The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: deadlydave on March 28, 2011, 10:37:34 PM
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I'm calling this one a restoration as there is going to be paint involved %.%
I picked up a very nice firepower in original condition, but one side of the cab has been to war and had a lot of decent scratches, looks as if it was lying on its side in transport at some stage. Now I,m very keen on leaving my pins in an
original state and can handle a few scratches etc, but could not leave this one as it was. The first pic shows some of the damage, the pic flatters it because to the naked eye it looks a lot worse. Was a real shame as the headbox and other sides were quite good, although the back chipboard was in poor condition, I thought I might be able to touch up the black only and gave a quick test by taping of the art with some low tack tape and giving the black a small spray ( second pic), tape was only down for a couple of minutes but pulled of a fair bit of paint when lifted. Its obvious from the second pic I would have to fill scratches to get a decent finish but would loose a lot of art with taping along the way. So a decision has been made to repaint the cab.
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Damn, I just did this page but lost it somewhere, here it is again...
First up was to strip out cabinet and then replace the chipboard at back of cab. Took to the chipboard with a hammer and it knocked out fairly easily, had to clean out the old joins. Picked up some 18mm ply from bunnings and cut close to size with circular saw. Trimed to size with router and also did rebate and mitres with the router. Plenty of glue and clamps and nails saw the new piece fixed in place. Fitted in pretty well, i was happy with result.
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I made a jig up at work to drill the corner holes in the new ply for the leg bolts, put some tape on new ply first as I was worried about the drill bit pulling up a lot of splinters, Clamped the jig down to stop movement and it went through easily, probably did not need the tape, ended up with neat holes. I wont be needing this jig in the near future, so if anyone could use it just yell out and I'll send it on.
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Awesome start !
I think you made the right decision (repainting). Nothing like a freshly painted cabinet to compliment a great looking playfield !
I really like the jig you made. Should get a patent for it ^^^
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Thanks Nino,
Here's a pic of where I,m up to tonight, have stripped paint and sanded cab and head, applied plenty of bog, will sand back tommorow and hopefully get some undercoat on.
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Great start Dave ^^^ I like the drilling jig for the leg bolt holes, thats a top idea.. he's an ideas man! :lol
looking forward to seeing the end results *%*
cheers.. Mitch
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Damn, I just did this page but lost it somewhere, here it is again...
First up was to strip out cabinet and then replace the chipboard at back of cab. Took to the chipboard with a hammer and it knocked out fairly easily, had to clean out the old joins. Picked up some 18mm ply from bunnings and cut close to size with circular saw. Trimed to size with router and also did rebate and mitres with the router. Plenty of glue and clamps and nails saw the new piece fixed in place. Fitted in pretty well, i was happy with result.
Great move replacing the ratty chipboard with some nice ply, will last forever now.
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Great start Dave .. good idea re the jig too. I saw a cabinet decal set for sale somewhere quite a while ago but can't find where now
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What a brilliant bit of kit that jig is ^^^. Was wondering myself how to drill new leg bolt holes and keep them straight, true and on a 45 degree. Looks like the jig does all that.
From what I have seen all the Williams of this era have a really shitty panel at the back. I had it on a Flash and my Firepower too. Its funny the rest of the cab is ply which is fairly hard wearing and then they use crappy chipboard for the cabinet back and then MDF for the Headbox back which once you get a tiny bit of moisture in it it swells up and is cactus fuctus.
But yeah, great job so far looking forward to how it turns out.
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so true re the rear panel....
My firepower is in almost the exact condition as yours Dave !
i need to do the exact same thing as what you have done so i can use this thread as a guide ! ^^^
I might be calling to have a lend of your fabulous tool ! %$%
Do you have stencils for this or are you creating them ?
I will be doing a restore on mine when the CPR pfs are released ... #@#
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The jig worked a treat and as I said earlier more than happy to send it out if
Someone needs it.
Stencils.... Mmmm...... Not sure at the moment, can picture a lot of effort to make
And I'm not confident on my cutting abilities, but on the flipside $175.00 delivered
Is a fair bit of coin.
