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Section One: REPRO PLAYFIELDS
Section Two: REPRO PLASTICS
Section Three: REPRO BACKGLASSES
Each guide section may feature a particular product shown in
photos and videos, but the root information can
be applied to any CPR reproduction product in general.
Good luck and happy swapping!
SECTION ONE - PLAYFIELDS
1.
CURE DATE
OPEN UPON ARRIVAL. DO NOT LEAVE BOXED UP. LET
PLAYFIELD SIT IN OPEN AIR.
Due to the swift post-production distribution of playfields to
waiting customers, it is almost certain that the polyeurethane
clearcoat on
your new playfield when arrived in your possession is only 2 to
3 weeks old. Therefore, the cure date for your playfield
is recommended
to be 30 days after receipt. Mark your calendar,
and don't skimp on the 30 days. 45 days is even better.
In the meantime, you CAN perform your swap before the
cure date if you want. This can be a time consuming and
meticulous
process, even for the experienced. So if you want to get a
head start, go ahead. Completely swap, just don't play on
it.
Do NOT play a ball on the surface until after your cure
date.
Do NOT wax, use Novus, Windex, etc...anything to clean
or polish the surface until after your cure date.
2.
PRE-CLEANING INSERTS
We tried to keep the boards as clean as possible, but
shop-dirt or sanding dust may
have settled inside insert cavities during handling
or shipping.
Simply use an air compressor blow-gun to blast out any dust.
If anything remains you can use a Windex-dampened
cotton swab to shine
the inserts from the bottom side of the playfield. Take
the opportunity to do this before your swap, as you have easy
access to all the holes. Once all the bulbs and wiring
are on there, much more difficult.
 See,
it's quick and easy. Click to watch a short Blow Gun video
clip.
Probably the most effective dusting
possible will be using an air compressor and a blow gun, as
shown here.
3.
ROLLOVER INSERTS (may not apply to all playfields)
If your new playfield has star/rollover inserts, this step
must be performed. We include brand new white nylon stars with
any playfield
that has rollover inserts. Make sure you found them in
your packaging and didn't accidentally throw them out with the
packing!
You do NOT
have to extract or use your old dirty ones from your original
playfield.
Do not be tempted to snap your new
stars into your rollovers immediately. Getting the stars out once snapped-in is
tricky and risks snapping the delicate tabs on the insert
! It is recommended that you wait until your
CURE DATE is reached, so the clearcoat is totally
hardened. New clearcoats have a habit of
"bulging" over the ends of *some* of the star tip
slots in the rollovers. This subtle "bulge"
makes the white nylon star not snap-in properly because a tip
or two won't plunge.
When your playfield has totally hardened, all you need to do
is perform this simple test. Hold one of your white
nylon stars upside down, with the stem in your
fingers. Seat the star into the rollover and slowly rock
it around in all directions, allowing each star tip to plunge
into its slot individually (see photo). Feel for any
difficulty. Each tip should plunge easily - but maybe
not every one will.
If you encounter a tip that won't plunge smoothly, investigate
that slot and you will notice that there is a clearcoat
"bulge" at the very tip of the slot.
TO TAKE CARE OF THE SLOT, use a dental tool to
"pull back" the clear from the end of the slot (see
photo). You may also want to use the sharp point of the
dental tool to "pick off" the piece of
"bulge", or push it down into the slot. Either
way, go slow, and do it cleanly. Since the clearcoat has
hardened, you should experience only a slight amount of
"rubbery" feeling in the clear.
This is why
you do NOT do this until your CURE DATE.
You can also use a brand new scalpel or Xacto Knife to
work on the tiny "bulge". Using a combination
of the non-sharp backside of the blade, and slicing with the
sharp part of the blade, removing the "bulge" is
also very easy if you take your time. Do it cleanly.
When you have dealt with all the bulges, perform the
star-rotate test again. Your star tips should
individually plunge easily.
At this point, you should be safe to turn the star over, and
snap it stem-down into the rollover insert. It should
bob up and down quite freely, and thus will operate properly
with a leaf switch to hold it in the upright position when you
do your swap.
4.
DIMPLES AND HOLES
The holes (which mean all the way through the wood from front
to back) are matched to two or more selected factory playfields,
and you can follow them as the gospel. Our drilling should
be dead-on with factory originality.
Dimples, on the other hand, we mapped based on a single factory
playfield that was traced. They are provided for
convenience during the swap process. For most items like
bulbs and posts, any deviation isn't great enough to make any
difference, if deviation exists. CPR's dimples are
easily within 1mm in any direction of where they should
be, which is an acceptable tolerance. The bottom, specifically, was imprinted using a
dimple press, and the dot array was "stamped" into
the wood in one shot. But that shot could have tiny
variance in any direction.
This is explained so you don't start second-guessing parts
positioning if you find a slightly better position. Better
is better!
For crucial hardware (flipper mechanics, ball trough, etc),
don't just plunge screws into the dimples without checking the
physical position of the hardware itself. Always check
that your hardware is in its proper position, then look to see
where the screw holes in the hardware are positioned. If
they are over the dimples, great. If they are not,
slightly move the part and see if the dimples are close by.
Example of a dimple lined up.
Make a judgement call on either following the dimples, or not
following the dimples in those cases. Proper (or better)
positioning takes precedence over following the
dimples. Don't feel "stuck" to the
dimples! Remember, our dimple pattern is based on
one
playfield, and through the thousands of original playfields made
back at the factory, parts were hand-screwed via a template.
