Williams Black Knight

[deadlydave]

Hi all,
thought I'd share some pics of my BK, hardly a restoration, more like a good clean 
I picked this up a few months ago and it was in a very good original condition, not working but would
fire up to some degree. Backglass has a few touchups but overall is very good, cabinet had the usual scratches etc
but too good to repaint IMO. Heres a pic of how it is now:

I started under the playfield while I waited for parts to arrive, all solenoids were pulled down, sleeves replaced, plungers
polished and adjustments made, replaced all diodes as I went as I figured by the time I go to the trouble of de-soldering 1 leg I might as well just replace, they are cheap enough. All switches were cleaned and adjusted, this was a bit of a job as a previous owner had really bent the crap out of many of the switch blades, as well as I found about a dozen wiring hacks like this:

[Strangeways]

Thats one NICE Black Knight. I've always been attracted to this title and enjoy playing it immensely. Yours looks really clean and it great condition 

For some reason, Black Knight and Gorgar look really good side-by-side !

[deadlydave]

I soldered the cut wires and heatshrinked. All lampholders and inserts were cleaned, diodes checked ( found two faulty ones). Re-built flippers with new links and springs, adjusted bats and eos. Pulled down the drops and cleaned/rebuilt, straightened plastics in the oven, stripped a fair bit of the top to clean and polish and it came up well. Tackled the back box next, re-built the power suppply with a GPE kit and also put cap kits through the power supply and sound card. The driver board had a nasty repair around one of the transistors, I decided to source a rebuilt one which I got from Ken (skybeaux), I can highly recommend Kens work, the driver board he sent looked like NOS. Kens board came with all new square pins and I installed new pins to the other boards, replaced all the female connectors with new trifuricon type. After I had done this work the game would boot up but was having intermmitent issues which I narrowed down to the 40pin board connector, I had replaced the female side and cleaned the male pins, on close inspection you could see the coating on the pins was in poor condition ( maybe previously sanded?) Anyway I replaced the males with new pins and its been rock solid ever since. I pulled the wiring harness out to make it easier to replace connectors and also to clean.
Here,s a before and after pic:

[deadlydave]

Next up was the inside cabinet. Speaker cone was split so I replaced with a spare Vifa woofer I had, was slightly larger and rubber surround protuded out so made a spacer for it. Re-painted the two white panels and cleaned/tidied wiring and switches etc, replaced the torn fish paper over the 240V connections. Installed new buttons and flipper leaf switches. Touched up the black paint on cabinet and sanded smooth the timber that the playfield slides on. The playfield was a real bitch to slide when I got this pin, the sanding helped but I also installed an alu angle to protect the bottom of playfield which was showing wear, it was still sticky to move but have since covered the angle with some adhesive wear strip we use at work (similar to mylar) now its a lot smoother to lift. Heres some pics:

[deadlydave]

The lockdown bar was typically rusty, I treated this with Ranex and painted with hammertone, touched up the black timber around bar. Inside of door got a ranex treatment then polish, tidied up wiring and printed some new service stickers.

[deadlydave]

I re-grained the front door, polished door bolts and legs and made some custom stickers for the coin inserts.
I made a couple of bumper caps (1 spare) using clear caps which were then painted red Tamiya paint on inside followed with a white mask, clear waterslide decals for art and a few coats of clear to protect.

[deadlydave]

To finish up, I installed cointaker super bright leds to playfield inserts and also some frosted blue's in backglass, the playfield leds are really strong and it takes a minute or two for my eyes to adjust, I used the standard 170 wide type in Gorgar and I'm not sure which type of LED I prefer yet.

Really happy with this machine, hopefully it will give me a good trouble free run with the work thats been done.
Expecting to pick up another pin this Wed, one that will sit nicely beside BK and Gorgar........

[PinPal]

Very Nice Black Knight    Well done!!!

[Mr Pinbologist]

Yes VERY nice indeed   its good to see the before and after pics of what you've done, especially the coin door inside looks awesome after your work!!

Im not familiar with this game, having never played one. looks like it'd be a good player!

[pinnies4me]

That really is a top looking BK, and you've made it shine nicely!! Well done. 

[goodolddays]

Looks great Dave . 

[Ballywannabe]

Top work Dave - those bumper caps look sweet You were lucky to find a game in good condition, BK got hammered back in the day.  I still remember the 20c lined up on top at popular locations as people were happy to wait to play.

You have done the right thing by going through the electrics and connectors, whether they appeared to be OK or not, as this is the key to trouble free operation on these old girls.  Particularly the 40 pin connector, what was Williams thinking

cheers
Ian

[MartyJ]

Well done...Looks great..

CPR have or just are releasing new plastics too!

Love the bumper cap...Good to see another early production machine in Aus.....

What colour are your arrow inserts on the upper playfield toward the ball lock?

[deadlydave]

Thanks for all the kind comments guys.
Marty the upper left arrow inserts are blue I think, all the
Blue inserts were washed out but the LEDs certainly
Put the color back. The two round inserts in front of
Upper target banks appear to be perhaps violet in color
But I put blue in these as well.

Cheers
Dave

[solar value]

Great thread, looks really nice.