Had a bugger of a day today, first batch of bog did not have enough hardener, was still
Soft this morning, had to scrape it all out, sticky crap everywhere @.@
Sorted it all out and putting undercoat on tonight.
Cheers
Dave
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The jig worked a treat and as I said earlier more than happy to send it out if
Someone needs it.
Stencils.... Mmmm...... Not sure at the moment, can picture a lot of effort to make
And I'm not confident on my cutting abilities, but on the flipside $175.00 delivered
Is a fair bit of coin.
Had a bugger of a day today, first batch of bog did not have enough hardener, was still
Soft this morning, had to scrape it all out, sticky crap everywhere @.@
Sorted it all out and putting undercoat on tonight.
Cheers
Dave
Do you think you will go for cardboard or MDF stencils?
I found MDF gives you a bit of a chance to fine tune the shape and overlaps (you can file it if you find a slight mismatch).
My stanley knife skills are not real good an I hate knives.
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Pinfan, have you seen the FP playfield on ebay at the moment?
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/PINBALL-PLAYFIELD-FIREPOWER-/120704287159?pt=AU_CoinOp&hash=item1c1a8941b7
It's in Melbourne.
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Hey boots, if I were to make them myself they would be out of cardboard.
Thinking I could print out the stencil from Firepower.com onto A4 contact,
then stick contact onto cardboard and follow the lines.
I'm still mulling it all over but the other option is to pick up an OT shift and
just pay for them...
Cheers
Dave
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Thanks Dave.... bad luck on the bog !
I will one day call for the jig though... ^^^ *%*
Where did you locate the stencil kit from ?
Thanks solar value... i have 3 FP pf's and still want a repro.... @.@ one is completely worn to wood and the other 2 have little wear....
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Hey Pinfan, no worries re the jig, marcos and BAA have stencils and Ive shot an email off to pinballpal who were supposed to be making them.
Made a bit of progress today, still battling with the bog, cannot get the corners spot on, everytime i go to sand them
a small chip will come of just as im nearly done @.@
Have got some more undercoats and sanding to do, but here is a pic of progress.
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Had a bugger of a day today, first batch of bog did not have enough hardener, was still
Soft this morning, had to scrape it all out, sticky crap everywhere @.@
Sorted it all out and putting undercoat on tonight.
Cheers
Dave
I had a couple of bad batches as well, left for a few extra days still not set @.@
Then mixing extra hardener in I would get hardly any time to apply ^.^
Bloody annoying!
Looking good so far mate *%*
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Thanks Dave....
I wonder if we can conjure up a few of us to place an order for FP stencil kits !? &&
Put an order in for a few,It will drop the price of the kit itself and shipping will be divided in however many come on board.
OR
what about Gavin ... Can he make us up a few sets ?
Any takers out there ?
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If Gav can make stencils that would be the best solution!, if not I would always use PinballPal's as his are the highest quality...
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I've been in touch with Gav, waiting to hear back. #@#
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I can certainly make stencils for this title... no problems at all.
Who needs these?? If all interested can PM me then ill know how many to make, where to ship to etc.
If anyone would prefer decals then these can be done also.. will be print + laminate.
Let me know...
^^^
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PM sent Gav ^^^
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Hey Pinfan, no worries re the jig, marcos and BAA have stencils and Ive shot an email off to pinballpal who were supposed to be making them.
Made a bit of progress today, still battling with the bog, cannot get the corners spot on, everytime i go to sand them
a small chip will come of just as im nearly done @.@
Have got some more undercoats and sanding to do, but here is a pic of progress.
Bog doesn't like being sanded very thin, it breaks off back to a thicker section, leaving an unsightly outline of the bog under the paint.
For any fine scratches, small holes, and to blend out the edges of any bog use knifing (stop) putty.
It is available from Supa Cheap Auto and is basically really thick thinners based undercoat.
Only thing is in this weather you will have to leave it overnight before sanding.
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Cheers Boots, I'm learning slowly
Applied a heap of spray putty today,
Is this what you are referring to?
Will throw up a few pics later
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Yeh spray putty is very similar (just in spray form), but with stop putty you apply it with a spatula and you can be a bit more selective (less sanding)
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Here's a few snaps of todays progress.
