The Aussie Pinball Arcade

Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: goodolddays on September 08, 2013, 10:50:49 AM

Title: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 08, 2013, 10:50:49 AM
Well I've finally made a start on Black Hole now that its sitting in the lineup .

1st thing I did was swap in the new playfield window that came with the machine as I was curious to see the difference .

Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 08, 2013, 11:13:01 AM
This game looks like it will be the most work I've had to do so far .
It is a Euro import (Germany) that has been stored in a damp environment , judging by the amount of rust covering most of the metal parts .
There are some wiring hacks to sort out and some playfield touchups (eg wear around bumpers, ball arch , playfield window etc).
Backglass is pretty bad , will have to try and find one .

Here are some before pics to give you an idea of what I'm looking at
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 08, 2013, 11:21:03 AM
a few more pics for now .
Decided to start with stripping down the playfield to give it a good clean and try and get rid of the surface rust on everything .

Someone also managed to break off the heads of the 3 screws on one of the pop bumper mounting plates on the uderside of the playfield , so more fun trying to get the remnants of those screws out . The whole mech is loose as a result.  @.@
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: skywalker on September 08, 2013, 11:38:37 AM
best of luck with the rebuild, i would luv to have a BH some day, looks like a massive job,  ^^^
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: pinnies4me on September 08, 2013, 11:43:27 AM


Good luck, will be a big job but you have one of the all-time great pinball machines, so it will be worth the effort.
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: Strangeways on September 08, 2013, 11:46:57 AM
Big challenge !

But this game deserves the full treatment. You might fine the time it takes to remove rust etc VS buying new parts will lean towards replacing some of the fiddly parts.
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 18, 2013, 03:28:16 PM
My parts wishlist is currently at $480  @@^ not including another backglass !!
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: pinnies4me on September 18, 2013, 03:34:25 PM
My parts wishlist is currently at $480  @@^ not including another backglass !!

I feel your pain!! I have a bucket of $ in my BH, but its a game worth the investment - maybe not recovered when you sell, but it's a keeper so the $ don't matter as much.
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: Freiherr on September 18, 2013, 03:46:20 PM
My parts wishlist is currently at $480  @@^ not including another backglass !!

I feel your pain!! I have a bucket of $ in my BH, but its a game worth the investment - maybe not recovered when you sell, but it's a keeper so the $ don't matter as much.

+1
A proper restore involves $ & time. Getting your BH back to shine and original condition is the love for pinball.
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: pinnies4me on September 18, 2013, 04:08:45 PM


I have some parts from a second BH playfield (not a lot, but some might be useful), and other spare Gottlieb bits and pieces, ball guides, posts etc.

Maybe PM me your list and I'll see what I can scrounge for you - would love to donate anything I don't need to seeing another BH restored.
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 19, 2013, 03:09:41 PM
My parts wishlist is currently at $480  @@^ not including another backglass !!

I feel your pain!! I have a bucket of $ in my BH, but its a game worth the investment - maybe not recovered when you sell, but it's a keeper so the $ don't matter as much.

+1
A proper restore involves $ & time. Getting your BH back to shine and original condition is the love for pinball.

Guys , you are both spot on with your sentiments . I know this game will be a keeper for me too , so will just have to stump up the $$.

Come to think of it , I've spent way more than that on my Firepower  && , also a keeper pin  ()
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 19, 2013, 03:11:05 PM


I have some parts from a second BH playfield (not a lot, but some might be useful), and other spare Gottlieb bits and pieces, ball guides, posts etc.

Maybe PM me your list and I'll see what I can scrounge for you - would love to donate anything I don't need to seeing another BH restored.

Thanks for the kind offer Nick . PM sent .

Cheers
Dave
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: pinnies4me on September 19, 2013, 04:09:06 PM

I'll work through the list on the weekend Dave and see what we can get struck off it for ya!
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 19, 2013, 04:13:22 PM

I'll work through the list on the weekend Dave and see what we can get struck off it for ya!

Nice one Nick  ^^^
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: big dog on September 19, 2013, 06:51:14 PM


I have some parts from a second BH playfield (not a lot, but some might be useful), and other spare Gottlieb bits and pieces, ball guides, posts etc.

Maybe PM me your list and I'll see what I can scrounge for you - would love to donate anything I don't need to seeing another BH restored.

legend offer and black holes a legend game.    have fun
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: Fridgy on September 23, 2013, 04:35:05 PM
Nice project. I look forward to updates.
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 26, 2013, 05:08:57 PM
Gday all .

Just a short progress update .
1st problem I had was the headbox .
Wrong bolts came with the game (too narrow) , and the lightbox hinges (or whatever they were) were totally missing .
Found all the right bolts in Bunnings , and an old coil sleeve was the perfect size to use as a bushing for the lightbox hinge .  ^^^
I also pulled out the metal grill/mesh on either side of the backglass, gave it a ranex bath , then sprayed it gloss black with a can of  paint I found in the garage. It's a bit hard to see in the pics, but looks much better .

Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 26, 2013, 05:11:22 PM
Speakers were toast . I found a pair of  ceiling/wallmount speakers online for about $30 .
Pulled them out of the enclosures and they screwed straight in  ^^^
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 26, 2013, 05:20:05 PM
I've been concentrating on the rusty area on the underside of the top playfield . Fortunately the lower playfield underside is fine .

First thing I pulled out was the 'hole' target bank which was in a bad way rust wise, including most of the target springs have rusted away . Will have to try and find some suitable replacements . I was tempted to add a new set of 'Black' 'Hole' targets to my parts list but have decided to jsut refurbish what I have , to try and keep costs down a bit.
I've repainted the white on the 'hole' targets with my $2 shop acrylic and covered them with sticky tape .

Have also replaced a number of lamp sockets that were beyond salvation due to rust , using some old ones I had in my spares .
Had to re purpose them to suit where required.
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 26, 2013, 05:25:58 PM
I fixed the bumper mounting plate that had the 3 screws snapped off, by drilling new mounting holes .
Also pulled off the worst mounting plate (rust) , gave it a ranex bath etc, then sprayed it gloss black (doesn't get seen on the underside anyway)

Next challenge is to remove these toasty rollover switches . Once they are removed and replaced, that should take care of the rusty underside area  ^^^
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 26, 2013, 05:29:36 PM
I'm debating whether or not to repaint the cab . The headbox could sure use it . 
IF I'm going to do it the time to do it is now, cause I know when this puppy is up and running it'll be too late .  *%*
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on September 27, 2013, 06:34:59 PM
This arvo I've given the PF an initial clean with Nifty followed by a wipe over with Oomph.
Still have one stubborn flipper to remove .
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: goodolddays on October 04, 2016, 10:18:57 AM
Last week, pretty much 3 years to the day since I last did any work on this, I finally started back on this basket case of a project .
Not much to show yet as I have just been overhauling the mechs on the underside of the lower playfield and have given the top a clean .

On every game I overhaul , every pivot point on each mech gets a clean and then a smear of superlube.

I hit the rusty wireforms with the wire wheel on my dremel followed by some autosol and they have come up pretty well.

While cleaning up other bits and pieces with my polishing wheel I have also done all the post screws .. pretty anal eh but it doesn't take long

I figured better to do a bit on this now and then rather then leave it untouched otherwise it will never be finished LOL
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: Crashramp on October 18, 2016, 07:39:13 PM
Great to hear you're back into it. Such a great game, I'd love one of these but for the time being I'll have to be happy to live vicariously through your restoration photos.
Title: Re: My Black Hole Project
Post by: howzat on December 06, 2016, 10:05:15 PM
Hi Dave
I just caught up with your post
I use to play B/H back in the day   what a great fun game
it really must of been in a damp place or on the coast       
Did you get some parts from  Nick to help keep the parts bill down
If you do repaint would you trace your own stencils
Im looking FWD to the end result             Howzat