Episode 34 - Pinball Restoration

TL;DR

Deep dive into professional pinball restoration techniques with expert Ashley Ludwig.

Summary

Key Claims

• Ashley Ludwig has been doing pinball restoration work for approximately 8 years

  high confidence · Ashley Ludwig stated directly in the podcast: 'and eight years later, here I am'

• Ludwig was originally hired as an artist but has expanded to do mechanical work due to staff turnover

  high confidence · Ashley: 'I was hired as an artist. That's my main focus kind of over the years... unfortunately I haven't really found a technician with that expansive knowledge that he had'

• Ludwig works 40 hours per week on restoration and credits her skill to this consistent time investment over 8 years

  high confidence · Ashley: 'The only reason why I'm good at what I do is because I do it 40 hours a week for eight years straight'

• Pre-1990s pinball machines used varnish instead of clear coat on playfields

  high confidence · Alan: 'all games now have a clear coat since like the early 90s so everything in the last 30 years has had like a clear coat so the playfields typically hold up better'

• Incandescent lights in older machines caused plastic inserts to dip and paint on backglass to flake

  high confidence · Alan: 'incandescent lights create heat so they cause all the plastic inserts to dip and they also cause the paint on the back glass because the back glass all used to be painted'

• Ludwig can salvage and restore approximately 99% of the cabinet conditions she encounters

  high confidence · Ashley on cabinet save rate: 'Probably 99 percent'

• Spanish EM machines typically had better playfields due to European manufacturing standards but were housed in particle board (MDF) cabinets

  medium confidence · Alan discussing Spanish EMs: 'they have some like bad MDF cabinets like that are just like rotting apart... they have the best playfields because they had to'

• There appears to be a regional pattern of unusual electrical splicing and hacking in machines from a specific geographic area, possibly Rochester

Notable Quotes

• “So I was working for a major grocery store chain in Rochester, and I was with them for probably almost a decade doing sign painting... And my boss was posting an ad, artists needed to restore pinball machines. And I honestly thought it was like a murder plot.”

  Ashley Ludwig @ early in episode — Origin story explaining how Ludwig transitioned into pinball restoration work from sign painting

• “The only reason why I'm good at what I do is because I do it 40 hours a week for eight years straight. So if you're willing to, unless you're willing to like sell your soul for, you know, learning how to paint that many hours every single day, like it's not really feasible for the average person to just pick up something.”

  Ashley Ludwig @ mid-episode — Core philosophy on skill development and the barrier to entry for restoration work

• “It's not about what you're using. It's how you're using it... It's more so your relationship with whatever you're using... the relationship with your materials is more important than the materials themselves.”

  Ashley Ludwig @ mid-episode — Explains why specific paint recommendations are unhelpful and emphasizes craftsperson expertise

• “I don't really deal with the pricing on that. I just do the work... restoration... we have like set pricing for that. But it is just a matter of really kind of whether it's repair that's one thing we'll take care of all the issues but that's like an hourly charge.”

  Ashley Ludwig @ early-mid episode — Clarifies the business model distinction between repair and restoration services

• “If you are painting on an unlevel surface, there's nothing that's going to cover that up... The filling and sanding is kind of the most important part... If you're not willing to put that time into it, there's nothing you could do later on down the road that's going to cover that.”

  Ashley Ludwig @ mid-late episode — Emphasizes the critical importance of preparation work over the actual painting process

• “There's days where I'll just be filling and sanding all day long, but you got to do it... The prep work sucks. The paint always looks good.”

  Alan (host) — Captures the unglamorous reality of restoration work despite the impressive final results

Entities

Signals

• ?

  restoration_signal: Deep discussion of playfield touch-up work, paint matching, and the challenges of restoring varnish-coated playfields on EM machines without clear coat protection

  high · Extended conversation about touch-up methodology, time estimates (one day for light wear to potentially 80+ hours for heavy restoration), and the specific challenges of clear coat vs varnish

• ?

  restoration_signal: Detailed overview of cabinet strip-down, damage assessment, filling, sanding, painting, and the importance of surface preparation before aesthetics

  high · Ashley describes the full cabinet restoration pipeline: strip down, assess damage, repair/fill, sand, paint preparation, paint application including webbing technique

• ?

  restoration_signal: Identified as the most difficult restoration task due to paint density, light transmission effects, brush stroke visibility, and the risk of aerosol application damaging existing flaking paint

  high · Multiple references to backglass being finicky, discussion of failed spray attempts, recommendation to source replacement backglasses rather than attempt touch-up on heavily damaged examples

• ?

  restoration_signal: Ashley Ludwig reports 5-year learning curve to master the chemical webbing painting technique used on EM cabinet artwork

  high · Direct quote: 'it took probably about five years for me to actually figure out how to do webbing correctly' including experimentation with chemical mix, air pressure, and flow consistency

• ?

  personnel_signal: Ashley Ludwig lost access to a highly skilled multi-discipline technician (tube radios, electrical, mechanical, solid state) who passed away from cancer; has struggled to find replacement expertise