First up I needed to put the BB on cab and check mounting as the cab piece had a fair banana curve to it,
should have done this before any paint but forgot at some point, anyways as you can see from pic this looks
pretty ugly. Looks as though closest point is down a lot but actually was only down a fraction was the other side
up by around 3mm and then a big bow in middle. Must have always been like this as my new piece of ply was as
square as a buterbox (whatever the hell that is) and when I glued it in I had to clamp each side vertically pretty hard
to bring up flush. Was happy when I worked out there would be sanding involved to rectify as opposed to bogging up the
seemingly low side.
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I hit the top of cab with my belt sander, steady hand and plenty of nerves. Came out pretty well, did not take a snap of when I rechecked, but its a lot better, you will see when its back together. After that I taped up cab and BB and gave a
few problem areas a hit with spray putty. Will see how these come out when I sand back. though I suspect the BB back panel will need more build up.
Cheers
Dave
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Another little update, still at the prep stage but a heap of sanding/filling/undercoat has gone on since my last post.
Cab is just about ready for topcoat, have still got to do final sand of undercoat. The first pic shows how
I went overboard with knife putty and was not too selective as Boots advised...ah well a shitload of dust but
cab is looking pretty straight. Second pic shows the back, the join now looking a lot better.
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Looking Good Dave ^^^
I'm sure Firepower stencils will be a big hit with owners.
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Basecoat has gone on today $#$
Came out pretty good for my first go on the spray gun.
Is a bit flatter than I was aiming for but hoping some polish
and maybe a cut will get the semi gloss finish I was after.
Used auto acrylic mixed to 50% gloss by supplier.
Here's some pics..
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The work looks excellent. Cant wait to see the finished product. ^^^
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Thanks Cavey
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Hey Dave .. now I'm going to get a new PF will have to go down the same road as you and give my cab a makeover too .. :D
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Why not Dave, its all good apart from the dust.. ^.^
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Stencils arrived yesterday (Thanks again Gav) and I got the Red sprayed on today.
Came up pretty well and I'm looking forward to seeing it with the yellow on.
Gav did a great job with stencils, my first time applying these and I struggled with
the large ones, but got them on in the end. I will get another pair of hands
to put the second set on, to make it easier.
Here's a couple of pics.
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Man that looks friggin good. I have never seen a firepower with colours like that.
Vibrant brand new reds. Back to the day it came off the line. Cant wait to see it with the yellow.
Perhaps take a photo of the red n yellow paint products/brand incase someone wants to replicate the job for their cabinet.
LOOKS BLOODY GREAT DAVE. ^^^ Great stencils Gav. ^^^ ^^^
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Who says pinball aint sexy.
That is one very nice looking cabinet though.. i flogged my old FP off years ago... looking at Daves i wish i hadnt now.... looks absolutely stunning.
Great work mate.. glad the stencils worked out for you
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Looking fantastic! Now that gav has these available I can't wait to get mine looking as good as your!
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how much paint did you use and was it in a tin ect.?
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Hi all,
Brett I believe the paint codes are on the back of labels on tin,
Was supposed to be matched but the Red is not quite right,
Needs a darker maroon tint to be close to the original I think,
The yellow was a bad match so got them to have another go,
See how that looks when I put it on.it
Mitch, I used auto acrylic lacquer, mixed 50/50 with thinners and
Sprayed with a gravity fed gun. Used about 1 litre of black and about
400ml of Red, did not need this much Red, put it on a bit thick in hindsight.
It's my first go at this so I'm learning as I go.
Cheers
Dave
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Wow Dave .. that cab is certainly gonna catch the eye ^^^ . Nice work with the stencils too Gav ^^^
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Nice work, looks great *%*
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Nice job Dave all the bogging and sanding payed off, looking good I might do the same for my new Howzat. Howzat $#$
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That's a fantastic result - Very sexy cabinet indeed !
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Yellow paint went on today $#$
Made it a bit easier by cutting long stencils in half, registration was a smidge out on one side but nailed the front spot on.
