Monster Bash

[robm]

Thought i would put down my notes on a Monster Bash project i took on, over the last 9 months or so..... enjoy

Rob

Hey guys,

Well i took the plunge and grabbed the Monster Bash that was advertised on ebay. there was a wide range of views in discussing it, from it would take too much effort to bring it up to scratch and it would be easier to buy a good condition machine for more money right through to the view that it was/is a bargain as long as someone is willing to get their hands dirty.

Well i love a good pinball project and have never done a playfield swap or re-decal, so i figure this would be a good machine to have a go on! (some may disagree)

As you can see if you look closely, the machine has 'some' wear...




The wear is actually quite smooth (in that there aren't big holes) so it means i can play the machine for a while, determine any faults, and have some fun first. Initial thoughts are its a great game, with some hilarious quotes, i managed to get a Monster Bash on my first game, and after about 10 games or so i've got 320M or so.  It may be a little easy for my liking, although i think its a while before i get to Monsters of Rock.

It was extremely fortuitous that Tony from the Pinball Shed had a restored and clearcoated MB playfield for sale at the same time, so i've grabbed that for a replacement.





Apart from the obvious playfield issues, the machine is otherwise fairly straight, a few scrapes out of the cab art, so it needs a re-decal, but the cab itself has not been knocked around much at all.  Legs look pretty much brand new, new DMD, translite has no marks and all the plastics and toys look in very good condition with no chips that i can see in a quick inspection.

There was a dodgy home made wire gate to lift one of the loop gates, that didn't work, but this is an easily available part.  the left flipper also goes weak sometimes, which has happened to me before and it was a flakey coil - so will replace that as well.


This will go on for a long time, and i probably won't start it for a few months as i really need to finish our house extensions before tackling a pinball project this size.

Any tips as i go along will be welcomed, along with suggestions as to any mods etc that might be worthwhile (it will be fully LEDed)

[robm]

Aabsolutely loving this game, but finally have finished the house reno's so time to start giving my first attempt at this level of cleanup of a machine.

Got into stripping all the internals today out of the cabinet.



One thing i learned..the best way to remove the side rails seemed to be with a paint scraper/putty knife, pushing up to break the bond of the double sided tape holding it in place.

Other than that, it was all pretty straight forward (may not be so easy finding where all the wiring harnesses are meant to go!)

One tool that is essential is a good (ie: Hitachi, Makita, DeWalt etc...not Ryobi or Ozito) cordless drill, with an extension and a magnetic 1/4' tec screw bit, makes pulling all the screws out super quick, and the magnet holds them - great for putting screws back in awkward places

Have just started to peel the decals off, which doesn't seem to much of a drama, just some time



Here is the young bloke, just leaning to pull himself up on things, with a keen eye for pinballs (he actually started a game a bit later), keeping me amused while i'm pulling things to bits!



Will get into sanding etc tomorrow, as well as stripping out the headbox

[robm]

Got the cab and headbox completely stripped out, all the fiddly parts bagged and labelled, with heaps of photos taken.

Getting the glue off was not too bad, used De Solve It (citrus spray), then an awesome woodworking tool i borrowed from the neighbour called a cabinet scraper - from what i understand its like a really fine planer, but it got 95% of the glue off pretty quickly.

Then sanded the cab and headbox a few times with 120 and 240 grit paper to start smoothing it off.

There are a few small dings on the cabinet and some chips around the edges, so got builders bog to fill these up, 1st time i mixed it up a bit too strong (too much hardener) and it went off in about 3 minutes, so didn't have time to do the whole job, then the 2nd batch i didn't put enough hardener in, so it didn't go off at all! So i'll remove all the soft staff and redo it (the instructions are pretty average, says 1 matchbox full of bog to 1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon of hardener....

Here's a pic of some of the bog and the cabinet scraper to level the bulk of it off


There was one section about 8cm across where the ply delaminated a bit when i pulled the old decals off, so run the router through this section to remove it and filled with a larger chunk of bog

Once i finish bogging and sanding to get it nice and smooth and all the edges sharp, will prime it



Also started cleaning some of the cabinet bits

Before



And after a bit of scrubbing and regraining

[robm]

Well its been a while since an update, so here goes.

I have slowly been recovering from my hernia operation, so while i got mates to lift heavy stuff (like playfields onto a rotisserie!), i could tinker around doing the playfield swap.

First, in terms of the cabinet work that has been done since the last update.

