Funhouse playfield restore... Tips/suggestions wanted (mylar, painting etc)

[Mickey Juice]

Hi all 

I've just picked up a Funhouse this morning, and it looks like there's (semi)extensive 'touching up' been done on the playfield, as well as a fair bit of bubbling of the mylar on nearly all the inserts (esp. the clock)...

Sooo, 2 things:

(i) Mylar.
What to do with it?
If you have a look at the photos you can see how bad the bubbling is. I'd assume the general consensus from everyone is to remove it? I my main worry is if it lifts the paint from underneath. Mainly because it has already lifted some of the black text on the 'Gangway' bonus text. On closer inspection I think the clock numbers are OK (I originally thought they weren't).

Anyway, check out the pics and tell me your thoughts



Mylar coming up from around the clock:


Thumbnails (click for larger image)




Mylar taking the 'gangway' text with it:




Lifting on Superdog insert:



There's also an area with blue tape/mylar. WTF?   



The 2nd thing:
ii) repainted areas:
What to do here.
The colour match is quite good, and running my finger over the areas, it's rather smooth. It just looks a bit rough, esp the white areas... and the black edges.
Should I try some goof off and see if it comes up? or just try and touch up the bad bits?
This is a tricky one....















In the long run a playfield reproduction might be the go.... but I dont have the $$$ atm, plus living is Australia doesn't help with shipping!

[ChadTower]

If you head over to marvin3m and RGP you can find all of the info on every technique ever tried.  There really isn't much we can tell you here that isn't covered in depth many times over in those two places.

BTW, nice grab, Funhouse is one I'd love to have but is too pricey.  I love the creepy vibe of that game.

[Mickey Juice]

Thanks I've checked out nearly all of marvin3m's stuff. Some great guides there.
I was just after peoples thoughts ie remove the mylar vs don't remove.
I'm worried I'll pull the paint with it 

Yeah it's a great game

[ChadTower]

My thoughts, then:  That appears to be a full playfield mylar.  Unless you are going to clearcoat the playfield, or unless the mylar is a real problem, don't touch it.  Removing a full mylar is a lot of time consuming and painful work that does carry risk of paint removal.

[Mickey Juice]

Thanks.
Doing some reading on RGP, it looks like it's a common problem on FH playfields.....

[Jeff AMN]

I don't have anything truly useful to say...just wanted to wish you good luck.

I've restored a Simpsons pinball game and it was a lot of hard work.

[modessitt]

You need to get in touch with this guy:

http://www.captainneo.com/

Check out the pictures of the before and afters. 

Especially these pics of a Funhouse resto he did:

http://www.caylegeorge.com/pinball/neo/funhouse1.jpg

You could just pay him to do it, as he's awesome.  Or, maybe he'll give you some pointers on how to do it yourself.

By the way, if you ever get a chance to get replacement eyelids for Rudy, get them!

[Buddabing]

Nwojedi is a regular on KLOV. Post there in the pinball forum.

Also, have you looked at this page regarding mylar?

I personally would not remove the mylar until the gameplay of the machine is affected.

[Mickey Juice]

Just a quick update. I've got the game 100% working mechanically wise (repaired the sound board from a loud screeching on turn on) and now I've started to remove the mylar. Once the art is all fixed I'll look at rebuilding flippers etc
I wasted an entire can of freeze spray just to get tiny area removed. So then I've moved onto the 'goo gone' method, which is much better than older playfields (although i'm using 'De-Solv-It, the Aussie equivalent of Goo Gone)

All I got off with the freeze spray (an entire can!):


Start of the goo-gone method:




Got this far last night:




I lost some of the text on the inserts, but I expected that, especially when some had already lifted with the bubbled mylar.
Replacements can be bought anyway
http://cgi.ebay.com/FUNHOUSE-Pinball-Machine-Insert-Decal-Set_W0QQitemZ300016951193QQcategoryZ13727QQcmdZViewItem

[ChadTower]

You don't have to replace inserts for lost text, just touch them up.

[SirPeale]

Perhaps a heat gun would be better to loosen the adhesive?

[Mickey Juice]

Woo!

