Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Arcade Collecting => Pinball => Topic started by: shredso on August 10, 2009, 06:08:21 pm
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Does anyone have any experience with the Treasure Cove cleaning kit. I'm about to bite the bullet and buy the $80 kit, it looks pretty sweet.
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It's good. You can piece together the same stuff yourself for less money, but their kit is fine.
+1 and I'll add "a lot less".
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Can you point me in the direction of where I could find the parts separately? If you are talking $10-20 savings I may just buy the set, if it's much more I'll do some research. Thanks.
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I used it, works well.....bought replacement sponges here: http://www.topoftheline.com/micfoampolpa.html
TC's polish is made up of retail bought mixes of rubbing compounds & etc but I chose not to cheap out & make my own because I am sure there was a little trial & error they learned...............also, you can do many machines with the kit they sell.
Do it.
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A month and a half ago I pulled this Jackbot off a route, where it had been since the day it was delivered to the local operator. It was probably the dirtiest machine I've ever owned, and I've pulled pre-DMD machines off route where they've been 20+ years.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2453/3741760844_674d5a4e39_b.jpg)
Using the TC kit, I got it looking beautiful with that wet shine glass look. People who saw it before I cleaned it up could barely believe it was the same machine after I finished.
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Man, I want me a Jackbot.
Played one for the first time a few months ago. Way underrated I think.
Oh and the Treasure Cove kit works great. I had a filthy Getaway that ended up with a shine not that far off from clearcoating.
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You can get that same shine with Novus and any pure caranuba wax.
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You can get that same shine with Novus and any pure caranuba wax.
I got a killer shine with $2 Turtle Wax paste polishing compound from Wally-World. Use a buffer and it comes out beautiful.
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Yep, I use Turtle Wax too, just make sure to get the pure caranuba and not something with additives meant for a car.
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For wax I use Mothers pure Carnauba. We are talking about the polishing compounds.
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Oh, and for what it's worth, that Jackbot also has a coat of Turtle Wax on it.
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There is a difference between polishing and cleaning.
Most pins just need a very good cleaning.
Polishing is a bit dangerous, in that you are removing layers of clearcoat
that protects the paint itself. Buff too deep, and the paint will easily
be whipped off the field.
Many things cant even be buffed out... such as deep scratches, pits, cracks. Only way to get somewhere with these is a harsh cleaner such as
using a 'Magic Eraser' whetted with rubbing alcohol. The pits would need
to be cleared over - else dirt would just seep back into them again.
As for wax... Ive stopped using it on pins.
Wax isnt really very protective to a hyper speed spinning ball of
destruction. The wax simply parts ways - absorbs dirt and metal chips,
breaks up and dirties the entire field, subways, assemblies...etc.
At the Arcade I used to manage... I decided to try something else:
Armor-all. The stuff contains the same material they use on rollercoaster
wheels. The shine is Incredible... and the ball glides twice as fast over
it.
Less friction = less change of ball digging into the field. Also, because
the stuff is thinner and does not trap dirt inside of it... the ball will not
be pushing particles deep into the field. There is no blackened dirty
wax all over the pretty plastic bumper-towers to clean. No dirty wax
fragments in assemblies. No wax dust from dried and aged wax.
I used to have to clean the machine every 2 days or it would look so
dirty that you would have thought it was over 2 yrs without a cleaning.
The pin "No Fear", was played very frequently all throughout the day
from customers, to arcade employees.
After using the Armourall (actually, it was 2001 protectant, which includes
UV blockers :) ), I could let the machine go an entire week or more
without haveing to clean it... and even then, it still looked and played great. It was Amazing.
I used this method for almost a year, and there was no Ill effects seen.
The game played lightning fast all the time, had a high gloss look,
... and it was far less of a headache when it was cleaning time again.
I highly recommend this option over waxing.
* Edit
I will add, that IF your playfield is covered with Mylar... then polishing is
not such a risky / dangerous option. In fact, if can be beneficial. The
thickness and durability of mylar is much greater than that of the light
clearcoat that covers the paint on non-mylared areas.
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Well I bought it, I'll give it a shot on my Big Hurt, I'm not sure I should try it on my Black Pyramid which already has some light chipping. Though that might be my first adventure in touch up paint anyway....
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I shouldn't butt into a topic I don't know much about, but check out what they use to clean pachinkos=s:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lkA1ndYYtI[/youtube]
Leaves me wondering if it would have an application in cleaning pinball playfields. (PS: When he talks of the "cell" its the round part, the playfield)
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After getting the kit, I can see the pieces are nothing special and likely could have been ordered elsewhere cheaper. It was all in one handy order with the polish, so I don't regret it. It was also shipped super fast. The instruction video stinks, there is a guy narrating over his partner using a drill. You can't hear anything the guy is saying. I did a quick playfield polish on my Big Hurt and it worked great. I did some serious scrubbing with the novus which worked great, but this definitely was a higher level of shine. Even with the 2" kit, there are a lot of spots I couldn't get to with the drill though. This would probably be best suited for someone who completely disassembles games and does a total overhaul. Overall, it's overpriced and the instruction video could be better quality, but it works great. I don't regret the purchase at all.
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A month and a half ago I pulled this Jackbot off a route, where it had been since the day it was delivered to the local operator. It was probably the dirtiest machine I've ever owned, and I've pulled pre-DMD machines off route where they've been 20+ years.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2453/3741760844_674d5a4e39_b.jpg)
Using the TC kit, I got it looking beautiful with that wet shine glass look. People who saw it before I cleaned it up could barely believe it was the same machine after I finished.
I don't mean to thread jack but do you have a high res of this you could post? It might make an awesome new background for my computer :)
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Sure, here you go.
Hi-res: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2453/3741760844_674d5a4e39_b.jpg
Enormous-res: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2453/3741760844_f46e02db97_o.jpg