Earthshaker Restoration: Sprayed the First Clear!

I’m still working on this!!  Got sidetracked with a few console games like Mega Man 9 & 10, Afterburner Climax and Aces of the Galaxy.

Pictures are here:

http://gallery.metahugh.com/main.php?g2_itemId=4711&g2_page=3

Its taken me a bit of time to get this done but finally I have sprayed down the first clear on my Earthshaker.  I have learned quite a bit over this restore:

1.  You can never be too careful when spraying clearcoat.
2.  Insert decals are not perfect and sometimes not even accurate.
3.  Trimming insert decals may not be the way to go.
4.  Prepare for lots of work!

First safety.  I prepared to be as safe as possible spraying this stuff.  I have a Tyvek suit, a 3M cabon respirator, swim goggles, latex gloves and a long sleeve shirt and long pants under the suit. Second regarding insert decal accuracy.  Some of the decals were not the right size in terms of the black border.  This was most evident with the decals for the arrows.  They were too short so I had to cut the text and lines from the decal.  The text itself seems spot on but not the rest.

I had read that a few people trimmed their decals so that you only lay down the text and not the clear part.  The problem I have found with this is you get a “lip” at the edge of the decal.  Hopefully by the time I have laid down the last shot of clear it will level out.  I wish I applied the decals to the insert prior to putting them in the playfield that way I could trim them to the size of the insert.

I used the Spraymax 2k Aerosol clear.  I like how it sprays, nice and smooth.  I first sprayed a mist coat on the playfield.  After waiting 10 minutes I sprayed the first heavy coat.  I had planned on doing two heavy coats but I quickly found out that the can really only has enough for one heavy coat.  When I attempted the second heavy coat it started to spurt.  I’m not worried since I will sand most of that out before the touchups start.  This is probably the main reason why it would be better to go with clear that you mix since you can mix enoughso that you don’t run out.  I thought about using a second can to clear this problem up but since I will be spraying a final coat of clear I didn’t bother.