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Playfield repair. (Hurricane)

Phil Lee

Phil Lee

Site Supporter
5Years
Joined
Oct 28, 2017
Messages
278
Location
Bristol
So, 1st question - is this worth it - or should I wait for a playfield to come up for sale?

The playfield is not in awful condition, playable but annoyingly has a few 'wrinkles'. I haven't seen enough tables to know how & why - I guess water damage - but I cannot work out what happened to the poor thing in it's previous life. Never going to be perfect - but should be a good 'player' (I hope).

In the lower playfield (in front of the dummy, around the base of the x5 'Palace tower' insert) are a few (one major, several minor), what I can describe best as 'ripples' in the playfield. In the case of the major one, a small triangle (5mm x 4mm) has worn to bare wood, the rest is showing signs of a slight hump. The damage varies, but is discernible by touch for about 6 inches horizontally - with the main damage (the bare triangle) in the center.
It appears like the playfield has 'folded' in half - albeit with little damage - but enough to divert or cause a ball to jump.

I've just positioned a lamp to highlight the damage and will post a pic.

85744

The machine was cheap enough and came back to life easily - and I'm at an early and enthusiastic stage of wanting to learn how to repair / restore different eras of machines, so I'm on course to see what can be done to improve the situation.

I'm obviously on the lookout for a better playfield to swap in, but I'm unsure how long that wait may be - so during the meanwhile...

My (probably naive and possibly sacrilegious) inclination is to mechanically flatten the playfield (still puzzling best way to approach that without making it all worse), repaint (I'm reckoning my skillset is up to that) and sealing these areas - hopefully to the point a clearcoat (?) will leave a completely level playfield.

So - very happy for those with more experience to giggle and warn me off wasting my time, offer alternative solutions, tell me to park the machine until a pf comes up.. or whatever.

I shall probably plough on regardless (when time allows) to gain experience - and see what is and is not possible anyway.

Appreciate any suggestions - and really appreciate the fact that this forum exists with so much accumulated wisdom!

Apologies if I missed a thread along these lines - I searched in vain a few times, before I plucked up courage to post!

(oh and is there a better way (preferably polite!) to describe this damage - 'wrinkle, ripple, bump' isn't very technical..)

Many thanks in advance.
 
Looks like knackered Mylar to me. It can be removed with a lil heat or freeze spray. But some older games don’t have a strong clear coat or none atall so can remove are as well. I’m sure someone will pop up and tell u if it’s safe or not
 
RudeDogg1 said:
There is a guy on here that repairs Playfields he might do it for you not sure how much it would cost or if it’s worth it tho
Click to expand...
Cheers, probably not worth it on such a common machine - but thanks, maybe worth considering depending on price/location etc. Appreciate the view..

Sent from my FP2 using Tapatalk
 
Looks like moisture or some sort of solvent has gotten into the wood (I say solvent as it looks from the pic like it's bubbled the paint). Is there any damage underneath in the same area? There' also some small planking along the horizontal ripple and where that triangle piece has come out is where the edge of the ripple meets one of the vertical planking lines and the top edge of the x3 insert.

It's hard to tell from the picture how wide the ridge is and therefore how much you'd need to sand back to level it out but there's the possibility of making it look far worse if you go a bit too far. If you can confine the sanding to the single colour areas of the playfield then it might be worth having a go but bare in mind that colour matching the paint can be an absolute ballache if you don't have an eye for it.

Another option might be to buy a playfield protector as that would help level it out?
 
You guys are great.. Cheers for your time.

Underside of playfield is pristine.. (forgot to mention that)
The 'bump' is approx 3-4mm wide at the worst point (apart from the planking/insert intersection as Ron spotted)

Frankly I cannot imagine how the damage occurred - moisture - or perhaps solvent - though the paint seems solidly attached to buckled wood as far as I can tell.

The pf protector would help I'm sure - but it feels a little too 'big' a lump for me to be happy with that - though, at the end of the day, it would make an 'easy' fix for a more playable machine.

