What's new
By:
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Re-decalling a Pin

Is it worth re-de calling my JM?

  • Absolutely! You won't regret the time and effort.

    Votes: 4 40.0%

  • it's nice, but get a professional to do it instead if you are unsure.

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • It's wedged between 2 other games, it's a huge expense and not worth it for something you won't see.

    Votes: 4 40.0%
  • Total voters
    10
Sam C

Sam C

Registered
10 Years
Joined
Feb 8, 2012
Messages
1,651
Location
Kettering, UK
So as the title says I'm toying with the idea of re-de calling my JM as like many the cab has faded to a nice off yellow colour, but I'm still on the fence about it. I just wanted to get other people's opinion whether it is worth it or not. From what I can tell seeing other people who have done it here and on pinside it is a lot of work for very little return unless you absolutely have to have your game in perfect nick.

I would like to do it to get the experience, but the expense, fact I might not have the necessary know how to get the game back together again (I have taken my BSD top playfield to bits which is the most I have ever done to re rubber, clean it, fit cliffys etc) and the amount of effort is what is putting me off.

So people who have done it (or people who have never done it!) what's your opinion?
 
Great poll.

I found this a pragmatic youtube "how to" on the subject.


Personally, I think a few relevant factors are

1 how bad is it now ?
2 how long before you sell the game ? (Will you get money back)
3 is it in a posh games room, or a multi use work environment (aka garage) ?
4 will the new decal fade too ? Despite what claims are made about uv, how long will it last ?

I much prefer the games that were painted as opposed to the decals. I think the decals are overkill on a pinball machine, I wish they had never been used. A backglass and painted sides is much better than a translite and decalled sides in my opinion. Addams Family Dècal is about OK, but the later ones like TZ have far too many colours in my opinion
 
DRD said:
Great poll.

I found this a pragmatic youtube "how to" on the subject.


Personally, I think a few relevant factors are

1 how bad is it now ?
2 how long before you sell the game ? (Will you get money back)
3 is it in a posh games room, or a multi use work environment (aka garage) ?
4 will the new decal fade too ? Despite what claims are made about uv, how long will it last ?

I much prefer the games that were painted as opposed to the decals. I think the decals are overkill on a pinball machine, I wish they had never been used. A backglass and painted sides is much better than a translite and decalled sides in my opinion. Addams Family Dècal is about OK, but the later ones like TZ have far too many colours in my opinion
Click to expand...

1. Not terrible terrible, but like I said its a yellow colour rather than the deep red the cab should be. It has not faded to white.
2. I'm planning on keeping it a while. I will be doing a number of other things to it as part of a film project. I also love the game itself anyhow.
3. Not a posh games room but my garage which I have converted to a gamesroom (carpeted, heated, plastered walls. Good enough to be called a room).
4. It likely won't fade in its time with me, but I can see it happening if I sell the game on.

I also prefer painted games but Johnny Mnenomic is a notoriously bad game for cab fade if you look it up. It is a pretty simple cab artwork wise idea you have a look, pretty much just red and black but it is a WPC95 so a recent game with decals on. And thanks for the vid, I've been hunting round YouTube for stuff like this to see how to do it!
 
Last edited:
As it is a keeper, in a nice environment, and given all that red and the yellow and white lettering; I think it is a prime candidate for a uv stabilised decal job if you have the tools, patience, strength and bravery.

Why not contact the youtube guy for a price, then see how brave you are feeling ! I saw a re-decalled game at pinball heaven and it looked fabulous.

My Tz has faded, but faded evenly. So I actually prefer it to to the original colours as it is more understated now

In your shoes, In the first instance I would keep my eye out for an unfaded game with a view to combining two to make one. Sell the weaker one
 
ronsplooter said:
Can you get decals for JM? If you want it doing and don't fancy tackling it yourself then there are guys on here who could help @replicas @Matt Adams @Dave the Taxman all do top quality work :thumbs:
Click to expand...

I have a sourced a place I can get them from yes, but again it is the logistics of then getting them game to someone and back again which is just a bit of a pain. Martin would have to be my go to contact for that.
 
:):)I agree with most of the points DRD made (and the video is mine, hate the sound of my own voice) but mainly do it if you are going to keep the pin. If you do the work yourself you will probably get the investment back but bear in mind you will spend more than just decals, those side rails have a small dent and what about the legs, etc, etc I did a JM years ago and it looked great but I would probably only do it if it was a keeper or you want to have a go, there are lots of people on here who would hold your hand ☺
 
Thanks for the advice so far all. I'm thinking I might give this a crack in the new year. One question I do have, how important is it to remove old decals? Mostly I see people sand them off and then put the new ones on but is it possible to 'cheat' slightly and layer new decals on top of old ones? Or is this a big no no?
 
great poll questions and good honesty all round.

