Dr@No's fun filled (and often long-winded) restorations

[VA3AVP]

HIGH SPEED STIFF
Part 3

It's been almost 1 month since the last post here and my return from Allentown.

The Official Baseball project was awesome but I had to get back on the horse quickly since it had bumped a lot of other projects.
I think I took a week or so off from pinball and then jumped right back in by setting my shop straight... I hate working in squalor.

Moving baseball in meant folding two of my wedgeheads. In the end I decided to sell one back to its original owner who was very eager to see it return. The other went to a friend's house on loan. I think he's developing a bit of an EM bug

With space sorted I rearanged the garage and then prepared to get back on to Scared Stiff and High Speed.



SS had been playing a bit off for a while and it was mostly down to wonky flippers and some creative hacks. I had ordered some parts and finally had a few minutes to install them. New opto boards to replace the hacks, some new interruptors and she was playing fine again. With SS playing normally I turned my attentions to High Speed. It's been in pieces for quite a bit longer and I didn't want to get into tearing down SS for a shop job until HS was done. With the cabinet ready since Christmas, I really want to get this sucker done and into the basement.

I finally got the CPR playfield up on the rotisserie alongside the original. The plan here was to completley disconnect the entire bottom of the playfield and move everything over to the new playfield in one intact mess. I'd never done it this way before but it seemed straightforward enough.



The larger assemblies like flipper mechs and a few other solenoids were disconnected and removed first. After that it came down to simply removing every screw and unstapling the ground braid before I could slide it all off and onto the new playfield.



Once the harness, lamps, switches and solenoids were all moved over I simply stapled the braid back in and spent a couple of nights screwing everything back in. FYI, anyone using these CPR playfields... don't take the location of the dimpling on the back as gospel. You will need to make a few adjustments for fit and, on my example, some of the dimples near the outside were either very faint or not there at all.

The last thing I did was solder in all new targets and then flipped it all over and I've started moving over the top playfield components.

Dude Amazing !!!

 

[VA3AVP]

HIGH SPEED STIFF
Part 5

So I've been spending more and more time with this swap.

Firstly, here's a public service announcement for anyone who has not done a CPR playfield swap.
I already mentioned earlier that some dimpling on my playfeld was very faint or missing. Also, that some of the locations of these dimples were not to be treated as perfect. Use your best judgment when fitting things. If it seems tight or things are not lining up right, check back with your original playfield and feel free to deviate slightly. However, overall it is very good.
What I'd like to stress is to drill out the holes! Many of the holes in the playfield are much too small and trying to bang things like wire guides and posts into a small hole is a recipe for disaster. I would even consider pre-drilling some holes for some of the smaller screws on the underside instead of relying on the dimples alone. I snapped the head off a couple of screws already from switch stacks.

Anyway, PSA done and here's a pic of the first paper test print for the ramp. The fit was pretty good although it could've been a bit wider at the entrance (fixed that). I also corrected the colour to the best of my ability and added a red lamborghini running up the ramp to match those on the playfield. I have sent it out for printing and am awaiting a reponse.



I also started playing around with a few things I had bought a while back to try on this game. I thought it might be fun to swap out the stock Williams red pop caps for something a little more in-line with the theme. These jewelled DE caps in red, yellow and green seemed pretty cool.
Now, I'm a bit of a purist so I'll likely stick with the originals, but this might be fun to try out for a bit. They would be easy to change back.





The rest of the time over the last few days was really pretty boring. Just a lot of transfering of small parts, soldering connections etc. BTW, I did not realize that all the metal stand-offs for the plastics were flared after installation from factory. This means that each one is practically riveted to the plastic.
This really sucked as I had to literally rip them off each plastic one by one, then use a vice or pliers to flatten the flared tube and then gently pound it into the smaller hole in the new plastic. I have about 3/4 of the repro plastic set yet to do... ugh

Now, here's a cool thing I tried out.
Some of the guys over on pinside decided to relocate the 3 lamp housing above the ramp entrance when they installed the new clear ramp. They placed it upright in the underpopulated left back corner of the game and I think it looks pretty good there. This opens up sightlines to the ramp and cleans up the game a lot.
Here's a shot I grabbed from Mark who made the ramps.



