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What Powder Coating Colour?

Wiredworm

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Apr 7, 2013
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Grimsby
Hi there,

I'm hopefully going to get the side armour stripped off my R&B in the next day or so with a view to getting that, the lockdown bar and the legs all powder coated.

I had originally intended to go with boring black but after seeing Moosemans lovely Dr Who with the red legs and side rails i'm thinking that maybe a different colour might suit my R&B better.

So people; has anyone got any views or recommendations on this one?

The table already has a lot of black on the sides and front so i'm thinking another primary colour might work quite nicely. Possibly a nice blue or red maybe?

Thanks

Pete
 
I managed to get the red by taking my pot of paint to the coaters and matching it of a colour chart.
It sure helps if they have the colour you want in stock or else its going to get a whole load more expensive.

What about matching to one of the wireform habitrail colours
 
Habitrails are yellow, blue and green so yeah i'm thinking one of those would be good.

Not sure about the green but yellow or blue i'm thinking.
 
I've got a black one which is partly why I think I should do the legs and other fittings a different colour.
 
Glow in the dark? OR some other UV reactive paint?

Perhaps try some of that new heat sensitive paint? Go mental and we promise to love it. :)
 
Haha, nice try Rus but I don't want to be too outlandish just in case I ever do decide to sell it on.

Thinking yellow might be good - there's a fair bit of yellow in the artwork on the side of the cab so it would complement it pretty nicely.

Of course first major task is to get the side rails off.
 
I've had quite a few of my pins powder coated and tend to try to pick out a colour which compliments the artwork in the cabinet but not the predominany background colour. Have a look at the Dr Who in the pics of the SWL meet (in Events) at the weekend (near bottom of the first page).

Good luck and hope it comes out as you hope.

Cheers
Greg
 
Thanks Greg.

Primary background colour on my R&B is black so I reckon yellow would work. Here's what the artwork looks like. Excuse the picture as it's not the best.

R&BArt.jpg
 
Will get the side rails stripped and get a price from the powder coater. Hopefully should get both rails, the legs and lockdown done for around £100.
 
Been mulling this over and i'm leaning away from yellow now as it's going to possibly be too much on the sides especially with the side rails coming down and actually connecting up with Bullwinkles antler.

The missus is very keen on going red to match Bullwinkles jersey and the writing on the cab side. Have to say that it might be a better fit. Oh well first job is to get the parts stripped and get a price. Then I can make a decision.
 
Got a price for the powder coating - bargain price of £60 for the lot to be done in bright red.

Going to crack on and get the cables all labelled up tonight so I can disconnect the head and remove it. Once i've done that I can remove the backbox brackets and take the legs and other side rail off.

Need to grab some leg protectors too. Anyone got any views on the best ones to go for? I seem to recall Steve uses the felt ones and then trimes them back so you can't see them beyond the legs. A good option or are the plastic ones any better?
 
Need to grab some leg protectors too. Anyone got any views on the best ones to go for? I seem to recall Steve uses the felt ones and then trims them back so you can't see them beyond the legs. A good option or are the plastic ones any better?

Depends what you want them to do. The felt ones are used to prevent damage, the plastics ones are used to cover existing damage. If you've got some damage there already then I'd suggest getting both....felt ones first (against the cab) followed by the plastics ones and then the leg. That way your covering the damage you've got but also protecting from anything else in the future.
 
Thanks guys.

Three corners of my cab are in pretty good condition. The final corner is known as 'Shark Bite Cove' and it's where the cabinet back has been replaced but there is still a huge gouge in the side of the cabinet.

However, the plan there is to use epoxy to fill the hole and longer term the cabinet will be repainted and either touched up or re-decalled. Of course the issue on the latter option is that you can't buy decals for the R&B, but I don't think it's beyond my skills to do a high-res scan of the artwork before touching it up and having vinyl decals made at a local sign makers. Only slight issue i'm concerned over is getting the colour registration right but my plan there is to make up a colour swatch from the source images and have that printed first. At least that way if the colours are out I can tweak them globally and incur as little cost as possible.

I'm not sure if the ones you've recommended Steve will fit on my Data East table, but if they did are they at all visible behind the leg? My cabinet is black and the legs once powder coated will be red so if there's any of the silver showing at all then it might look a bit odd.

At the moment i'm leaning towards some of these in red http://www.1stoppinball.com/collections/ramps/products/leg-protectors and as RonSplooter suggested maybe some of these as well. http://www.1stoppinball.com/collections/ramps/products/felt-cabinet-protectors

Another related question I have is about the fittings that hold the side rails in place and the back box brackets. I'm guessing the best thing to do here is to stick the fittings (screws, bolts etc.) through some card and then spray the to colour match the railss and brackets. Assuming that's correct can someone please advise on the best paint to use for the job. Also is it necessary to prepare them in any way (sanding/undercoat etc.?). I'm a total n00b when it comes to painting so as much advice as possible would be welcomed.

As always thanks to everyone for their great advice so far.
 
Does the price for powder coating include prepwork or do you have to do that yourself? Do they sandblast them or maybe prepwork isn't required?
 
My cabinet is black and the legs once powder coated will be red so if there's any of the silver showing at all then it might look a bit odd.

Black cab with red legs is exactly the same as AC/DC premium that they come fitted to as standard. They're slimer than the legs so you don't see them past the edges :)
 
Thanks Ronsplooter. I'm assuming legs are pretty standard between makes then and those should fit my DE table? If that's the case I can just go for the Stern protectors then. :)

One final question on those - it looks like the screws they come with are self-tappers. So it's literally a case of using those to fit the protectors to the cab and then the leg bolts screw through the holes of the protector and into the normal mounting points?
 
Does the price for powder coating include prepwork or do you have to do that yourself? Do they sandblast them or maybe prepwork isn't required?
Includes prep work too - they'll sand blast them first and then powder coat them. I'll report back on the results. Another place in town quoted £80.
 
I'm assuming legs are pretty standard between makes then and those should fit my DE table? If that's the case I can just go for the Stern protectors then.

I would assume so but it might be worth shooting Phil at PH at quick email to check they'll be ok for your table.

One final question on those - it looks like the screws they come with are self-tappers. So it's literally a case of using those to fit the protectors to the cab and then the leg bolts screw through the holes of the protector and into the normal mounting points?

From what I've seen on AC/DC Premium, yes thats exactly how it works :)
 
Thanks gents. I'll be sure to report back in the next few days. I've got the head stripped off now and the side rail and back box brackets removed. There's some fairly nasty damage to the woodwork where the backbox mounts onto the main cab so part of me is now thinking about getting some replacement wood and fixing it up before putting it all back together again.
 
At the moment i'm leaning towards some of these in red http://www.1stoppinball.com/collections/ramps/products/leg-protectors and as RonSplooter suggested maybe some of these as well. http://www.1stoppinball.com/collections/ramps/products/felt-cabinet-protectors
A friend of mine has an ADDAMS FAMILY and CIRQUS VOLTAIRE with the plastic leg protects (in light blue and light green respectively) and they do look very handsome. They are clearly visibly and they work really well to complement the colour schemes of those two games. But the plastic is hard and won't prevent artwork or cabinet damage if you're rough with your nudging! Better than bare metal, yes, but not a cure.

He also has a LORD OF THE RINGS to which we fitted the felt pads. Somehow they just looked right on this machine. They're very discrete and as they're softer I think will provide better long term protection.

Horses for courses I guess. Depends what sort of life your pin is going to live as to how well either will work. Definitely better than nothing!
 
Got a price for the powder coating - bargain price of £60 for the lot to be done in bright red.
I'll be very interested to see the results. Considering powder coating the legs on my Paragon, possibly red or yellow, instead of the original black. Maybe.
 
I'll post some pictures once I get them back.

Spent last night labelling up the rest of the cables in the backbox prior to disconnecting them all. Managed to get that done and the head removed. Also stripped the other side rail and the backbox bracket.

Tonights job is to lift the playfield out and hopefully get the remaining 3 legs removed so I can get them to the coaters tomorrow. That way they should be back for the weekend so I can start putting it back together. Whilst they're at the coaters i'll be hopefully ordering the leg protectors and bolt protectors (like these http://www.1stoppinball.com/collections/ramps/products/pinguard-nylon-leg-and-bolt-protectors).

I'll most likely refit the legs fairly quickly but i'm not in a rush to stick the side armour back on as the glass rails really need changing out as they're pretty badly damaged and have lots of dinks and pieces missing out of them. I also want to respray the bolts used for holding them in place and i'm considering swapping the flipper buttons out for yellow ones. Might as well leave them off for now and do that little lot all in one go.
 
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