How did Midway coin doors look when they were new ?

[Level42]

OK, I hope there are some people here with very good memories.  Does someone remember how the coindoors looked ORIGINALY on cabs like Galaxian ? What I mean is the STRUCTURE of the paint. The one in my Galaxian has loads of "bubbles" across the coindoor.

Now, I think that these bubbles were already there originaly. BUT it could also be that the metal under the paint has started to rust and that this caused the bubbles to come up.

I think they were there orignaly because there are some of those bubbles also in the inside of the door. Like some "missed" spray.

Take a look at the pictures:

1st: detail of the front-side
2nd: the inside. Look, there are almost NO bubbles on the bottom part, where the rust seems to be the worst !?!!?
3rd: close-up of the coin-door ring. Looking at THESE, I think THOSE look like rust bubbles....

Anyone has an archive picture from the early 80's of a Galaxian ?
Or does anybody remember ? I've shown this pics to various people and get various answers...
I'd like to know for sure

[SirPeale]

Use something hard and flat.  Scrape one of the bubbles.  I bet it comes right off, revealing rust underneath.

I have doors in decent shape with no bubbles.  The original texture is rough.

You can get this same texture.  Use Rust-Oleum textured paint.  Don't know if you have it over the pond, though.

[Ken Layton]

Galaxian used a glossy gray textured paint.

[Kevin Mullins]

They should be evenly "textured" NOT "blistered".
Circled in green is GOOD.
Circled in red is BAD.

Like already mentioned...scrape a couple of those bigger blisters and you will more than likely find a little rust spot. I circled a couple examples of those that had already been popped off. (in red)

I like to use truck bed liner that comes in an aerosol can.
Gives it a nice even and durable texture. Then I'll spritz it over with some glossy paint just for the sheen effect.
(after totally stripping and sanding the door clean of rust of course)

[Level42]

Thanks guys, this was EXACTLY what I needed to know 
Kevin, great explanation, makes sense Any brand/product info on that paint you use ?

Peale, yeah Rust-oleum is available here. (http://www.rust-oleum.nl/asp/openscherm.asp?taal=ne)
Do you have some more details about that particular paint you use ? How do you apply it ?

Could this texture also be reached with powder coating ? I am planning on having the other (black) metal parts powder coated. (The black parts have no structure).

[RayB]

The ideal way to get that finish IS powder-coating.

[Level42]

Great   Will talk to my local powdercoater next friday. Need to get all metal parts off my cabs....the more items in one go, the better However, the coin door is a whole different story of course, different color, different structure...

[SteveS]

Level42,

I got your PM and I wlll answer you directly but I thought I would share with the board.

My family owns a powder coating shop and we do arcade stuff all of the time.  As a sample check out http://powderperfect.com/samples.asp.  Look for the Star Trek pinball handle.  I don't have any pictures at the moment but we do a lot of coin doors in a silver vein texture I believe.  You would have to fill out the quote or question form so my brother, Kevin, could confirm.  I run the site but I'm not a powder coater. 

Anyway, look at http://www.tigerdrylac.com/index.php?id=849 for color charts.  Tiger Drylac has several colors and textures.  We shoudl be able to use most of the powders.  Some powders, like Chrome, do not hold up well but Kevin or your local powder coater can tell you that info.

Hope that helps.

Steve

[Pac-Fan]

Every Galaxian or pre-1980 Bally/Midway game with the gray colored paint (not black of later models) and the punch out disc between the two coin drops has *always* had the 'bubbled' texture on them, regardless if they were full of rust or absolutely rust free.  This is what I've seen on every one I've personally seen and every auction that had close enough pictures to view. These are not flaws, they are there for a reason. This was the way they were made with a speckle drop, just like the blue speckles on the side of a Pac-Man cab during part of their run.  It hides other damage much better, just like texturing your walls.

[Ken Layton]

Actually the earliest Midway doors from 1976 and earlier were brown paint.

[zorg]

from the cabs I've seen from my eyes
3 Midway Space Invader have coin door with these "bubbles texture"
2 midway galaxian have these "bubbles texture".

