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Arcade Collecting => Miscellaneous Arcade Talk => Topic started by: More Cowbell on April 15, 2008, 11:20:49 am

Title: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: More Cowbell on April 15, 2008, 11:20:49 am
As mentioned in a previous thread, I recently traded for a Black Knight pinball. These are notorious for flaking backglass. It has already had some touchups which look decent. Is there any trick to touching up backglass? I know I need to try to find some similar colors but are there certain kinds that look better (meaning that they don't all just wind up looking like black globs when the light can't shine through)? I'd like to touch up what I can and then give it a coat of triple thick.

Edit - Added a pic. Not the best pic but you can see in the blue area where the paint is missing and it's just white shining through. I'm afraid if I touch up with any old blue paint, it will be too opaque for the light to shine through and will end up looking all globby and dark in those spots.
Title: Re: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: Neverending Project on April 15, 2008, 12:14:58 pm
Did you check out the marvin3m section (http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/index1.htm#touch) on pinball restoration?
Title: Re: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: More Cowbell on April 15, 2008, 02:16:35 pm
Very informative info at Marvin3m. I like the triple thick first to stop anything from getting worse and leaving room for error when touching up. I don't like my chances when it comes to getting the right transparency in those blue areas but I do like the words "paint retarder". They make me giggle. Step 1) Triple thick!
Title: Re: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: WareWolF on April 18, 2008, 04:51:23 pm
You might want to contact classic playfield reproductions to see if they are going to repro the backglass.  They recently made repro's of the playfield and plastics for Black Knight, hopefully the backglass will be coming too.

http://www.classicplayfields.com/store.html
Title: Re: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: More Cowbell on April 21, 2008, 01:54:06 pm
I bought some Triple Thick over the weekend and plan on sealing it up next weekend. It's one of those things that I know I need to do, but dread doing it.
Title: Re: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: shardian on April 21, 2008, 02:00:48 pm
If the glass is actively flaking, make sure to use the saran wrap trick in marvin3m. If you spray it straight on, some of the paint will fleck off. I just sprayed mine straight on because I really don't care about the CA pin. I just wanted it done. Very little paint came off, but I sprayed very lightly and farther away than standard.
Title: Re: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: More Cowbell on April 21, 2008, 04:59:07 pm
I don't believe there is any active flaking but I'm going to use the farther-away-than-standard-for-the-first-coat method. Thanks for the heads up. Maybe I'll do a picture tutorial of how it goes.
Title: Re: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: Xiaou2 on April 22, 2008, 07:57:10 am
it might be easier to scrape off all the blue paint,  then mask off the rest of the areas using frisket, then use an airbrush, or spray paint to re-do  the blue areas only. 

 The coating has to be very light and even, or it will not display right when lit.
You then need to apply a thin mist of white as well.   

 (Make sure to get the color matched up when its not lit)

 Also, the white on the backglass may be off-white from age.  With an airbrush
you can mix in some grey, yellow, and or blues to attain the same coloring.

 
 You may also get someone with a color laser printer to print out a
scan on clear transparency sheets.  It may not look as authentic, but
may be a lot easier to do.


 Using a brush isnt a good idea.  The brush will leave streaks that will be
visible under lighting.  It will also be very uneven.  Spray is the only way, IMOP.
Title: Re: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: More Cowbell on April 22, 2008, 11:39:59 am
This is not going to be easy. Hence my dread.  :dizzy:
Title: Re: Touching up flaking pinball backglass
Post by: Ibuypinball on April 25, 2008, 01:17:07 am
Not sure where you are, but, you might also consider a professional re-painter?

http://www.pinballpainting.com/ (http://www.pinballpainting.com/)