Complete Funhouse

[DRD]

Sanding and filling the cab is fine. Painting it is a right pita. I am sick to death of it, as car paints are gloss they are so much harder to spray than other types. And when you sand it back it melts, gums up your sanding discs.

The simoniz acrylic grey primer is superb though. A doddle to use. And it further smoothes out even the very carefully sanded wood that I used 400 grit on. But finding indigo blue car paint that sprays nicely is another story.

So I rebuilt the coin door today for some good news. As a bang for your buck, quick easy job, dirt cheap to do, this really takes some beating

Use hammerite black with a hammered finish. This is exceptionally easy paint to spray. Covers well. Easy to lay on additional coats or cover bits you missed, leave overnight to dry. I was concerned about spraying the hinge, but you just get on and do it.

The before ...



I stripped it down. Used spray kitchen cleaner and ipa to remove the filth. This coin door is a ridiculous design. It has a vast number of different types of screw used in its construction and loads of separate parts too. So take numerous photos


The after ...

 

[RudeDogg1]

Car paint shouldn't do that btw as it's designed to be sanded back. Gumming up would be a sign it's not cured in my experience

 

[DRD]

Thanks. Could be the cold weather. I am now running a fan heater in my garage. The other paints work fine though - grey primer, satin black, hammerite snooth black. I have tried 2 brands of indigo blue.

 

[RudeDogg1]

Sometimes sitting the can in warm water helps it behave when spraying

 

[Moonraker]

Thanks. Could be the cold weather.

Understatement of the year so far !!!

 

[DRD]

Sometimes sitting the can in warm water helps it behave when spraying

That has done the trick. Great advice thank you. It has transformed the enthusiasm with which these bloody cans atomise the paint

 

[DRD]

Finished it. All working.

The decal job was an absolute pig. DO NOT BUY from phoenix arcade. They are beautiful, but too thin. My shadow decals were so much more forgiving and easier to install as they are thicker material

Also DO NOT BUY Hycote or Halfords car paint. Awful. Made my task absolutely hideous. Even in a heated garage, with warmed up cans, this blue paint was truly horrible. Impossible to sand, even by hand. It would form flecks. If you used power tools on it, it melted

In contrast, hammerite, simoniz acrylic primer, simoniz satin black are all superb paints.

Spotted this mess on the power line. It had blown something up so a former owner bypassed the filter, put a 13a in the plug and 8a rather than 4a in the actual game. All correct fuses now, new filter from pinball mania which was a perfect replacement.

The before ...



All bolts tumbled, black ones sprayed with simoniz primer then satin black. Sprayed the head brackets with the same paints. New plungers, correct tension springs ...

From this



And this


To this





The decal job is fraught with danger ...

Trimming it. If your knife is too sharp it digs into the wood. If it is too blunt it snags the decal. As you cut the decal it gets glue on it so this causes problems

Legs- one of mine was damaged so it would have dug into the new decal, despite me installing stern hidden leg protectors first

Painting the edges of the cabinet before applying the decal is all fine and dandy, but each trimmed edge is white anyway !!

Cutting the start button hole out of the fresh decal is really risky. You need to sand it smooth after you have painted it so when you trim it, the knife has a smooth passage so you can cut a neat circle

Finally sorted intermittent Rudy, the eyes left coil was misfiring. I could see it sparking in the test mode. Replacement coil sorted it

Been a long haul this one. But looking good and playing well now. Will need to tweak the gameplay, and touch up the paint where the knife removed it

 

[RudeDogg1]

Odd never had that trouble with halfrauds paints it's made to be sanded back that's part of the process of painting cars ect. It's still turned out stunning [emoji106]

 

[DRD]

Maybe the paint reacted with the simoniz primer ? I dunno. It was such a pig I had to strip it off with a heat gun. Then reapply the primer ....

Next time, i will do a test of the primer, paint, sanding it etc etc before going near the backbox

 

[RudeDogg1]

Of the primer was cellulose or enamel then yes that would cause a reaction

 

[DRD]

It was acrylic paint and acrylic primer. Drove me mad. Doubled the work involved

 

[DRD]

Having bought it in July, I am now finally getting some decent games in.

Been busy fettling it. Possibly some useful tips for fellow funhouse owners here ....

Playfield alignment is critical on this game. When i bought mine it was all wrong. Two shooters plus two skill shots makes this a nightmare. I solved the problem by installing two round headed bolts with star washers on top and nylock screws underneath in the lock down bar. I tried different size combinations to get this right. I now finally have consistent skill shots at last as the playfield always settles in the same position ....



I replaced the locking disc to stop lock failures on what is basically a flipper mech botched into a locking mech. But it still failed about 1 in 8. I stretched the tension spring (same style as on pre fliptronic flippers) as this is what stops the balls just passing trough the mech. This is a pig to adjust unless you have the ramps out. It is still a nasty job even then. My lock problems are over thanks to increased spring tension



I was warned that the new steps ramps is slightly out, so the ball can get stuck in this corner. So I increased the height of this corner with three washers under the relevant playfield support post, and also reprofiled the flat rubber into an angled design with a scalpel then dremel. This solved it



I was getting bounceback from the ball eject, so i slightly bent the guide down towards the lock down bar, this solved it.
The ball eject was not always returning to the down position. It was already cleaned, so i stretched the return spring slightly, this solved it.


I think that leds work well in this game as the art is basic solid colours, but the light above the trap door is so much more effective as an incandescent. Leds just do not throw light into this dark area of playfield as well ....