Had a cock up on one side of head box, tried to take stencil off when paint was still wet and it folded back onto some wet paint and lifted it clean off @.@
Not too stressed now (was at the time) I will tape it up and redo the missing section.
Very happy with how its turned out so far, colors look closer to original than what I thought now they are applied.
I am going to clear over the top and fingers crossed I dont cock that bit up..
Heres some pics.
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I've been following this thread fairly closely, looking great so far Dave ^^^
Dont ya just hate it when things go wrong like that, its happened to me a few times in the past i can tell you!!
Anyway since you've sprayed it in acrylic you should be able to fix that damage pretty easy i would think ^^^
looking forward to seeing it all back together!
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That looks fantastic Dave *%*
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Looking very nice.
Thanks for posting.
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Loooks excellent Dave . #*#
I've stuffed up on my last repaint too , know how it feels . Seeing your FP is sorely tempting me to redo mine
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Made some more progress today.
First had to fix my stuff up on head box, taped up the curves using blue painters tape cut in thin strips.
Gave the damaged area a light sand and then applied the folded tape so as to avoid an obvious paint line,
pretty sure this tip came from Mitch on on of his threads. ^^^
Gave a few coats and was very happy with result, hard to notice unless your really eyeballing the area.
The second pic was after I cleared.
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Looks bloody great Dave...
Love the black finish... shows good prep work.
Ill say it again... its damn sexy!
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I clearcoated the pin today and so have finished the cab paint part of this restore $#$
I used acrylic lacquer clear and mixed to a ratio of 75% gloss to 25% matt, this was then
mixed 1:1 with thinners to spray, though I ended up making another lot up and added more
thinners ~20% more, as I was getting an "orange peel" finish.
Really happy with result, its a nice satin/semi gloss finish.
Im having a hard time taking pics of cab that are true to the eye, the camera wants to lighten
the shots up because of all the black and this makes the colors look weak, if I go the other way
the colors look good but hard to make out the cab. Anyways here's a couple of pics with lacquer on.
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That is mint! Can't wait to see it finished
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Nice work ^^^
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WOW.. that has come up sooo NICE Dave!!
And GREAT JOB repairing the stuff up on the backbox.. i cant even tell where the repair was done.
pretty sure this tip came from Mitch on on of his threads.
Great to see one of the tips i suggested came in useful in that paint repair, !!
once again.. WELL DONE ^^^ looks sweet as!!
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Cheers Mitch, that tip came in handy today!
Appreciate all the kind words guys.
Cheers
Dave
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WOW! Fantastic result.
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Small update...Ive been busy polishing/graining the cabinet trims. The method I have used, is to polish trims on buffing wheels and then grain, I got this off a mate who is pretty handy with stainless fabrication. I start with getting trim clean with Nifti or Naptha, then use the grey rouge on a cutting buffer followed by the white rouge on a polishing buffer. I then grain the trim using a red scotchbrite running along a straight edge to get a nice finish. This is very time consuming and would only reccomend if the game is a keeper. I really like the finish, gives a dark tone to the stainless, here's a pic of the side trims with one on right finished.
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That is one sexy cabinet, Dave. The finish is excellent. The more time spent on the preparation, then the result will speak for itself. Well done !
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I have mounted most of the trim back on and fitted some new legs. $#$
Had one cock up with the side trims, the nails can be seen just about to come through on inside, used right size nails but did not notice till all on,checked my other william pins and they are same, you just dont notice it with the rough finish, next time will definatley grind a couple of mm of nails. Not too noticeable but a piss off all the same. Here's some pics..
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Outstanding, Dave - Really good results.
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Looking very sharp Dave ^^^
Wanna do mine now %.%
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Great result Dave ^^^
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Looks awesome Dave #*# #*#
You must've put a LOT of time into the preparation of the cab to get the basecoat that good, it looks flawless.
looks amazing.. sweet as, dude ^^^
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Looks awesome Dave #*# #*#
You must've put a LOT of time into the preparation of the cab to get the basecoat that good, it looks flawless.
looks amazing.. sweet as, dude ^^^
+ 1 Seriously SWEET finish Dave, flawless #*#
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BEST Firepower around now i reckon. Looks like new but better again.
