The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: robm on March 04, 2013, 09:04:06 PM
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Well now that Fishtales is done and being enjoyed by a new owner, its time to move on to the next possum pin (see http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=9757.msg126624#msg126624 (http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=9757.msg126624#msg126624)for details of the find)
Originally when i looked at this machine once i got it home, i thought the cabinet was totally stuffed....maybe it is in most other's opinion, but the sides are very sturdy with only a few small chunks and scrapes, its the MDF base and chipboard back of the headbox that have made it look so bad (plus the inch of possum crap and urine....). So the plan is to bog up the dings in the sides, and replace the base and rear panel. A possum had actually chewed through the base of this machine and quite possibly had a possum rave party inside, as there are chunks of the base spread through the whole cabinet....
A few pics that tell most of the story
Note the bowed base
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3335_zpsf4fffae7.jpg)
As with Fishtales, the playfield is reasonably good - no wear, just filthy
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3336_zps2cfc1800.jpg)
Has some serious issues here
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3339_zps857b4037.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3340_zps73e7f7ad.jpg)
Note secret possum entrance hole on the left side of the base
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3341_zpsbdcba7d4.jpg)
As with the previous machines, i was a bit nervous about the electronics, so only had the transformer wired up, and straight away blew the main fuse in the machine. Replaced the line filter, and it fired up no worries.
Tested all the outputs of the transformer, and they were all good.
I then connected the boards up (after cleaning some minor corrosion on the CPU and installing a remote battery pack) and fired it up. Solid 5.03V, and 12V which is great! CPU boots no worries, display board needs some work on the high voltage section as the difference between the two outputs is too great (should be 12V difference, but this one is -96V and -122V), so will look at that later. I'm getting no sound at all from the machine. Sound board has correct input and output voltages, speakers are not blown (tested with a 9V battery and got them to pull in), so is probably a wiring issue somewhere that will be easier to track down once clean.
Since the machine is 80% working (a couple of solenoids won't fire, put you can start a game and most switches test OK), i hooked straight into the stripping process.
Picture of the base of the cab partially stripped
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3352_zps9f942447.jpg)
Close up of the 'seedy end of town'....
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3362_zpscd182e8e.jpg)
With absolutely everything out of the cab and siderails removed, i started stripping the cabinet decals. I've found that the best way seems to be peeling the decals off by hand - with a scraper to help start. This way, all the adhesive comes off. If you use a heatgun, the adhesive remains, and it take longer and is more work getting rid of it all. That said, its still a slow process. The side pictured below took me about 45 mins to get what you can see done. Note how the original decal outline has transferred to the cabinet!
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3377_zps3307d85b.jpg)
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I have no doubt that u will make this machine a pearler again. Look forward to this thread, as do alot of other members I am sure.
Its amazing the possum didnt chew a thousand wires on the underside of the playfield. In a way u are lucky there was a possum to scare away the rats, cause the rats would have chewed every siingle wire for sure.
It must be chineese year of the possum ! %.% It certainly has been good luck for you Rob.
A big congrats in advance on what will be a great resto !
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Hi Rob
Im really enjoying your post and seeing great results Who ever got F?T would have a nice game. I hope your wearing gloves while cleaning up the possum crap :lol
Looking fwd to the rest of your post Howzat
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Great effort bringing these machines back to life Rob. Good luck with your latest project. ^^^
Looking forward to your next updates. *%*
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Great to see your restorations, these machines are in need of some serious loving :lol
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That will be a challenge for you Rob. But given your efforts on Fishtales, I think you will have similar results ^^^
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Gee, that will be a big job, but we've seen you are up to it with FS. I can imagine the possum stench - had a few in the roof at my last house - not pleasant!
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Another awesome project there Rob. !
You know you set the bar with Fishtales don't you :lol
Looking forward to seeing how you progress with this one ^^^
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As others have said, thanks for sharing this adventure.