Appreciate the ideas.. I'm thinking that careful sanding is the way to go - and a good way to learn, but won't rush into it immediately - it will certainly improve my paint matching and I'm sure there will be other mistakes I'll also learn from along the way.. which is part of the fun for me..

As RudeDogg1 says - the possibility of repair is likely to be cheaper than a fair-good condition replacement - so will weigh all these things up.

Pretty soon I'm hoping to have a lot more time to dedicate to this area of my life - so am not going to start anything straight away - but excellent to have these pointers.
Thanks again.
 
I would repair the white area only! sand it fill it etc then cut a piece of white vinyl to the exact shape and size, it comes in all shades?
 
Thanks all - have pmd Chris - and thanks for all other suggestions. I like the challenge of doing it.. But will ponder!

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Please do not shoot the messenger here ...

I played this title a lot back in the early 90s, so I am not a Hurricane hater.

It is not a fancied game and is consistently one of the lowest price wpc games around. I think most folk would say that Gilligans is the worst WPC title and then you are in a debate as to what joins it in the bottom three - Hurricane ? Black Rose ?

I would caution against spending much time and or money on it unless you really, really enjoy repairing stuff. Many on here will have ploughed money into a loser - I did with my Genie. I would think that money spent on that Hurricane is a throwing good money after bad scenario.

In your shoes I would leave as is and sell it. Or if you really want a keeper Hurricane, wait for another (better) example to come up for sale. Buy Hurricane #2, cannibalise two games into one. Sell the runt on eBay or part it out as appropriate
 
To me it looks like something very heavy with some sort of pattern on the bottom of it and has compressed the plywood but without me not being able to touch it it's really hard to tell from the pic . @chris platt is the man to repair this but it does boil down to whether it is a keeper or not !
Good luck !!
 
Im with @DRD on this, unless you have the time and inclination this looks like it could be a headache and time pit. The best and cheapest option to get the game functioning without risk of more damage is probably a playfield protector for £100.

If I was going to fix this up my first concern would be the line that seemingly runs all the way across the playfield as indicated by the green bar below. If you look at the side edge of the playfield is there a join in the top ply layer here ?

85780

Secondly, I would not be happy leaving any of the main white cream area on the playfield as that looks like it has solvent damage and you never know how that is going to react with anything you put on top of it. to this end I would remove and repaint the areas I have marked as white below and then do colour touchups on the surrounding planking followed by replacing the keylines. If you are going this far you may as well do the whole playfield and then it will need a coat of something to protect all the work. Its a lot of time and effort but if thats your thing, go for it.

85781
 
Bill Froog said:
Appreciate the ideas.. I'm thinking that careful sanding is the way to go - and a good way to learn, but won't rush into it immediately - it will certainly improve my paint matching and I'm sure there will be other mistakes I'll also learn from along the way.. which is part of the fun for me..
Click to expand...

On that note, I just picked up one of these guys from ebay:

https://colorreader.datacolor.com/eu/

Can't vouch for the accuracy but it might get you closer quicker. You're welcome to borrow if you do decide to have a crack.
 
DRD said:
Please do not shoot the messenger here ...

I played this title a lot back in the early 90s, so I am not a Hurricane hater.

It is not a fancied game and is consistently one of the lowest price wpc games around. I think most folk would say that Gilligans is the worst WPC title and then you are in a debate as to what joins it in the bottom three - Hurricane ? Black Rose ?

I would caution against spending much time and or money on it unless you really, really enjoy repairing stuff. Many on here will have ploughed money into a loser - I did with my Genie. I would think that money spent on that Hurricane is a throwing good money after bad scenario.

