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Painting Pinball legs.


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Hey guys,

 

Just wondering if any of you have any experience with painting pinball legs to give them a bit more life?

 

I was thinking of going for a hammered black look using spray paint.

 

Ive also seen at supercheap a spray paint that says it can be painted straight onto shiny metal or chrome surfaces to give an anodized colour look.

 

If I decide to just buy new ones does anyone know wheres the best place to buy them from price wise?

 

I ordered a really nice set of purple powder coated legs from marco specialties and at the checkout it said $40 for postage but then the next day I got an email saying that it would actually be $130 for postage and I kind of got annoyed on the principal of it and told them to cancel the order. I kind of wish I hadnt but thems the breaks.

 

thanks

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anything you put over chrome will peel or scrape off easily. lacquer or acrylic more so than enamel unless you really abrade the surface and etch prime. easier to either get rechromed or sandblasted and painted or as dr said, powdercoated and you would most certainly save bux. if slight rust is the issue use rust convertor for a quick improvement.
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i paid 20 for a control panel off an arcade and 40 for 4 pin legs. i searched long and hard to get that price as most were double that, but depending on color wanted, fencing manufacturers are your friends for powder coating (ie: black/green/grey/silver/etc that fencing places use as basic colors). oet your fingers do the walking and ring the places that manufacture as well as powdercoat. if purple is wanted as above, i would go the abraded surface (sand or whatever), metal prime (or etch prime) and sand smooth lightly to get rid of the scratches put in while abrading (re-prime if you go thru to metal) and spray in a decent quality enamel, killrust is good as i think you may be able to do away with the primer but read the can as most paints will require a primer over a coated surface. this will probably last for years in a home scenario (and you can change the color easily if not wanted).
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originally legs were nickel plated only and if you want to give them a bit more life for little expense and effort you could try using a scotch brite pad and paint with that chrome/silver wheel spray pack
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$40 bucks or less to powdercoat them

 

MrPubs spot on........look up a local specialst or tubular fence manufacturer

 

there are shitloads of colours available, if they dont have your purple, its no

sweat to get it in

 

i had 8 MrGAME legs (large steel box section units prob 6 times the surface area of a standard leg)

powdercoated a "special order" ferrari red down @ the local fencing place here, gave them plenty of

time & paid cash $100........

 

painting & stuffing around will save you $20? maybe & wont be anywhere near as good as a PC job

 

DR

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quick refresher:

 

Can you get hammertone finish in powdercoat? I think you can?

How do you specify the "hammer size"? - with the spray the thickness of the final coat changes the size of the hammer pattern so I assume that soemthing similar can be done with powder coat?

 

would prefer powder coat to bleeding (see my diy thread above)

 

Cheers

JAcob

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I think trying to make anything "look" chrome will never work other than plating/chroming - all those cans with mirror looking cans that say "chrome" are pure bulls#it and are nothing like that at all..... The legs I painted were originally hammertone, so I re-did them hammertone and they came up OK- but spray paint is not as tough as powdercoat so will not last as long.

 

Cheers

JAcob

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Hey heaps of good info in this thread. THanks everyone.

 

I'm pretty stunned at how good the hammertone stuff is in your DIY thread AskJacob, especially that coindoor, it looks like a factory finish to me.

 

If powder coatings really that cheap tho then I will definately get it done. I expected that a powdercoater wouldnt bother getting his hands dirty for less than a couple of hundred at least but it looks like I need to call around and find someone who'll do the smaller jobs.

 

Im doing up my ST:TNG atm. I stuck in a heap of LED's and I'm repainting the ships and the cannons as they were really dull and dirty. Any thoughts on what colour the cannons should be? I painted them a silver colour but Im not sure if it works.

 

thanks

 

clif

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the reason fencing manufacturer powdercoaters are cheap is that they will do it cheap as long as you want a color they have and are happy to wait until they do the next run which could be days or weeks. they put up your stuff at the same time and thats why its cheap as they arent getting in a special color and arent really taking any setup or clean up time. on my cabs a lot is black and black is regularly done by fence makers.

 

post pics of repainted sttng stuff in the pinball resto or mod section, sounds interesting but ive just had an offer on my sttng and it may be heading to other pastures but if it falls thru i may do some tarting on it.

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Oh I see, yeah that makes sense.

 

Yeah Mr Pubstuff Ill post some pics up when Im done. Youd know what I mean about the borg ship and the shuttle looking really dirty dull beige colour.

 

THanks again for all the input guys

 

Well here are a few pics of the toys with a fresh coat of paint. I was too impatient with the shuttle and stuck the decals on before the orange paint had dried and I smudged it so that will have to be fixed up. Also my painting skills leave a lot to be desired so the klingon ship is pretty terrible, but from the distance youd normally be looking at it you cant tell really. I think the borg ship will look quite good with the bright blue leds pulsing thru the windows.

 

 

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Edited by fishburgr
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