[Pac-Fan]

You can get a good match by spraying it with a rust-oleum texture paint, then go over it with a quick flat black to seal the texture in, then cover with rust-oleumn black Hammered.  The black in the hammered is actually quite grey in color and was the closest "off-the-shelf" spray paint I could find to match the original grey. It's more of a blue-pueter (sp?) grey than neutral grey regardless of the cap color. I was very happy with the outcome.

Also if you do very light coats of the hammered, over an already painted surface, the hammering effect is lessened giving you a pretty darn close copy, though not exact of course.  The hammering works best on an unpainted or very very old/hardened surface I've found.

Again, the red circled items in the above post are intended to be there. They wern't fully on the back because it didn't need to be, but all the face and frame always has them on these older Midway vid's (in that 1977 to 79 range like Space Invaders, Galaxian, etc..)

[Level42]

Thanks, great input from all of you !

I think now I can safely say that we can conclude the "discussion" with a definite answer:

Pac-Fan, and the others saying the "bubbles" were there originally are right !

There's no other way to be sure then to test it:

I carefully cut open the very top of a "bubble" => Paint
Cut Half-way bubble => Paint
Complete bubble off => bright blank metal -  NO RUST !!!

If the bubbles would have been caused by rust, there would be AIR under the bubbles IMHO.
And the metal surface under it would be rusty looking.

Not so, so these bubbles of paint were there orignaly.

I also checked out some more info on the net about these coindoors. The basic shape of this coindoor was used as early as 1965 (!!!!!) on Midway Pinball machines. Even the same grey color was used !

However the EXACT same version was used on a 1973 videogame called Winner (=pong) , (but as Ken Layton pointed out already) they were painted brown, probably to match the woodgrain of the cab.

(take a look at this lovely piece of art on this flyer:


Thanks for everyone's input, and especialy the help on how to recreat this !!

[csa3d]

I was using this blog to refinish my door.  I used only the rustoleum texture paint, due to it being a flat finish.  The only hammered rustoleum I found was glossy.  Looking back at how mine has turned out so far, I think I would have bought the hammered finish then hit that with a flat overcoat.  I think my coindoor looks better with the texture then without, but it does not look quite like the original with the pronounced bubbles you describe.  I'll post pics this weekend of the finished product.  Anxious to see how you tackle this as well!

-csa

[Level42]

Mmm...first, that coin door looks like it had been painted over before. I don't see any bubbles (we shouldn't be calling them bubbles anymore, since there is no air in it , what's the right word for a small ball of paint ?) on the "before" picture on the door itself. They are there on the frame. I don't like the end-result, no bubbles Way too smooth....and it looks like it's spray painted with a can, which IMHO just doesn't do it. At least I've never had good results with other stuff I tried. Spray painting is for pro's, you gotta know how to handle a spray-gun.

I still wonder how those "bubbles" were made. There are some "spilled" one's on the inside as well, which indicates some kind of spraying I guess.

I hope to see the guy who will do all the black metal parts for my Galaxian and Mario Bros in powder coating today. He also does "normal" spray painting and he does excellent work....I'll discuss it with him and see if he has a good idea how to get as close as possible.

[Level42]

By the way, both my Galaxian and Mario Bros coindoors have some pretty nasty dents in them. Any tips on how to straighten them ? I guess carefully hammering with a plastic hamer from the backside ? Should it be on a flat surface or not ?

[csa3d]

I took my coindoor down to the bare metal with a wire wheel on my drill.  It looked brand spanking new like it had just been cut out of metal minus some minor scratching.  I had four holes in my frame, I sanded them down and got out a rounded tip hammer and just beat the hell out of the door as lightly as possible.  If the dent from the front was a bit sunken in, I figured it was better then sticking out, as I was going to fill all major damage areas with a thin coat of bondo anyways.  My coin frame was bent, so I took a wooden bat and placed the frame over top the bat, putting all my weight on the edges to bend it back into place.  I'd suggest brute force, I really see no other way.  Enough bondo and filler under the paint job will mask everything you worry about.

-csa