the only topic in the responses that i would quibble about is the one about 'will you get the money back?' and even Matt's answer that you probably will. my quibble is (1) that you probably won't (not many people will add £300 to the price of a JM for a perfect cabinet, and you may be waiting a long time before such a person wanders along ..... until the Chinese discover pinball, of course, then we will all be overnight millionaires) .... and (2) that the question is kind of moot, for the very reasons you yourself give, ie do it for the enjoyment, the experience and the challenge, but please don't consider the actual parts+time costs of a top quality restoration in the machine's value as 'what it owes you' (i know you didn't use this horrible phrase) as this is just a small hobby. if you did it yourself you'd probably enjoy it but get a worse job for less money than if you paid someone else to do it.

my neighbour has spent thousands of hours restoring a beautiful Porsche and reckons it is now worth a fortune, but he is only doing it as a labour of love and because he plans to keep it forever. i know pinheads who put hundreds of hours into a single pinball machine, but i doubt that many of them (ok a few charge top dollar for their output) expect the cost of even the parts alone to be ever recuperated.

peace out dudes. i love this place.

gif amazing balancing dog.gif
 
And I think that some of the lessons with cars can be applied here. I am just guessing at numbers, but hopefully they illustrate the point

You can buy a car like a triumph spitfire and spend thousands on perfecting everything, you will likely lose money when you sell it. The best spitfire in the world may only fetch 25k for example, and not many go for more than 5k

Whereas an e-type is worth the re spray, the retrim, the mechanical rebuild etc as you will find a buyer who will pay top dollar for a well sorted e-type. The best e-type in the world will fetch more than a hundred grand. Yet the cost of a re spray for it is broadly similar to that for a spitfire

What I am unsure of is whether pinballs will ultimately get valued as pieces of furniture in the future (ie patina is good, do not re-touch them, do not repair things, originality is everything), or cars (where folk accept that repairs need to be made sympathetically)
 
very interesting (i miss when we used to have a chat lounge in this place, and dislike how my need and want to chat comes across a whorish trolling).

but surely then Johnny Mnemonic, while i agree it is a brilliant game, is more in the camp of the triumph than the jaguar. in which case the costs of a renewed cabinet will never be realised like they will in a MM/AFM/MB (the holy trinity)
 
Thanks for your input both, just to answer your point Dan, no I would not do it simply for the reason of adding value, as you said it would be a labour of love and the experience of doing it. I would imagine it would put a small amount of value on but I wouldn't immediately in my head jack up the cost of the game £300 just because I've spent some time doing this. Generally if I do something to a game I try to recover the cost in parts and nothing more.

I'm going to have a think and consider what I want to do, all this is very interesting and it is good to have a chat and get other people's insight. I have to admit I sit firmly in the camp of making changes to the actual playfield, I've never done stuff to the cab before because I play the game for the game, not to stand at a distance and appreciate how shiny it is. The great thing about the net is now though there is so many guides and stuff like the video above to help out with this sort of thing.
 
Last edited:
DRD said:
What I am unsure of is whether pinballs will ultimately get valued as pieces of furniture in the future
Click to expand...

out if interest, currently insurance companies rate them as "furniture" and not "antiques". As soon as they make "antique" status, costs of insurance will rise i'm sure.. :(
 
With respect to the re-decal, if you havent done it before it certainly sets the nerves a jangling. It's certainly a case of preparation preparation and more preparation - the more preparation you do, usually, the better the job.

However i have done it once now, and whilst the risk of trashing £300 of decals is 50/50, time and patience is of the essence (and a second person essential!).

Personally I like to play, and i like machines to look good. They don't have to look good to play well, and it is a trade off. Each to their own :)
 
I'm gonna be doing this soon is there anyone near me in bristol that does cabs as I don't think I want to tackle it my self
 
Here's my ten pence worth.

I wouldn't bother doing it if the only reason is to try to bump the re-sale value up, but that doesn't sound like the objective here. I'm still in the process of re-decaling my battered R&B but the whole process stalled a bit due to the cabinet being knackered and us having a new kitchen fitted. Oh, and there was Christmas too.

In my case i've paid a fair wedge to have custom decals sent over from the States. That's partly because you can't get decals for R&B, but also because the ones I found were actually nicer than the original artwork on my black R&B. I know for a fact that I won't make the money back but i'm really doing it because I currently only have room for a single Pin so I figure I might as well make it a nice one. And that's the plan - to re-decal, polish, sand, repair and generally make it as nice as possible.

And if I ever do eat my words and decide to sell then someone will get a nice R&B at a bargain price. I'm not in the hobby to make money but to enjoy the restoration process and hopefully play some games along the way. :-)
 
Haha, never thought I'd see dibs called on my RnB, but of,course those will be honoured if I ever do shift it on. :-)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Paul said:
With the fun and games you had with GnR i feel bad enough as it is! :(
Click to expand...


Don't feel bad! I got there in the end mate. These things happen with these old machines. It wasn't your fault.
And I absolutely love it! It was a great purchase! I play it every single day. Sometimes for hours! It has rekindled my love of Pinball after a huge lull.

I've been spoiling it rotten too. It's going to be an absolute beauty when I have finished.

It's also made me dig out my GnR CD collection for the first time in years. I had almost forgotten how awesome they were back in the day.

It's all good Dude.


Oops. Thread somewhat derailed! Sorry! Back on track now....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom