The Aussie Pinball Arcade

Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: beaky on April 02, 2009, 04:32:39 PM

Title: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 02, 2009, 04:32:39 PM
well I have started on my jokerz rebuild. here are the before photos, i will add more as i progress.
as you can see the playfield needs some major repairs under the apron area.
There are no worn areas on the pf, the plastics are pretty grotty and slightly buckled, we will see how they come up,two have very small breaks in them, i will address that issue when i get to them,The mylar has to go, it has mylar over mylar in some sections.
a few screws snapped when i was undoing them, i don't know if they are corroded in or have locktite or something else holding the threads together.I have removed every thing from the top of the pf that i can, anything else left on there needs to be undone from underneath.
anyway here are some pics of where im up to.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 02, 2009, 04:35:49 PM
&some more
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ddstoys on April 02, 2009, 04:57:44 PM
Thats got some nice art on it specially those t#ts lol
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ajlaird on April 02, 2009, 05:24:00 PM
Yep, this one looks some serious work will be involved in getting it up to scratch. Hope it goes well for you.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 02, 2009, 05:40:47 PM
i have just started on the under side of the playfield, so we shall see how it all goes
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: MartyJ on April 02, 2009, 05:43:57 PM
Those plastics are dirrrrty.....

Christopher Hutchins (highendpins) did a repair on a playfield which had a similar piece break away.  I think he used carbon fiber filler + something else to fix.  Basically you could not see repair at all!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do a top job!
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 02, 2009, 06:10:44 PM
Those plastics are dirrrrty.....

Christopher Hutchins (highendpins) did a repair on a playfield which had a similar piece break away.  I think he used carbon fiber filler + something else to fix.  Basically you could not see repair at all!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do a top job!
thanks i will look it up
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: Strangeways on April 02, 2009, 07:03:17 PM

Looks like you have your work "cut out for you" - and I don't mean "just" under the apron  &&

A great challenge for anyone - I'm looking forward to your updates, Beaky  ^^^
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: MartyJ on April 02, 2009, 08:24:04 PM
Similar repair:

http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album69/23_G

Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: illawarra_steelers on April 02, 2009, 09:39:36 PM
Good on you Beaky,

Can understand guys into these 'newer' pinballs  :lol

The art on the playfield actually reminds me of 1950 - 65 Gottlieb/Roy Parker art.

Good vibes your way for bringing this game back to her former glory and look forward to watching her blossom again.

Keep the updates coming!
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 02, 2009, 10:48:30 PM
Good on you Beaky,

Can understand guys into these 'newer' pinballs  :lol

The art on the playfield actually reminds me of 1950 - 65 Gottlieb/Roy Parker art.

Good vibes your way for bringing this game back to her former glory and look forward to watching her blossom again.

Keep the updates coming!
I have read some where that the picture of the joker on the translite is supposed to be the artist, this is not my actual translite, I downloaded this picture. hope you like it.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: Marty Machine on April 03, 2009, 12:10:05 AM
It took me a while to notice the rest of the playfield, i was focussed on the queens royal jewells  !*!

Should be a fun restore for you Beaky...
MM.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 03, 2009, 06:11:23 AM
the funny thing was when i brought the pin home my daughter thought the king was santa clause.
kids ; you've got to love 'em.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 03, 2009, 10:35:31 AM
DAMM ^.^ ^.^ ^.^
Now that i have every thing off the playfield i put a straight edge on it and it is badly warped. I will have to read up on how to straighten it.
any suggestions guys???
well off I go.
DAMM DAMM DAMM.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ddstoys on April 03, 2009, 04:57:20 PM
WARPED PLAYFIELD EWE  But interestd to find how you fix this?
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: v8racefan on April 03, 2009, 06:36:49 PM
Damm,

any chance you'll get your money back??

Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 03, 2009, 07:05:12 PM
Damm,

any chance you'll get your money back??


i doubt it, he sold it as is and i didn't use paypal because it would have taken a week for the transfer from my bank acoount to my pay pal account. and i did look at it before i paid him, but who goes around with a straight edge and checks the pf first? oh well i will put it down to a learning experience. i have now got the playfield in a couple of long clamps and some weight in the warped area, i will just wait and see if it straightens out, i can only try.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ddstoys on April 03, 2009, 07:07:55 PM
Im not sure if this is advice but more of an observation.  I moved a playfield out into the sun one day leaning up against the wall and it warped maybe you could clamp it to a table and put it into the sun for a while?   But get others opinions before you try this
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: Ford Fairlane on April 03, 2009, 08:06:51 PM
I of course have never had the misfortune of having to do this but i've heard people steam the wood and place heavy weights on it  !@#
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 03, 2009, 08:47:40 PM
thanks guys, i did some web browsing on warped plywood and have found that the steaming option is probably the best.
the reason why your playfield warped in the sun is probably because they use different grades of wood when making plywood. some grades expand and contract with heat and cold easier than others, well that is what i read any way.
thanks again.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ddstoys on April 03, 2009, 08:50:15 PM
Yeah that makes sense. I wont be leaving any out in the sun anymore thats for sure
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 05, 2009, 02:00:21 PM
the pf is now on my workbench in the garage with weights on it, i have cleaned all the plastics, but they seem to have a brown tinge to them, i am waiting on some novus, when this arrives i will try getting the brown off with it.
the ramps came up pretty good though. the top plastic upper playfield is in a sad state, we will see if novus will get this up to scratch.
before i put the plastics in the oven to straigten them i will try and get the brown off them.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ddstoys on April 05, 2009, 02:14:14 PM
Those ramps came up great. Hopefully the Novus will clean up the rest. My fingers are crossed for ya
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: MartyJ on April 05, 2009, 03:35:55 PM
I had some ramps (without decals) off my LAH which were almost identical.  I let it soak in water with lots of nifty.  Came out like new.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ajlaird on April 05, 2009, 05:23:08 PM
Nifty and Novus - sounds like a couple of characters out of an animated movie.

