The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: Brettski on June 18, 2016, 12:07:35 AM
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Hi again,
Just picked up this dirty dusty Big Shot this evening and really happy with what I have brought home! After a good look at it she has preserved well.
The back glass is brilliant, only one tiny piece of paint missing the size of a match head which I can fix otherwise the colours are still really strong.
The playfield has no wear marks at all, there is an area over the bottom half of the playfield covered in clear contact which looking at it will clean up beautifully, very slight dips in the inserts but not enough to worry about considering how good the playfield is, I will leave it how it is and just clean and polish it.
I will re paint and re stencil the cabinet and clean and polish all the metal I can and zinc coat the brackets and things and all should come up nice and shiny..
Now this is the first EM I have worked on and have very little idea here so steep learning curve but looking forward to the challenge as it is not working at this stage. It powers on but the tilt light comes on and apparently when it does turn on other times it just runs the motor over and over.
I am about to do some serious research on EM's and get ready to give this a Big Shot!! :D
Good thing is I also just bought a Solar City that is working and just needs some cosmetic work so I plan to use that machine as a reference for the work on this one, well that's the plan anyway.
Here are some pics of how it is now and I will keep you posted when I get started. I might finish the Solar City first as I can see this being a long long job!
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Nice one Brett! This one will come up a treat. I guess its lucky that sinbad is on the move so you have space!
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Nice one, fun game. I like the more open play fields.
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Good one Brett. ^^^ Are the schematics available for this machine? They are invaluable for fault finding EM machines. I have only a little experience working on EMs but I can read and decipher the schematics if needed.
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Good one Brett. ^^^ Are the schematics available for this machine? They are invaluable for fault finding EM machines. I have only a little experience working on EMs but I can read and decipher the schematics if needed.
Hi Dan,
Yes it has the original paperwork including schematics, I appreciate the offer and may call upon you if and when the situation arises. :)
This is going to be a challenge but I am up for it.
I also bought a Solar City which arrived this morning and it works, a few tweaks needed as one of the score reels sticks sometimes but it is mainly cosmetic work needed.
I will start a thread for that one and spill the details then.
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Update..
Ok I have cleaned up the playfield and cleaned all the posts, also had enough spare rubbers to kick it off and replaced all the globes with 47's.
The wood rails were removed and sanded then stained with a honey tint varnish to blend back with the existing wood colour in the shooter lane, also the apron came up quite good and usable. That is the playfield organised except for new plastics and pop bumper cap.
Now as I said above this came not working and also being my first EM I have ever worked on started me on a crash course on EM's. Studied endless youtube video's and read the info at http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index1.htm Pin Repair and pinwiki. I also asked questions on a facebook EM page but unfortunately it was difficult for people to provide the required help due to the multiple problems it had. It was a little daunting at first but I went through every relay, switch, contact etc etc and finally got it all up and working, took just over a week but I beat it! I also went through all the coils and rebuilt the chime box as the plungers had seized up. Adjusted target switches, removed and cleaned the pop bumper and gave the flippers an overhaul including new bats
Next was to clean the score reels and replace the bulbs in the backbox, things starting look nice!
The cabinet has been in a place with a lot of cigarette smoke and arrived very yellowed, I decided to give it a clean to see how it looked and was quite surprised how good it came up. Using Gumption and a scourer I loosened most of the yellow stain then with a bit more Gumption and a cloth finished it off nicely. It has a few scratches etc but overall good for it's age and the colours are still strong. I still have the front and one side to do but almost there, quite a bit of work in it.
Finally there is the coin door and legs to clean up, unfortunately the door has a small bit of damage from an attempted break in over the years and is not worth spending any money on so I will clean up the rust and paint it, same with the legs which is what I did on the Charlies Angels legs and they came up great.
This machine has been the cheapest spend so far, on top of the buy price there is plastics at about $100, some paint and cleaning materials. Eventually I will replace the door depending how it looks I suppose. Also I will look at a fresh flipper kit and some coil stops and a few fresh relay coils to smooth things out.
Here are some pics of the playfield and cabinet before and after!
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Nice work as always Brett
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Great work there Brett ^^^
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Nice nice nice... I'm quite jealous.
