EL DORADO
My second purchase. After becoming hooked on pinballs with my first purchase of Totem, I was offered this machine in early 2005 by a guy who lives in Port Augusta, South Australia after placing an ad in the local trading paper. He had purchased the machine from his local corner store in a small country town when it closed down about 20 years ago. It had sat at his home and then his shed (garage) ever since. He decided to part with it as he was building a new house and just didn’t have the need for it anymore.
When he initially brought it to me I was quite happy to part with my money as it was obvious the backglass and cabinet were in excellent condition. While the glass on the playfield and the playfield were quite dirty, I thought the playfield was in OK condition as well. It was not working but he assured me it was an easy fix! Turned out it was, in the stepper unit.
In my eagerness to get hold of a machine I had fond memories of playing when I was about 9 years old (about the only pinball I could remember since I was fixated with video games!) I overlooked these “problems”.
All light inserts were worn and warped. All had to be removed and heated gently with a heat gun and then flattened. Same with most of the playfield plastics.
I eventually sold this machine, having need for cash for anther purchase
Click on images for larger view
Taking the playfield glass off a few days later I quickly found the playfield was in poorer condition than I thought. Severe cracking in many areas, large areas of flaking paint and several areas of being worn back to the wood that had been covered in a nice layer of grime and dirt. Probably not helped by a ball with more rust than chrome on it. Let the resoration begin.
This pic is after the playfield was gently sprayed with compressed air, vacuumed (even more paint came off that was just sitting on the surface!), wiped with naptha, magic erasered with naptha, first coat of acrylic colour s put on and magic erasered again with naptha. Still dirty, a lot of that grime isn't just from the magic eraser.
More acrylic paints added to purple area and yellow.
Two coats of clear urethane added. 1 per day. Wait 2 more days then sanded with 1000 wet&dry paper. I didn't sand after the first coat, it was not thick enough to handle any sanding.
6 coats of clear were added in total with sanding at least 1 - 2 days after coating with 1000 wet&dry. Playfield left to cure for about 3 weeks. Then sanded with 1200, 1500 and finally 2000 paper. These two pics were taken after wiping off the dust with naptha after the 2000 sanding.
These last four pics are of the playfield after polishing with Novus#2 and finishing with "Mothers Plastic Car Polish". The shine is incredible. All thats left is a few minor touch ups to the drop targets and bumper caps. Thanks to RGP and Marvin.
See the CLEARCOATING section for more info.
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