Episode 34 - Pinball Restoration

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I had a back glass that just started to flake and I went to do that. And it just like the air pressure just like blew it apart... I just take my time and just I found just taking like a clear coat and just kind of lightly brushing on one layer first letting it set and then you could kind of build it up.”