Dave, what did u do for leg/cabinet protectors. Clear plastic ones might be the go for both looks and protection. !@#
Cant wait to see the playfield back in and the game all fired up with lights etc. Maybe even a video of the first game would be cool. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^
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Hi all, thanks for the kind words.
The finish might not be for everyone as it does not look original.
Having a smooth surface certainly helped in getting a good result with
the vinyl stencils though.
Brett I purchased leg protectors from Jim nabours on EBay, they were cheap
and look like they will protect well.
I cannot wait for a game on this myself, last played a Firepower around 30 years ago.
Cheers
Dave
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Small update,
The sound board was in good original condition, so I just stripped it down and gave it a clean/polish. Installed wiring back onto the coin door. I had already cleaned and sanded the bottom of the cabinet and stapled the earth strap around.
Inside of cabinet body now finished and im going to move onto the Backbox next.
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Slightly off topic..... got a call today to go service the Firepower i sold some 6 years back or so... will be good to have a game on this again after so long.
Is a great title
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That will be interesting for you Gav !!
I wonder how its been treated since you sold it?
You might get some pangs of regret for selling it after having a few games.
Cheers
Dave
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Hey Dave .
I put a PinballPro speaker in my Firepower .. cost about $120 delivered around last Xmas .. worth the $$ I reckon.
I think it is this one but not 100% sure .. when I emailed them at the time they recommended what I ended up buying and it was cheaper than the one I originally thought was suitable
http://www.decoratorsupply.com/pinball/Products/Speaker_Products/subwoofers/SP-8/sp-8.htm
Cheers
Dave
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Hi Dave
Yes I have seen the PinballPro speakers, they look very good indeed and from what I have read, they sound great too!
No doubt a few will be on the shopping list down the track, I would like to install them in my other pins as well.
Cheers
Dave
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Man been so busy ive totally missed most of this restore thread and what a treat seeing the start to finish in one hit. That cabinet has come up sensational makes me wish i spent a bit more time on cabinet prep on my frankenpower but i did want the slight wood grain look in the begining !!!
Must get onto Gav about my Firepower stencils not that i have room to paint at the moment lol
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Simply awesome work..
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Backbox now finished, I hope.....
Gave all the boards a soak in the bath and dried out, they were all pretty good to start with.
All male header pins have been replaced on the boards, all female plugs have been done as well and wiring looms cleaned, all but the main power plugs which looked to be in good nick. Replaced all the electro caps and rebuilt the 100v supply with kits from GPE. I installed IC sockets to the Driver board PIA chips and got some new PIA's from Ken, replaced the two bridge rectifiers with new ones and installed fuses to the AC side of these as per the Pinrepair guides.
Remote mounted the battery pack and stole the TX cover from Gorgar as this one was missing, I will try to find one or make a new one down the track.
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Display board was in pretty good nick, same as the sound board so I opted to keep it original, stripped it all down and gave a good clean with Nifti. Cleaned all the light sockets with Iso and replaced all globes with No47's. Spent a bit of time getting the mounting/hinging right, I wanted the displays to line up with backglass and the lightboard to sit so as not to stick out and possibly scratch the backglass. I had one display flickering and another with a couple of burnt segments, once again stole some bits from Gorgar and will either pick up a couple of displays down the track or convert gorgar to an LED setup.
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Awsome work Dave looking great. Sadly my firepower is getting furter down te cue but hopefully one day it will look alf tis good. ^^^
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I checked earthing resistance from the lead plug earth to all exposed metal, (especially the metal on/off 240vac switch!) got some high readings on some coin door trim which I will rectify, powered up main board and checked voltages before plugging everything in, all voltages looked good. Plugged the other boards in, as well as sound board/coin door plug and powered it all up, straight to audit mode then a quick off/on and she booted up $#$
Pretty happy with this as I thought with all my work on the boards I was sure to cock something up..
Got into game adjustment mode and was able to register a couple of credits from coin door with the knocker responding.
