Below are pictures and some notes on a complete Evel Knievel restore I did back in 2002/2003.  It took somewhere between 100-120 hours to complete.  It was a huge effort but the end result was worth it.

Before
Unfortunately I didn't take my normal amount of pictures after purchasing the machine so most of what I have below was taken after I had already starting dismantling it. 


NOS Playfield
I had already purchased an overlay for the game a few months ago and was planning on installing it, but in the meantime found and purchased an NOS playfield for the game.  See below for information and pictures of the playfield swap.  I still plan on doing an overlay just to learn, results of that will be posted when done.


Stencils
We decided to create the stencils using clear acetate applied over the cabinet, then trace the outlines using an exacto blade.  This saves the step of creating a stencil on tracing paper, then transferring it to poster board or acetate.  The blade glides easily through the acetate but the finished product is quite delicate and can easily tear.  Handle them with care.


Exacto blade, sharpie and ruler were the main tools used, mostly the exacto blade.
Clear acetate .003 thick was used to cut out the stencils. This was purchased from Michael's online, they did not have it in their local store.  If I had it to do over again I would use .005 thick (see stencil repaint section below).
Acetate applied to the cabinet.  I used the sharpie to help indicate where the lines stopped and started.  Next stencil I will leave a little extra hanging over the edge to help hold it all together and help prevent overspray.
The resulting stencil.

The stencil carnage.
Rather than re-stencil the red lines I measured them out based on a photo where I will mask off for the proper size.  Another regret... should have made the stencil.
Finished blue stencil for the side cabinet.  Kay did these stencils since she has a steadier hand and is a lot more patient than I am.
Finished red stencil.  Keep these in a safe place and as flat as possible until you are ready to paint.  Mine had started to curl slightly in the one month between stenciling and painting.


Cabinet Restoration - Stripping/Primer/Repaint Base Color
Next up was to strip off the old cabinet paint and get a base white coat on there.  The stripping part was  easy, preparation for primer/paint was tedious but worth the effort.


Did some minor repair work on the underside.
Right side of cabinet.  The red and blue blotches are the test areas for different paints to match the original as close as possible.
Left side.
Right side after applying paint remover.  Be sure and use a remover that will not damage wood.  Some removers are more caustic than others.

Using a yellow spatula (seen in picture) I scraped away as much paint as possible.  In most cases I had to apply a second coat of remover.
Finished right side.  After second coat of remover did it's job I used a rag soaked with thinner and scrubbed off the leftovers.
Left side after remover applied.
Finished left side.


Large gouges were repaired with body filler and block sanded.

Stripped back box.
The swinging door section was sanded and wiped down with thinner, stripping this would have been a nightmare.  Luckily the existing paint was in pretty good shape.
Masked pieces ready for priming.

Primer applied.
Ready to paint!

Imron paint was selected for the base white.  It's the same stuff used on aircraft.
Base white applied.  The Imron is hard as a rock and smooth like glass.  
It is a very glossy finish but looks great.  
I'm happy with this decision, it should make it more durable and easier to clean though it will never be subjected to the abuse in it's former life.
Special thanks to my wife Kay in creating the cabinet stencils, and my brother Cary for the cabinet painting.


Cabinet Restoration - Repaint Stencils
Now the challenging part, putting the red and blue stencils back where they belong.  This was my biggest fear in the restoration process: Colors lining up properly, overspray, runs, drips, too thick, too thin, etc.  I learned a lot doing this part, some things I would do again, others I will avoid like the plague.  Check my Repaint Lessons Learned/Tips/Hints page for all the details.


I used Rustoleum red and blue paint for the stencils.  It wasn't a perfect match but close enough.  3M Spray Mount was intended to be used for the entire project but was only used in spots (read on for why).
Thought I'd start with the backbox as it would be the least visible if I made a bad goof.  I sprayed the entire backside with the spray mount which allows repositioning.
Several light coats were sprayed.  Even with the spray mount there was some overspray.  Use q-tips and thinner to get rid of the overspray before it has a chance to dry too much.
Here's what happened when I tried to remove the stencil.  Good thing I made two of them.  It first tore in a couple places, then some of the painted parts (still wet) touched and once that happened it was instant bond.

The red side stencil was up first.  The stencil laid very flat and very nice.  I used a few rocks to help hold it down.
Again, several light coats.
Done painting.
Very nice result with very little overspray.  The missing red stripes were painted in later.