Every original playfield is slightly different in where the
parts were drilled-in. This is normal. Go slow, it
will all work.
5.
SCREWING INTO CLEARCOAT
It is highly recommended to use a small BRAD-TIPPED drill bit
to "start" the dimples. This prevents
screw-splitting the new wood.
Always use a bit size that is 20 to 40% smaller than the screw
diameter itself. The screw needs something left to bite
into.
See,
it's quick and easy. Click to watch a short Dimple Drill
video clip.
Closeup of a "brad tip" is
shown. The drill bit in this picture is much larger than
required - always use smaller than the screw itself !
6. SWAP TIME OPPORTUNITIES
For most, this is a no-brainer, but just in case this is your
first time...the playfield swap allows for unprecedented access
to cleaning
and updating playfield parts. Take the opportunity to
consider having done the following before starting your
playfield swap:
1. New set of balls - surely a must. Don't start
off your new playfield with old balls.
2. New plastics set - a perfect marriage to a new
playfield.
3. Tumble-polish all your metal parts - bring out the
chrome on all your posts, ramps, ball guides, etc.
4. New screws, T-nuts, bolts
5. New rubbers set - including flipper rubbers
6. New pop bumper caps and drop targets
7. New bulbs - might as well give all your new inserts
fresh bright light
8. CLEAN everything! pop bumper bodies, flipper
bats, lane guides, etc.
9. Put all the plastic posts through a dishwasher cycle
(sitting in a deep collander)
7.
ONGOING CARE OF A CPR REPRO PLAYFIELD
Proper long-term care after the playfield is installed will be
the key to keeping it shiny and beautiful. We made these
to stand the test of time. You shouldn't need to go
crazy with waxing and several cleaning/polishing products to
keep the playfield nice. Avoid going overboard.
We recommend a simple Novus 2 process. If you ever find
your playfield getting "dull", wipe on Novus 2 with a cloth and
allow to dry/haze.
Then take a clean cotton cloth (like an old t-shirt) and buff
the haze away. Keep rotating the cloth and using a clean
face as often as possible.
This will
polish it nice and shiny, keeping the sheen of the clearcoat, and
protecting all the open (ball-active) & visible areas of
the playfield.
Waxing should never be required. That is a personal
taste of the owner, though. Besides, you won't be waxing
under the plastics and non-ball areas unless you want to
perform a playfield strip every time you want to
wax. But...some people just love to wax.
We recommend staying away from WildCat, as it has been proven
to eat away polyeurethane topcoats slowly over time.
As mentioned in Part 6, keep your balls fresh. Your best
defense. Change to taste, after every 500 to 1000 games.
SECTION TWO - PLASTICS
1. BEFORE INSTALLING
Peel ! Don't forget that we cover both the TOP
and BOTTOM of our plastics with protective coatings.
These can be overlooked, especially with our new white coating
on the backside.
With flush-cut plastics like the Cyclone clown above, coatings
are easy to miss because there is no clear edge to alert you.
People simply think the topside is semi-gloss and install
anyway...plus missing the white peel on the back!
The High Speed piece above reveals the white backside coating
because the outside edge is supposed to be clear.
Always know - CPR's plastics are ALWAYS dual-coated, and
underneath is 100% fresh glossy PETG. Don't forget to peel
!
See,
it's quick and easy. Click to watch a short Peeling CPR
Plastics video clip.
2. ONGOING CARE
Use a soft cotton cloth with a little Novus 2 or 3. Paper
towel or other slightly abrasive cloths will micro-scratch.
PETG is a 'soft' plastic, just remember the surface is not hard
as glass or acrylic. Being for home use, our plastics
will probably only require the lightest dusting every year.
Pretty plug-and-play, basically.
3. PLASTIC PROTECTORS
PETG repro plastics will probably last a lifetime of play, with
no risk of breakage. However, if you are a fan of extra
protection,
custom PETG protector sets are out there, as well as those
famous PETG "fender washers".
SECTION THREE - BACKGLASSES
1. GENERAL TREATMENT & HANDLING
Our reproduction backglasses use modern inks, but until the
glasses are 5 years old or so, the ink is comparatively "soft"
next to original 20 or 30 year old ink on your originals.
It will take a long time for the new ink to age and become
"hard".
In the meantime, this is just a tip to prevent accidental
scraping of the artwork side of the glass.
Be careful when carrying, leaning, or storing your repro
backglass - be conscious of its backside and don't let it scrape
against anything.
Make sure the displays in your backbox are positioned properly
and don't protrude to the point where they physically touch the
ink
side of the glass. Your original glass may reveal this -
do you see scrapes around the original score windows?
Sometimes the front
of the displays have lost their foamy protectors - or sometimes
have none. No contact is the best policy. Removing
the risk of slashing
your new repro backglass artwork when installing or removing
your backglass from the backbox is a good thing to do.
CPR backglasses are tempered. The edges are the vulnerable
part - don't tap them or they could cause the glass to pop.
When sitting the backglass down, put a piece of cardboard or a
mat on the floor. Don't set the glass down on a concrete
floor, for example.
2. ONGOING CARE
Windex! Keep the fronts shiny and clean with any glass
cleaner. Can't hurt them. Go to town.
When doing the fronts, lay the glass down on a bath towel or
soft blanket underneath (against the artwork) to prevent
scratching.
The backsides may collect shadows of dirt from backbox light
heat. For the backsides, be much gentler. Use a
cotton cloth or paper towel with a mist of Windex and gently
wipe in large circular motions without pushing down hard.
Again, the theme is not digging into or scratching
the ink artwork.
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