Love to know the backgournd of the chap you bought them off - why did he have to many machines in the first place, and why over on Maggie Island?
Lived in T'ville myself many years ago - maybe I played them when they were happier.
keep up the great work. #*#
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Thanks for the comments guys!
Dendoc - the bloke used to have them in a Cafe on the Island, then put them in a shed (one end open) and they sat there stacked on top of one another for about 7 or 8 years from what i can gather - attracting moisture, rodents, possums and all sorts of other nasties! He had ideas of getting them going, but i doubt he would have. All the machines so far have problems in the 240V section, most boards have issues and you can see the resto work that needs doing!
Have put quite a few hours in today and afternoons the last week. Finished stripping the cabinet decals and headbox. Knocked the base out as it was all swollen, as was the rear of the headbox
The first job was to clean up the possum mess and crud. While it looks disgusting, its not that hard to remove with the right stuff. First hit was with orange stain remover, let it sit for a few minutes, then used a cabinet scraper (in the left of photo) to scrape the bulk up.
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3379_zps8f037f07.jpg)
After this, i then sprayed it with Nifti, and then wiped off with a rag. Honestly, Nifti is one of the best cleaners i have ever come across - the area in front of the bottle is what the rest was like before spraying with Nifti and wiping off!
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3381_zps9f5947ed.jpg)
Then went to work with builders bog.
There was a lot of areas where the cabinet was delaminating - just a few mm on the bottom edge, so its no point going to the effort of doing work and leaving stuff that will get worse in time to come. So i chipped back the areas where it was delaminating, then filled with bog, and sanded. Its a fairly time consuming process as i never seem to get it all done in one or two batches. The stuff goes of very quickly (normally within a few minutes its not really workable), so it means you have to go quick, but the beauty is that it can be sanded within 30 mins (20 mins if you add a bit more hardener). I use a round random orbital sander and it makes life a lot easier than the old 1/3 sheet rectangular one i had, due to the fact this one rotates as well as vibrates - makes things heaps quicker. I used 80 grit paper to level the bog, then 120 and 240.
A couple of shots of the cabinet and headbox, all sanded and bogged and ready to be hit with spray putty. I use this to fill in any wood grain or small dings that get missed with the builders bog. Talking to a bloke in the paint shop, he reckons its probably overkill, and i could get away with a cheaper (and easier to use) car primier undercoat that has reasonable build properties, but i've got 4L of spray putty, so will use it first, then try the other stuff with later machines.
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3398_zps79da3b0c.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3399_zpsc654bf14.jpg)
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As many have said, amazing find and story.
Thanks for taking the time to share Rob. ^^^
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Wow what a mess good to see your saving it
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Great that you are restoring this.
Most people would have written it off for parts or just junked it.
Getaway is one of my favourite games, so I can't wait to see how this one turns out.
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Love your patience, well done. On this, FT and AF ^^^
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I remember when I was a child - School holidays were spent cleaning pinball machines as they were brought in and reconditioned for their next route. This was around 1975-76. NIFTI was sprayed liberally on the cabinet and an old paint brush was used to scrub the dirt and grime. Every time I see NIFTI at Coles, I buy the entire shelf - sometimes 20 bottles. It is the best pinball cleaner out there !
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Every time I see NIFTI at Coles, I buy the entire shelf - sometimes 20 bottles. It is the best pinball cleaner out there !
No wonder i keep seeing "line temporarily unavailable" where the nifty is supposed to be at our local coles :lol
you have another big job ahead of you :D but i am sure it will look great when it's finished.
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Nifti and Fabulon are what the 70s smelled like, at my house anyway.
Also Rothmans King Size and Flag Ale.
One of my favorite things about wedgeheads is that wonderful Bakelite/warm copper/roasted dust smell when you open it up
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Have done quite a bit over the last little while, a few coats of spray putty, then sand back and check for areas i might have missed a small nick or scratch, refill, sand, spray etc. Once it was good enough, i sprayed the edges in black - so when the decals are trimmed, there is black behind them.
Installed a new base in the main cabinet once i had sprayed all the inside black.
Then spent a lot of time cleaning all the cabinet hardware, spraying all the bolt heads black, getting rid of more gunk from everywhere.
Then put most of the stuff back in the headbox, and threw the decals on (wet method).
Also put the front decal on the main cabinet, but will need some assistance to put the side decals on.
A few shots of it starting to look like a decent machine....
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3424_zpsdc68ef54.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3425_zps5a583025.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3427_zps89698a77.jpg)
Also tidied up things like the lockdown bar - sprayed with a chrome paint, and installed new warning and other stickers
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3428_zps21d3f0fb.jpg)
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looking good Rob ^^^
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A lot of hard work there again mate. Lot forward to next posts. @@*
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Coming along nicely Rob ^^^
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Now have got all the decals installed with relative ease - still need to tidy up the corners with a sharpie or paint pen when these photos were taken
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3438_zpsa4c01bd2.jpg)
Now since there is not much info on applying decals via the wet method, i took a video of my wife and I installing them. Now this is how it works for me, i'm no expert, so happy to take suggestions from others. Hmmm sad to see how little hair i have at 35 - but the wife is looking great at 30 weeks pregnant!
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Great work Rob & assistant
Thanks for the video, that helps me heaps for when I do mine.
a few questions:
- I missed if there was anything added to the water to spray on detergent or metho ???
- do you leave the time period in between the application and trimming ?
again great to see a vid and thanks for the time to share wiuth us.
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Jady - I put a squirt of detergent in the water.
I reckon it makes sense to trim straight away as it will make sure you can squeeze the water out again after you trim. Don't really know if it makes a difference but at least you can trim straight away then leave it for a day or two
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Well i got sick of it not being finished and hooked in over the last couple of weeks - a bit hard to remember as i didn't document heaps or take a heap of photos. But pretty much in terms of stripping and cleaning, got the playfield bare, spent a while with Nifti, shellite and magic eraser getting rid of all the filth such as below
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3543_zps6940f2e7.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3472_zps349292f2.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3474_zpsfec8d5e1.jpg)
Then cleaned all the bits and pieces, rebuild flippers etc. A lot of the mechanisms (particularly the ramp lifter at the back had grease applied at some stage, and were almost completely seized with dry grease - so plenty of time getting rid of this and leaving things unlubricated as they should be.
Spent a lot of time on the boards, making sure everything was right.
Ended up blowing the 602 Fuse after a while on the display driver board - turned out to be the DMD being faulty - so in went a brand new one!
Also could not get sound at all out of the machine - after a lot of searching and frustrations, it turned out to be the connector on the cabinet speaker was corroded/filled with gunk so much that it wasn't making a connection - so the signal wasn't getting around the circuit. So put a new connector in, plus a new cabinet speaker. After that, i was getting a crackling/distorted sound, so put another sound board in from one of the other project machines, and got some impressive fireballs from the tantalum capacitors - C21, C26-C29, C46 and C47 - after i replaced all them, i got full volume with no ability to turn it down! Replaced C18 and it was all good.
Also had a dead TIP102 transistor on the power driver board that was not allowing the trough coil to fire a ball - replaced the TIP102 and its pre-driver transistor, and works perfectly.
Cleaned the whole wiring loom with Nifty, and put new flexi coil on most of the wiring and tidied it all up a lot better.
I also painted the supercharger cover in chrome paint which made a huge difference
Also made up a new laminated cover for the ball launcher
After that, put most of the cab bot together
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3562_zpsd3a63733.jpg)
Then got the playfield half back together before putting back into the machine (so i could test switches etc as i installed them)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3563_zps5fecc29b.jpg)
At this stage when i put the supercharger ramp in, i was getting an opto error with two of the optos, traced the issue to the opto driver board, and put a new LM339 chip in to sort it out and all worked sweet. Its much easier to test things as you rebuild it, rather than find an issue, then have to pull things half to pieces just to access it!