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Looking fantastic Brett. Congrats
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Fantastic choice for a first EM. Drop Target "Heaven" !
You will find that repairing and maintaining EMs is really just a case of common sense and logic. Sometimes, after almost finishing a repair, you will find that playing the game will fix that final issue. Most of the playfield parts can be purchased from PBR - Drop Targets and I think the plastic Set. Keep the playfield clean and waxed and you will have a lot of fun with this game.
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Thanks Nino,
It is a great EM and was lucky to find it, especially with the excellent backglass and playfield.
Trying to keep this one as original as possible by cleaning and re using all the parts that came with it, I just removed all the rust from the coin door and it now looks good enough to use!
Had a few games on it and love it but it needs some tuning up on the flippers and angle and levels set right but great game as you say especially with all the drop targets.
I enjoyed bringing this one back to life and learned a lot, I see what you mean about logic and mainly just cleaning and adjusting contacts seems to go a long way.
Thanks again for the encouragement.
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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I have heard a lot of people talk about products that successfully remove rust but this stuff at only $1.19 for 2 litres seems to do the trick nicely.
I use it to clean all the screws and other pieces that need shining before they go in the polisher and also works great on pinball legs.
What is this amazing stuff you ask! well it is just plain old home brand white vinegar, soak over night and use a nylon bristle scrubbing brush to loosen the heavy stuff and bam!
Here is the coin door from Big Shot, it is not perfect but it is now usable til I get something better!
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Wow nice result. I have used white vinegar to clean copper non pinball parts in the past and same result soak them over night and bam...like new.
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Awesome result - Vinegar ? ^^^
I guess you learn something new every day !
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Yep good old White Vinegar and besides being the cheapest rust removal product it is also environmentally safe too being vinegar and not chemicals!
I use a tall vase for the legs and a black tub for the door and parts! I also use the vinegar to make my electrolite mix for zinc plating.
When finished just strain and pour over your hot chips! LOL
Just about to do some legs, here are the pics before hand.. With the tall vase I need to soak half then flip them over but get two at a time.
A better idea would be the correct size PVC conduit capped at one end, I will eventually make one of these but in the meantime this works.
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Thanks for the tip Brett!
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Ok here are the legs after soaking half over night!
A bit of a scrub with the nylon bristled brush, don't use a wire brush as it will scratch it up!
This also helps when the levelers are rusted stuck, easily come of now after the soak! The middle photo is before the vinegar!!
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Thanks for the great tip with the Vinegar , Brett .
Will give that a go for sure !
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Starting to look a lot fresher than when I got it, the legs came up really well considering the rust they had.
Almost there! :)
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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What a great tip, vinegar! My wife swears by it for cleaning everything around here (place smells like a fish 'n chip shop on cleaning day). Gotta try that one out next time, thanks!
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Still cleaning up Big Shot while working on Solar City..
I broke a target the other day and I am sure the rest are brittle so I will need a replacement set, shame but what can you do!
Here is a video of how the playfield came up!
More to come..
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Great idea with the vinegar. nice results .
Better than the old rust removers that burnt and smelt bad
PVC Storm water pipe could work . capped off Sizes 75mm, 90mm or 100mm , depends on how much vinegar you have ...
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This has turned out more of a resurrection than a restoration, I have mostly cleaned up the original parts and the cabinet cleaned of yellowing but the front was not looking real good after the clean with paint missing etc so I decided to paint the front panel that the coin door mounts into. I was able to successfully match colours including the white which I used ivory spray in a can, it blended with the cleaned paint as it did not come back perfectly white. Overall I am quite happy with how it is looking. I have some parts such as a flipper kit, new plastics etc ordered to finish it off and have it playing nicely.
Latest Pics
Cheers: Brettski... :)
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Nice work again Brett! ^^^
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Great work,
Thanks for the tip using the vinegar, I can't wait to try it.
You also mentioned ''I also use the vinegar to make my electrolite mix for zinc plating''......
Do you do your own plating? How?
Regards
Gordo....
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Great work,
Thanks for the tip using the vinegar, I can't wait to try it.