The ramps already look great - can barely notice the brown tinges.

Hope the playfield works out; it sounds like a bit of a nightmare.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 05, 2009, 06:59:50 PM
its not the ramps im worried about its the minnie plastic playfield that has the brown tinge to it.
i'm pretty fussy when it comes to cleaning. if i can get it looking like new i will.
i am now in the process of pulling down the drop target assemblies and cleaning the droptargets and waxing the decals on them.
also cleaning the pcbs and opto sensors.

anyway here is the first dt assembly : one on right hasn't been done, one on the left has except for the sleeve, i need to order new ones,
thats why i haven't bolted the coil back in to place
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ddstoys on April 06, 2009, 05:40:59 PM
Im not 100% sure but there was a similar looking upper playfield in one of marks piles of crap he sold not long ago. Might be able to track down the new owner?
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: MartyJ on April 06, 2009, 06:44:30 PM
Looking great.  Huge difference already.... ^^^  More updates and photos please!!!!!
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 06, 2009, 06:50:54 PM
Looking great.  Huge difference already.... ^^^  More updates and photos please!!!!!
i am in the process of removing all the wear marks in all the metal guides, i should have before and after shots of these later on tonight.
I have done 2 so far and they have come up like new, they had some pretty bad wear marks on them, photos will be uploaded soon.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: Strangeways on April 06, 2009, 07:55:10 PM

Great results, Beaky - coming along VERY nicely.

Try Novus 2 on the upper ramp - If there is no improvement, try Novus 3.

You will make a BEAST of this game yet !
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 06, 2009, 10:52:35 PM
here is the metal work, before and after; the wear doesn't look so bad in the pics but they looked shocking before the cleanup.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ddstoys on April 06, 2009, 11:30:58 PM
They came up fantastic your doing a top job on this one
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ajlaird on April 06, 2009, 11:38:44 PM
Im not 100% sure but there was a similar looking upper playfield in one of marks piles of crap he sold not long ago. Might be able to track down the new owner?

Not the one I got...
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 11, 2009, 12:26:33 AM
just an update on the jokerz
the warp in the playfield hasn't changed at all yet so i have increased the amount of bow against the warp and see if that helps.
just about all of the pf parts have been cleaned and i have only a few more metal and alloy parts to polish
all the plastic posts have been cleaned, all of the rubbers under the top plastic pf look like they were the originals and had bonded to the plastic posts so a lot of scrubbing with a tooth brush was needed to get these clean, they all came up looking like new, none need to be replaced so the effort was worth it.
I have been able to get some of the browny yellow stains out of the plastic top playfield and i will continue working on this untill it is as clear as i can get it. this is very time consuming.
all circuit boards under the pf have been cleaned and any suspect solder joints have been resoldered.
so its getting there.
no more pics yet
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ajlaird on April 11, 2009, 12:41:39 AM
Keep going, you will get there in the end.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ddstoys on April 11, 2009, 10:20:09 AM
I really hope you can get it flat again would be a shame for all that great work you have done with the parts to go to waste.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: Strangeways on April 11, 2009, 11:16:21 AM

Beaky - Keep working away at the "bow" and post pictures if you feel you are not seeing much improvement.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 14, 2009, 01:15:26 PM
checked the bow again today and it is starting to straighten out. #*#
haven't done anything on the rest of the pin the last couple of days. the car has a leak and it has been raining for days so the car is filling the garage at the moment.
when the rain stops i will get back on to it.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 19, 2009, 09:35:52 PM
I Finished stripping down the cabinet today.
i have decided to replace the front of the cabinet because the damage around the door is all the way through the wood.
i will also get new side rails for it 1 has been damaged pretty badly.
Checked on the playfield again and it is slowly getting there.
here are some pics of the cabinet.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 19, 2009, 09:41:58 PM
and some more
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ajlaird on April 19, 2009, 09:45:58 PM
Yeah, good idea to replace that as you don't want problems in the longer term.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 19, 2009, 10:28:39 PM
that right
i dont want do go through all the trouble of trying to fix it, and then as soon as i bolt the door on the filler cracks.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: ddstoys on April 19, 2009, 10:46:00 PM
Geez what did they do with that machine throw it out the 3rd floor window? Im glad you have the skills to repair this beasty
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 20, 2009, 12:15:40 AM
Geez what did they do with that machine throw it out the 3rd floor window? Im glad you have the skills to repair this beasty

I have had 2 stories on this. 1st one was it was damaged in the container when coming from os then at a different time i was told it was sent like that and he had paid $2400 au for it, but wasn't told it was damaged, the pf glass is to short for it and the top and bottom of the glass are cut on an angle.
so i dont know how this happened?
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 22, 2009, 06:29:18 PM
I have started on the art work for the decal that i am getting made for the front of the cabinet. i thought i would get this done before getting the new wooden panel made as they have to use the old one as a template and if the old one gets damaged or the young fellow throws it out ill be stuffed.
i have scanned it but of course my scanner has a short focal point so it is blury, I have used the scanned image for the pallet colors. i then took photos of the panel and i am cleaning these up with the scanned image pallet.
i have done 1 part so far and i have attached it below.
Title: Re: JOKERZ restore
Post by: beaky on April 22, 2009, 06:32:02 PM
: