game room: approaching maximum density!

I wanted to take a moment to show off the game room's current state, and go over some of the tools I have been using.
First, the oh so wonderful panorama:

OMG YOU SO GOTTA CLICK TO EMBIGGENNATE!

On the far left is a MAME setup in the shelf.
Recent stuff added: 
S.T.U.N. Runner, Space Harrier, and Rampage World Tour marquees
Future Spa backglass
World Cup Soccer 94 and Rocky & Bullwinkle playfields

I want to one day find a very nice Future Spa backglass, but in the meantime I lucked in to a heavily delaminated one for a very good price.
When I had worked on the delaminating Dolly Parton backglass I only used the bottled Triple Thick, slathering it on the back and applying plastic wrap, as per Clay's guide.
When I was fixing a paint flake from the Centipede backglass, a friend spotted it curling and reminded me that acrylics apply tension, and so I had to put it on both the front and back.
I am taking that more to heart this time, trying to get more under.
Also followed other pinsider's advice to use super glue gel under the flakes. 

Getting UNDER proved difficult.  I used fine tweezers, but you only want to lift juuuust a smidge or else you risk snapping the paint flake right off.

this is what a wild Friday night at my place looks like.  Glues, acrylics, brushes, and pincers.  Oh and lots of booze. (not pictured)

I actually had to manually play the woman's chin + neck, as it had flaked off in transit.  Luckily it had been graciously saved for me.

OK so my restore of the back glass wasn't perfect.  Some of the stuff (the Triple Thick?) dried whitish in one part.  But still, it's pretty boss.  Next time I will do it in smaller stages.  Super glue first, wait a day, then coat the hell out of the problem areas with the Triple Thick acrylic goo.



I like having friends wherein describing their jobs it sounds like I know wizards.  Chris is like that.  In aeronautics.  Plays with solvents and epoxies that civilians aren't allowed to buy.  You know, a wizard.
He helped me with my 2 mylar marquees.  All of my other marquees were plexiglass or glass (or thick printed plastic, for Crystal Castles,) so I didn't know how to approach S.T.U.N. Runner and Rampage World Tour with their flimsiness.  Chris was able to custom cut some 1/8" lexan sheets for the front and back of each.

I sealed them at the top only with an expoxy that dried translucent. I am a super newb to epoxies, but my friend with me that night had some experience, and we used most of a whole bottle sealing the two marquees.

2 days later I sanded down the blobular exoxy mess (with bonus fuses newspaper bits!) until they were presentable.



Then I got what I call "my birthday present to myself", consisting of 2 playfields shipped in from Portugal.
Let's do the before and after!!!

BEFORE!

AFTER!

Wow, like magic!

Ok it was a bit of work, but not a tonne of work.

Cleaning this up is actually very satisfying.  First thing though was to remove all of the metal bits still there.  Posts are easy, but guide rails are a pain.  I needed the right tools for the job:

I bought these two sizes of punches, and captain slammy hammer there made short work of the metal.

Biggest problem with the metal bits?  Finding a good time to be noisey because yeah there's a bunch of banging involved.

I was a bit mystified by these bits for the pop bumpers on WCS:

note:  no indents in their head.  all smooth...

but threaded at the bottom?  How does that make sense?

So I still don't understand why they are threaded if the are just banged in, but after consulting with the pin community, I just banged them out from the bottom.
One small wood/paint chip in all of 9 bangs, so be careful if you do this!  I just assume all of you are better than me at pretty much everything, though.


I decided to also clean the playfield inserts on the backside, thanks to Windex and ample paper towels.
Take a look at the difference of grime levels:

I was very happy with the results, and if I ever do something like run lights behind them, they will be ready to shine!

My room is approaching peak density!  4 is the max of games, and the art space is almost gone.
I have a Stern FreeFall backglass on the way, and a Bubble Bobble marquee waiting for me in the USA.  Also have a lead on a Scramble marquee.
After that, the only marquees I'll be hunting for is Marble Madness, Cameltry, and Metamorphic Force.

To best show them off, I will stack the shortest ones behind the game to give the best chance of seeing each one in the double-row I want to have there.
And after that, it's a matter of trading up for the ultimate playfields that I want, including a Genie and Jungle Queen. Maybe a Bad Cats...