All the main mylar is off:









There was only minimal lifting around the edge of some of the inserts.

I still have to remove the glue (as seen in the last photo), as well as strip the rest of the playfield and remove the blue tape and pop bumper mylar.

[ChadTower]

Perhaps a heat gun would be better to loosen the adhesive?

It would trash the paint, too.  They don't prime a playfield very well before screening.

[TheOtherBob]

Looks good so far!  (Once you're done, you can come over and do mine...)  That playfield looks pretty good under the mylar actually.

I've read that you can take a paper towel soaked in googone (or your equivalent) and lay it on a spot for a bit before beginning scraping the glue off (use a plastic scraper not your metal one).

Again check out rec.games.pinball for tips.

Have fun!!

[Havok]

Great pin! I used to play it quite a bit back in my college days at a local bar. Keep us posted on updates!

[Wade]

I'll be honest.  If you are set on saving that game, if it were me I'd remove everything from the playfield, have it planed a couple of times until all the paint is gone and the top is smooth (or use a power sander), then install a Phoenixarcade.com playfield overlay.  I've passed on many Funhouses that weren't that bad.

On the flipside.  If you aren't striving for perfection, you could probably touch it up and make it look decent.  Honestly, I'm surprised how much of the mylar came up without bringing the paint with it.  From the before pictures, it looks like a lot of the paint had already stuck to the mylar.

Good luck!  Funhouse is a great game, worth saving if possible.

Wade

[Mickey Juice]

*bump*

I'll be honest.  If you are set on saving that game, if it were me I'd remove everything from the playfield, have it planed a couple of times until all the paint is gone and the top is So smooth (or use a power sander), then install a Phoenixarcade.com playfield overlay.  I've passed on many Funhouses that weren't that bad.

I started to do what you said by hand, but gave up after a while:




Ha ha. Just kidding    (that pic isn't my PF  )



I'm not a fan of full playfield overlays... and there's no way I'd sand off the good artwork on this one ie the clock and large Rudy were mint.

Sooooo, after about 5 months I thought I'd post what I've been up to. I've been posting every few days on www.aussiearcade.com but never came back to this post...

So what I did in a nutshell:

Strip the playfield of all parts. Clean it thoroughly which included removing all the previous touchups (were only acrylic paint so it came up).

I block sanded and then bought an airbrush and painted the worn areas (acrylic 'Chromacryl' paints, thinned with medium gloss to get it through the gun)

I did ALL the blue area and red first. This was done using Frisk mask... like contact you use to cover school books in, but thinner. Stuck it down, and cut out the areas. No need to colour match as I was doing the entire area.

For the rest I made stencils. I scanned in large areas and recreated areas with Illustrator. The bits that were completely gone, I was lucky to get the vector artwork for that area from Wayne @ Mr Pinball ie the roll overs and Rudy's lightning entrance.
I then printed them on overhead transparencies, cut them out, stuck them on with 3M temp. adhesive and airbrushed.
This process took about 4 months! and was the longest bit. I painted nearly everything including the white areas that had gone tobacco yellow.


Once it was all done I got it clearcoated by a friend with automotive clearcoat. A few bubbles came up, through the older inserts but these could be sanded out with 1200, 1500 wet/dry sandpaper.
Only problem was some of the added paint wasn't totally flat with the PF. I maybe should have sprayed an initial coat of clear.. oh well. They're not that different to affect play, and being cleared they won't wear.

After that was done I rebuilt all the mechanics ie new coil sleeves, replaced some coils, new steps ramp, new legs etc etc

I also painted the inside of the cab.

Sounds easy but this restore too me quite a long time! esp. being my first total rebuild.

Here are some progress photos. Feel free to ask any questions! 

BTW my number one tip... NEVER buy a pinball machine sight-unseen! 

Sorry about so many photos, but I wanted to share.
I'm no Bill Davis but I'm happy with the end results:

So this is where we left off back in April.
Under the blue tape:

The extent of the damage:





Mylar still around the bumpers that I had to be removed too:


Good news is the original touch ups were done with water based paints, easily removed.
 






