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Playfield insert decal woes

Tim R

Tim R

Registered
5Years
Joined
Apr 18, 2015
Messages
289
Location
Almondbury, West yorkshire
Hey guys,
I'm having some trouble with some insert decals I purchase off ebay for my Dr who. I have spent a lot of time prepping this deck ready for this overlay and waiting patiently for it to arrive from the states, which it did last week so today I got stuck in. I placed the decal with precision alignment (even though the size wasn't quite right which ****ed me off a little) and then began to apply lacquer... I did a few heavy coats of acrylic rattle can lacquer from Halfords and soon realised I needed more. So off we trotted round to the local ford's and ended up being out for quite a while.
Anyway on my return earlier I was horrified to see that the lacquer has softened the decal and lifted it from the playfield. Ruining all my hard work. What the he'll happened. I thought I had done everything properly....
20160416_161330.jpg

Needless to say a few choice expressions have been released around my garage this afternoon and also I have thrown a few tools against walls here and there. Yet I have managed to calm myself down before I exploded fully.

My question is guys, what the he'll did I do wrong???
 
Looks like the paint has reacted with the decal? maybe lots of light coats would have worked? or placing mylar instead of paint?

Ronnie
 
What a nightmare did you leave the overlay decal once stuck for the adhesive to cure? It looks like it's not adhered to the pf fully or is a very poor adhesive on the decal. The lacquer should not of reacted like that to the decal.

Hopefully you should be able to remove it and sadly start again :tut:

I feel your pain :sad:
 
I haven't done it with a pinball but I have done decals on guitars and I always did quite a few light, misting coats (let each one dry) before putting on the thick coats.
 
Dont beat yourself up about it tim looks like you put some effort in to it looking at the playfield before and yes the laquer has melted the decal i think the best thing to do would be to fit another decal then maybe seal it in with mylar bigger than the decal
 
Sounds like a good idea, really has ticked me off somewhat as you can imagine. Would of loved to begin the rebuild next week as it seems like I was waiting ages for the decals to arrive lol
 
Yeah the guy in the states it said licenced decals. How did you guess?
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PPS has licensed a load of stuff to Jeff at Classic Arcades but they're quality is utter sh*t and has been for years. Unfortunately Rick at PPS doesn't seem to care that it's bringing the licence a bad name as long as he gets paid :( I wouldn't be surprised if the vinyl they've used to print the overlay on isn't suitable for clearcoat.
 
Makes sense as the colours were off and the sizes didn't line up. Black lines were too bold etc etc. Although I wasn't too bothered as it was going out on site I just wanted it to play well.

Ahh well you live and learn
 
T-Dawg said:
Ahh well you live and learn
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That's the spirit, and thanks for sharing. We've all done major **** ups, did you see the pics from the guy that set fire to his playfield trying to dry off a solvent using a blowtorch? Now that was an epic fail, yours is reversible.
 
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