Restoration housing older pinball machine by means of painting
Below we show you how we restore the housings of older pinball machines means by means of spray stencils and painting
The initial situation
Most of these housings are now 35 years or more old.
Their condition is usually accordingly:
- Broken out pieces of wood or missing parts and spalling.
- Clear signs of use from many moves and improper handling
- Glued joints are coming loose
- Faded colors due to UV sunlight
The procedure
Creating the spray templates
If no spray templates are available on the market for the respective model, they must be made.
This is how it works:
- First, good photos of the housing are taken, if possible orthogonally from all sides.
- The housing is measured accurately in mm and digital templates are made in original size.
- The photos are adjusted and aligned on the basis of the 1:1 template.
- The motifs are vectorized by hand to obtain data for the cutting plotter.
The case refurbishment and painting
Our master carpenter now has many years of experience in case refurbishment.
And this is how it works:
- The cases are first completely stripped down to the bare wood.
- Often the base plates are removed from the case and replaced, otherwise they are sanded down if the actual substance is still good.
- The old varnish is completely sanded off.
- The case is re-glued where necessary.
- The spalling is filled, edges are rebuilt
- Then the casings are sanded several times (coarse-fine)
- Then a primer is applied to the wood to finish the surface
- The housings are filled with a special material and sanded again until a very smooth finish of the surface is achieved.
- The first varnishing in the basic color of the housing takes place
- The original colors of the case are determined by means of a color measuring device. This is measured in places that have never seen sunlight and are therefore still original.
- By means of spray stencils the other colors are painted bit by bit
- Finally, a coat of satin clear lacquer is applied (approx. 2-3 times with sanding in between) until a smooth finish is achieved.
Galleries/Documentations
EIGHT BALL DELUXE
ROLLING STONES
ROYAL PAIR
SILVERBALL MANIA
ZIRA
CABINET FATHOM
Prices
Here, too, the prices are of course dependent on the initial condition of the housing.
Price: from* 1.600 Euro incl. VAT.
* We assume here a standard original housing in the usual condition. If the housing should be in a very bad condition, with which a clear additional expenditure is to be counted, the price increases. This is always calculated individually. We assume here an empty housing. Also, the price depends on the colors of the device (see info paint). The price includes the painting in the basic color of the housing plus material costs for the other colors and clear varnish (approx. 150-300 euros) plus spray stencils (see spray stencils).
Services included:
- Sanding of the case inside and outside (up to 5 sanding passes coarse-fine).
- Gluing of cracks
- Rebuilding of the edges
- Filling of scrapings
- Sanding of the case bottom (inside and outside)
- Priming
- Sanding
- Filling
- Final sanding
- Painting in the base color of the housing (incl. housing interior)
- Clear lacquer
- Painting 1st color
- Clear lacquer
- Painting 2nd color of the housing
- Finally approx. 2-3x varnishing with silk matt clear varnish with appropriate intermediate sanding
- Finishing of the final lacquer coat
- Application of the new siderails (excl. siderails)
- Application of the specific case stickers
- incl. all materials (sanding papers, filler, primer, filler, lacquers, clear coats)
Info varnish:
We use only highly pigmented paints from the automotive industry - these are very light resistant and have a high luminosity. However, these are also (depending on the color) sometimes very expensive - for example, 1 liter of a special fluorescent orange alone can cost 150 euros.
Additional services (in case of delivery of a still assembled housing)
- Complete disassembly of all components
- Cleaning of all components
- Assembly of the cleaned components
- Duration: approx. 6 hours
Price: approx. 300 Euro incl. VAT
Spray stencils
We are licensee of Bally/Williams. Our spray stencils are based on the original films. If the stencils are not available on the market, we will create them as described above.
Price: 150-400 Euro incl. VAT (depending on the model) for the creation of the graphics plus approx. 200 Euro incl. VAT for the production of the spray stencils.
