Williams Firepower 1980

[deadlydave]

I'm calling this one a restoration as there is going to be paint involved 

I picked up a very nice firepower in original condition, but one side of the cab has been to war and had a lot of decent scratches, looks as if it was lying on its side in transport at some stage. Now I,m very keen on leaving my pins in an
original state and can handle a few scratches etc, but could not leave this one as it was. The first pic shows some of the damage, the pic flatters it because to the naked eye it looks a lot worse. Was a real shame as the headbox and other sides were quite good, although the back chipboard was in poor condition, I thought I might be able to touch up the black only and gave a quick test by taping of the art with some low tack tape and giving the black a small spray ( second pic), tape was only down for a couple of minutes but pulled of a fair bit of paint when lifted. Its obvious from the second pic I would have to fill scratches to get a decent finish but would loose a lot of art with taping along the way. So a decision has been made to repaint the cab.

[deadlydave]

Damn, I just did this page but lost it somewhere, here it is again...
First up was to strip out cabinet and then replace the chipboard at back of cab. Took to the chipboard with a hammer and it knocked out fairly easily, had to clean out the old joins. Picked up some 18mm ply from bunnings and cut close to size with circular saw. Trimed to size with router and also did rebate and mitres with the router. Plenty of glue and clamps and nails saw the new piece fixed in place. Fitted in pretty well, i was happy with result.

[deadlydave]

I made a jig up at work to drill the corner holes in the new ply for the leg bolts, put some tape on new ply first as I was worried about the drill bit pulling up a lot of splinters, Clamped the jig down to stop movement and it went through easily, probably did not need the tape, ended up with neat holes. I wont be needing this jig in the near future, so if anyone could use it just yell out and I'll send it on.

[Strangeways]

Awesome start !

I think you made the right decision (repainting). Nothing like a freshly painted cabinet to compliment a great looking playfield !

I really like the jig you made. Should get a patent for it 

[deadlydave]

Thanks Nino,
Here's a pic of where I,m up to tonight, have stripped paint and sanded cab and head, applied plenty of bog, will sand back tommorow and hopefully get some undercoat on.

[Mr Pinbologist]

Great start Dave  I like the drilling jig for the leg bolt holes, thats a top idea.. he's an ideas man! 

looking forward to seeing the end results 

cheers.. Mitch

[Boots]

Damn, I just did this page but lost it somewhere, here it is again...
First up was to strip out cabinet and then replace the chipboard at back of cab. Took to the chipboard with a hammer and it knocked out fairly easily, had to clean out the old joins. Picked up some 18mm ply from bunnings and cut close to size with circular saw. Trimed to size with router and also did rebate and mitres with the router. Plenty of glue and clamps and nails saw the new piece fixed in place. Fitted in pretty well, i was happy with result.

Great move replacing the ratty chipboard with some nice ply, will last forever now.

[goodolddays]

Great start Dave .. good idea re the jig too. I saw a cabinet decal set for sale somewhere quite a while ago but can't find where now

[chris288]

What a brilliant bit of kit that jig is . Was wondering myself how to drill new leg bolt holes and keep them straight, true and on a 45 degree. Looks like the jig does all that.

From what I have seen all the Williams of this era have a really shitty panel at the back. I had it on a Flash and my Firepower too. Its funny the rest of the cab is ply which is fairly hard wearing and then they use crappy chipboard for the cabinet back and then MDF for the Headbox back which once you get a tiny bit of moisture in it it swells up and is cactus fuctus.

But yeah, great job so far looking forward to how it turns out.

[Pinfan]

so true re the rear panel....

My firepower is in almost the exact condition as yours Dave !

i need to do the exact same thing as what you have done so i can use this thread as a guide ! 

I might be calling to have a lend of your fabulous tool ! 

Do you have stencils for this or are you creating them ?

I will be doing a restore on mine when the CPR pfs are released ...

[deadlydave]

The jig worked a treat and as I said earlier more than happy to send it out if
Someone needs it.
Stencils.... Mmmm...... Not sure at the moment, can picture a lot of effort to make
And I'm not confident on my cutting abilities, but on the flipside $175.00 delivered
Is a fair bit of coin.
Had a bugger of a day today, first batch of bog did not have enough hardener, was still
Soft this morning, had to scrape it all out, sticky crap everywhere 
Sorted it all out and putting undercoat on tonight.

Cheers
Dave

[Boots]

The jig worked a treat and as I said earlier more than happy to send it out if
Someone needs it.
Stencils.... Mmmm...... Not sure at the moment, can picture a lot of effort to make
And I'm not confident on my cutting abilities, but on the flipside $175.00 delivered
Is a fair bit of coin.
Had a bugger of a day today, first batch of bog did not have enough hardener, was still
Soft this morning, had to scrape it all out, sticky crap everywhere 
Sorted it all out and putting undercoat on tonight.

Cheers
Dave

Do you think you will go for cardboard or MDF stencils?
I found MDF gives you a bit of a chance to fine tune the shape and overlaps (you can file it if you find a slight mismatch).
My stanley knife skills are not real good an I hate knives.

[solar value]

Pinfan, have you seen the FP playfield on ebay at the moment?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/PINBALL-PLAYFIELD-FIREPOWER-/120704287159?pt=AU_CoinOp&hash=item1c1a8941b7

It's in Melbourne.

[deadlydave]

Hey boots, if I were to make them myself they would be out of cardboard.
Thinking I could print out the stencil from Firepower.com onto A4 contact,
then stick contact onto cardboard and follow the lines.
I'm still mulling it all over but the other option is to pick up an OT shift and
just pay for them...

Cheers
Dave

[Pinfan]

Thanks Dave.... bad luck on the bog !

I will one day call for the jig though...

Where did you locate the stencil kit from ?

Thanks solar value... i have 3 FP pf's and still want a repro....  one is completely worn to wood and the other 2 have little wear....