Tested sound from the sound card test switch, the synth sounds are excellent but i thought the speech sounded distorted, I swapped out speech and sound boards with Gorgar with same result, got Ken to burn me some new speech Eproms but has not made a difference, have made a recording which I sent on to Ken to get his opinion, just does not sound as clear as Gorgar or BK to me, if anyone wants a listen shoot me a pm.
Playfield is the next job, bloody tempted to just throw it in and have a game but i will resist the urge ^&^
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Cheers Daniel, you've got too many machines! I dont know how you keep up with them all.
Im sure your FP will be finished soon, yours is a lot harder restore given what you started with.
Cheers
Dave
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I restored the PF on the Fp i sold..... looks like it could be a bastard, but its actually an easy PF to restore... enjoyed doing that one.
Which reminds me... must ring up the buyer and go service it, so bloody busy though!!
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just does not sound as clear as Gorgar or BK to me,
Gday Dave .. the speech and sound is much clearer on my FP after I replaced the original speaker with the Pinball Pro one .. maybe you could try swapping the speaker from Gorgar and see if there is any difference ?
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Time for a long overdue update ^&^
Received my new PF from CPR about a month ago but had been pretty busy stripping down the old PF and getting everything ready for the rebuild. I picked up a cheap tumbler from the local gun shop and gave it a good work out.
Here is a pic of the ball eject and sling parts ready for assembly.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/4bf0c6bb.jpg)
The old vynal covered rails were a bit tatty and the pine was split on some ends, I decided to replace with American Oak which I finished with a clear lacquer.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/41dd7de8.jpg)
I was very happy with the finish, should look good against the black cab sides.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/fc3bd10e.jpg)
All new lamp sockets/ground wire and tee nuts under the PF.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/4284bd13.jpg)
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I had some parts that sit on the PF chromed, as they were too far gone to be polished. I have made new wires for the ball gates and some trough switches out of stainless TIG wire, they came up nice seem to be very tensile and won't rust.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/56bf1a3c.jpg)
Spent a heap of time polishing all the stainless guides on my buffer, decided to go for a mirror finish as opposed to re-graining. Looking at the original side guides you can see a clear polished line where the ball runs across the grain, thought I'd give this a go as the mark from the ball might not be as obvious on the polished guides.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/c11420c7.jpg)
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I had a handfull of insert lamp holders that had really loose tags, no easy way to fix that I could see so thought it best to replace the lot. I could not find a replacement three tag holder as per the original so ended up getting two tag isolated types. I did not realize until I got them that the bracket is not isolated from the socket, so thought about it a bit and figured it would be ok as long as I was careful not to mount any brackets close to the GI braid. With this type of holder one tag is the tit, the other tag is isolated and the bracket is connected to holder. I riveted the third tag onto the bracket with spring washer. Not sure if I explained this well but here's a pic..
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/a044efe3.jpg)
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I spent an eternity building up the courage to drill the counter sinks for the pop bumpers ^&^
I could picture the drill bit getting away from me and just feeding straight down through the PF, lol.
I mucked about with some scrap timber to get a feel and ended up going about it as follows..
First scored the hole with a sharp 8mm Brad bit and then used an 8mm bit I had ground down fairly flat to finish, all done with batt drill, low speed and very little pressure.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/aec68077.jpg)
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/65c8bbe7.jpg)
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Great job so far Dave ^^^ .
You've definitely set the bar on this one I reckon.
I think the mirror finish on the stainless ball guides looks heaps better than the factory grained look . ^^^
I am scared about drilling into the PF @@^.
Hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions when I get around to doing mine .
Can't wait too see how yours turns out .
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Very very nice Dave. Tumbling and polishing makes a HUGE difference and it will match the playfield. Excellent work !
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Very nice *%*
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Very inspiring stuff!! ^^^
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Yeah, pretty impressive work you've done there. I would hate to think how much time you've spent on it.
Im sure when its all done its gonna look so good, that you wont want to muck it up by actually putting a ball on there and playing a game %.%
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I went very close to putting a hole through the PF @.@
Take care drilling holes on the backside of shooter lane where the wood has been routed !