I took this idea and figured I could go one better.
My idea was to emulate the traffic signs used on the playfield art and create a model and 3Dprint of one that would be used as an overlay to the original housing.
After 3-4 days of playing around with it, I fianlly printed a test last night and then cleaned up the model before painting and simply sticking it to the housing with some hot glue. Here's the end result.





Needless to say, I was very happy with the results.
Once I mount this to the backboard of the game, the arms should give the appearance that it is mounted to the side of the cabinet.

That's all for now.
Hopefully this sucker will be sitting in the cabinet next time I update!

Dr.@NO

Great work and information even in test play in my Highspeed in progress I notice the traffic light gets hit very easily with the ball and even pops the housing off sometimes - not good. Also would be interested to know if those clear ramps were available one day.

 

[VA3AVP]

I had Drano over the other night to help me fix up a few cab dings on my games using some bondo and acrylic paint pens. The one on my WH20 was a pretty big eye sore and always visible since it was on the front side of the game.

Before:

After:

The blue paint pen he had was a pretty close match as you can see from the picture above. I also asked him to help me rebuild and touch up the chipped corner on my TOTAN head. It has been this way since I got it back in 2012 and never bothered me as it has always been wedged between other games. When I pushed the game back into the line up Drano was like "Awww... now you can't even see my repair and done purely for re-sale value"

Thanks again Drano for all your help!

Very Nice you guys are definitely into the hobby where can you get those paint pens my high speed needs some touch up I have also been doing some wood repairs on it.

 

[DRANO]

For the clear ramps you'll have to search on Pinside. The member is named FREEPLAY40 and he has made several special ramps for certain machines.

The paint pens are MOLOTOW and you can get them at Curry's art supply or through mail order (at bombscience or bombingscience ? Something like that). There was a recent thread here on their black Friday sale.

It's not normal for balls to strike the light housing. You must have something weird going on there. But, if you want to make the modification I did, it's covered somewhere in FREEPLAY40's clear HS ramp thread also.

Good luck!

 

[DRANO]

Yikes! I haven't posted any new content since June.

Things are always busy in the workshop and I have gotten into the habit of posting projects in their own respective threads. It's easier for people to find the content that way I suppose... especially if it is game-specific.

The summer was pretty busy with real work and I actually managed to take all of my vacation this year and took the family on a few road trips and a great vacation down south. In between all of that I kept pushing forward on a few projects.

*Holy Pinball Batman!*
This is the custom build being attempted by myself and Monkeybug and it's based on a 1970's Williams EM that we are modifying. I'm sure there's a thread here somewhere. I'll post an update there also.
We've gotten the cabinet artwork and backglass sorted out and are working on getting the backbox wired up and soon moving on to finishing up the whitewood so we can get flipping and play with some rules.



*The Stern Sisters*
Earlier this year I finished acquiring the sexy holy trinity of collectible classic Stern. Star Gazer, Quick Silver and Sea Witch.
I had tried to restore all 3 by the end of this year, but with all that was going on this year, I just couldn't pull it off.
SG got finished and I'm half-way through QS. I just finished restoring the playfield. You can read about the process a little it here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/restoring-playfields-with-small-text





*Playfield Palooza*
As winter neared I started to catch up on some of my playfield backlog. Not sure why I started this practice, probably because Summer is prime time to work on cabinets outdoors and winter is better for shooting clear and detail work indoors. The aforementioned Quicksilver was in the mix as well as an NOS Grand Lizard, a Stars and 2001 for Spiroagnew and a recent Space Shuttle that was a CPR second. I repaired and cleared it too. There are still a couple waiting in the wings. A NOS Swords of Fury and two Special Force playfields for myself and Menace





A few other games have come in and left and some light work here and there, but nothing unusual or spectacular.
Spiroagnew did a couple of EM cabs for me which turned out awesome. I just repopulated them for now and will have to get to the playfields on those games soon as well.

Just wanted to offer this quick year in review.... or at least the last half of it.
I'll do my best to post more in 2017!

Thanks for following.

 

[DRANO]

I really should post in here more.

Been working on a few projects. Still plugging away at Batman. I got the Fan-Tas-Tic playfield modified on the CNC recently and am in the process of sorting through the parts that will go back on... as well as figuring out solutions for the new and custom parts. Here's a pic of the playfield. It's a bit of a mess, but the notable features are that many original elements were filled in while new holes for inserts and switches were cut. The shooter lane now has a huge openening for a Centaur styled escape hatch (aka Batcave exit) and we did away with the round porthole in favour of a more retro TV inspired shape that will better show off our LCD screen




My recent encounter with Genesis and the few custom elements have been well documented in a few other threads, but my continuing love affair with classic Stern games is starting to take over the game room.
I grabbed a nice player's copy of Big Game recently.. bringing the 'sturd' count up to 6 machines... with 2 more on their way!

I didn't want to embark on yet another restoration project... especially with Sea Witch still in pieces and Quicksilver still waiting for the playfield swap. My goal with Big Game is simply to try and complete a relatively thorough shop job within the week and get it playing and looking as nice as I can. I just want to be able to play it and decide if it stays.








Some of the things that have to be done include:
-rebuild flippers/repair hacks
-clean up pop mechs
-clean up drop mechs
-address a few bad switces and sockets/bulbs
-make sure the 'card' insert lamps are all working
-thorough clean of playfield with light touch-ups and wax
-clean up plastics/posts and re-rubber

Here's a few pics of the progress so far.
Not a bad starting point at all. I should have it flipping and shiny by the weekend.

 

[DRANO]

I got a lot accomplished over the weekend.
In addition to getting the ground mods complete on my Genesis, I managed to knock out most of the major issues with the Stern BIG GAME.

I gave it a great clean using the usual nasty stuff (melamine foam with Bleche Wite + CP100). The swirls and dirt really cleaned up nicely. You can compare the tired looking game pics I posted above to the freshly cleaned, touched-up and waxed images below.

I didn't want this game to turn into a major project, but I did want it to play well. So, after spending the majority of my time rebuilding flipper, drop target and pop bumper mechs, the rest of the work consisted mostly of some light touch-ups with some paint pens and a good waxing.

I did address a few flaky sockets and some poor connectors to the lamp driver board, and all switches and lamps seem to be okay. I even got all 4 displays matched up and working perfectly. Just a few bad sockets/connectors there as well.

I may spend a little more time just cleaning the cab and re-spraying the coin door, but I think this one is nearly in the books.
It was even nice enough to cough up the GC for me while I play-tested it on Sunday!

 

[Fifty]

Wow, the white paint on the PF really pops! I really need to get some of that Bleche Wite.

 

[DRANO]

Wow, the white paint on the PF really pops! I really need to get some of that Bleche Wite.

Sorry buddy. They no longer make it.. at least not the same formula that burns your nostrils and makes your hands dry up like king Tut. They've ruined a good thing. It probably causes all sorts of genetic mutations or something.

I may have a healthy green glow next time you see me

 

[Coitusmysterioso]

What paint pens do you use?

 

[DRANO]

What paint pens do you use?

They're called MOLOTOW

 

[DRANO]

Allentown is just a couple of weeks away and, as usual, I select a machine to bring down for Free Play each year.
This year I decided it would be Frontier... but the game had some cosmetic issues that I wanted to deal with prior to bringing it down.
A huge section of the "Den of Predators" bonus area was worn away and even some of the animal inserts were starting to disappear.

I didn't plan to strip the entire playfield but this repair would need to be clear-coated. So, my approach was to first fill in anything that I could by hand with acrylic paints and a brush. This is sort of my primer coat to cover up any bare wood. It's never smooth and the edges of the wear are still very easy to see. However, after a few layers I decided to mask around the Den rectangle and shoot a little spot clearcoat. This leaves a raised edge and shiny surface, but it also locks in the painting.

Afterwards I lightly sand the area with my hand. I don't use a block because the surface is still very uneven and my hand will be able to go into the low parts and smooth/blend things in better. Then I did some more blue on top of that sealed layer and I started to re-draw a lot of the black portions... including the animals. A lot of this had to be done freehand with my usual Molotow pens.

I didn't like the hard edge I got with the clear mask, so I decided to mask off all the playfield parts this time and just shoot my clear freehand. I figured I would just blend it later.

After a couple of rounds of this process I was ready to stick down some circle stencils that I cut to draw in perfect rings around the inserts. Then I started to paint in the missing parts of the cliff and the branch under the cougar and eagle on either side of the Den box. With all of this done I cleared one last time. By this time the dips in the worn areas are almost perfectly level with the rest of the playfield. I perform one final sanding to make sure that any shiny areas are dull. Then I wet-sand with 800-2000 grits and finally I polish it as best as I can without making it shiny. The lest step is to wax it all.

The final product is a spot repair that doesn't stand out like a sore thumb and restored art that won't damage easily again. To the touch, you can definitely feel the difference, but to the eye, the whole playfield looks uniform. I actually tried to make it a little imperfect so that it looked as original as possible.

I'm fairly pleased overall. This is the largest repair of this type that's I've attempted.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Nice work!

 

[DRANO]

Thanks Chris. Pretty happy with it.

Here's a short YouTube video of the machine in action. Getting it all dialed in before the show.

Apologies for my poor camera work

 

[Fifty]

It looks wonderful Drano. I'm looking forward to new Batman pics.

Yes, you should post in this thread more often.

 

[DRANO]

It looks wonderful Drano. I'm looking forward to new Batman pics.

Yes, you should post in this thread more often.

Been busy building the whitewood.

 

[DRANO]

It's been a busy Summer so far, but still plugging away on a few projects.
I currently have my Nine Ball playfield on the rotisserie getting a small touch-up and clean, but I recently finished up this nice Gottlieb SPIN OUT. I did all th playfield stuff and mechanism clean up and got it working. Spiragnew did the lovely cabinet and BGresto provided a new backglass. It was a wreck of a machine when I first got it. Looks and plays like a million bucks now!

 

[Coitusmysterioso]

Very nice! A game worthy of restoring.

I installed new springs in the roto target on mine but its still randomly lands in between numbers. guess i need to take it apart and clean everything.

 

[DRANO]

Very nice! A game worthy of restoring.

I installed new springs in the roto target on mine but its still randomly lands in between numbers. guess i need to take it apart and clean everything.

Thanks.
I sold away my first Spin Out and couldn't resist this one since it was so inexpensive. I had missed the game. On the surface, it's almost too simple and wide open. In reality, it's punishing and, while collecting the numbers for a special is tempting, playing the rollovers for score is very satisfying too.

I took the roto right off this time around. Desoldered the 10 or 12 switch wires and gave it a really good wipedown, polished the contact studs and applied a fresh thin layer of Teflon grease. If your discs are binding, might be worth taking the whole assembly apart and making sure they are moving freely around the centre. Mine wasn't too bad; just a bit dirty.

 

[DRANO]

Another quick update on the Nine Ball playfield.

I didn't want to get into a big project wth this game. Everything on it is really nice except for the central playfield wear. I decided to attempt a rather large spot repair; similar to what I had done recently on my Bally Frontier. This consists of a 'top shop' of all parts, a hand touch-up and spot clear of the damage and then a new plastic set and drop targets. It'll refresh the game and give it some new life without doing a full blown restore.

Here's a before image of the playfield with lot of stuff removed and then a progress shot of the touch-ups I've been doing.
I'll post a final in a few days.

Thanks