KISS, my holy grail pin is here!!

[GAP]

I have used (and still use) Flitz and it does a very good job, but I find liquid Autosol does exactly the same job in the same time and is easier to obtain (Supercheap etc).

Cheers
Graeme

[Mr Pinbologist]

Gday all, not much progress to report due to waiting on parts, and more importantly due to a back injury  i put up with the pain all week, and only decided to go to the doctor this morning, his instructions, no heavy lifting and no stooping or bending down, both of which mean no working on pins 

Anyway enough whinging    the new tumbler has been getting a good workout so i thought i'd post some pics, even though not much has been done. Anything that could fit into the tumbler was done  some of the parts i found came up much nicer after a bit of a sand with 800 grit sandpaper and Windex, then they were polished in the tumbler. The screws came up nice and shiny, I ended up using autosol in the tumbler as i havent got any Flitz as yet to use, and let the parts tumble overnight, they came out pretty good!

When removing the parts from the underside of the pf, the slingshot kicker coil bracket broke (3rd pic) i was going to put a post in the parts wanted section for this item, but ended up raiding a bracket from my Wms superstar pf, since it was almost identical to the Bally item, so i decided to use that instead. Also the bumper yokes when removed either were badly worn or simply fell to bits, so these have been ordered, along with new flipper coils, coil sleeves, and various other items. I was unable to get new plungers and links for the flippers and slings so i'm making new links out of fibreglass PCB material, (slings are done already).

[Mr Pinbologist]

A few more pics.. rebuilt slingshot mechs, polished ball trough comopnents, and flipper mechs minus coils and coil stops (both have been ordered), i've got parts coming from four different suppliers  (ordered from whoever had what i was after)

Hopefully i'll be able to do a more exciting update soon, when i've recovered enough to be able to work on it and when my parts arrive

[Strangeways]

I notice you have swapped the flipper bases - great idea, as often the threads are stripped. You should be able to get the flipper plunger and links locally, but I know PBR stock them separately, or in the flipper rebuild kits. The sling plunger / link are no longer available - but you can substitute them with similar later Bally/Williams.

I used Bally/Williams flipper plungers on the Galaxy restore, I'm not sure if they are suitable on Ballys (last page - http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=1256.90).

Take care of your back, Mitch - maybe work on the boards until things settle down. Bending over a cabinet is the worst thing you can do. Pinball will still be there after you have rested !

[Caveoftreasures]

I tore a disc in my back lifting pins as well. It took a few catscans and lots of pain killers and anti-inflammatorys plus 4 months to finally settle down.

I learnt my lesson. I reckon most members would probably have a similar story given our hobby is such a heavy dam hobby. 

[Mr Pinbologist]

I notice you have swapped the flipper bases - great idea, as often the threads are stripped. You should be able to get the flipper plunger and links locally, but I know PBR stock them separately, or in the flipper rebuild kits. The sling plunger / link are no longer available - but you can substitute them with similar later Bally/Williams.

I used Bally/Williams flipper plungers on the Galaxy restore, I'm not sure if they are suitable on Ballys (last page - http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=1256.90).

Take care of your back, Mitch - maybe work on the boards until things settle down. Bending over a cabinet is the worst thing you can do. Pinball will still be there after you have rested !

Well spotted Nino!! yes one of the flipper bases had stripped screws in the coil stops, they had smaller screws with nuts mounted underneath!! I tried PSPA for the bally flipper plungers and links (were listed on the website) but they were out of stock, same deal with the sling plungers which i thought might work. Never mind, i'm making my own flipper links, same as i had to for my Stern games. I have one NEW bally link to copy so it'll be sweet  

And yes im trying to look after my back, back problems run in my family unfortunately.. mine isnt a slipped disc luckily, just strained muscles but its still a nuisance just the same.. come to think of it i think i probably hurt it lugging that Galaxy cabinet around the garage, was going to have that in undercoat last weekend, or so i thought, but it didnt happen..

being a muso and carrying big guitar amps around doesnt help either..  

