first Pinball! Need cleaning and restore tips

[joeks]

Hi,
I just bought my first pinball machine, a 1980 Williams Firepower
Great fun to play and for it's age it looks and plays OK. But I want to clean it up and make it shine.
I know I have to buy new balls and rubbers, but first I want to do a big cleanup.

Any tips on removing (and preventing new) rust on the legs, coin door and other big metal parts?
The small metal parts on switches and light sockets are clean, no rust. They need no work.

[level42]

Nice one, still have some video with Ruud ter Weijden and this pinball machine....

When I still owned a pinball (damm that feels wrong to write, but I have to say I dont miss it that much) I used this as my primal source for about all information:
http://www.pinrepair.com/

[liquidx]

When I still owned a pinball (damm that feels wrong to write, but I have to say I dont miss it that much) I used this as my primal source for about all information:
http://www.pinrepair.com/

Most of the content on that site has been removed recently. Not sure why.
The "official" place for pinball repair is now http://www.pinwiki.com/

I used to own a Firepower, it's a fun game, great flow.
I never got round to doing a cosmetic restoration on it, I ended up selling it after repairing it. But I still have stencils for the cabinet and back box for sale if anyone is interested in repainting theirs.

For getting light rust off the legs and shining them up, steel wool does a great job (the really light one, number 0 I believe).

There's also this stuff used by classic car restorers that works really well on getting metal all shined up and protected: Belgom.

[joeks]

Thanks Andre and Liquidx!

In the meantime I removed the rust and polished the legs, lockbar, coin door and some other small parts.
Vacuumed and cleaned the inside of the cabinet. Steel wool is my new best friend! Just bought some more today. It's amazing stuff for this kind of work.

Since my cabinet is in pretty rough state, I am planning to repaint it next spring / summer with the stencils available online.
@Liquidx But since you already have them printed, what would you ask for them? Shipped to the Netherlands?
Or maybe it's cheaper to have it printed over here... I don't know.

The worst thing, the playfield is pretty bad. The usual cracks in paint and swirl marks in pinballs of this age. Some areas have no paint anymore, worn through to the bare wood. Thinking towards getting an overlay but maybe just touch up, wax or clearcoat and be happy with my original playfield.

Thanks for replying!

[Muerto]

Looks nice!