Gtb Pinball Pool project

[Mr Pinbologist]

Shit i had to dig deep to find THIS thread again.. 10 pages in  

This project has gained a little momentum now with the demise of my homemade Vortex pin yesterday, after something going wrong and having 43 volts sent thru all of the boards taking out every single IC in the game   As a result i have decided against trying to repair it, as it involves remaking one of the boards that was burnt up which is totally out of the question.. i just cannot justify the amount of work and expense to do it.

Yes its a shame that i have to give up on it, but ultimately it would've been scrapped anyway... its not a game i could've ever sold for example, as no one else would've been able to work out how it worked if anything went wrong with the boards.. shit even I had trouble remembering how it worked a couple of times   anyway it lasted 15 years so thats not a bad run i guess.

Soooo... since Vortex was built into a Gtb system 1 cab, it will be gutted, paint stripped and repainted in Pinball Pool colours instead of repairing the original cab, which will save me some time and i can simply transplant all the guts of Pinball Pool into the donor cab when it has been painted.

[goodolddays]

What a shame about Vortex Mitch , but as you say 15 years was a great run .

[Strangeways]

What a shame about Vortex Mitch , but as you say 15 years was a great run .

+ 1.

Very disappointing, but I'm sure you enjoyed it while it was working.

[Mr Pinbologist]

What a shame about Vortex Mitch , but as you say 15 years was a great run .

+ 1.

Very disappointing, but I'm sure you enjoyed it while it was working.

I know there are two AP members who had the chance to play Vortex on several occasions who really liked it as a player & will miss it  
In all honesty to me it was just an OKAY game, not great imo but others seemed to like it so maybe i was being too critical of my own work. Over the 15 yrs i was constantly trying to refine it and make it more enjoyable to play.

But you're right its disappointing, as much as i criticized it i WILL miss it. Anyway the PFs will make great decorations for the dungeon so it wont be forgotten  

Cabinet has been completely gutted of all parts already, the boards have been launched already but NOTHING else will be thrown out, plenty of reuseable parts there.

[chuppa21]

Had a fair bit of damage!

[Mr Pinbologist]

Hi guys, I’ve finally been able to get a start on my Pinball Pool resto. Been working on it for the last couple of weeks in my spare time.. finally having some spare time and money to start on it that is  

Some pics; 1st couple the the donor cab (ex Vortex) being wheeled out of the house and down to the shed to be stripped of all remaining parts and paint.
 
3rd and 4th pics… going.. going… GONE!! I sanded the paint off rather than using paint stripper, much less messy and ended up being quicker that way I thought.

Last pic the cab had been completely sanded back, and ready for some repairs, not that many were needed, as it was still solid, and only minor dings to be filled.

[Mr Pinbologist]

In these pic, the only major(ish) work needed was to undo a modification I had made when I built Vortex originally. The pf of Vortex was about 1 inch longer than a standard pf, so I had moved the rear cross panel below where the backbox bolts on back by that amount to accommodate the longer pf.

In the 1st pic I’ve removed the old plywood, you can see where I had cut the plywood where the backbox sits in order to move the vertical panel back.

2nd and 3rd pic show it being reconstrusted and finished respectively.

[Mr Pinbologist]

More pics, filling the shooter assembly hole where I had fitted a Wms shooter rod assembly, and repairing a few split sections in the ply along the bottom of the cab. I’m using Builders Bog for the larger repair like this and Poly Filler for the smaller scrapes and dings.

Last pic almost ready for some undercoat.

[Mr Pinbologist]

Last lot of pics for now…

I started spraying the Undercoat a couple of days ago (using Dulux brand spray enamel cans). And after a light sand back this morning (and repairing a few missed inperfections) the final coats of undercoat went on. I did about 3 or 4 coats in all.

Also I have sprayed the inside of the cab to test out the colour im using for the basecoat.. White Knight Bright Orange spraycans, which is a pretty close match to the original colour, only slightly brighter. The 1st pic was taken yesterday evening, I have since sprayed the inside again with one more coat.

Hopefully, weather permitting I will have the exterior sprayed in the next day or so.

[femto]

Nice

[Mr Pinbologist]

QUICK UPDATE:

Basecoat done today!

First though I gave the undercoat a quick sand with 240 grit, followed by 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper (sanded dry) before the paint went on. I did about 5 coats in all to get good coverage.

These pics show the colour as being MUCH brighter than it is in person (due to the camera flash), It does actually match the original colour fairly well.

[Mr Pinbologist]

After I had let the paint dry for an hour I added the black splatter paint, using thinned out enamel and the tooth brush method…dipping the bristles into the paint and using a piece of plastic to flick the bristles, so as to create the dots of paint. As usual I tested it on a piece of cardboard before trying it on the cabinet 

A couple of close up pics…

[Mr Pinbologist]

Next plan of attack will be to start on the backbox while I let the basecoat dry for a week before I start the stencilling.
Stay tuned for further updates  

EDIT: a couple of pics of the newly painted cab next to the backbox showing the new and original orange colours together.

1st and 2nd pics WITH and WITHOUT flash respectively

[Mr Pinbologist]

Hi again peoples, Quick update;

Started on the back box over the weekend.
These pics show the original backbox, and why I’m replacing it, having had water through it at some stage. It’s fixable (new top and bottom panels) but I figured there’s no point at all in messing around with this one considering I have a second one that is MUCH better to use. Again I’m using the backbox from Vortex as it’ll save me a heap of time and work.

The light insert panel will have to be remade too.

[Mr Pinbologist]

I ended up replacing the bottom panel on the donor backbox as it had been wet as well at some stage of its life and had sagged a bit, thought it wasn't as bad as the original i decided to do it anyway.

Didn’t take long to do.