Well this one well and truly was a Party Zone for Possums - this was the first machine that i saw and opened in the stash of machines i got, and below was what i found...
This machine is probably one of the worst condition machines in the collection, so plenty of work needed on this one. Again, as with the others, the playfield itself is quite good (under all the gunk)
My first task was to get it operational (in relative terms!). This one was a little tricky, as there was no base in the machine at all, so luckily one of the transformers that was lying around matched this machine. First thing though was to inspect all the wiring. I found a few chew marks as seen below, so put a new power cord in before touching anything else
I tested the transformer and the voltages were all good. I then "mounted" the transformer on a milk crate (since there was no base), and fired the machine up.
As with most of these machines, i got quite a spectacular fireball from the sound board - the tantalum capacitors in them must fail when not in use for many years. So ripped the sound board out, replaced most of the tantalum caps, as well as a few of the electolytics and put it back in. From there, i got the machine to boot, with sound and no display. After poking around for a while, i decided that it might help to plug the ribbon cable into the DMD itself.....then fired it up again with a working display!!!! So very happy with that. From there, i pretty much checked the solenoids (a few not working, a few siezed coils) and most switches seem OK. Voltages on the power supply board are low, so i will rebuild that in time.
So happy that it will work enough to trouble shoot when rebuilding, i started stripping the machine. Of course there are always a few surprises. A bit of possum fur here and there....
The light board is pretty shagged, so a new one will have to be made
Also found some prehistoric skeletal remains, maybe from a ritual slaying in the possum community?
Shooter rod is from a limited edition run of Party Zone's (very limited)
Once all the stuff was out of the headbox and cabinet, i started stripping the decals off. A fair bit of delamination of the ply in places
So plenty of builders bog to repair delamination and dings
The back panel of the headbox was moisture damaged, so cut a new one and bogged around the gaps - looks heaps better - even unpainted
Have also clamped and glued the corners of the cabinet together as there was a couple of mm of movement in them.