Then spent some time playing with LEDs to get a decent effect - ended up with a combo of mainly greens and whites in the GI, as well as some reds - again, easy to experiment with the playfield partially rebuilt
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3565_zps1106a46b.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3567_zps8ab83134.jpg)
Then pretty much all came together well from there
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3570_zps08ce3f6b.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3571_zps562059b9.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3573_zps8ceeabdd.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3574_zpsbf745c25.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3575_zpsfc5c6bb9.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3581_zpsbba64579.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3583_zpsfb1c6790.jpg)
(http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/IMG_3585_zpse43afd86.jpg)
After that, time for the first game - and managed to get redline mania on ball 1! So pretty happy with that.
Game plays very fast, sounds great and flippers are great with all new components
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WOW!
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Better than new. Well done Rob.
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VERY nice... well done bringing it back from the dead @@* @@* @@* @@*
I just had a look at the pics at the start of the thread, before anything was done.. hard to believe its the same machine!!
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Unreal mate. Great job!
$#$
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Congratulations!
With all the talk about people wanting a Zombie themed machine, I think you should point to this one - very much back from the dead!
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Absolutley awesome ^^^ ^^^
Must admit I'm a bit 'green with envy' - makes my Getaway look really sad !!!
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That really is pretty amazing work.
Top marks robm, well done!
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You will have lots of fun with that game Top job Howzat
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Excellent result once again Rob . Well done . She looks great now ^^^
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Awesome,, thanks for sharing,, a grate game brought back to life ^^^
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Great job, congrats
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Nice one Rob, I'd lose the felt leg/cab protectors, they are crap and stick like glue after a while
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Nice one Rob, I'd lose the felt leg/cab protectors, they are crap and stick like glue after a while
`
Hmm,thanks for the feedback - whats the less of the evils though - don't want to wrinkle my nice decal job...
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Nice one Rob, I'd lose the felt leg/cab protectors, they are crap and stick like glue after a while
Hmm,thanks for the feedback - whats the less of the evils though - don't want to wrinkle my nice decal job...
Have a look at THESE! (http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2711)
My Tron come with them (well Stern's version, and these look identical) and it keeps the legs 1-2mm off the cab, you cant see them when they are installed. I plan to get a set for every pin i have going forward, they are simple and do the job.
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They look great! Help protect and hide the join on the corner as well.
Have a look at THESE! (http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2711)
My Tron come with them (well Stern's version, and these look identical) and it keeps the legs 1-2mm off the cab, you cant see them when they are installed. I plan to get a set for every pin i have going forward, they are simple and do the job.
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Outstanding mate. Great work again. ^&(
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Awesome work Rob. I can't believe it's the same machine......what a transformation ^^^
Looking forward to your next restoration. Would love to see that TZ get the treatment &&
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Very nice ^^^
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Thanks for all the comments guys. Its playing really well with no errors.
TZ is a few down the queue, as i've had a request for someone who wants to buy the Party Zone (obviously in better condition than it is currently!), so that will be next to pay a few bills. But between now and then someone else has dropped a Dr Who for me to tidy up....oh and have our 2nd bub due in about 5 weeks
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Aweosme Job.
I have just got my hands on one of these and need to fix a few things. Mostly cleaning, rubbers, globes and maintainence. The one problem I'm hoping you can help with is the playfield light windows. Some are not flush with the field, can they be adjusted?
Simon.
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Welcome to AA
Aweosme Job.
I have just got my hands on one of these and need to fix a few things. Mostly cleaning, rubbers, globes and maintainence. The one problem I'm hoping you can help with is the playfield light windows. Some are not flush with the field, can they be adjusted?
Simon.
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Welcome to AA
AA !)#
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Great job and congrats. Let us know when the new arrival happens and I'm not talking about pinballs %.%