1980 Bally Space Invaders Cleanup

[Jango]

Hi everyone,
I recently purchased a 1980 Bally Space Invaders pin.  It needs a little work so I thought I'd document the process for anyone that is interested.  It should be noted that I have never done a proper cleanup or restore on a pin before and I have zero experience in this field.  I must say that I would not dare to call this a restore thread, purely as a result of the high end restores and skills possessed by others on this forum (Nino, El Timbo, etc).  Whatever I do will never live upto the end result achieved by these guys and others here.  Tim actually has a T2 undergoing a full hot rod treatment for me right now!!.  Therefore I will be calling this a cleanup only.

I have always wanted a Space Invaders pinball machine after playing it when I was a kid at the Colonial Diner in Anzac Parade Moore Park in the 80's (Its no longer there after being demolished years ago and only the tennis courts remain).  We'd finish school across the road and pop over there and play machines as kids.  I have not seen a Space Invaders in the wild since those days and purchased this particular one sight unseen and on memories alone!

Here are some pics of the machine as received















Firstly, I'd like to thank the following members for their fantastic assistance when I've asked questions relating to this machine:

Retropin (Gav) - told me to buy the machine as it was in pretty good condition (pics as references only) and he also advised me extremely well on the boards etc - a huge thank you and great advice!!
Nino - his restore thread (http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=478.0) on this same machine gave me heaps of ideas and reference points.  He also assisted with many many questions I had and still have - thanks Nino
Beaky - he is currently servicing my MPU, solenoid and rectifier boards to make this machine hum along perfectly for years to come
Pintoxicated - sent me some invaluable scans from a 1980 Bally parts catalog that have been extremely useful

I have taken lots of pics that I will upload as this cleanup progresses

Machine Condition:
Playfield - I'd give it an 8 / 10.  There is very very minimal wear in the horseshoe and other usual areas.  There are some poor touchups on the lower half of the playfield that I will look at reversing
Cabinet - I'd give it a 7 or 8 / 10.  Very minimal scratching and marks.  I'm pretty happy with it
Boards - MPU / Solenoid / Rectifier boards all need servicing (with Beaky).  I sound like I know what I'm talking about here but I only knew what a solenoid board was 8 weeks ago!
Backglass - 9 /10 - great condition

[Jango]

The rear of the headbox had been painted an ordinary matt black colour.  i will look at altering that

[Jango]

[Jango]

I sourced new repro Space Invaders bumper caps to replace the old ones.  They are hot stamped by a guy in the US and they look superb.

[Homepin]

Come and do mine next - it is a shitfight.......well done!

[Jango]

[Jango]

There is some acid damage on the MPU board.  Gav advised against buying all new replacement boards and referred me to Beaky who now has the boards and is doing a service / fix to ensure these work well for years to come

[Jango]

The rectifier board had some hacks (so I'm told).  This is being serviced by Beaky

As you can see, the interior of the cabinet is quite filthy

[Jango]

[Jango]

Here are some pics of the underside of the playfield.  I have not even had a good look at this area as yet.  That'll do it for pics from the machine as received before the cleanup started.  Watch this space!





The playfield was / is filthy and covered in dust (not a bad thing from what I'm told).  I have given it a 10 minute once over with nifty and its already come up looking great.  The playfield will be the last piece of the puzzle.

I was recently in the US and I ordered a tonne of new parts from both Marco's and PBR and I brought these back home with me.  I also purchased new earth braiding from Pinrestore.  The machine did not come with a lockdown bar.  I sourced a 2nd hand one from PBR in very good condition for $40

There are quite a few more items not listed (mostly metals) but here's a brief idea of some of the more important new parts that I ordered

Bally widebody lockdown bar
New Beer Seal  
2 x Complete Rubber Ring Kits
4 x '50' Silver slant top deco colour Black Pop Bumper Caps        
8 x Leg Bolts
Upper Blue Flipper set
5 x Round Face Stand Up Switch Assembly
Some new lamp sockets
New Cable Clamp            
New Pop Bumper assemblies
All new coils
2 x Flipper Rebuild Kits (with the advanced EOS switch - as recommended by Nino)
Hex posts
Lock and cams
Coin door carriage bolt set
Flipper & shaft assembly
New cabinet flipper switches
Shooter springs
Red Playfield plastic fin posts and spools all new
Bally Coin Door sticker
New flipper buttons and housings
New siderail spiral nails
New machine screws in most areas
Connector Rebuild kit

[Jango]

Here are some shots of the legs (they are quite rusty and do not look like they have been touched in 30 years).  I am not sure if these are original Bally or not.  I hit these with some Ranex and some steel wool and they come up quite good

[Jango]

More pics of the start of the cleanup will follow.  

[ajlaird]

Some people host the pictures on a picture hosting site or similar and just link to the pictures using the img tag (second row of icons which starts with the YouTube icon, and third icon in). That will allow both of the things you would like to do.

[Jango]

After cleaning and reinstalling the legs (this time I added caster wheels temporarily to assist with moving the cabinet around my garage), the first step was to remove the playfield and headbox from the cabinet.  I then completely gutted the interior of the cabinet in preparation for cleaning it and spraying.  Vacuuming the interior of the cabinet followed by some Nifty did wonders initially.  

I then used the White Knight Light Grey Super Primer and then followed it with White Knight Dusk Grey which was a very good match to the grey in the exterior of the cabinet.  These were purchased from Bunnings.  I decided to spray the entire interior of the cabinet.  It looks sensational in real life
 








Just as Nino did, I had to reinforce the neck that holds the headbox in place.  I did exactly what Nino did and used some 75mm wood screws to secure this nicely to the cabinet.  I later used some gloss black paint to give the neck a much better finish than was there previously.  In later pics it looks a little too glossy so for the headbox I think I'll use semi gloss though

[Jango]

I've started to put the interior of the cabinet back together.

I removed the plastic side channels and cleaned those up as they were full of years of grime.  When I removed these I had bent a few sections, so I used a hair dryer to heat these up and reshape.  It turned out perfectly.  The rear channel and stainless bracket was cleaned and polished and new rubber seal installed.



















The lockdown bracket was rusted and filthy.  after a good cleaning with some Ranex and some Autosol it came out very nice



After a good cleaning with Ranex and some Autosol