How does a (or do you) collector(s) restore and/or maintain the stainless steel body parts??  (ie: hold/lock down, rails etc)

-Steel Wool (or maybe ~1200 wet sand) - best bet??
-Acid dip ??- I suppose it would not remove scratches - but it'll be clean!! (now what)
-Wheel cleaner??
-Sand/bead blast??  (no more grain look)

I am tempted to sandblast them (at least the lockdown bar)- which will change the finish to dull - but pretty. (but not original). Would a hardcore collector frown on this (?)

sand paper.

one way *only*

I usually start with a drill with a wire brush and then finish it off with sand paper.

Not sure of the finish types for all era of pins.

But for the rails you can sand (as mrhide said in one direction only) with 250+ grit sand paper. Dry is fine.

Lock down bar you can sand as well with something a bit higher.  But I prefer to buff it with a buffing wheel.  Makes a nice smooth and shiny finish.

I usually just use a isopropyl alcohol and a 3M scotch pad and it usually comes pretty nice.

                                       flashman

Similarly to flashman, I have used some semi-abrasive Scotch pad with Novus2 or Goo Gone and never found a need to sand anything with a steel brush or sandpaper.  For stainless steel, if there is any rust on it, then it is probably just some surface stuff that a Scotch pad can handle.  Even the very fine steel wool can be used.

I also don't see how shiny you want to get the lockdown bars for example.  I have owned up to 8 Pins of a few different 80s/90s and never found they needed any sanding/buffing (and I can tell you that my eye is very into High End Pinballs type of finishes).  But I guess it depends on how Shiny (HUO) the rest of the cabinet game is....

It all depends what you start with. If you have deep scratches, you might have to use coarse sand paper(220). If it is fine scratches, you might use fine steel wool to continue with sand paper 400 and then 600. You will see that you use the right kind of sand paper if the scratches you are working on are disapearing with a reasonable effort and time.
If you don't get any significant results after a minute of rubbing, it means that you need to start again with a more coarse sand paper. On the opposite, if your sand paper is making bigger scratches than what you are trying to make disappear, obviously stop and swith to something finer.
Once you are finish with grade 600, you need a rubbing compound. I recommend that you go to an auto-parts store and pick up a rubbing compound from 3M number 39004. It is more expansive than the crap you can find at Canadian Tire but it is professionnal grade.
At this point, you need quite a bit of old underwears(rags). Start buffing and change cloth frequently. If you have an electrical buffer, it will save you a lot of work. I usually stop at this point because it's almost like a mirror. In fact, you just stop where you like it. If you just want a brush stainless finish, take the other guy's advise and rub always in one direction. And finally, if you are totally crazy and you want a mirror finish, use 3M's chrome &metal polish number 39527.
Those techniques apply to polish stainless steel, but you will find out that the same principles and techniques will apply for many pinball parts like badly rusted legs for example.
Finally, just keep in mind that you must invest in the right products to get the best results with the minimal efforts. Let us know about the results and good luck!

hey frank, make sure you read this thread ...

Sorry Mrhide but I don't get it???

Quoted from fluidfrank

Sorry Mrhide but I don't get it???

sometimes neither does he ...just nod and smile... ...do they have a nod and smile smiley...they should!

I can still come to the meeting right?

Cheers,
Richard

c't'ai pour ton thread the "Grosse crosse" ... comme quoi des fois, it IS just a fuse!  

Désolé Mrhide, je cherchais le lien avec le frottage de stainless. En fait, je peux comprendre qu'un problème de fuse peut être parfois difficile à détecter pour certains. L'histoire derrière mon post *grosse crosse* vient d'une frustration que j'ai eu avec un revendeur de pinball bien établi. Un ami qui demeure près de Hartford m'avait trouvé une Haunted House(que je veux me procurer depuis longtemps) près de chez lui au Rhode Iland. Comme il vient au Canada 3-4 fois par année, il m'a proposé de l'entreposer et de me l'apporter lors de sa prochaine visite. Il me restait plus qu'à contacter le vendeur. Pour faire une histoire courte, c'était un gars dans la business qui était là pour faire de l'argent. Un gars comme ça va remplacer une fuse car il sait que ça va lui permettre de vendre sa machine 300-400$ de plus. Je ne peux pas tout raconter sur le gars mais je peux te dire que c'était un authentique crosseur.
Je n'en ai pas reparlé dans mon post quand je me suis rendu compte que ça se transformait en séance de règlements de comptes et de lynchage.
Salut!

For the english readers, I am sorry for the french invasion in this section but Mrhide was asking me for a good recipe for stuffing his chrismas turkey. For details, please contact Mrhide or go at http://www.kraft.ca. Thanks.

Quoted from Pinbot

How does a (or do you) collector(s) restore and/or maintain the stainless steel body parts??  (ie: hold/lock down, rails etc)

-Steel Wool (or maybe ~1200 wet sand) - best bet??
-Acid dip ??- I suppose it would not remove scratches - but it'll be clean!! (now what)
-Wheel cleaner??
-Sand/bead blast??  (no more grain look)

I am tempted to sandblast them (at least the lockdown bar)- which will change the finish to dull - but pretty. (but not original). Would a hardcore collector frown on this (?)

Good advice from others here, but I think it really depends on what part you're talking about. For example, parts like the lockdown bar, siderails, and coin door usually only need a light sanding or scrubbing.

For lockdowns and coin doors, I sand in one direction using medium grit emery cloth, and then finish with fine grit. After that, I wipe it down with Windex. That's it. In my experience, you do NOT want to use any polish if you're trying to recreate the original finish. Unless, of course, you want it to look like a mirror, but that's not how those parts looked when new.

For siderails, I rarely need to use anything harsher than a scotchbrite pad and a strong all-purpose cleaner.

Other parts, like the lockdown assembly that's attached to the cabinet, are usually more corroded and require something more aggressive like a wire brush or coarse sandpaper to start, then move to medium and fine grit emery cloth as above.

Older style pinball legs are chrome plated, so a lot depends on the condition of the chrome itself. If there is rust underneath the plating, or they're rusted so bad that the chrome has pitted or flaked off (particularly on the inside of the rear legs which you see when standing in front of the game), you can do your best to polish them up but they still won't look great.

The only option, albeit a pricey one, is to buy new legs. I've gone this route for all my pins and it really makes a huge difference on the overall appearance. If you want to see some pics of the restorations I've done, check out the link in my sig.

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