Spiroagnew's SPRAY & PRAY Cabinet Re-Stenciling
- Thread starter spiroagnew
- Start date
eh97ac
Active Member
A Tale of Two Volleys - CJBob's Gottlieb Volley and ShootAgain's Gottlieb Volley
I had the opportunity to work on two Volleys for members of the board over the past month. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Canada loves Volley. In the before shots, you can tell CJBob's Volley from the sickly yellow colour. I've not seen a more nicotine stained game in my life. The much more lily white Volley belongs to ShootAgain. His cabinet was in much better shape. It was in such good shape that many would have left it as it was. There were a few areas of paint loss and gouging that needed to be addressed though. Having practiced the webbing technique on my World Fair, I was confident going into the restoration of these webbed games. There is another Volley in the community that needs to be repainted, so I'm told...these stencils will be getting quite the workout! No major complications in the execution of these projects to speak of. Note the different ball heights on the original side backbox stencil. Given this minor difference, I'd be interested to know how many different stencil sets the Gottlieb cabinet makers were rolling with back in the day, and how many minor details, like this one, exist on other games.
Before: Two Volleys, One Cup (I cropped out the cup).
Check out the subtle differences in the original stenciling.
I had the opportunity to work on two Volleys for members of the board over the past month. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Canada loves Volley. In the before shots, you can tell CJBob's Volley from the sickly yellow colour. I've not seen a more nicotine stained game in my life. The much more lily white Volley belongs to ShootAgain. His cabinet was in much better shape. It was in such good shape that many would have left it as it was. There were a few areas of paint loss and gouging that needed to be addressed though. Having practiced the webbing technique on my World Fair, I was confident going into the restoration of these webbed games. There is another Volley in the community that needs to be repainted, so I'm told...these stencils will be getting quite the workout! No major complications in the execution of these projects to speak of. Note the different ball heights on the original side backbox stencil. Given this minor difference, I'd be interested to know how many different stencil sets the Gottlieb cabinet makers were rolling with back in the day, and how many minor details, like this one, exist on other games.
Before: Two Volleys, One Cup (I cropped out the cup).
Check out the subtle differences in the original stenciling.
DRANO
Super Member
Drop Target
New Member
I am looking into respraying my first cabinet myself soon and am wondering how does anybody know the original colour of these cabinets. Wouldn't all existing copies of these machines have various amount of discoloration and damage ? I have read that there may actually be variances from machine to machine based on the day of production originally. Would It be safe to estimate an original colour based on existing examples. Wouldn't anybody who believes it to be off, professional or otherwise, only have other aged and discoloured examples to compare it to ?
You can't really know the original colour because of the very factors you mentioned above. But you can come really close if you find an unfaded, unstained example, and further, you can get a good glimpse of the original untainted colours under trim pieces like siderails and coin door frames. In the end, get it as close as you can and go with what looks good.
ShootAgain
Member
Wow, Nice job!
Thanks again Rob! You are an artist!
Cant wait to put the repro backglass on this brand pranking new cabinet.
Thanks again Rob! You are an artist!
Cant wait to put the repro backglass on this brand pranking new cabinet.
Last edited:
CJBob
Active Member
Speaking of which...here's mine with the new repro backglass. I have new plastics as well but the posts are a bit of a mess so I need to address that issue...I'm close though. Notice how well Volley fits into the colour scheme of my basement. It was meant to be. Thanks again Rob.
Drop Target
New Member
Ot amazes me how great these games look when restored nicely. What did you make your stencils out of ?
spiroagnew's "FREE" Gottlieb Sure Shot
About a month ago, I secured a GTB Sure Shot from Brock/Revolution. He had saved the thing from a barn...and sure did fit the definition of a "barn find" game. I'm not sure Brock had the time to bring this thing back to life...so he passed it along to me. It only cost me a case of beer. The game was gonna need a new backglass, it was missing the rare/hard-to-find button-style lock down bar, it was missing a couple of PF inserts and the cab was a sheer mess. I needed to knock out the back end of the cab which was literally disintegrating to the touch and replace it with a piece of ply. Lots of structural work was needed to bring the cab back to life. As you can see, it turned out pretty good.
Sure Shot BEFORE:
Sure Shot AFTER:
About a month ago, I secured a GTB Sure Shot from Brock/Revolution. He had saved the thing from a barn...and sure did fit the definition of a "barn find" game. I'm not sure Brock had the time to bring this thing back to life...so he passed it along to me. It only cost me a case of beer. The game was gonna need a new backglass, it was missing the rare/hard-to-find button-style lock down bar, it was missing a couple of PF inserts and the cab was a sheer mess. I needed to knock out the back end of the cab which was literally disintegrating to the touch and replace it with a piece of ply. Lots of structural work was needed to bring the cab back to life. As you can see, it turned out pretty good.
Sure Shot BEFORE:
Sure Shot AFTER:
luch
Super Member
Thanks Luch. I considered saving that bumper sticker on the coin door...but it wasn't "period correct", to say the least.
Goomba's Gottlieb Volley
When people ask if I repaint cabinets, I tell them no…I instead tell them I repaint VOLLEY cabinets, as this is the third one I have done in as many months. (For the full story of Canada’s cozy history with Volley, check out https://creditdotpinball.com/2014/06/10/featured-game-gottlieb-volley/)
Goomba’s Volley was probably in the best shape of the three I did. Someone had scratched out the faces of the tennis players with the edge of a quarter or other blunt instrument, and that was the extent of the fill that needed to be done. Not much more to say…it is all very straightforward and boring once you’ve lived an entire summer looking at orange people with green hair playing tennis in Peter Pan shoes.
I did donate two new coin entrance plastics to the project as the old ones were melted and filthy. I was able to buy a whole box full of NOS Bally, Williams and Gottlieb coin door plastics from Mike Hanley’s Church of the Silver Ball gathering in late September. It’s a neat little bonus I can add to these projects I take on…because I now have more of these than I’ll ever be able to use in my lifetime.
When people ask if I repaint cabinets, I tell them no…I instead tell them I repaint VOLLEY cabinets, as this is the third one I have done in as many months. (For the full story of Canada’s cozy history with Volley, check out https://creditdotpinball.com/2014/06/10/featured-game-gottlieb-volley/)
Goomba’s Volley was probably in the best shape of the three I did. Someone had scratched out the faces of the tennis players with the edge of a quarter or other blunt instrument, and that was the extent of the fill that needed to be done. Not much more to say…it is all very straightforward and boring once you’ve lived an entire summer looking at orange people with green hair playing tennis in Peter Pan shoes.
I did donate two new coin entrance plastics to the project as the old ones were melted and filthy. I was able to buy a whole box full of NOS Bally, Williams and Gottlieb coin door plastics from Mike Hanley’s Church of the Silver Ball gathering in late September. It’s a neat little bonus I can add to these projects I take on…because I now have more of these than I’ll ever be able to use in my lifetime.
Drano's GTB Melody
I'm particularly proud of this one. Drano lent me this game late last year to put into the long term queue for a repaint. I played the game over the winter, and it is without a doubt one of my favorite wedgeheads Gottlieb ever produced. As this summer came and went, and other games pushed Melody out of my gameroom, I thought it was time to get the project started.
This was the first add-a-ball game I've had the pleasure to repaint...not that that matters much, but being an add-a-ball, it had a different colour scheme than its replay sister, Sing Along. In regards to the backbox, Sing Along follows in the traditional format of a light base, in this case a robin's egg blue, with dark blue accents--whereas Melody flips the script and uses a dark blue base with light blue accents. These dark cabinets are in the minority, especially at Gottlieb...nicks and dings show up a heck of a lot easier on the darker colours, therefore they aren't a favorite of operators. Maybe they felt they could get away with it on the smaller run of Melody games (3,300 Sing Alongs, and only 550 Melodys).
Sample image of a Sing Along...as you can see,
the light and dark blues are completely flipped
compared to the Melody pictures below.
This repainting process wasn't an exercise in stenciling but an exercise in masking and planning. I took extensive notes and measurements, especially for the backbox. The layers of paint for the backbox sides and the backbox face had to be applied in a different order and masked accordingly. It was a bit of a mind-f*ck. The stars you see on the head and body were the only things that needed to be cut out of my stencil material and those too were masks...blocking paint to allow the base white/spatter to best the baby blue top coat.
Overall, I'm very happy how this one turned out. I'm hoping I can squeeze in some paint for a Williams Heatwave and a GTB 2001 before the snow flies and I close out the 2016 season...
Before shot...lots of paint loss, especially on coin door area:
After shots:
I'm particularly proud of this one. Drano lent me this game late last year to put into the long term queue for a repaint. I played the game over the winter, and it is without a doubt one of my favorite wedgeheads Gottlieb ever produced. As this summer came and went, and other games pushed Melody out of my gameroom, I thought it was time to get the project started.
This was the first add-a-ball game I've had the pleasure to repaint...not that that matters much, but being an add-a-ball, it had a different colour scheme than its replay sister, Sing Along. In regards to the backbox, Sing Along follows in the traditional format of a light base, in this case a robin's egg blue, with dark blue accents--whereas Melody flips the script and uses a dark blue base with light blue accents. These dark cabinets are in the minority, especially at Gottlieb...nicks and dings show up a heck of a lot easier on the darker colours, therefore they aren't a favorite of operators. Maybe they felt they could get away with it on the smaller run of Melody games (3,300 Sing Alongs, and only 550 Melodys).
Sample image of a Sing Along...as you can see,
the light and dark blues are completely flipped
compared to the Melody pictures below.
This repainting process wasn't an exercise in stenciling but an exercise in masking and planning. I took extensive notes and measurements, especially for the backbox. The layers of paint for the backbox sides and the backbox face had to be applied in a different order and masked accordingly. It was a bit of a mind-f*ck. The stars you see on the head and body were the only things that needed to be cut out of my stencil material and those too were masks...blocking paint to allow the base white/spatter to best the baby blue top coat.
Overall, I'm very happy how this one turned out. I'm hoping I can squeeze in some paint for a Williams Heatwave and a GTB 2001 before the snow flies and I close out the 2016 season...
Before shot...lots of paint loss, especially on coin door area:
After shots: