# Johnny Mnemonic Pinball Restoration: Episode 4

**Source:** Cary Hardy  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2021-05-26  
**Duration:** 16m 46s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC4-GEgWUM8

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## Analysis

Cary Hardy documents detailed restoration work on a Johnny Mnemonic pinball machine, focusing on cabinet decal application, masking techniques, cabinet assembly, and light panel restoration. He encounters quality control issues with reproduction decals that don't match original Williams specifications precisely and discusses his workaround approach.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Available reproduction decals for Johnny Mnemonic don't match original Williams sizing specifications precisely — _Hardy demonstrates specific misalignment where Johnny's head is covered by side rails differently than Williams original design, with sourcing from Classic Arcades_
- [MEDIUM] Clear coating after primer but before decals produces no discernible difference versus sanding to high grit alone — _Hardy states personal observation that clear coat adds no visible benefit compared to sanding to 1200+ grit_
- [MEDIUM] High-grit sanding (1200+) is more critical than clear coating for proper decal adhesion and appearance — _Hardy explains focus on high-grit sanding to prevent surface defects showing through decals_
- [MEDIUM] Using 800-grit sandpaper on metal bar to bevel decal edges prevents accidental lifting from cabinet contact — _Hardy describes technique and notes white showing through is remedied with black paint pen_
- [HIGH] No alternate reproduction decal options are available online for Johnny Mnemonic cabinet — _Hardy explicitly states Classic Arcades is his only source and no alternates exist online_

### Notable Quotes

> "This is not the way it's supposed to be and you think it might be too far forward or too far back no it's right there guys. I got maybe an inch of overhang maybe out there so it's definitely not precise when it comes to matching with Williams"
> — **Cary Hardy**, mid-video
> _Hardy expresses frustration with decal sizing mismatch and acknowledges this will be visually obvious to perfectionists like himself_

> "I'm a little upset about this that it's gonna be definitely very obviously different In my opinion, a lot of people probably won't notice this, but I will, that it's not going to be as fitting as it should be"
> — **Cary Hardy**, mid-video
> _Reveals perfectionist restoration philosophy and acceptance of compromises due to supply constraints_

> "This is what I'm going to have to do. I don't even see any alternates available online. I mean chances are me or even my brother might be able to make make some but it's got to go with the playfield"
> — **Cary Hardy**, mid-video
> _Shows willingness to custom-create decals but acknowledges playfield dependency as limiting factor_

> "The higher the better though because this is going to allow us to lay the decals down without any defect showing through. Now any defect on the wood will be highly magnified when the decal covers it"
> — **Cary Hardy**, early-video
> _Technical explanation of restoration methodology emphasizing surface preparation criticality_

> "I know I know I said I wasn't gonna do this but uh it wasn't coming clean enough for me I'm I'm redoing this damn thing"
> — **Cary Hardy**, late-video
> _Shows perfectionist standards driving decision to completely redo light panel painting despite prior completion_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Cary Hardy | person | YouTube content creator documenting detailed pinball restoration work on Johnny Mnemonic machine; demonstrates advanced restoration techniques and perfectionist restoration philosophy |
| Johnny Mnemonic | game | Pinball machine being restored; Williams-era game; subject of multi-episode restoration video series |
| Williams | company | Original manufacturer of Johnny Mnemonic pinball machine; design specifications being referenced for restoration accuracy |
| Classic Arcades | company | Supplier of reproduction decals for Johnny Mnemonic; only source Hardy found for cabinet artwork reproductions |
| Swords of Fury | game | Previously completed restoration project by Hardy; used as comparison for light panel condition assessment |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Decal application and reproduction quality, Cabinet restoration techniques and surface preparation, Light panel refinishing and hardware restoration
- **Secondary:** Perfection vs. practical compromise in restoration work, Reproduction artwork availability and sourcing

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Hardy demonstrates satisfaction with technical progress and restoration techniques while expressing frustration with reproduction decal quality mismatch against original specifications. Perfectionist mindset creates tension between acceptance of limitations and drive for accuracy.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Educational content creation demonstrating advanced restoration techniques for community benefit; detailed methodology documentation (confidence: high) — Hardy provides step-by-step technical explanation of decal application, sanding procedures, surface preparation, and problem-solving approaches
- **[market_signal]** Limited availability of quality reproduction decals for classic pinball machines; only one identified source (Classic Arcades) with no online alternates (confidence: high) — Hardy explicitly states 'I don't even see any alternates available online' and confirms Classic Arcades is sole source
- **[product_concern]** Classic Arcades reproduction decals for Johnny Mnemonic don't match original Williams cabinet artwork sizing specifications; Johnny's head positioning differs from factory design (confidence: high) — Hardy demonstrates specific misalignment where artwork requires quarter-inch black border but reproduction placement differs; states this is 'not the way it's supposed to be'

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## Transcript

 Hit me! Alright, now when I say that I mask everything off, this is what I mean. It's basically the exact same size as the stickers themselves and I've covered them up with some painters tape and after I get finished painting all I gotta do is just pull those off and voila! Don't have to make repros, especially since they were already clean and look good. So that's what I'm gonna do here. Yep. This back here looks pretty good so I don't need to do like a whole bunch of work which is really good. Now I think I'm going to do one more quick wipe down before I apply the paint to this. And then we'll have at it. And here we are folks. We are at a holding point now for decals. I'm going to let this air out and dry for the rest of this day. Sun will take care of all those fumes and everything. It's nice and cozy outside, not too hot, not too cold. Beautiful Carl Weathers actually. And here we have the backbox. This is also going to be sitting outside, drying out. inside the garage now that it's pretty much not tacky anymore from time to dry outside and everything. I wanted to give you guys a look at it. All right well took off the mask and everything came with it so that didn't work out as well as I was hoping it would on this so I'm gonna have to do a repro. This is just a regular piece of paper piece of paper I can't even speak piece of paper right now just to make sure the size is correct and all that kind of stuff it looks like it's gonna work so now I just need to actually print it out on a decal paper and yeah then we should be good to go on that after that so it's been replaced although I feel like you know it's like brand new in comparison to the old ones and stuff like that but I think it looks pretty damn good. One of the most important things to do when getting your decals is to make sure that they will fit. Some people paint, prime, and even go all out and clear coat the cabinet before applying the decals. Now I have done it with the paint and primer and applied decals and I personally saw nothing different. So that is why I only sand using up all the way to the highest grit that I can use that I actually see a difference on. I want to say it's up to like at least 1200 grit. The higher the better though because this is going to allow us to lay the decals down without any defect showing through. Now any defect on the wood will be highly magnified when the decal covers it so by all means use a tack cloth before laying the decal down on the wood to help gather any dirt or particles that may have fallen onto the surface. I then use my X-Acto blade to cut off all the overhang. Thank you To make sure that the decals cannot be accidentally lifted by merely touching the edges of the actual cabinet I'm going to be using an 800 grit sandpaper on a metal bar. This gives me a beveled edge. You will have white showing afterwards and that is easily remedied with a black paint pen. Quick heat gun application will help with any adhesion and other small creases or wrinkles that may or may not be in the art. Then I exacto knife out all the holes for the hardware for the cabinet. So I'm getting ready to apply the cabinet decals for the main portion of the cabinet and this is something I basically confirmed now. I already had a suspicion whenever I was installing the head cabinet decals that things weren't going to be exactly the way Williams had it. Now when I get to this portion I can definitely tell that this is not going to be as good as Williams had it so let me just give you an example like right here there needs to be about a quarter inch of black right here now you go up here Johnny's head at least about that much is going to be covered with side rails. Williams has it to where you can completely see it so this is a sizing issue when it comes to the art. This is not the way it's supposed to be and you think it might be too far forward or too far back no it's right there guys. I got maybe an inch of overhang maybe out there so it's definitely not precise when it comes to matching with Williams the thing is this is the only option I've got this is all I've got no one else has got set to these retro refurbs doesn't have anything this is classic arcades for those who want to know I'm a little upset about this that it's gonna be definitely very obviously different In my opinion, a lot of people probably won't notice this, but I will, that it's not going to be as fitting as it should be. So that sucks. But I've got no other option. This is what I'm going to have to do. I don't even see any alternates available online. I mean chances are me or even my brother might be able to make make some but it's got to go with the playfield and if it's too drastically different I mean the only way I could do this is if I would scan this in resize it myself and then have a buddy of mine reprint it for me Currently at a holding point when it comes to the exterior So I doing what I can on the inside just to get things done because I can get things done inside the cabinet, that's fine. It's just going to make the cabinet a little heavier when I'm moving it around to install the decal. So no big deal. I've started getting everything all cleaned up, all the wiring and stuff like that. I've already got the transformer all done. There's a video that's going to be out on straight down the middle by the time this video airs. I'm sure it'll already be available to you. But going over all the trials and tribulations I did with that. But I'm going to start getting the grounding wire all stapled back to the cabinet now. And just getting the cabinet back into one piece before I start on the play field. All right. Cables have been cleaned now. So I've got them all brought out on the floor once again. We'll show you what the towel looks like. And this is just for the cabling that's going to the cabinet. So definitely had a good amount of dirt and everything on there. But, you know, now these are no longer sticky. I've definitely still got some on my finger, and I'm going to go wash my hands before I go putting them back into the machine. but along with that I've got all new wire harness holders right here so instead of reusing the old ones these things are pretty cheap so I just buy all new and so this cabinet is gonna be getting all new that and putting the wire harness back into the cabinet now and here we got pretty much a majority of the cabinet items back in place all of the wiring that goes to the backbox is all just laying back there for right now but still got definitely a good amount of things that can go in here and obviously everything's gonna have to be cleaned out as I'm getting all kinds of dust particles and everything in here with all the moving around still got to do the grounding wire strip going across everything. Probably hit that tomorrow but that's where we're at now. Okay so where I'm at on the cabinet is I just got finished stapling the ground braid all around where it needs to be inside the cabinet and this is now at a holding point for now until I can get my decals in. I'm not going to put the subwoofer speaker in there because I'm not using factory speakers for this baby this one's getting an upgrade so instead gonna move on to this baby getting a lot of the hardware reinstalled on this one I've got the artwork on this one the artwork on this on the backbox is fine it's definitely doable now I'm just going to make it look nicer now Here with the majority of the hardware installed inside the cabinet Got a new fuse charred up here That looks all nice and good if it would focus. Got the coil, new coil wrapper on there. All the hardware is installed. You've seen the bolts that were all painted are on there now. Those look good. Now it's time to get the light panel all redone. All right, so when it comes to the light panel, this thing is actually in pretty good condition, guys. I'm not going to have to do much work on it. The metal isn't all rusted up, which is a lot better than the Swords of Fury that I just got finished doing. This is pretty clean, but I'm going to polish it up even more. Everything over here looks pretty good. I'm going to get a new sticker on here. well this might just clean up actually yeah goodness gracious so i'm gonna try getting this all scrubbed and cleaned up some novas might do the trick the other side of it looks brand spanking new so i'm not gonna have to do anything back here i might yeah i'm gonna do some more cleanup obviously but that should just wipe right off that's just probably from dirty fingers touching it just recently other than that this should be fairly easy to deal with I know I know I said I wasn't gonna do this but uh it wasn't coming clean enough for me I'm I'm redoing this damn thing luckily I don't have to do anything on the back side there's no warpage or anything like that just the white isn't as wide as I would like it to be so I'm now removing this I have basically a small little pry bar like right here and I'm able to get up underneath these and kind of just pry them up they also do a little bit of a twist which kind of loosens them up a little bit and then I'm able to prime out so I'm removing everything from here and I'm gonna sand it on the white portion then do a whole new coat of gloss white with some clear to make it nice and reflective yay so this is before I mean I've got all the lights off the back you can see the difference in the white in comparison to everything else I'm not crazy it's just not coming as clean as I like it too so basically gonna do etch-a-sketch here erase everything and do it all over again so these are all coming off gonna get polished up and sand paint clear and then I'll apply maybe the same sticker because I think the same still looks pretty decent but I may just print a new one off and then get her on there and it'll look brand new again and here we have the new version of it all nice and shiny decided to go ahead and keep the uh old sticker on here it looked pretty good so i was like all right we'll keep it uh nothing's changed in the back i'm gonna do a little bit of cleanup right there other than that all the metal's polished back here as well. It's all nice and cleaned up. Yep. So, now I'm going to get the lights back on there. Thank you.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: b3fe148a-2a48-4901-a7e7-268a1f902a8b*