Done in June:

The main repainting of the large red and sky blue areas completed:

BEFORE:







AFTER:

Needed a bit of sanding, but looked 100% better.
Only red areas done, so ignore worn orange, yellow, green bits





BEFORE:





AFTER:

Just sky blue areas painted here.
Ignore the mark near the kickout hole, it was later sanded and levelled (was filling in a divot in the wood )





Painting the yellow
Before:


During:
Found a good use for junk mail.
Masking is a combination of masking tape and frisket mask.




After:

The flag was touched up by hand.
The original yellow has more of an orange tint, and the paint I used is more of a canary yellow (I discovered the 'Warm Yellow' I bought when I finished painting :rolleyes which is closer to the original) but I think this brighter yellow gives it all a bit more of a vibrant lift.


An example of how I did the stencils:





This is the part I was most happy with:

Sanded back. Will look worse before getting better:


All colours finished, just needed to add the black lines over the top which sharpen it right up.

Doig the white areas:


Before: (I tried ME on this area... all it did was start taking off paint ie those lines). The stencil is on here already


During: (I love colour matching white )


Ta-dah!


Here's a great example of the difference between the repainted white areas adn the original:


Whiter than Tom Cruise' teeth!


Bit of an overview:

[Mickey Juice]

Next were the black lines etc used masking tape, a few stencils and alot by hand:




Trapdoor entrance arrow:
Before:

During

After:


If the black didn't work here I was f*cked!

Had this so far:


Then it was a matter of cutting out the black of this stencil.





and spray...






Before


Painting;


(almost) COMPLETE!!
I just have to complete the text scroll at the bottom.
I did the hand by hand :p from pictures from the net. Looks better in person.


Completing the rollovers:

Here they are Now:
Just had some of the black circles etc left


The light reflection makes it look rougher than what it actually is:


At the time if you looked closely at the rollovers of course you can tell it's been painted by hand (compared to screen printed), but now after it's been cleared it looks pretty darn good.

My crappy photos and bad colour correction don't do it justice





Completed and ready for a clearcoat:
Overview:



Here's the same pic but a bit higher res:

[Mickey Juice]

When I got it home from the clearcoating;



Pics are a bit yellow 'cause I took the shots in the afternoon sun:




The inside of the cab was filthy, so I gave it a vacuum and took out all the wiring etc and sanded with an orbital sander and detail sander.




 

Sanded:




Masked:


Painting:
I just used a can of 'Midnight Blue' spray paint from Bunnings. Matches pretty good. I'll have to do another coat, as the wood is pretty porous and sucks up the paint. Plus I want a bit more even coverage.





I also applied the new speaker plastic. It's a spot on repro from Wayne

Next to the scratched up original (the repro looks a bit duller on top 'cause it still has plastic on the perspex.
I didn't notice the fade of the original until I saw this photo...



Naked! I cleaned up the old glue with sandpaper and some Shellite (naptha).



ta dah! I took off the plastic when the machine was complete, kinda like an unveiling



2 weeks ago:

Completed cab results
It's probably over-kill for an area of the pin you don't see, but I'm really getting into the restoration process, and it's great fun.
Plus looks great!



I bought a staple gun from Bunnings to put the earth braid back in... Wasn't cheap, but makes short work of the job!













Just before this I had sanded the bubbles in the clear with 1500 and then 2000 grit sandpaper.
Then I buffed the scratches out with an orbital buffer with a lambswool pad and some cutting compound.
I then polished it by hand with some Novus 2.
Finished off with some Meguires car wax. 2 coats there.

It will never look this clean again!









Once that was done I put in all the lane dividers and upright posts. Some of them were stripped or broken so I ordered new ones. Some of the Tee nuts were buggered too.

Next step was to work on the underside of the PF.

Replaced some of the targets (I'd do them all, but they're too expensive!)
Put back all the roll over switches.
Screwed the post nuts in place.

Cleaned all the coil setups ie diverters/bumpers/kickers. Cleaned them of all the black dust, polished the metal parts, replaced coil sleeves and replaced any broken bits.

Rebuilt the flippers with new coils, link assemblies, coils stops. I also added fliptronic return springs rather than use the old style. This will stop the plunger link from getting chewed up. The flipper plates already had the holes in them for the new style spring, so this was handy (except one so I drilled the hole with my dremel).







