Mitch's next project.. Zaccaria Universe

[pinnies4me]

Mitch this is coming up a treat, great work.

[Mr Pinbologist]

Hi guys, Spent some time over the last couple of days rebuilding the bumper and flipper mechs. The bumper and flipper coil sleeves and mechs on this game had at some stage had WD40 or something similar plastered into them, leaving a black and greasy mess, so a good clean up of the parts was first cab off the rank. Didnt get any pics of just how filthy they were, but the bumper coil in the 1st pic will give you an idea how bad they were! I wish i knew why people do dumb things like this 

The disassembled parts were soaked in metho and scrubbed with a tooth brush to clean them up, then i gave them a sandpapering with 400 grit and nifti, followed by a polish with Autosol. then everything was reassembled with new coil sleeves in the coils.

Last pic shows the bumpers reinstalled on the playfield. I ended up re-doing two of the bumper body decals, after discovering they werent applied straight 
I also dug out another Gtb body and used it to replace the only original Zac bumper body i was using, so they are now ALL Gtb bumper bodies!

[Mr Pinbologist]

Next i rebuilt the flipper mechs. Once again, they were filled with WD40 or something and a mess!! so its a case of "2nd verse same as the first!" with cleaning etc. The 2nd and 3rd pics show the finished flipper mechs. The coils will be replaced later on.. i'm using Gtb coils to replace them, and the plungers and links were still ok so i didnt renew them.

and finally, a pic of the playfield so far... i started fitting the new rubbers this afternoon. I fired it up to check the bumpers and flippers, have to do some switch adjusting on the bumpers, and i still have to repair two of the drop targets which have the plastic faces broken off.. i have to find some yellow plastic to make new ones. Also i need to check and clean the lamp sockets.

shouldn't be too much longer now!!  

[Strangeways]

I think that the residue is lubricant that has been sprayed on and left to attract dust and grime over the years. I guess the operator thought that it would be a good idea to keep the coins flowing through the machine rather than repair it properly !

This machine is looking really nice - I love the vibrant colors on the playfield.

[Mr Pinbologist]

Hi again guys.. i've been chipping away at this game, doing bits n pieces to it when the mood takes me.
 Anyway here are a few pics of what i've been up to with it.
1st pic, the ball trough components, after being cleaned/polished and refitted. The game is actually now playable, i have played a few games on her, and i must say its playing really SWEET 

2nd pic.. the yellow standup targets were held together with rivets, which had worked loose, allowing the switch blades to move.. so i removed them to repair them and clean them up a bit better. I ended up drilling the rivets out and using 1/8" screws, nuts and washers to hold them together (and some loctite on the screw threads for good measure). The end result is switches that work much better, and no more wandering switch blades!!

Last two pics show two of the drop targets.. or rather whats left of them. I need to find some yellow plastic to make new target faces out of.. so far i havent had any luck finding anything suitable. There IS a backup plan in case i cant find solid yellow plastic for these, more on that later.   

[Mr Pinbologist]

And today i started on the plastics. These pics show the two broken plastics. I was originall going to try to reglue the longer right hand side one and re-use it, but i have since decided to make a complete set of new ones. I'm using 3mm polycarbonate plastic to make them out of, so i should hopefully have no heat related bending problems. Today i took scans of some of the old plastics and got a start on making the new ones.

[Mr Pinbologist]

so far i have re-made the slingshot plastics. After clening up the scanned images in Arcsoft Photostudio, i reverse printed them onto clear A4 inkjet adhesive label and put them aside to dry. I've used the same techniques i did on my Dracula plastics so i wont go into a great amount of detail. Next i traced out the old plastics onto the 3mm polycarbonate and cut them out on my scroll saw. I then cleaned up the cut edges with sandpaper.. first with 80 grit paper, then 280, and finally 800 grit to get the edges nice n smooth. Then i peeled off the protective backing from what was to be the underside, ready for the plastics images to be stuck on. Next i carefully placed the images onto the plastic, being careful not to get any air bubbles.. i actually DID get a couple of small bubbles in one of them, but it doesnt look too bad so i left it as is. next i trimmed up the clear edges with a scalpel (pic #1). then i burnished it down hard onto the plastic using the back of a tabespoon and a sheet of a4 paper between the plastic and the spoon.

For the white diffusing layer i used white adhesive label (pic #2). This was also trimmed along the clear edges with a scalpel and then burnished down on the plastic.

Pic #3 shows the new and old plastic together. the colours ARE slightly different.. hence another reason why im re-doing the whole set, so the all match.

[Mr Pinbologist]

and now a sneak peek of them installed on the playfield, they look much better in the flesh than they do in the 2nd pic (lit up and room lights out). tomorrow i'll continue with the rest and will post pics when done  

[pinnies4me]

Great job on the plastics Mitch, sure is a colourfull playfield.

[goodolddays]

Nice one Mitch  . Must have been great to finally play a few games on her too.

[ddstoys]

Good work again Mitch 

[Mr Pinbologist]

Finally got the plastics finished and installed tonight  

As i said before i had decided to re-do the whole lot, and scanning the old plastics and cleaning up the images took the most time! And yes i DID have a couple of stuff ups along the way and had to re-do things   but in the end the plan came together!

Anyhow here are a few pics.. the first couple of some of the reverse printed decals read to be applied to the 3mm polycarbonate plastic, and marking out one of the plastics to be cut on the scroll saw.  This is the right side plastic which had been broken at some point and reglued with a piece of tin and what looked like liquid nails or something similar.. theres that bastard barry the bodger again i just sheld it together with a piece of mylar so i could trace it out onto the polycarbonate.

And finally... VOILLA... the end result!! not too shabby i reckon. I ended up replacing some of the post mounting screws with 6-32 threaded ones from my old Superstar playfield ( the originals had no thread on the top and the nylon caps just pushed on to hold the plastics in place) and used brand new 6-32 acorn nuts bought from PSP   the top ones still have to be replaced as yet, they will bee soon as i find some more threaded post mountings.

[Mr Pinbologist]

I also replaced the flipper coils... I would've used original Zac coils if i had them, but instead i used Gtb A-5141A (also bought from PSP) hi power coils which make the flippers nice and peppy, without using the hi tap on the transformer. Yeah i know.. they aint original.. but they do the job well so i dont give a shit  

All thats left to do now is to re make the drop target faces, and tidy up the apron and its finished  

[Strangeways]

Just look at that playfield - looks like it just rolled off the assembly line 

[Mr Pinbologist]

Hi guys just a quick update:

Today i rebuilt the drop targets. Since i couldn't find some yellow plastic anywhere i decided to use the same 3mm clear polycarbonate to remake the target faces, and print out the art (along with the yellow colour) onto clear adhesive and stick it to the back of the target.. same deal as making playfield plastics. 1st pic shows me tracing out the old target shape ready to be cut out, and the 2nd pic shows my printed artwork. the artwork was a pic i found on ipdb, resized and cut/pasted in photostudio into the scans i took of the original target face.. worked out pretty well i think, a nice and easy fix to the target problem.

Last two pics show one of the target banks after being pulled apart, cleaned and rebuilt. I had to make new links for the plungers as the metal originals were fairly worn. I used fibreglass pcb material, two pieces superhlued together to double the thickness, and thus help extend their life expectancy. I've used this trick on flipper plungers as well, and they seem to last pretty well.