In Progress Lord of the rings full restoration

[Hiro996]

I didn't expect to start another restoration so soon and certainly didn't think I'd be restoring a modern Stern machine but that is what has happened!

This is going to be a full restoration including cabinet and playfield swap for a brand new playfield with ceramic clear coat applied by Bill Davis (based in the US).

The machine is a UK machine but will no longer have skill posts (or the buttons) since the new playfield has been sourced from outside the UK.

First up is the cabinet restoration since the playfield is in transit.

 

[Hiro996]

The Lord of the rings cabinets were silk-screened rather than decals so official replacement decals are not available - but I managed to find a source of some decals re-produced via a scan of a mint cabinet.

 

[Hiro996]

The decals were sent from overseas too so I started on the inside of the cabinet first for this one, just means it'll have to be masked when the base coat is applied to the exterior prior to the decals.

The first job was to strip the cabinet - the earth braid is in great condition so I labelled it at various points and took the usual loads of photos to ensure it will go back in it's original location.

It's a time consuming task but eventually the cabinet starts to look bare...



Nearly there...

 

[Hiro996]

The next stage was to paint the inside of the cabinet - I decided metallic gold would look good for an LOTR. Then it's just a case of masking the gold and re-spraying the black areas - I always use Plastikote paints for the cabinets (metallic gold as mentioned and satin black).

Here's the inside of the cabinet painted - took a lot longer to get to this point than to type this!!!

 

[Hiro996]

For a final touch to the inside I decided to add the 'one ring to rule them all inscription':

 

[cooldan]

this is gonna be good, i can tell

 

[Poibug]

Stop!!!

Color DMD time

and a shaker

 

[Carl Spiby]

How come you decided to put the lettering over that nubbin of wood?

 

[Hiro996]

A shaker sounds like a good plan @TYHO !

@Carl Spiby , I tried a number of positions for the inscription and that seemed the best height for visibility when you lift the playfield so I decided to sacrifice the slightly detached view for the better position.

 

[Hiro996]

The decals eventually turned up so on to the exterior of the cabinet. The cabinet is actually pretty good on this example but there are a few marks:

 

[Hiro996]

The left side is in better overall condition but does have a long scratch towards the rear:

 

[Hiro996]

I have never re-decalled a screen printed cabinet before, I have discovered it is a lot quicker than re-decalling a decalled cabinet! Rather than a heat gun and scraper to get the original decals off followed by a razor blade and white spirit to remove the glue, you can simply attack it with a sander straight away - fantastic! So, time to bring out the Festool - I do love power tools!



15 minutes of careful sanding and it looks like this, no turning back now!



30 minutes later and one side is down to bare wood:

 

[Hiro996]

Then on to the next side:

 

[Paul]

Festool!! All the decent professional tools!!!

As you may have guessed from previous shop logs, that cab needs to be like Glass when you have finished! no blemishes, perfect condition basically Then add the decals...

 

[Hiro996]

Same for the front, I forgot to take an after shot but here is how it looked before I sanded:



The cabinet base is in good condition so no need to change it but it could with some attention to clean it up - another job for the Festool!

Before:


After:

 

[Hiro996]

Next up it's a case of filling any imperfections (no matter how small) and sanding - I usually have to repeat this stage about three times in order to get a perfect finish.

I sand using the following grit levels
80 (to remove the decals)
120
150
210
240

 

[Hiro996]

When the filling and sanding cycles are complete it's time to spray the edges of the cabinet and the start button area. I do not usually worry about the inside area of the coin door but realised this is exposed on Stern machines of this age so I sprayed that too

Skill post button holes now gone!

 

[Hiro996]

Time for the first decal! There are a few approaches to this, I choose to position the decal, check, re-check and check again before clamping it in position like so:

 

[Hiro996]

I then cut a vertical strip of backing paper away from the front end of the decal, push the decal from the back to make sure there is no slack and then stick the front part of the decal - it's difficult to see in this image but the front 50mm of the decal is now attached to the cabinet:



I then remove the clamps and roll the decal over the front side of the cabinet:



Then I remove around 200mm of backing at a time working towards the rear of the cabinet and attach the decal. I'm about 75% of the way through here:



Finally the whole decal is attached, phew!

 

[johnwhitfield]

love the wiring harness in the background.

 

[Hiro996]

Now it's time to trim the edges. A great tip from Matt Adams is to leave a 1mm gap around the perimeter - this prevents the edges of the decal lifting from people brushing past the cabinet for example. I use a scalpel and metal ruler for this step - a new blade for each side just to make sure as a blunt blade could pull at the decal and damage it or at the very least not give the clean straight line you are after:



And here we have the first side finished:

 

[Hiro996]

Now onto the other side, same approach as before:

 

[Hiro996]

And finally, the head decals, in the first image you can use the 3M decal spreader I use - does a fantastic job and is felt lined so protects the decal during application - perfect!







Done!

 

[Hiro996]

And the right side:

 

[Hiro996]

 

[Hiro996]

And that's the cabinet pretty much complete:

 

[Hiro996]

With the wiring loom and all other cabinet parts cleaned it's time to start putting it all back:

 

[Hiro996]

Now I need to wait for the playfield to arrive from the USA. In the mean time lots of other bits have been turning up for the playfield swap, I'll continue this thread when the playfield is delivered, hope it's been interesting and of some use up to now!

 

[Hiro996]

Thx @Paul , I wish a picture showed how smooth the bare wood finish is after all the effort - it's fantastic, almost a shame to cover it up with a decal!

 

[Hiro996]

Good spot @johnwhitfield - it's sitting there reminding me the fun and games I have ahead populating the new playfield!