All this work took about 2 weeks. All the underside work was done in a week. Takes longer than you think! shopping out every part... I watched the entire season 2 of Arrested Development in 1 day (Sunday) while I worked on it !



On Friday I moved the machine into the lounge room to be situated next to TFTC
New legs were put on it at that stage.





Here (last sunday) I put the PF in with the help from a mate (much easier with 2 people!)

The pivot nut problem (for the playfield ie I had none, and being in Aust. I couldnt source them) was solved by an engineer mate. He made some metal sleeves for me to put over the carriage bolts that I got from Coventry Fasteners.





So I plugged it all in (after checking for burnt connectors etc) including the display... and no blown fuses!
Some of the digits didn't work, but i reseated a ribbon cable and it worked!








The original sound problem I had reared it's head :x So I'll be working on that. ie screech on start up.

I then put in new globes. I ran out in the end, but have an order on the way. The game had limited 555's when I got it, and had no flashers at all! I thought it might be hiding a problem, but it was not the case... they all work fine.
I had a heap of new #47's so I used those too.








This is where I am at as of today
Rudy has no face because It's a friends house. She's airbrushing the nose and cheeks for me.

All done:















Here's my mate giving it a bash over a few beers




I printed off some cards today I did one in reverse incase the paper isn't thick enough and I can paste it on the back





There are still a few minor problems/things I still have to finish:

* Two of the flasher lamps aren't working ie the hotdog flashers. They're on the same circuit.. but I'll have to look into it. I'm sure they were working earlier... hmm

* I'm waiting on a new Trapdoor hinge to come from the states... so atm there is no trapdoor.

* Rudy still has no face atm

* there's still that start sound problem

* The ball dispenser isn't very reliable ie where you lock the balls. If you get a good shot, it goes straight though it (basically a flipper setup, but instead of a flipper bat it's  a crescent shaped disc that captures the ball.) I altered it and is more reliable, but the balls can still get through.
I think there is too much 'give' in the spring, so I'm going to put in a new spring, and mod it like I did the flippers ie a fliptronic style spring that doesn't go on the plunger. If that doesn't work I'll try and buy a new disc (that hold the balls) as this one has mushroomed a bit.

* The left skillshot doesn't work properly. ie the plunger doesn't hit the ball very well, and it will only get halfway up the ramp... Reading RGP I have to level the cab properly (might be a small twist in it), and then move the plunger housing and line it up properly.

* One day I'll replace the hotdog red targets. I couldn't justify spending over $20 per target atm! So I cleaned up the originals.

* I need a new piece of glass. I swapped the nice LAI one from TFTC and cleaned up the one that came with FH. It's ok, but scratched to buggery in spots.


**************

Other than that, things are peachy! It's come a LONG way from the start. I'm pretty happy with it, being my first rebuild and all.
It plays super fast and everything is really snappy. Just like a new machine! Compares to the mint Monster Bsh and Medieval Madness I played a few motnhs ago
Being my first Williams pin, I'm really impressed... even by the small things like the cool light shows during attract mode and gameplay.

[Cakemeister]

Absolutely amazing!

 

[bleargh]

WOW.   

[ChadTower]

You are the ---smurfing--- man.   

[MKChamp]

Extremely impressive. I bought a FH about 5 months ago. It took me hours just to figure out what fuse to replace to fix the GI. Luckily for me, it was in very good shape. I've only had to re-solder a few connections/bulbs here and there and replace 1 flipper. It was a first pinball I got to 'finish' off my gameroom.
I can't imagine the drive it takes to start a major project like that. I honestly feel I would have ended up saying 'this is too much' and just put it on ebay. Congrats on sticking it out...it looks excellent!

[Kaytrim]

That playfield looks like either new or a repro.  Top notch job.

TTFN
Kaytrim

[ChadTower]

Wow it's really worth going over to the Aussie Arcade thread and reading it. 

[shardian]

Simply amazing repro work. You can't possibly be married to have done that...

[Mickey Juice]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Simply amazing repro work. You can't possibly be married to have done that...