Now for the blue stencil. Again, it laid down very nicely.

Done.  There was quite a bit of overspray on this one.
About a week later, time to do the red stencil on the other side.  Oops, just a little bit of curling.  Make that A LOT.  Keeping it under a playfield glass during the week off didn't seem to help.

About 400 nuts and blocks of wood were used to hold down the curling.  The end result was pretty good but with some overspray.
Just a little more curling.  Guess I won't be using that one to do another EK.  Good thing I was done with it.
The blue stencil had some curling that wasn't as bad, but the extra detail made it harder to correct overall.
Here's where the spray mount came in handy.  The detail area around the motorcycle was sprayed down so we didn't have to use nuts in that area.  It laid very flat after it was stuck down.

Done.  Some overspray as usual.
The front cabinet stencil was done in thicker acetate and it held up a lot better.  Again, nuts were used around the edges.
Done with the red.  The blue went just as easy.
The backbox stripes were done last with masking tape.  I wished I had done a stencil for it but it actually turned out very nice.

The finished product.
Now it's time to start putting it back together.		 Special thanks to my lovely and talented wife Kay for helping with the repaint.  She has a very steady hand and good eye when it came time to clean up the overspray.  It would have been a mess if I had done it.  


Playfield Swap
The playfield swap has been completed.  There isn't a ton of hardware on the underside of these so it wasn't that complicated, but it did take a lot of time and patience.  The cable-like trace wire that runs between all the lamps was of particular hassle.  All told the swap took about 40 hours.  I did the swap of the underside hardware on the floor in my office area where I had good lighting and nice workspace.  The floor probably wasn't the best choice as my legs and back were absolutely killing me by the end of the project, but I survived.  I had 2 other used semi-populated EK playfields that were used extensively for spare parts and helping me to see where things went when I put it all back together.  It was a huge help but I know that I probably won't have that luxury for my next swap.


T-nuts will be used from spare playfield on the left.
Using a small hammer I carefully pounded the t-nuts in place one by one after removing from the spare playfield. Make sure there is no debris under the playfield or you'll grind it right in with the hammering.
T-nuts are installed, now it's time to start removing hardware from the original playfield in the middle.  Playfield on the far left is a 2nd spare I had which was brought in for "modeling" purposes.  BIG help.
I decided to leave the cable-like trace wire that runs between all lamps rather than unsolder and re-solder.  Removing the staples without damaging the wire was a lot of work and I did break it in a few places but was able to re-solder.  Above are all the staples removed.  I didn't count them but there's probably 50 or so.

 l labeled a few switches and pop bumpers so I was sure to get them back in the right order.  Otherwise I didn't label anything since I had the spare playfield to look at.
All hardware removed and slid over to a piece of cardboard.  Doesn't look like much stuff after all that work.
Before re-attaching the underside hardware I installed the wireforms and repainted/ installed the boards around the edges and ball shooter lane.  The blue paint on the boards is the same blue used on the cabinet for a nice match.
Hardware slid over to the new playfield.  Now the fun begins.

Make sure you have plenty of room,  I had stuff laying all over the place near the end of the project.  The big red tank is a portable air tank with a industrial stapler attached to the end.  I used this to re-attach the cable wire and it worked great. 
Done! All hardware re-attached to the underside.
Playfield installed in the machine.  Now it's time to start putting all the topside hardware on. 
20 hours and 4 coats of wax later... all topside components have been installed and is ready for testing.  All new flippers bats, pop bumper caps upper lane guides and re-rubber kit courtesy of Steve Young at Pinball Resource.  New spinner decals were created by myself.  All plastics were left between two pieces of playfield glass in the hot Arizona sun for about 4 hours to flatten them nicely.

Stripped and repainted the apron/scorecard holder, and put on new decals from Pinball Rescue (now, unfortunately, out of business).
Miscellaneous shot
Miscellaneous shot		  

After the playfield swap I had numerous (and hard to track down) switch problems, a couple bad coils, replaced MPU with an all new AllTek board, and replaced the solenoid driver board.  The game is finally finished and ready to go.  It was a treat to be the first one to put a game on it after all that work.

The Finished Product



 






 

Return to Homepage

 

 

Final Update: 10/8/03