There is a few mm of play where the flipper bushing comes through the playfield, I fixed the flipper assemblies so the bushes were hard to back of this hole, so as to give the ball a smooth path from guides onto the flippers and eliminate the bump as discussed in another thread.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/6bb9b63d.jpg)
Had to put a bit of time into the roll over stars, used a knife to trim the clear coat as per the CPR website, but found the star inserts sat to high when they were down, I used a dremel with a cylinder shaped grinding stone to grind the base of the playfield inserts, I think the clear coat had built up the bottom seat. Still not totally flush but the plastic is very thin and fragile looking so did not want to push my luck..
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/6c78e53e.jpg)
Like most Firepowers, my stand up targets in front of the flippers were a mix of parts and had taken a beating. I have replaced the six targets with the enhanced versions from PBR, they are really solid looking and should hold up well, I was not sure about the bracket though, as only the two fixings and they would be very close to edge, with no give in this heavy duty enhanced target. Ended up making some brackets out of 30mm ALU angle I had, no doubt it's overkill but I'm happy. The other targets were still ok so I just replaced the the bullseye target.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/fa7ed974.jpg)
All coming together well, I'll get the wiring loom back on in the next couple of days and once that's done there won't be too much left to do.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/9698305c.jpg)
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Nice, making me keen to get mine started.
What's the part number for those targets? I should replace mine as they are a varied collection of colours like a lot of games.
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Part No for Enhanced Red Targets is WLL-A14691-4E
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Part No for Enhanced Red Targets is WLL-A14691-4E
The enhanced targets just use data east target brackets.
http://www.rtbb.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28_194&products_id=2707
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Looking great Dave .
Did you redo the spinner as it looks new ?
Are you going to put decals on the centre targets (available from www.firepowerpinball.com)
I'm still worried about drilling into my new playfield !@#
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WOW - Looks better than new !
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Very nice ^^^
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Looking great Dave .
Did you redo the spinner as it looks new ?
Are you going to put decals on the centre targets (available from www.firepowerpinball.com)
I'm still worried about drilling into my new playfield !@#
Hi Dave, the target spinner is original, I touched up some of the black areas.
I've got the target decals but was going to wait till all back together to see if I will put them on, I probably will as the Reds on the targets look different shades due to reflection from the colours on the playfield.
I'm using a 5/64 drill bit for most of the pilot holes, for the underside I only have 10mm protruding from the chuck so I cannot go too far (watch out for shooter lane !), for the holes drilled from the top i use some tape to mark the 10mm on the bit.
A lot of the dimples underneath are a little out so you have to dry fit and drill to suit, I check against the original as I go, trying to mount the stuff closest to PF first and work back up, all the big coil brackets will go on last but have already drilled the holes.
I think the biggest chance of a cock up will be mounting the various switch stacks as the screws are different lengths depending on the size of stack, I will hopefully do these before I have too many beers :lol
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Really appreciate all the advice Dave ^^^
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That PF looks bloody nice!!!
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Great work Dave looks fantastic ^^^ thanks for sharing all the tricks and traps in this swap!
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Great work Dave looks fantastic ^^^ thanks for sharing all the tricks and traps in this swap!
Cheers Tuf, happy to give a bit back to this forum that I have learnt heaps from. *%*
Now here is a big trap to avoid !!
Be very careful with the screws that fix the cable saddles via posts onto the PF. I measured one before starting to fix and saw that the screw would only be about 1/8" short of piercing the PF, made a mental note to not over tighten these and just nipped up, well after fixing about a third of these down I filipped the PF to check something else and was horrified to see a slight distortion in clear coat where I'd fixed the screws @.@
It was not really obvious but when I looked across the PF in a critical light you could see a small distortion , could not feel any bumps and no sign of split or anything. I backed screws of a turn and continued on, making sure to leave all saddles a bit loose. I flipped it over for another look tonight and the clear appears to have settled down, it was harder to see the distortion, will post some pics of this in next day or two, but hopefully by then there won't be much to see ...
Here's a pic of the offender..
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/f8d13551.jpg)
Here's a pic of the loom ready to start putting back, what a mess lol.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/689c8a23.jpg)
I'm making steady progress and should be getting close to finish by the weekend.
