Pinball machines

[TCT]

Yes, I understand this isn't a pinball hobby forum. Just seems screen printers have had experience in so many things I figured I'd ask!

Wondering if anyone has had experience rebuilding pinball machines. Not so much re building in terms of making all the targets and bells work, more cosmetic. What I want to do is make a custom pinball machine for a holiday gift for one of our clients. Thinking of buying some generic one off CL or a auction and want to totally re brand it with their logo and things related to what they do. I figure a lot of it is just digitally printed vinyl stickers. I could be totally wrong on that though.

As per my usual M.O. I have left no time to do something I know nothing about! Anyone have any knowledge they'd like to share?

[Frog]

I have no idea how the modern machines are adorned, but the old classics I've had (and have) have screen printed cabinets and playing filed, and screen printed back glass.
You may be able to use printed vinyl.

[Gilligan]

Playing field might be tricky.

Give you a good time to pull off all the parts and refurb it though.

I'll be buying a pinball machine soon enough.

[Frog]

I also don't know how to do the back glass except for sandwiching a printed transparency or vinyl between two pieces of glass.

[screenxpress]

I don't have much to offer on your quest, but back in the day, as a sideline biz, I used to refurbish Williams, Gottlieb, and Bally pinballs (circa 1968 ish) pinballs and resell.  I still have 3 electro mechanicals in storage, not in great shape and maybe one day will bring them back to life.  Capt Fantastic (which I did swap out with a new playfield, ugh all the wiring and stuff), a Pinball Wizard, and a Dealers Choice.

I did an Ebay search, for grins, and about 98% of the stuff is all digital and all big dollar items.  You might find something out there cheap, but, I'm thinking you're fixing to bite off a big chunk of work effort with a pretty small window of time before Christmas.  Just my 2c.

[mk162]

This is funny.  My dad used to own a business fixing and repairing pinball machines and that kind of stuff...in the twin cities.  When we lived up there we had frogger, pinball, a motorized seesaw all in the basement.

We've got a family friend up there that still works on them.  I will see if I can get his contact info.  Last time we were up there he was living over in Plymouth.  He also restores Chris Craft boats as a hobby/side business. 

[Atownsend]

We have a Williams "Hot Tip" (1977) here in the lobby / showroom. Unrestored, but works great and is super fun to play! It was the first solid state machine that Williams made. And one of the first solid state machines made en mass. With that being said, I have opened it up and the guts of this thing are insanely complicated. I'm not sure that I would want to ever tamper with the ruling or the way the targets work, it would be cool to restore the play field, but that even is a lot of work. Most people restoring the play fields are using paint to touchup. I think they are also are coated with mylar that would have to be removed before you get down to the wood. There are some good guides on papa.org and lots of info on pinside.com. A redo of the play field is a huge undertaking. And if you do go so far as to remove the playfield, it kind of makes sense to rebuild the bumpers / flappers so it plays fast. If you do it, post some pics! Pinballs are cool, there are usually some good deals for used machines on CL (around here at least), just play it first!

[TCT]

Thanks guys! Sooooooo... It's sounding more like a next year's gift or maybe a Christmas in July deal.     Suppose I should go find a fancy fruit basket for this year! 

[Northland]

Here's a guy, 50 miles up the road from you, that has 17 semi-trailers worth of oddities:
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/for/5832153777.html

[dirkdiggler]

I am looking for one of those arcade games myself that has all the old 80s games on it, then redo the case with our logos.  Those are just so expensive.

[mimosatexas]

Here's a guy, 50 miles up the road from you, that has 17 semi-trailers worth of oddities:
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/for/5832153777.html

Go there now!  If the guy doesn't actually know what he has you can make some serious dough on some of those old machines.

[Frog]

Here's a guy, 50 miles up the road from you, that has 17 semi-trailers worth of oddities:
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/for/5832153777.html

Go there now!  If the guy doesn't actually know what he has you can make some serious dough on some of those old machines.

Or, since he says he also trades for older machines, he knows exactly what he has and what shape they are in.
But, one can only look and see.

[ScreenFoo]

Digitally printed vinyl stickers?

Those panels are screen printed man, SCREEN PRINTED!!!

Sorry, just felt like someone had to say it...

[Atownsend]

Whats crazy is the number of colors on the back glass on some of the old pinballs. My pinball has 9 spot colors on the backglass.  It must have been a hell of a job back in the day. There is no way that Williams did those in house, considering that the wood side panels are obviously a spray paint stencil job.

[Frog]

Digitally printed vinyl stickers?

Those panels are screen printed man, SCREEN PRINTED!!!

Sorry, just felt like someone had to say it...

Yes, but TCT asked about customizing one for a super client. Screen Printing a single machine's playing field and back glass ain't gonna happen.