In your shoes I would leave as is and sell it. Or if you really want a keeper Hurricane, wait for another (better) example to come up for sale. Buy Hurricane #2, cannibalise two games into one. Sell the runt on eBay or part it out as appropriate
Click to expand...
I'm not into messenger shooting to be honest! Each to their own.. I do actually really enjoy the fixing of machines - but realise that the machine is 'mediocre' in pinball circles - I found locally and at £600 for my 1st DMD (most are EMs here) I grabbed it. So no, not going to throw lots cash at it, it's a fair example but not pristine. That said, as a machine to play with, it fits the bill - and I want to improve it where possible. Thanks for your view though, pretty much where I am.. I started playing in the Fireball, EBD, Centaur and SBM era - so enjoying creeping slowly forward and appreciating the table developments as I find later machines to play with. I've enjoyed getting this one back to life, will try and sort as much as I can, but would only do pf swap if one came up pretty cheap. Kind of fun, one dimensional game that someone will enjoy, so doing my best to get it playing as well as possible. Thanks!

Sent from my FP2 using Tapatalk
 
carl lawrence said:
To me it looks like something very heavy with some sort of pattern on the bottom of it and has compressed the plywood but without me not being able to touch it it's really hard to tell from the pic . @chris platt is the man to repair this but it does boil down to whether it is a keeper or not !
Good luck !!
Click to expand...
Thanks Carl. Not really a keeper - more an intermediate 'learner' fixer-upper for me.. It does seem that it's swollen wood. Exactly how is a real mystery to me.. I've an engineering background and pretty savvy on sussing, bodging and working stuff out, but I really am flummoxed on this! My guess?? A container with square edge left resting on play field (without ramps) has leaked fluid on this line? Cannot conceive how - thought someone here might pipe up and have an immediate 'ahh those era Hurricanes were susceptible...' But a mystery that I'll enjoy remedying at my own pace - or as many suggest, leave as is and move on from.. There are lots more worthwhile projects out there, but not too vested in this one so will use as a learning platform. So win win! Cheers for the message though, appreciated.

Sent from my FP2 using Tapatalk
 
Moonbus said:
Im with @DRD on this, unless you have the time and inclination this looks like it could be a headache and time pit. The best and cheapest option to get the game functioning without risk of more damage is probably a playfield protector for £100.

If I was going to fix this up my first concern would be the line that seemingly runs all the way across the playfield as indicated by the green bar below. If you look at the side edge of the playfield is there a join in the top ply layer here ?

View attachment 85780

Secondly, I would not be happy leaving any of the main white cream area on the playfield as that looks like it has solvent damage and you never know how that is going to react with anything you put on top of it. to this end I would remove and repaint the areas I have marked as white below and then do colour touchups on the surrounding planking followed by replacing the keylines. If you are going this far you may as well do the whole playfield and then it will need a coat of something to protect all the work. Its a lot of time and effort but if thats your thing, go for it.

View attachment 85781
Click to expand...
Thanks, yes -exactly the direction I was heading - cheers for the advice. I'm away from the house right now, will check whether there is a board join there, thought unlikely, so haven't checked that - but would explain it. Agreed with repainted the whole white area - esp. as you indicate that if it is solvent damage, any vestige needs removing. It also points to perhaps ploughing my time and energy into something more worthwhile instead. This is the consistent view here - and thanks for everyone giving good advice.
Thanks for your illustrated reply, it's humbling to see such a great community in action. Appreciate all the pointers.

Sent from my FP2 using Tapatalk
 
stumblor said:
On that note, I just picked up one of these guys from ebay:

https://colorreader.datacolor.com/eu/

Can't vouch for the accuracy but it might get you closer quicker. You're welcome to borrow if you do decide to have a crack.
Click to expand...
Ooh, nice bit of kit! I looked at similar devices a few years back (I do graphics design too) and they were bulkier and more exorbitant then. Appreciated! Many thanks sir! Still mulling on whether this title is worth it - as it has no real specific worth for me personally. Not a keeper - more a puzzler! Cheers!

Sent from my FP2 using Tapatalk
 
stumblor said:
Also is someone mooning from the tower?!

View attachment 85782
Click to expand...
Lol, indeed. Some of the details on this machine are good fun. I like this machine too - I believe it's an earlier example because the pop bumpers are lit by default (abandoned partway through production I believe with no lamp holders fitted), so somehow I like the idea of preserving, mooning circus workers and all :)

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