voil�!!! The pink is down, and looks great!

I then did the coindoor area and it went smoothly. Then I said, hey... why not do the black! So 4 hours after that, I did the black on the side. Oddly enough, I had a harder time with a spray can than my first attempt with an HVLP!!! My second coat on the side was a tad too thick and bled just a bit... but it still looks way better than the factory paint, which had an insane amount ov overspray! On one of the included pics, you see part of the head laying on another pin in the pic of the side of the cabinet... nice paint match!!!

Now, I have one side done, and the first coat of black around the coindoor. Second coat will go on tomorrow morning. Too tired now and more prone to mistakes...

Once the paint has dried a week on one side, I will lay it on my hydraulic table (covered with leftover subcarpeting... keeps from scratching) and do the other side. I will get started on the head next.

Last pic!

...I am really enjoying the cabinet work... It has even convinced me more than ever to restore that fire-damaged Eight Ball!!!

Looks awesome Sparky.  I know a lot of collectors like the original patina of cabinets - but seeing a freshly painted 80's game makes you think of how they must have looked in the arcades originally.

For HVLP gun is it a standalone setup - or do you have a monster compressor?   I'm just trying to figure out the right setup to get for myself.   I have no need/room for a big compressor (I have the pancake one) - but would love a spray gun painter.

Quoted from Tuborg

Looks awesome Sparky.  I know a lot of collectors like the original patina of cabinets - but seeing a freshly painted 80's game makes you think of how they must have looked in the arcades originally.

For HVLP gun is it a standalone setup - or do you have a monster compressor?   I'm just trying to figure out the right setup to get for myself.   I have no need/room for a big compressor (I have the pancake one) - but would love a spray gun painter.

I have a small 2.6 gallon Porter Cable portable compressor. Works fantastic for 99% of jobs. I used to have a 13-gallon one but it was hardly portable and ended up croaking. I like this small one way better.

As for the original paint, if it is decent, leave it, but I must admit that a new paintjob looks REALLY nice.

OK... I finally finished painting the bottom cabinet last night. Overall, I am satisfied, but of course my straight lines are not perfect, and there is just a bit of overspray, but as I have stated before, it is MUCH better than the original paint job. It was the worst factory paint I have ever seen.

My advice? If you don't mind spending 140$ and don't want to take the time to create stencils, buy the ones from PinballPal if your machine stencil is available. I will be getting a stencil kit for Eight Ball to see how much better it is.

I have polished all the metal parts for the cabinet and washed all the other parts, so I will be reassembling it tonight. I should be starting on the head now, but I have asked my painter to clearcoat a few playfields next week, so I will get cracking on playfield retouches soon enough.

Pics to follow.

I have a 10$ coupon for pinballpal if you want it ...

Quoted from Mrhide

I have a 10$ coupon for pinballpal if you want it ...

Thanks! I may take it... Eight Ball will get an overhaul soon enough. I am just waiting on CPR for the playfield/plastics/backglass kit. I am PRAYING it will be produced...

OK, small update... I started doing the finishing work on the bottom cab. Here's a breakdown:

- removed the rust and 30 years of crud off of the lockdown bar mechanism
- buffed the siderails to a shine and reinstalled them, along with the glass channels
- installed all the hardware which passed through my polisher for 3 days (every single part)

Looks good so far. Once done, I will bring it in the gameroom to clear the space so that I can work on the backbox. Pretty much all that is leftbefore the playfield work... the completely refurbished boards are waiting to be installed, and I have 5 tested and fully functional displays for it. Backglass has already been sealed.

I shuld finish the cab tomorrow night, then get the playfield done. It will be clearcoated soon.

Last two update pics

Nice cabinet resto, thanks for the pics !!  

You're doing a great job Sparky!!!

Eric

ma t'envoyer mon cab de black knight

Quoted from Mrhide

ma t'envoyer mon cab de black knight

Seriously, any time! I have the equipment, just short on time, but i could squeeze it in if you want.

Quoted from HAL-9OOO

Nice cabinet resto, thanks for the pics !!  

The offer is also good for your Fathom and Centaur if you get the stencil kits, I can repaint them if you like. Those 2 pins are too awesome to not get the full treatment!

BTW... I have sandblasted some original legs for it... but I am stuck with a little dilemna, so I will ask all of you for your opinion... what should I repaint them with? I have the following choices:

- original gun metal grey

- light grey hammer paint, exactly like on all classic Sterns

- a dark grey/charcoal hammer paint (looks like gun metal, but is a hammer paint)

- use the pink, white and black and be creative

Your call!!!

My preference? The charcoal hammer paint. Not original, but much nicer than the original paint...

This one
- a dark grey/charcoal hammer paint (looks like gun metal, but is a hammer paint)

Agree on the Hammered finish Grey. I did all my Bally legs that colour, it's nearly the same as original, you probably couldn't tell the difference. Don't worry about the Hammered finish, like everything else it doesn't as advertised, it just looks like gun metal grey to me.

Dan

Dark grey it is! I will get them done soon.

Quoted from Sparky

The offer is also good for your Fathom and Centaur if you get the stencil kits, I can repaint them if you like. Those 2 pins are too awesome to not get the full treatment!

Thanks for the offer !! Centaur will receive the mucho-packo treatment !!  

Wow... been working on this thing on and off for a while and haven't posted an update. Well, it has been slow-going but here goes:

- The bottom cabinet is now finished, apart from the coindoor. I want to swap a door skin.

- I have now been concentrating on the playfield. I stripped the top completely, put it on a rack and finished scrubbing it last night with 9 Magic Erasers and 2 bottles of rubbing alcohol. Came out nice and clean. Now I have to retouch some areas before having it clearcoated next week. I am not as talented as HAL9000 on touch-ups, but overall they are minor. I will take the "before" pics tonight,

Once the playfield is done, all I will have left to do is repaint the head. The graphics on it are nice, but the white is darker now. I might just touch it up...

Update... I spent 4 hours on the playfield tonight. But first thing first:

DISCLAIMER: I AM IN NO WAY CLOSE TO HAL9000 WHEN IT COMES TO PLAYFIELD RESTO. THIS IS MY FIRST!

OK, now that being aside, here goes. I finished cleaning the playfield of all mylar glue and any residue. Next step, releveling the inserts, as many have sunk in with time. Easy technique. Use a ratchet socket and knock it out GENTLY with a hammer. Once out, I put superglue on the edges of the insert on the underside, then with a large flat drain plug I got from work, tap them down flat. Worked great.

Next, start painting... I haev the playfield on a home-made rack so I can lay it flat. Here is the general condition:

- a shitload of swirlmarks everywhere

- slingshot wear on both sides, worse on the left

- center bonus area pretty bad, but not totally gone

- the waitress on the right side of the bumpers is worn... but my fault... went a bit too hard with the magic eraser

- grotto lane worn

- various other little spots here and there...

OK, here are the before pics (should have taken more...)

OK... I am not 100% happy with my work in the bonus area pertaining to the circles around the inserts. I started doing them by hand (big mistake) and forgot that I bought a circle cutter. I used it on the 2x to 5x inserts, and they are nice. The other bonus ones I will correct tomorrow (1:30am, I am tired).

Overall I am extremely pleased. I managed to color-match VERY well. Even got lucky with the pink, I had the EXACT color. Took me 5 minutes to match the flesh, 1 minute for the orange, 2 minutes for the yellow. Once this is clearcoated, it will be near flawless. I will spend an hour cleaning it up the little mistakes and finish little lines tomorrow, then cleacoat!!!

More pics... The''waitress'' was the longest to fix, as I used a needle to repaint all the small lines, using a picture off the web. Came out pretty damn good. Just have a couple of lines left to do.

More info tomorrow.

Sparky out...

EXTREMELY Impressive!!! That's going to look like a new machine that just came off the Bally assembly line!!  Sparky A.K.A. Treasure Cove North!!!!

Ho hey,i'm not expert in any way   my playfield look better in pics than in reality   ( i choose good pics only !!! ). I have experience only on two playfield but plan to make more.

Circle are hard to reproduce by hand when all the paint is gone on the payfield. The way i do them, i use a pen and a stencil and after i paint them by hand, lot easier because you have lines to follow.



For example i use 17 mm and 19 mm to make this circle. I use a long and thin brush because it's easier if hand shake !!   When i make touch up in small area i paint all the area, the mismatch color is not visible this way. You make a good job for the first attempt, the more you make the better you will come !!  

verry good work,well done Ian,your cab came out good!! i think it was worth the blisters on your fingurs cutting out those stensils.those pf touch ups also look awsom!! keep up the good work. BTW ill have to post my flash gordon project, pf artwork is 95% complete!!!
Magneto

OK, so I had my family over last Sunday for my daughter's baptism and my cousin got his first look at the machine. He is freaking out! I assembled it Saturday night after finishing the paint job on the head. So here is what was done:

- backbox stripped, painted and cleaned inside

- legs painted and bolted onto the cabinet with polished bolts

- backbox installed onto the cabinet

- new power cord installed

- backglass put in place

... and I just found out that the playfield is done. 3 coats of Dupont clear. I will pick it up Wednesday. Then I will work on the mechanicals under the playfield, making sure everything is OK. At a minimum, a cleaning, contact change and sleeve replacement.

...And if BZM is also reading this, I did your Mars God of War playfield at the same time and it is now minty fresh after the touch-ups and 4 coats of Dupont clear. Your machine just went WAY up in value.  

Where did you get your Clear done ?
(...sounds local ... ? )

Expensive ?


LMK,
Thanks,
Steph

Do you have to unwire the playfield, too prior to clearing?  

Or can you leave all the junk on underneath?

Quoted from Steph

Where did you get your Clear done ?
(...sounds local ... ? )

Expensive ?


LMK,
Thanks,
Steph

I have a friend who is showing me how to do it. If I were to do it (if there is a demand), I would charge about 80$ + touch-ups if needed, but NO WAY am I shipping... way too much a pain in the a**. Either you bring the pf to my place or I get it at a meeting, and delivery would be the same.

Quoted from Tuborg

Do you have to unwire the playfield, too prior to clearing?  

Or can you leave all the junk on underneath?

Preferable to be bare, but Playboy wasn't... I had everything tie-wrapped underneath, with 2x4s on each side permitting me to lay it flat without worrying about hitting something under. And I use foam earplugs to protect light sockets from getting any clear in them.

Quoted from Sparky

I have a friend who is showing me how to do it. If I were to do it (if there is a demand), I would charge about 80$ + touch-ups if needed, but NO WAY am I shipping... way too much a pain in the a**. Either you bring the pf to my place or I get it at a meeting, and delivery would be the same.

Ian,

Wow, nice work, congrats !

Please let us know if you would consider doing similar quality retouching (and maybe clearcoating)
for some of our playfields in the future... if you are interested, when you get spare time, of course.
(incidentally, do you use acrylic paint ?)
I am sure there will be a demand (I have a few PF for sure needing that service).

Just make sure that you quote an upfront fair price for both yourself and the PF owner,
so that you do not get low-balled like your mame building 'bad' earlier experience...
(but price hopefully still competitive compared to the well-known US playfield restorers).

Please post or PM. I am interested in this type of service.
(heck, I would even fix a machine/boards for you +/-$ as a trade if wanted).

Thanks and Cheers !
- Sylvain in Ottawa.

Here are a few pics of the assembled cabinet. Just have to finish the coindoor...

Playfield now clearcoated! Some of the touch-ups show a bit but nothing major. Very happy overall.

When is the last time anyone saw a Playboy playfield shine like this:

The whole machine looks spectacular.

Awesome work Ian.

When can you come over to work on "my" projects ?    



Steph

Quoted from Steph

The whole machine looks spectacular.

Awesome work Ian.

When can you come over to work on "my" projects ?    



Steph

I would love to, but I have so many myself, it is nuts. I am mostly working for others right now... but I don't know which machine of mine I should do first... maybe I will do a poll for fun.

The final stretch...

I was having some problems assembling the playfield, so I decided to build a rotisserie to do it. Total cost = 35$, and works like a charm. Fully adjustable and compact. Bolts on to my work table.

I am now reassembling the playfield, should be done with 2-3 hours of work. Then, all I have left is clean the coindoor and put it in the cab.

The final phase! I put in the boards in the cabinet yesterday, and she works great! I just have to find two displays for it, and a couple of little parts. Other than that, it starts a game and everything, just needs the typical switch adjustments and light socket checks.

I ordered the last parts I needed. New light sockets for the pop bumpers and a rubber kit, but I did forget to order a sticker for the coindoor. I will look on Ebay for one.

Quoted from Sparky

...but I did forget to order a sticker for the coindoor. I will look on Ebay for one.

Playboy didn't come with a coin door sticker. Bally didn't start using them until later on.

I'm late to comment, but thats one hellova restoration