You also mentioned ''I also use the vinegar to make my electrolite mix for zinc plating''......
Do you do your own plating? How?
Regards
Gordo....
Hi Gordo!!
Here you go!!
Home Zinc Plating Instructions..
9 - 11 Litre plastic bucket
Zinc anodes... I got a handfull of zinc balls from a local elecrtroplater.
1kg of Epsom salts
6 - 8 litres of white vinegar...Aldi $1.19 ltr
1.5kg of white sugar to be used as a brightener.
Thick copper wire for the anodes, I used some stripped back inner wall electrical cable.
A few strands of light guage copper wire for hanging parts.
1 piece of copper water pipe or use the thick copper wire cable tied to a piece of wood for the cathode hanger
Multi Power Supply, I have one that has 2v, 4v, 6v, 8v, 10v, 12v, I only use the two volts mostly and for bigger parts 4v (slower adhesion at lower voltages but better quality)
200ml of hydrochloric acid to be used as an acid dip before plating... you can get this at Bunnings.
Fine grade steel wool.
Method
Electrolyte
Mix Vinegar, Epsom salts and sugar together until dissolved in the bucket.
Drill a small hole in two zinc balls, then attach reasonable lengths of the heavier gauge copper wire to them with screws and place them in the bucket at equal spacing, do not let the screws touch the water then bend the wire over the edge of the bucket to support them in place and wire them in such a way that they are both connected and there is some bare wire to connect your power to. (See pic)
Next get your copper pipe and flatten the ends the same width as the bucket so it doesn't roll and while doing this squash a piece of heavy gauge wire in one end... this will be your cathode hanger. Or use thick copper wire cable tied to a piece of wood.
Place this on top of the bucket and make sure it is not touching any of your anode wiring or it will short out.
Attach the positive to the anode (Zinc) wiring and the negative to the cathode wire (copper pipe).... turn on power and your almost ready to start.
Now before plating your good parts you need to plate out the electrolyte... this sets up the solution for complete surface coating.... this means you have to get zinc ions in the solution for it to plate quickly and evenly.
To do this you need roughly a square piece of metal about 50mm square that has been wire brushed of all contaminates and dipped in the hydrochloric solution (read about hydrochloric solution below) and hang this submerged in your electrolyte with the power on. You should see a slight fizzing going on....this needs to run like this overnight if possible. I also placed an extra zinc ball into the water which just sat on the bottom during this process.
Hydrochloric solution.
1 litre of water to 200ml of acid mixed well.....wear gloves and glasses as this stuff burns like nothing else so be very carefull.
This will be your parts dip..... keep another bucket of plain water handy to rinse parts after dipping.
Parts cleaning and plating
Clean all dirt and grease of the parts before doing anything else, I use dish washing detergent and water.
Then hang your parts in the hydrochloric solution... you may see some fizzing going on, this will be the previous zinc coating being dissolved by the acid and this will also remove surface rust.
After the fizzing has stopped rinse the part thoroughly in fresh water and dry off with a rag.
Next you need to wire wheel the part back to bright steel.
Once that is done dip your part into the hydrochloric acid quickly and then rinse and very quickly hang in the zinc bucket submerged, if you wait to long to hang it, it will flash rust and you will have to start again.
Now that it is in the zinc bucket you can leave it to do it's thing, you will see some fizzing and that's good, it is now being plated with zinc. Leave it in the zinc bucket for 30 minutes or until completely plated evenly
When you pull the part out it will have a dull grey appearance but should be completely coated in zinc.
Brightening up the part.
You can clean the part up with some fine grade steel wool or buff it on a polishing wheel to get a chrome like appearance.
You can also use a week solution of aluminium cleaner (chemtech BLITZ) available at Supercheap mixed with water.
Dip your parts in this one at a time and using a stainless parts cleaning brush brush the parts to a bright shine then finish of with fine steel wool.... when satisfied rinse off with water and dry. ( wear gloves and glasses when doing this.)
You can replate at this stage if you want a heavier coating of zinc then repeat the cleaning procedure.
The attached picture should help with the instructions.
Hope this helps..
Cheers: Brettski... :)