I have referred to photos I took before the swap a million times, make sure too take lots of pics!
Used a heap of those snap lock bags to store all my parts/screws etc, all marked up, which has made the swap easier.
Cheers
Dave
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Love your work Dave, thanks for the tip regarding the loom screws. ^^^
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Love your work Dave, thanks for the tip regarding the loom screws. ^^^
+1 ... I assume the only explanation re the loom screws is the repro playfield is slightly thinner than original ?
I wonder if Sunking had this same problem ?
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Thinking back, i recall the originals were a bit loose as well.
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I'm going to replace them with shorter ones I think to avoid this risk.
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I'm going to replace them with shorter ones I think to avoid this risk.
Me too
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Replace with 25mm would be the go, they would be a couple of mm shorter.
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Finally finished $#$
One flipper didn't work, just had to clean eos switch ( new, but must have had some crap between contacts).
One display was dragging the master and another down, replaced with a donor from Gorgar, all good.
Adjusted a couple of switches and it was game on, getting my arse kicked at the moment, very fast and I keep going for the magna save, lol.
Need to get a couple of lamp holders for the flashers, mine were missing but did not realize till I went to sort out the flasher resistors (which were cooked), some new instruction cards and coin slot labels.
I tried to take a pic of the clear coat bulge from the loom screws but could not get a good shot, it's quite minor and with playfield in cabinet it's very hard to see, which is good.
I've put coin taker super bright LEDs in feature lamps and No47's in all GI.
Anyways here is some final pics.
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/b937f135.jpg)
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/eb495a57.jpg)
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/c2c37666.jpg)
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Wow, Thats Awesome ^^^
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Well done Dave on an excellent resto ^^^ . ^^^
Your game looks brand new. *%*
All your hard work and patience have sure paid off .
Must be a great feeling of satisfaction for you.
Thanks again for all your tips re the PF swap.
My scores on my FP usually suck badly (with the current PF) so I am a bit worried about how fast its going to be with the new one installed .
Whats your best score so far on that new playfield ?
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Hey Dave,
Thanks for the kind words, it seems like ages since I started this and I am wrapped that it's finished.
Look forward to reading yours, and others threads, when you do your swaps, In hindsight it was a bigger job than I first expected, but I think you just need to be patient and spend the time documenting the pull down to make the rebuild more enjoyable.
Couple of things I thought I should add, I stuck adhesive Mylar down on the pop bumpers, don't notice it and the ball gets a serious workout in that area.
Make sure you invest in a contact adjuster if don't already have one, best $6 I've spent.
I had a blinder of a game this arvo, 687,800, high score with all settings standard.
I've been playing my Black Knight full on for over a year and still have not beaten the default high score of 2,000,000..
(http://i1159.photobucket.com/albums/p639/davephoto2/ff06cf47.jpg)
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Great work Dave, your thread got me started on the tear down today, thanks for sharing yours.
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congratulation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!fantastic work,like new!! ^^^
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Looks bloody awesome ^^^ ^^^ fantastic job Dave @@* @@*
even the underside pf components look brand new!!
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Fantastic, that is a great result! Well done on the new high score, too!
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Dave I had to agree with the other comments great job ^^^ Howzat
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Awesome work.
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Just revisited your resto Dave nice work! Great to have it finished mate
Will have to get round to doing mine sooner or later....
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Just reread through this whole thread myself to refresh myself of the full picture..
Thats an amazing job Dave and the finished product looks absolutely stunning.
Bloody well done mate.. top top restoration.. ^^^ ^^^
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WOW ! That's a NIB restoration (Nearly In Box *%*). Great Job. I'm VERY much looking forward to restoring mine. Great game. I'll bet yours plays like new. Congrats !
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Very nice work on you're Firepower,, Looks tones beter than factory made,, ^^^ If you ever want to sell it let me no *%* Grate work...
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Wow, very nice.
Great job!
Picked one up for $250 last week. Playfield is down to bare wood in the bonus area (death star), but otherwise not too bad.
Can't wait to it up and running!