TAF chair scoop rebuild & step-by-step playfield restoration

[DRANO]

Just thought I would share the latest project.
I will start by stating that I have never attempted to repair anythign quite this bad before, so there was a bit of trial and error.
Hopefully any of you who are considering doing anything like this yourselves will find this informative.

I promised to help a recent acquaintance of mine finish off his TAF project by restoring his playfield... before he removed the Cliffy protector

I'll post a more complete gallery link later on once the playfield is all done, but I just wanted to focus on the chair scoop for now.
I have not clearcoated the repeairs yet, so please excuse the uneven finish in these pics.

 

[DRANO]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

 

[Menace]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Ok, where's the emoticon for "stiffy" when you need it?

Fantastic!

D

 

[Vengeance]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Impressive work.

 

[DRANO]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

 

[Vengeance]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

I've always been curious, how does that "frisket" stuff work?

I can't imagine you are cutting out those details by hand to spray down the paint?

 

[DRANO]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

 

[DRANO]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

I've always been curious, how does that "frisket" stuff work?

I can't imagine you are cutting out those details by hand to spray down the paint?

Sure am. No other way to do it.

Not sure why the pics are behaving badly in the post, but you can make out the cut lines made with the scalpel

 

[Vengeance]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Well there goes any chance of me ever doing my own restore work then

My hands aren't steady enough to do that kind of detail work

Sure am. No other way to do it.

Not sure why the pics are behaving badly in the post, but you can make out the cut lines made with the scalpel

 

[mwong168]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Adriano does excellent work and he repaired my TOTAN left orb and magnet earlier this year. I can see him being the next HEP North

 

[DRANO]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Adriano does excellent work and he repaired my TOTAN left orb and magnet earlier this year. I can see him being the next HEP North

Thanks for the vote of confidence Mike... but after seeing Chris' work on that TOTAN today on Pinside, I've got a long ways to go to earn that title!
The artwork on this TAF chair scoop is luckily pretty straight-forward. When I start working on my CC, with all that dithered artwork, I may just be giving HEP a call :shock:

 

[Grauwulf]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Totally amazing work! I think I know who's going to be getting my resto work! I have a RFM, Shadow and ToM pf restos to do.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

That's really some amazing work.

 

[WARLOCK]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Drano,
Nice work as usual. Very impressive. Well done man.
Scott

 

[level42]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Don't suppose you'd ever help me re-decal my WH20 when/if I ever decide

Fantastic work Adriano!

 

[DRANO]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Don't suppose you'd ever help me re-decal my WH20 when/if I ever decide

Fantastic work Adriano!

Sure.
I can walk you through it and help out as needed. You teach a man to fish and he repairs his own pins... or something like that

With cabinets it's 95% prep and 5% application.

 

[level42]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Don't suppose you'd ever help me re-decal my WH20 when/if I ever decide

Fantastic work Adriano!

Sure.
I can walk you through it and help out as needed. You teach a man to fish and he repairs his own pins... or something like that

With cabinets it's 95% prep and 5% application.

It's probably the 5% application part that I'm most worried about ... But, we can talk when the time comes .

Thanks.

 

[superjackpot]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Nice work Adriano! Very nicely shaped bevel too. I prefer the fix over a Cliffy any day of the week.

I did this repair on my RS. I drilled similar holes and inserted short round toothpicks to help support the build up of epoxy (two part putty Quik Wood). So far it's held up well but I need a mantis to call it done. My PF was otherwise fine so I did spot clearing with an airbrush (semi gloss Varathane) and buffed that in to match.

I've not seen Minwax High Performance wood filler before. How easy is it to sand? Paint adhesion? How does it hold up to ball hits?

I think the hardest part, believe it or not, is colour matching the wood colour paint. You are only fixing a portion of the wood, and although you may paint up the entire scoop, it still should match other exposed wood on the game (e.g. inlane switches). Did you come up with a special (and repeatable!) paint formula mix to make your wood colour? Or do you mix and match each time? Wood colour can vary between games. I suppose I'm asking what paints are you using? I chose Golden Fluid Acrylics (http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/fluid/fldcht1.php

 

[DRANO]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild/restoration

Nice work Adriano! Very nicely shaped bevel too. I prefer the fix over a Cliffy any day of the week.

I did this repair on my RS. I drilled similar holes and inserted short round toothpicks to help support the build up of epoxy (two part putty Quik Wood). So far it's held up well but I need a mantis to call it done. My PF was otherwise fine so I did spot clearing with an airbrush (semi gloss Varathane) and buffed that in to match.

I've not seen Minwax High Performance wood filler before. How easy is it to sand? Paint adhesion? How does it hold up to ball hits?

I think the hardest part, believe it or not, is colour matching the wood colour paint. You are only fixing a portion of the wood, and although you may paint up the entire scoop, it still should match other exposed wood on the game (e.g. inlane switches). Did you come up with a special (and repeatable!) paint formula mix to make your wood colour? Or do you mix and match each time? Wood colour can vary between games. I suppose I'm asking what paints are you using? I chose Golden Fluid Acrylics (http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/fluid/fldcht1.php

I suspect the owner will likley still use a Cliffy, but I wanted to make sure it was perfect anyway.

Minwax is basically a two-stage product with a hardener and a base. It smells like it has an epoxy base so it's pretty rigid and stable. You have to make sure it's the "High Performance" wood filler and not their regular wood fillers. Here's a pic.



As for painting wood. It's simply not natural and there is little you can do to make it look perfectly stock again. Restoration is an erroneous term. It should simply be called repair, because you will rarely restore anything to its original condition. I mix a tone that seems similar to the top layer of plywood for that particular playfield whenever possible. I like to spray several areas for consistency but also prefer to over-thin the wood tone so that some of the original grain remains visible.
For a repair liek this however, I need full coverage to mask the filler and repair. The result is slightly unnatural, but way better than the alternative.

My paints, for now, are simply from the Createx line, but I'm hoping Santa brings me some of these
http://www.tcpglobal.com/airbrushdepot/comart.aspx

 

[DRANO]

Re: TAF chair scoop rebuild & playfield restoration

Now that the project is finished, I thought it would be fun to post a few before and after pics of the major areas on this TAF playfield.
Please note that some of the repairs and colours will look uneven due to the fact that I have not yet clearcoated the playfield. Anything airbrished will look more glossy until it's all cleared. I will post finished pics in a week or so.

I'll start with the shooter lane: