Episode 34 - Pinball Restoration

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

Synopsis

Wedgehead Pinball Podcast Episode 34 features an in-depth conversation with Ashley Ludwig, a professional pinball restoration artist at Pinball Alley in Rochester, New York. The episode covers Ludwig's career path from sign painting to specialized pinball restoration, technical details about restoring electromechanical (EM) pinball machines including playfield touch-ups, cabinet refinishing, backglass restoration, and the distinction between repair work and full restoration. Key themes include the artistic skill required, the time-intensive nature of restoration, regional variations in repair quality, and the importance of preparation work over materials.

Highlights

• Ashley Ludwig has been doing pinball restoration work for approximately 8 years
• Ludwig was originally hired as an artist but has expanded to do mechanical work due to staff turnover
• Ludwig works 40 hours per week on restoration and credits her skill to this consistent time investment over 8 years
• Pre-1990s pinball machines used varnish instead of clear coat on playfields
• Incandescent lights in older machines caused plastic inserts to dip and paint on backglass to flake
• Ludwig can salvage and restore approximately 99% of the cabinet conditions she encounters
• Spanish EM machines typically had better playfields due to European manufacturing standards but were housed in particle board (MDF) cabinets
• There appears to be a regional pattern of unusual electrical splicing and hacking in machines from a specific geographic area, possibly Rochester
• Backglass restoration is one of the most difficult aspects of pinball restoration due to paint density, light transmission, and brush stroke visibility issues
• It took Ashley Ludwig approximately 5 years to master the webbing technique on cabinet painting

Entities

• Pinball Alley· company
• Wedgehead· company
• Atlantis· game
• Spanish Eyes· game
• RIT· organization
• Straight Down the Middle: a pinball show· organization
• Wedgehead Pinball Podcast· organization
• Alan· person
• Alex· person
• Ashley Ludwig· person
• Joshua Clay Harrell· person
• Ludwig Synopsis· product