I had bogged it and filled the cracks and sanded to what i thought was a suitable finish, and my nervousness in the photo below proved to be justified


If you look closely you can see hairline cracks, that i thought would be covered.  I tried the wet method, and in hindsight i think this worsened the problem - i think the moisture opened these grain cracks up even more and showed straight through onto the decal - so had to buy another front decal.

Then i went through a variety of methods to get the cabinet smooth.  Ended up using quite a few cans of spray putty, which did a fair job, but didn't seem to fill the grain in completely.  I then found a product called Nordsjo Timber Filler http://nordsjo.com.au/main/page_home.html which worked really well at filling the small grain lines - then a bit of light sanding and a final paint job to show up any more imperfections, which don't look to be there which is great!  Below is a  photo of the cab ready for a final coat - see the patchwork of fillers - paint, spray putty and timber filler - but in the end i got there!



So hopefully some time over the next week i plan to put the decals on - i'm thinking of going the dry method - partially because of the issues last time, but also as i am on the home stretch and keen to fire it up, so would prefer to not wait for decals to dry for days.  After watching a few videos, it seems taking things slowly, and triple checking everything before starting is the go.

In terms of the playfield swap - the rotisserie i constructed is fantastic .  I had it lifted onto the pool table so its at the perfect height to work on.



I really took my time stripping and rebuilding the new playfield and really enjoyed it - taking plenty of photos along the way of each part being removed.

I cleaned the wiring harness while still on the old playfield, by spraying Nifti onto a rag, then wiping along the wires - it came up pretty well really.  I thought swapping the harness over would be tricky, but having the two playfields together, so i could slide it off the old and onto the new made it pretty simple.  Had a couple of mates over and it was done in about 20 - 30 mins



Then took around a week or so (only a little bit each day), to clean all the bits, and put them onto the new playfield - the only shot i have at the moment is it standing up.


All the circuit boards were cleaned, new coil wrappers all round, new coil sleeves, new flipper parts, full new plastic set, new scoop, cliffy protector installed, new mummy coffin, full LEDs installed.

I have also started cleaning up the cabinet hardware staff such as the wiring harness, painting all the bolt heads, polishing the steel bits, so hopefully once the decals are on, it shouldn't take too long to get it back together.

[robm]

I've given the exterior a final inspection and it all feels pretty smooth everywhere, so brought the cab inside, ready to redecal.  A pretty good guide on the dry method here http://www.robertwinter.com/pinball/restorations/ft/backbox/index.html

I followed this pretty much (although used the pinball transformer rather than kitty litter for a weight)

Then got scared as i started to peel back the backing paper to stick it to the headbox, so will leave it sit overnight and will convince my wife to give me a hand and some moral support in the morning.

Aligning the decal was not too difficult - just got a bright torch and shine the light from underneath the decal and make sure all the edges have an even overlap.

Here's a pic of it ready to go!

[robm]

Fair bit of progress today.

Got my wife as a 2nd set of hands with putting the backbox decals on - not too difficult really, just took things slowly.



Trimming for the 1st time was a little nerve racking, but once i got going it wasn't too bad - ran along the cut edges with a black marker to conceal the white cut edge of the decal.



Then i replaced all the bits of the backbox that i had cleaned.  The metal mounting board that all the PCBs mount to was repainted with Cold Gal - i tried polishing it but it didn't come up really well - apparently it is zinc anneal??, anyway, it came up pretty good painted i reckon.



Then this arvo i have been putting all the cabinet hardware (that i can before i put the decals on) in, as well as the wiring harness.

Its amazing how simply and quickly things go back together with plenty of photos and labelled bags of screws etc.

While it may not be original to have the whole inside painted black, i quite like the look of it with the bits in there - will tidy the cables etc up once everything is in



One other thing that has always bothered me about the later model WPC games that have the transformer mounted on the back of the cabinet is the loud hum they give out (ToM, Indy 500 are the same).  Anyway, went out and hacked an old tractor tube a bit, put a square of the tube rubber between the mounting plate and the transformer, plugged it in and the sound is only just noticeable:):):), with the glass on i'm pretty sure it will be silent.



Another thing i hadn't mentioned is i made new runners (what the machine sites on when it is standing on its back for transport) for the back of the cabinet out of hardwood as the ply ones were pretty dodgy and dinged around - put new furniture sliders on and it looks sweet.