[Mr Pinbologist]

Hi guys, although i should've be resting my back, it was driving me mad doing nothing to KISS  , so yesterday i decided to a couple of small jobs on the pf that wouldnt have me hurting myself anymore than i already have done. So with that in mind i took the spinners into the computer and scanned the artwork and cleaned up the images ready to make decals.

Next i took the spinners and stripped them to bare metal and sprayed them with some etch primer, after that had dried (acrylic so it dried quick, about an hour later) i rubbed the primer back with a scotchbrite, wiped them down with prepsol and hit them with some white acrylic and left them overnight to dry.

This morning i printed out my decals, applied them and trimmed them up then i put some mylar over them to protect the artwork. Then i fitted them to the PF

[Mr Pinbologist]

And this afternoon i decided to have a go at remaking the broken plastic guide from the top lefthand side of the pf. In the 1st pic i have temporarily glued the old plastic so i could trace its shape onto some polycarbonate plastic i had leftover from making my Zac universe plastics set. Its slightly thicker than the original (3mm) so will be stronger than the original and should be less likely to warp from the heat from the lamps.

2nd pic, im using a soldering iron to melt the metal posts out of the old plastic so i could reuse them in my new plastic.

3rd pic shows how they look as the come out, tapered out at the top to hold them into the plastic

4th pic after i have straightened the taper out as much as i could with pliers so i could mount them into the new plastic guide.

[Mr Pinbologist]

After i had cut out the new piece of plastic (cut out on a scroll saw then trimmed up with my dremel and a sanding bit) i drilled out the post holes, i then used a tapered bit in the Dremel to taper out the tops of the holes (didnt get a pic of this step) so i could bend the tops of the posts to grip into the plastic (peen them over) I wasnt quite sure how i would do this, first i used a drill bit and a hammer to push the taper back out to grip the plastic which worked but looked a little rough. In the end i used long nosed pliers as shown in the 1st pic, twisting them inside the metal post to hopefully push the metal out a bit, it seemed to work pretty well. This step isnt really necessary as once they are screwed down they wont go anywhere 

2nd pic the finished plastic after the edges had been sanded and polished, started with 80 grit sandpaper, then 180, 280, and finally 800grit wet&dry and Windex, followed by a polish with Novus to finish them off.

3rd pic , the guide installed on the pf

last pic... i decided to do the righthand side one as well  

i had already polished up and fitted the righthand side one as it wasnt broken, but was all yellowed and crappy looking compared to the newly remade left side one

[Strangeways]

Great results, Mitch - well done. I'll have to keep that tip in mind when I start my KISS restores !

[PinPal]

Nice Work

[faza]

Love reading your restores very inspiring well done

[howzat]

Mitch
Wow   its looking really good  I love the decal for the spinners and it good that your tumbler is getting a work out. I recon that is a good investment

Lots of work but great results    I hope your back is coming good  These game are heavy   arn,t they

 Well done                                          Howzat

[big dog]

thats looking so good mitch,fathom man will have to see it as I bet it looks better in reallife.Do you think this is your best restore to date.good luck on the back,take it EZ bud.once again great work keep it going

[Mr Pinbologist]

Thanks for the kind words guys

thats looking so good mitch,fathom man will have to see it as I bet it looks better in reallife.Do you think this is your best restore to date.good luck on the back,take it EZ bud.once again great work keep it going

 
Cam; yes im pretty happy with how its turning out although there are a few bits that i wish had turned out better (im my own worst critic  ) In all honesty, it would be a coin toss between your Travel Time pf and this one as to which one would be the best (PF) restore i've done. You can decide for yourself which is better next time you're here 

Both are WAY better (IMHO) than the Wildfyre pf i did the work on! i was actually a bit disappointed with that one, though Martin (the owner) seems happy enough, showing it off to his mates and visitors.

Oh yeah.. my Stern Dracula which was my first extensive pf repaint still remains one of my better efforts, i almost forgot about that one  it was my #2 holygrail pin for a lot of years so i pulled out all the stops on that one too when i did the restore on it.