Italian pinball from death to life story

[yellowmustard]

!!!WARNING this thread is not a NEGATIVE one, it s simply the story of my italian pinball, experiences may vary but mine is GOOD !!!

so step one,

i was watching the container list of October 12, and my curiosity stopped on STERN GRAND PRIX...
the pictures were ok so i analyzed the pics, Zoom in...Zoom in...well the game was ok but the PF was not at my taste...big wear near test car...too bad...
so time passed and finally the November list comes out...i was very tempted by a TZ but...you snooze you lose ... i lost the one i wanted...
so in December list i remarked another GP from Stern and this time, the PF was at my taste...

these are pictures from the machine in Italian warehouse...

sadly the other ones have desappeared, but the closer ones show me a very nice PF!!!

but what i ve seen conviced me to buy the game...PF very nice, cab is decent, pf is complete, game turns on, dmd ok, inserts light so...
the game is easily identifiable see coin door, sticker on dmd panel from operator, stickers on the glass...
so i phoned Gerry, bing bang deal done...

so the waitting period begins!!!...

i received the info from Gerry to track the boat...

here is the carrier...

PLAY.....FORWARD......STOP....

finally the boat arrived to MTL

so one more week for customs...then Gerry told me the games are in BEAUCE...

so February 8th 2012 road trip to Beauce...yeah remember there was a snow/ice strom this friday but i left very early in the morning and i was home around 16.00

Gerry was ready to welcome me WOW!!! right in the basement...3 TZ, 3 INDIANA, 1BK200, 1 MM. 1 Scared stiff... miam miam i was hungry!!!!

but i was there for my GAME!!! GP....
we took seconds to jump connector for 110 volatge...

turn on ....
mmmm GI only.... pinball didn t boot...no DMD...hum....
so i checked fuses...i found burnt ones... i checked connectors...batteries ...ok turn on again...same shit!!!
i remarked some leds on driver board were not lighting...well i didn t close the coin door STUPID!!!

well not too bad i m really happy with the pinball, the one i choosed on pics...PF is dirty but really nice...
a very good start...so OK we put the game in the van and go back to MTL...

 

[yellowmustard]

Step 2

The investigation begins...

i decided to stop by a friend to check the game...we put the translite off...turn on big lights to see correctly...
we remarked some acid corrosion on the cpu board and driver board even on dmd controler...well i m pretty sure that s the reason it didn t boot...
what do you think?

oh!!! a tip is missing here...

so no problems....MMMIIINNNDDDASSTTTTOOOORRRMMMMMMMM i need your help...

so i phoned Mindstrom ans i ll bring him all the boards of the machine...
i told him..
do all it needs to make it work!!!
and don t forget to put english roms...because they were italians ones...imagine playing with italian voices!!!
BIENVENUTI in Grand PRIX Pinball...
Attiva motori...well i will for sure understand JACKPOT...but for the rest... :?

so i decided to begin esthetic step before the rest...usually i prefer to be sure the game is working before anything else...but...why not to change ?

so here are some pics of before...

as you can see...dirty...but PF is very nice under the dirt and sans i found on PF!!!
but that the funniest part of shopping game for me!!!

plastics were all intact, and nothing was missing on PF...

To be continued...

 

[yellowmustard]

here are some after pics...

Novus3, Novus 2, Karnuba wax treatment...

at mechanical point of vue...i found the coil bracket from the up/down latch (from the car assembly) Broken so it has been resoldered ...

a coil stop was broken too so resoldered it too

same here

 

[mwong168]

Looks great DavidC, can't wait to see more pics and see this once you are done all your magic on it.

 

[g-man]

Wow, that IS quite a story. And nicely told....pics and all.

I'm sure it will have a happy ending.

 

[WARLOCK]

Great work so far David. Looking forward to seeing the final results.

 

[yellowmustard]

thanks Scott i do the best i can as usual...how is SS??