Hopefully tommorrow arv will have a couple of mates to help out with the main decals

[robm]

Been a bit of a delay getting back to writing this up.....due to having too much fun playing the machine:):):)

Firstly, putting the main decals on weren't too hard - i had some old coolite (the stuff vege boxes are made of) and cut it to the size of the coin door hole - jammed this in so it sat flush, and put the front decal on.

Then the main decals went on - one tip is to start at the back end and work forwards, we did one the other way and ended up with a couple of bubbles near the end, since the box was getting bigger.  That said - pricking the bubbles with a pin and flattening them out does wonders - you can't even tell unless you had a magnifying glass.

So then it was putting the playfield back in, coin door and all the other bits ready to fire up and......nothing, the startup dong and no flashing middle LED on the CPU board.

The CPU had some previous acid damage that hadn't been repaired wonderfully.  I gave Ken (Skybeaux) a call to see if i could try putting a WPC-S board in, rather than a WPC-95, but forgot the the WPC95 has the flipper controls on the CPU.  Anyway, threw the ROM,RAM, and Security chip in a WPC-S board, with only the power connector, and the machine at least booted - so i new those chips were fine.

Went along and checked continuity on each socket of the above chips - found one leg that was a bit dicey, gave it a good clean.  The only corrosion was around a 74LS14 chip, and a few resistors around it.  Luckily i had 2 spares (i always buy extras when getting stuff like that), Pulled the old one out and spent quite a bit of time cleaning all the area with vinegar/water, alcohol, and some very fine emery paper, put a socket and a new chip in, the machine fired up perfectly.  I was pretty relieved as even though i knew Ken could have fixed it, i didn't want to wait another week or two for posting boards away etc.

Had a few minor issues including

One rubber i forgot to put on behind Dracula - so the ball got stuck

Forgot to plug Dracular motor wires in

A wire had come off the mummy coil

A few minor switch adjustments

GI short somewhere - the top right string is blowing a fuse - there is not continuity to ground - so i'm assuming its a shorted bulb or socket? Anyway, that's tommorrow or the day after's job.

I must admit i forgot how fun this game is, and it was extremely rewarding to play a machine where everything is in really really good shape, without any dust or grime and new balls flying round a glassy surface.

Anyway, enough drivel, enjoy some pics






Used a Flintstones 'Rock Me' button instead of the standard one

[robm]

After quite a while hunting around, pulling all the light sockets out, the last one in the string (that i hadn't noticed the 1st two times i checked) had a bent tab causing the GI problem



Vacuumed the cab out, made up a little decal for the back of the cab speaker, put some cables in flexi coil and it is pretty much done now.



So in summary


Cabinet strip back, bog, fill and redecal
New back of cab runners made
Board repair work carried out
New leg brackets and bolts and leg protectors
Polished legs
New DMD
New playfield glass
Repainted coin door
Repainted inside of cab black
Installed touched up and clearcoated playfield
New plastics set
New mummy cover
New welded scoop
Cliffy Protector
New flipper bats, plungers and links
New coil wrappers
New sleeves all round
Full LED fitout
'Rock Me' Launch button
Wiring harness cleaned
Ball trough filed to take out divots

[Strangeways]

That's one of the nicest Monster Bash's I've seen. Hard work has paid off, Rob - Well done 

[ktm450]

Nice work Rob, looks fantastic, really fun game to play  

[tonyt]

Oustanding work, looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

[Pinprick]

Looks like a top restoration job 

I've wanted MB for a long time, but the prices have put this title out of reach for me.
Now, seeing what you have done, I'm inspired to keep an eye out for a "cheapie" and emulate your work.

One question: How did you tackle peeling off the old cab decalling and did the process leave scrapes?

Cheers

PP

[robm]

Peeling off wasn't too hard - just a metal spatula thing to get the bulk off, then used citrus spray and a cabinet scraper (see 1st pic of bogging).  It didn't leave scrapes, but a lot of work went into bogging up big (ie: 10 - 12cm) areas of cabinet delamination, and rebuilding the corners where there were dings.

Car bog for the bulk, also knead it on the corners, and lots and lots of sanding.  Hit it with a coat of black paint and it shows up all the imperfections you missed!

[pinnies4me]

Wow, what a great result, top job Rob. This a a terrific game and well worth the effort you have made to save it, well done! 

[Caveoftreasures]

An amazing Job !   It gives u alot of pleasure to play a machine u have done all that great work on.  Bloody great job.