Gorf control panel artwork restoration

[Scottacus]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie here and I'm restoring a 1981 Gorf Game.  The game was covered in dirt inside and out and even had dried leaves in the cabinet but amazingly most everything worked at least in part.  The aluminum panel that sits under the joystick and start buttons had been scuffed up badly on the left hand side where players rested their left hand while playing with their right.

No one makes a replacement panel anymore so I decided to redo the graphics using a product called Decal Pro from Pulsar.  The details for the system can be found here http://www.pulsarprofx.com/decalpro/, I have no financial stakes with this company but I've used this product for several years and knew that it would be a good choice for this restoration.

Here is a photo of the panel with the far left section wet sanded down with 400 grit wet/dry paper.



Because the board was so dinged up and there was a thin coat of grey paint over the entire surface I sanded the entire board down to bare metal.



I found an adobe illustrator file with all of the artwork on it and I had a friend add 1/4 inch borders around each graphic and invert the graphics and put it into a non scaled PDF so that I could take it to be printed on a color laser printer.  The graphics need to be inverted because the white will go under the color toner so it needs to be on the back side of the graphic.  The 1/4" wide boarder is needed during the process of making the transfer to prevent the graphic from lifting during the water bath portion of the process. 

You can check out the decal pro site for all of the details of how to use this product but suffice it to say that I layered white under the inverted color toner and made transfers from this.  The white is needed because toner and other printing colors need white under them to register in the proper color tones.  For example red toner without white behind it will look orange.

Here is a photo of one of the three sections with the white underlay on clear mylar, ready for transfer.  The clear overhead sheet behind the mylar helps with getting the graphic in just the right spot before transfer.



An alcohol based adhesive is sprayed onto the white undercoat and the graphic is rubbed onto the plate,  Here you can see the two end graphics in place.



Here is a photo of the completed plate with all graphics in place.



These transfers are surprisingly tough but I am sure that they will wear through with abuse so I covered them with several coats of clear enamal to seal them in and protect them

[yotsuya]

Just saw this thread. Wow! Nice job!

Do you need any special equipment for this, besides the kit? I looked at the website, and it references a laminator.

[wp34]

That is really cool. Thanks for sharing.

[Scottacus]

Sorry, I didn't see your  posts until now.  Yes you do need a laminator to make this work, The one that Pulsar recommends works great and is well priced.

Essentially the process is this:

1) Lay out your artwork and print it out using a laser printer onto specialized sugar coated paper.  This paper looks just like the green colored decal paper that came with plastic model kits.  In the case of the Gorf panel I needed a color laser printer because I wanted full color.

2) Drive all of the water out of the transfer paper with a heat gun.  Apparently all papers must have some moisture content to me able to run through a laser printer without jambing.

3) Run the specialized paper through the laminator with a specialized toner transfer material that sticks only to the toner.  If there is any moisture in the paper the transfer material will stick to it also which is why you do step 2.  If you want a single color transfer then you print the original normally, if you want full color you need to mirror the image because the transfer material goes under the toner not over as in single color.

4) Use low tack masking tape to pull off any extra transfer material from the paper that stuck in areas that don't have toner under it

5) Run the paper through the laminator with a sheet of clear mylar over it.  The transfer material will stick to the mylar via a static charge.

6) Submerge the paper and mylar into a water bath.  The water dissolves the sugar on the paper and releases the transfer material so it is now stuck onto the mylar.

7) Spray alcohol based adhesive onto the toner material and mylar.

Place the mylar/material over the landing spot and press the transfer into place.  The bonding between the adhesive is stronger than the electrostatic charge so it will release from the mylar and stick to the surface.


This process seems complex, and it is, but the results are stunning!  This lets you do things that you can't do any other way without very expensive industrial equipment.