Bowling pin painting prepertion?

I just scored a Bowling pin for £1.00 at the carboot sale this morning, its a wooden pin pin covered in white plastic which is pretty beaten up. Anybody have an idea on how to prep a pin for painting?

1)You can fill the dings in with Bondo, automotive body filler. If you've never used it make sure you get instructions on mixing and sanding. You'll need to start sanding before it fully cures. There are also putty's used in automotive applications you might be able to find. No mixing and easier to sand, but they don't have the adhesion of Bondo so you gotta be a little more carefull when sanding.

2)Spray primer and check for any dings that were missed. Use your filler again and re-prime or use your apathy and let 'em go.

3)Have fun. Constantly curving surface brings a whole new set of challenges and possibilities, so have fun with it.

Hope that helps. There may be other ways, but that's what I've done.

On 2007-05-06 05:45, Big Hodad-dy Reid wrote:
1)You can fill the dings in with Bondo, automotive body filler. If you've never used it make sure you get instructions on mixing and sanding. You'll need to start sanding before it fully cures. There are also putty's used in automotive applications you might be able to find. No mixing and easier to sand, but they don't have the adhesion of Bondo so you gotta be a little more carefull when sanding.

2)Spray primer and check for any dings that were missed. Use your filler again and re-prime or use your apathy and let 'em go.

3)Have fun. Constantly curving surface brings a whole new set of challenges and possibilities, so have fun with it.

Hope that helps. There may be other ways, but that's what I've done.

That's spot on :D

Cheers guys, so I take it trying to remove the plastic coating would be an impossible task?

Not impossible, but not easy. The only one I ever did it to I ended up with many gashes in the wood from all the cuts I had to make, and chunks torn out because it is partially glued to the wood inside, if I remember right. The amount of work it will take to smooth that up is rediculous and much more than just trying to smooth out the plastic.

If you are near a bowling alley they generally throw away a lot of the old beat up ones. My wife snagged me about 12 or 15 for free. Some are really beat up and others just need the dings and dents filled. The one I skinned was actually torn open already and was still a big chore to finish off.

I have heard of people de-skinning them, and underneath the wood is covered in dents... Keep the plastic.

I have approached 3 or so local alleys and asked about old pins - no luck at any of them. One place even told me I couldn't have one because they were classed as a weapon!

Hewey, try sending in a cute girl. Worked for me.

I had a wee exploratory cutting of the plastic, its about 5mm thick and tough as f__k, so I'm glad the advice is not to bother it felt like the start of a long fruitless project.

Hewey, try sending in a cute girl. Worked for me.

Most of the time it’s young girls at the counter and they just palm me off. I really need to talk to the maintenance guy, and yes I can see a cute girl would be a good method for this :D

On the subject of painting bowling stuff, I just scored this decanter off ebay for $12, picking it up tonight :D It will be painted up, but not sure exactly I will be doing.

I just bought one off the internet. Are all the professional ones covered in plastic? What kind of paint is best to use?

Scouted around and so far have found out wood filler and sand it for the prep. Then use Createx acrylic paints. Well this soulnds like a very busy project for me but will just take my time.