Ha. Nope.
Not single tho, so it did take twice as long 

[ChadTower]

On the other forum you refer to her as your girlfriend.  So you are single.   

How are you managing the color matching in this case?  It appears as though you're using a spray gun... how do you match color that way?  I'm still trying to learn about color matching and paint application for stuff like this.

[shardian]

I really like your method of air brushing the whole color area. definitely simplifies the color matching process. When I finally get to the touch up phase, I'll might crack out my airbrush and enamels.

[ChadTower]

This is evil.  I am going to have to learn this now.  I already have a good air compressor... can you run an electric compressor inside?

[shardian]

This is evil.  I am going to have to learn this now.  I already have a good air compressor... can you run an electric compressor inside?

What do you mean? Of course you can. If it is decent sized, you could fill the tank outside and have more than enough air to run an airbrush without it kicking on. I have a badger airbrush compressor, but would probably use my bigger 2 gallon regular duty compressor instead. The airbrush compressors don't use a tank - they just run constantly at the proper pressure.
If you decide to airbrush, do yourself a huge favor and invest in a water vapor trap. When I was a poor high school kid, I got by without one. Nothing sucks more than your airbrush spitting all over your work. I could tell myself it sucked - didn't need the peanut gallery's input, you know.

[ChadTower]

Hrm.  Maybe I could fill it outside and bring it in.  I haven't used it yet, got it from Freecycle, but I've always been told not to run things like compressors inside.  Of course, it's possible those people were talking about gas powered compressors only.  I'll have a look and see what size the tank is.  It's not a small one.

EDIT:

A good tutorial link from Mickey Juice's other forum thread.
Another thread of airbrush tips.
A third thread.

[ChadTower]

Just noticed in the cab repaint pics... why is there what appears to be a chopped out square from a playfield on the inside right of the cabinet?

[shardian]

Just noticed in the cab repaint pics... why is there what appears to be a chopped out square from a playfield on the inside right of the cabinet?

I guess you are just forgetting, but cabinet makers historically used scrap pieces that had full art on them for support sections of arcade and pinball machines.

[ChadTower]

I know that, but that doesn't look like a usual spot.  Or maybe the rails are just out.  I can't remember the rail setup for a sys11.

[Mickey Juice]

Wow it's really worth going over to the Aussie Arcade thread and reading it. 

Yeah, there's alot of more info in that thread (18 pages worth including stuff on air air brushing and clearcoating. I also had a separate thread on just the clearcoating) but I thought I'd post some pics here because you have to register to read the Aussie Arcade thread...

http://www.aussiearcade.com.au/showthread.php?t=5625

How are you managing the color matching in this case?  It appears as though you're using a spray gun... how do you match color that way?  I'm still trying to learn about color matching and paint application for stuff like this.

I would mix up some acrlyic paint and dab a tiny bit on the playfield and wait for it to dry (acrylic dries darker) to check the match. Then I'd thin the paint with some "Gloss medium & varnish" (another chroma brand) to get it thin enough to get through the air brush
Another method/tip which can work well is match the paint exactly... then add a *tiny* bit of white to make it a shade lighter, so when it dries darker the colour will match (once again test with a small bit).
I was lucky the large areas of red and clue pretty much matched out of the bottle (plus repainting the whole area again it didn't have to be spot on). I did have to match bits like the green of Rudy's entrance.

I'm no expert airbrusher, but the good thing about using stencils I didn't have to be... just point and shoot. The best thing about air brushes is the nice even paint covering you can get. You'd never be able to paint large areas like that with a normal hand brush.

I can't imagine the drive it takes to start a major project like that. I honestly feel I would have ended up saying 'this is too much' and just put it on ebay. Congrats on sticking it out...it looks excellent!

I probably would have, but I spent too much on buying it so I was going to stick with it Plus a mint machine here in Oz probably would have cost an arm and a leg... So at least now I have a pretty good machine, that was very satisfying fixing up.

I know that, but that doesn't look like a usual spot.  Or maybe the rails are just out.  I can't remember the rail setup for a sys11.

The one on the inside right is where the prop stick sits on.

There are also some good restoration tips here: http://www.pawnworld.com.au/pinball.html
that I found helpful.