1947 United Pinball "SINGAPORE" restore

[SteveFury]

This is a 1947 United pinball machine I acquired last month.
I found it on my local Craigs List, asking price was $80 but the seller accepted $60. I think it was a fair price for both of us because of its condition. Really, the only things keeping it out of the landfill was a good back glass and an almost complete game without too many missing parts. The only needed parts were the common things such as rubbers, posts, levelers etc.

This is the CL description:

This is a Singapore United Pinball machine from the 1930's. Back glass is in great shape, Wood on the game surface needs to be cleaned and waxed. Needs new glass top and rubber bumper set that is available on e-bay for $20. Electronics work but will most likely need to be gone through and cleaned up.

The CL photo:
Attachment 74356

The bad thing about the machine is it was stored outside in the elements for about a decade, out of the rain under a carport. The playfield suffered severe damage, particularly because it didn't have a glass. There was some mold, heavy rust and delaminating of the plywood:
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I always fix the worst parts first in my projects, so I stripped the playfield of all its parts and cleaned it up good as possible. The paint was very fragile which made it difficult to clean without damaging it. Next in order was to fix the delamination. I used some weighting and clamping techniques and got it all glued down. The table isn't perfectly flat in areas because of the repair. You can see the paint around the lower bonus area was not repairable. I had to make stencils and repaint using both paint brush and air brush. I had to repaint and stencil much of the lettering in various places such as roll over lanes etc:
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I sealed the playfield in Varathane after all the repairs were done. Varathane is a water based polyurethane which does not contain linseed oil. Linseed oil is found in most polyurethanes and turns amber after time. Here it is freshly sealed:
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Almost every metal part in the machine had a white powder coating on the metal. I believe it was the factory applied anti-rust material which was now beginning to fail. Its appearance was like white-ish gray chalk and rough as sandpaper. I had to remove much of it as possible using a wire wheel then seal it up again in paste wax. A lot of parts were plain rusty such as this kicker solenoid plunger. I had to remove and polish parts like this else it will eat up the brass solenoid sleeves. The sleeves are part of the solenoids and not replaceable:
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I completed all the playfileld repairs. Repainting, de-rusting, fixing the broken iron ball guides and a quick doing over all of the switches.

Next was cabinet repair.
All the hardwood was in good shape. No major dings etc. The cabinet was also fairly good except the sides were split but not seriously so. Except for the back corner which was split wide open. I re-made the corner piece and added a splint to the broken side. The paint was not repairable. I had to repaint it so I made stencils of the original artwork. Here it's ready to sand:
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(Continued)