WHO Dunnit clean/restore

[jatoospry]

Hello there! New to Pinball, new to cleaning pinball machines, new to pulling pinball machines apart, very amateur, may have bitten off more than I can chew!

At any rate I recently (last week) picked up a WHO Dunnit machine from my boss.

It has some pretty horrific touch up jobs on the outside of the cabinet but its not something I think I can tackle so I have decided to concentrate on the playfield and other issues.

I had a professional come out and resolve some issues first of all. He resoldered come connectors etc. Did very good work, I was really pleased.

An album of the machine before I started my destructive work:

http://imgur.com/a/ZoGxn

An album of its current process, warning this album contains a lot of pictures:

http://imgur.com/a/p8FDi

There are quite a few places you can see the wood is *warping* or cracking, quite a few places where the ball running over triggers has warn the clear coat away, etc.

I plan to bring the playfield up as well as I can and pretty much go from there. New plastics to replace all the warped ones, ramp repairs where I can manage them etc.

I am fairly new to this so this post might be quite poor, I apologise. This is literally the first machine I have ever touched!

[DSB]

Hi jatoospry. New to the restore game myself but have fixed my early machines many times when I had them. One thing I would recommend is to make sure your machine is off when you work on it especially under the playfield unless you need it on to track a fault. Shorting things under there can blown up chips on the circuit boards which can be a headache to find. How far do you intend to strip it down? I found on my early machines, just giving them a clean, new rubber and fixing all the lights and switches made the playfield defects seems less obvious.

[jatoospry]

Yes, I realised that half way through I should have switched everything off.

Most of the "damage" to the playfield is in areas that you can really see anyway. Im debating now wether or not to continue removing all the metal posts or to just clean/polish and wax around them.

I think to be honest filling and touching up the areas like under the ramp that goes up and down might be beyond my skill level right now. As it is I am starting to worry if I will get it back together again.

*edit*

I should add things that I have already ordered or have already arrived:


1 x Rubber Kit
4 x New polished Balls
1 x Cleaning Kit / Waxing Kit
1 x Screw driver socket set
1 x Flipper Rebuild Kit
1 x Leaf adjuster
FL-15411 Flipper Coil x 2
Leg Levelers -Casters
3 x 03-8319-9_Star posts- Red_12 pack (12pack)
1 x Pro Cloth = AUD$2.20
1 x Shooter Tips -Black (23-6327 -B)
3 x 03-8171-09 Dome-Twist- Red (03-8171-09)
2 x 03-8171-13 Dome-Twist- Clear (03-8171-13)


Mostly the reason I went down this path is because to be completely honest the machine was playing like crap. I noticed after investigation that the machine was using the wrong flipper coils, which I think would account for a lot of my issues with it. The closer I got to the playfield though I started to realise there was grease, drinks all sorts of odd stuff on it. I was spotting assemblies with different screws, some not even actually holding the items in place etc.

When all is said and done I would like the PF to be as clean as possible and I want everything using the correct nuts, bolts, screws etc.

Ill be ordering some plastics as well as mine are warped to hell and back.

The only thing that REALLY scares me is the center ramp, its already got some issues and finding another one so far is not going well.

[DSB]

Had the same trouble with finding a lower ramp for my World Cup Soccer. In the end I had to repair the existing one by cutting and sticking clear Mylar under the cracks and also doubling up broken tabs. Good luck with your search fr a ramp!

[jatoospry]

Had the same trouble with finding a lower ramp for my World Cup Soccer. In the end I had to repair the existing one by cutting and sticking clear Mylar under the cracks and also doubling up broken tabs. Good luck with your search fr a ramp!

Yeah they appear to only be stress fractures so far. Thats actually a really good idea. Hopefully if I throw some mylar on there it can soften a bit of the blow and at least slow it down and give me enough time long term to find a new ramp.

Worse comes to worst I have been investigating my options to reproduce the ramp itself. It would seem this may be an expensive way to go but long term if I want this thing to shine I think it would be worth it.

[jatoospry]

Hmm. The more I look at the playfield the more I am wondering if I should go the whole hog and repaint the damaged areas etc. It would mean prolonging how long its all going to take and I would need to brush up on a lot of stuff but I mean if you are going to do it might as well do it right yeah?

So many decisions.

[jatoospry]

I dont mean to triple post but I seem to have lost the edit button.

I am down to just removing some of the metal posts that line the playfield.

I can see they have a nut beneath them but how do they now come out? I can see on the bottom they are threaded and I cant get them to move topside for the life of me. Its almost like they are super glued in place or something.

[Strangeways]

I dont mean to triple post but I seem to have lost the edit button.

I am down to just removing some of the metal posts that line the playfield.

I can see they have a nut beneath them but how do they now come out? I can see on the bottom they are threaded and I cant get them to move topside for the life of me. Its almost like they are super glued in place or something.

Edit buttons disappears 5 minutes after you hit the "post" button. You can "preview" before posting 

The posts are removed with a the right sized socket. I use a fitting on my small hand drill. you then lightly tap them out of the playfield once the nut is removed. These can be cleaned and put into the tumbler. They make a huge difference. Also, if you have a soldering iron and are comfortable using it, remove the pop bumper bodies and skirts and replace them.

Documenting the teardown is REALLY important, and you have done a great job !

[jatoospry]

Edit buttons disappears 5 minutes after you hit the "post" button. You can "preview" before posting 

The posts are removed with a the right sized socket. I use a fitting on my small hand drill. you then lightly tap them out of the playfield once the nut is removed. These can be cleaned and put into the tumbler. They make a huge difference. Also, if you have a soldering iron and are comfortable using it, remove the pop bumper bodies and skirts and replace them.

Documenting the teardown is REALLY important, and you have done a great job !

I am kind of wishing now I had taken more photos of the tear down. I am a bit nervous about the whole thing being it my first one.

I will need to buy a "tumbler". Ill replace any bent screws, wrong screws or missing washers.

Ive got the nut off the bottom of the shafts, I had thought a tap from the bottom might get them out but was a bit weary about just going straight for it without checking. Cheers for your assistance! Ill give it a shot when I get home.

[jatoospry]

First clean/polish is done!

http://imgur.com/a/r8ugw

I dont know if I expected too much, or I am not doing it right or the playfield was simply too worn but when you see it with the light hitting it I am not entirely happy. Maybe I should have purchased a little orbital buffer or something.

[Crashramp]

It's coming up very nicely. Well done with your first tear down, it takes a bit of courage to start but it will be well worth your effort once you've finished. Not to mention being a very good way to familiarise yourself with your machine. It'll make any future problem solving so much easier for you in the long run.

[jatoospry]

It's coming up very nicely. Well done with your first tear down, it takes a bit of courage to start but it will be well worth your effort once you've finished. Not to mention being a very good way to familiarise yourself with your machine. It'll make any future problem solving so much easier for you in the long run.

Thank you, its all a bit daunting to be honest but just trying to remain focused.

I took an album of the specific *damage* areas. This was before the clean.

http://imgur.com/a/p6Q9q

[skywalker]

Great job  , by throwing yourself in the deep end, you will learn heaps, plenty of reference pics on line if you require more info,  now back to work 

[jatoospry]

Cheers. Is it worth buying a tumbler for a single pin? If so are there any recommendations?

I have a small desk clamp, I could just clamp items in it and do it with a drill based polishing pad I guess.

[skywalker]

someone will chime in about a tumbler, could be some info in the search bar  Stop @ 1 pin