Fish Tales Resto

[Mr Pinbologist]

G'day all, time for a bit of a progress update on Fish Tales;
I've been working on the cabinet, its coming along nicely, needing a lot less work than F-14 did!!

Cab edges painted black in preparation for decal application.
The back of the backbox was tidied up a bit, i didn't renew the warning text as is usually done as it wasn't too bad so i simply redid the black as needed, then shot a matt clear over the whole back of the backbox and cabinet back.






Lockdown bar mech tidied up while waiting for the cab paint to cure.




Cab decals DONE  with some help from Ian (howzat) we got them applied. The 'wet' method was used again same as F-14 
















Coin door components and backbox hinges painted.




After a little experimenting i managed to get a reasonably close match to the original finish on the coin door and coin entry plate.

[oldskool1969]

  FT has one of the best cabinets out there. So colourful and funny. Great stuff.

[Strangeways]

Awesome work on the cabinet. The colours really POP on this game with the new decals 

[DSB]

Great Job! Its good to see some restoration threads back.   

[howzat]

I had a fun Saturday  morning helping Mitch put the decals on

It looks great and when finished im sure it will be better than new       howzat         

[Mr Pinbologist]

Just a small update for now;
Not a lot of progress to report at this stage but it's starting to happen a bit quicker now F-14 is nearing completion!

Shooter handle polished up on the buffing wheel and refitted. The button was frozen up so it had to be dismantled and cleaned.







And some playfield work started. I had to construct another playfield rotisserie so i could start on this one  

before disassembly..









Most of the parts removed,









Top section before cleaning..





and after.. i removed the mylar from the bumper area as well, and replaced it with a fresh new piece.





And some goodies arrived yesterday!!

New plastics from RTBB  

[Crashramp]

Looking good. The cabinet looks great and the playfield is coming up a treat under all that grime.

[DSB]

Looking Good.

[Strangeways]

One of the better Fishtales playfields I've seen for a while.

Will be taking delivery of the FT Ramp before Christmas if you need one 

[Mr Pinbologist]

Update time  

Stainless guides regrained... BEFORE





And AFTER





Reassembly started, new yellow posts were purchased to replace the originals since they are cheap to replace







We changed the top lane guides to green and bumper caps and skirts to blue as suggested by MrMaloo in a previous post..
looks much better than the original red  







One problem i discovered at the last minute before refitting the playfield into the cab, was a broken arm that knocks the drop target down.. with no time to find and order a replacement it was time to get creative    and this is what i came up with  
i cut a piece of steel to suit and riveted it onto the original arm, not an ideal solution i know but it works a treat!





With that problem sorted and everything working as it should the playfield was fitted back into the cabinet

LEDs were used for most of the G.I especially in hard to get at areas, like under plastics. I used them under the bumper caps too.

[Mr Pinbologist]

I fitted some protectors from Homepin to protect the new decals





And here is my fix for a pretty major problem i found with the playfield. The playfield was bowed  BADLY in the center causing the ball to roll inwards so i fabricated this brace to straighten the p/f surface. It bolts through the playfield at the ends and has two adjustable bolts to push up from beneath and make the surface straight and level.









The game played TERRIBLE without this mod.. was like playing Stern's Orbitor 1  

I must say i HATED having to do this kind of mod but it was no good how it was  
It was also necessary to machine down two of the pins inside the cab that the playfield slides on to clear the brace.

Took me a couple of hours in all to make it all work!

[Mr Pinbologist]

The game is now completed and was picked up yesterday

So here are the last lot of pictures!

[Boots]

And here is my fix for a pretty major problem i found with the playfield. The playfield was bowed  BADLY in the center causing the ball to roll inwards so i fabricated this brace to straighten the p/f surface. It bolts through the playfield at the ends and has two adjustable bolts to push up from beneath and make the surface straight and level.

Fairly common problem that with Fishtales and some other titles too I believe, seems to be a problem with the assembly of the side rails to the playfield.
The join of the side rails randomly ends up under the playfield pivot, causing it to bend.
Tim from HRP mentions it in his Safe Cracker resto

[Mr Pinbologist]

And here is my fix for a pretty major problem i found with the playfield. The playfield was bowed  BADLY in the center causing the ball to roll inwards so i fabricated this brace to straighten the p/f surface. It bolts through the playfield at the ends and has two adjustable bolts to push up from beneath and make the surface straight and level.

Fairly common problem that with Fishtales and some other titles too I believe, seems to be a problem with the assembly of the side rails to the playfield.
The join of the side rails randomly ends up under the playfield pivot, causing it to bend.
Tim from HRP mentions it in his Safe Cracker resto

Yeah i figured it might be a common problem with Fishtales. I was guessing it might be due partly to the large section cut out in the upper section for the boat   and the weight of the playfield and all of the fixtures.

Anyhow the game is now back home and set up in Ian's line up, i'll get some pics next time i'm there and add them to this thread   (and most likely getting a good workout as i type this!!) 

[howzat]

Yes im haveing fun on it 

The game turned out really nice   a couple of lane  guides  and bumper  caps where changed from original  as Mitch mentioned but it  suits it 

It gives my line up a diffrent look as its the only normal size game i have

The brace idea was very cleaver.  Hopefully other guys can use the same setup to straighten  p/f  that bowe

Im having 2 diffrent xmas parties  so we can give them all a good work out      Howzat