Star Trek Cabinet Restoration
 

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Here are some pictures of a Bally Star Trek that I sold at the 2002 Allentown Pinball Wizard's Convention. I refinished the cabinet using a set of computer-generated stencils that I made.  There are some before and after pictures below.  If you have any comments, please let me know.

Additional sets of stencils will be available for sale soon.

Click on any of the pictures to jump to an enlarged view.

Here are some notes on the paint materials I used.

 


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Before


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After

 


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At the show


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In the shop

 


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Another "before" shot


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Playfield after touchup and shopping
(arch plastics not yet installed)

 

 Notes about the painting process

The cabinet was repainted with Glidden Evermore interior satin latex paint.  The paint was sprayed on with an external mix spray gun at approximately 45 PSI.  Floetrol latex paint additive was used and the paint was thinned with water approximately 15%.  Three coats of the yellow base color still permitted the original blue to be seen, but since the new blue covered the same area, I considered this acceptable.  Even with the Floetrol additive and thinning the paint with water, the paint would not mist very finely.  It was necessary to apply fairly heavy coats so that the relatively large drops would completely cover the area.  But that also had to be balanced between paint runs (paint too thin) or "orange peel" (paint too thick).

Although these results were very good, I will probably avoid using water-based latex in the future.  In addition to the difficulty in spraying the latex, the paint layers were much thicker than the original finish.  You could feel the edges of the stenciled patterns while you could not feel them originally.  But these relatively minor issues not withstanding, the end result was excellent.

 I purchased the paint at the local Home Depot.  Chip charts for Glidden and other brands are available for free, and after comparing a handful of them to the original colors, I chose the best match that was available.  The exposed parts of the existing finish were moderately faded, but the areas under the side rails and the coin door frame showed what was probably more indicative of the true colors.  I also compared these colors to the pictures in the sales flyer for the game.  After I applied the first coat of the yellow base color to the cabinet, I thought that the yellow was slightly too pure and bright.  So for subsequent coats I added a few drops of red, which moved the color very slightly towards orange.  The pure yellow tended to match the original yellow paint, while the red-tinted yellow more closely matched the playfield yellows and the game shown on the flyer.  In either case, the difference between the two colors was very slight and I'd consider it simply a matter of taste.   To my eye, the blue and orange matched perfectly.

Here are the colors used

All colors were interior satin-finish Glidden Evermore water-based latex.

Yellow: Sunny Side Up (37YY 61/877)
Blue: Cosmos (10BB 12/310)
Orange: Fiesta Orange (68YR 28/701)

Home Depot can mix this paint in quarts or gallons.  You definitely need no more than a quart of the orange.  I used very close to a quart of the blue (it's the base coat for the head).  And I definitely used more than a quart of the yellow.  The final finish had a dull sheen which may have been too shiny for some tastes.  I think a flat finish would have looked wrong, but I've since found out that these latex paints are also available in an "eggshell" finish - in between flat and satin.  Again, since the original paint wasn't latex it becomes a matter of taste and preference.  Satin finishes and the glossier ones are washable, too.

Overall, this project was a lot of work, but the end result were well worth the effort.

Stencils identical to these are now available from Pinball Pal.  There are stencils for Williams Black Knight, Bally Star Trek, Playboy, Kiss and Fathom.

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pinball/trek/Schematic-MPU Module AS-2518-35.pdf

pinball/trek/Schematic-Solenoid Driver Regulator Module AS-2518-22.pdf

pinball/trek/Schematic-Lamp Driver Module AS-2518-23.pdf

pinball/trek/startrek.pdf