I just wrapped up my Centaur II playfield swap over the weekend and thought I'd share some pics. This is my second full playfield swap after completing Flash Gordon last year and I have to say that this one was quite a bit easier. Only a single playfield vs. 2, less flippers and pops, and a much more simplistic playfield layout.-plus it helps having a swap under my belt already.

I swapped in a new CPR playfield and mirrored plastic set, new legs, new drops, new playfield posts, new flipper bats,new pop bumper caps and lane guides, and many other replacement parts thanks mostly to Pinball Resource. I tumbled all the metal parts, regrained the rails, and cleaned everything that could use cleaning. I also touched up/cleaned up the cabinet and put on a new coin door sticker and rebuilt the driver board with new caps. I'm very happy with how it turned out. It's amazing how great the artwork is on these classic Bally games! The only thing I'm still considering doing is replacing my lamp boards with Alltek's so that I can add LED's to the inserts.-I get flickering with my stock boards.

I didn't take as many pics of the process as I did with my Flash Gordon swap, but the pictures I have are up on Photobucket:
http://s241.beta.photobucket.com/user/appetite4pinball/library/Centaur%20II%20Playfield%20Swap

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Thanks! Here's a couple more pics

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Thanks Todd. I didn't even know that you picked up a Xenon.-Now there's a game that looks great with LED's! Your Paragon already looks great from what I've seen but I'm sure it will look awesome once you're done with it. Next game on my list is a full shop job on BK2K. It doesn't really need it but the playfield looks dirty next to Centaur and FG now

I read about the issue with the pop bumpers ahead of time but it wasn't an issue on my game for whatever reason as mine came up flush on the playfield? Maybe since mine is a II? I didn't really run into any major hurdles. The biggest piece of advice I'd give you is to not trust the pre-dimpled holes on the repro playfield and measure everything for yourself using your old playfield. Also pre-drill all of the screw holes/wire guide holes on the top side of the playfield using a brad-tipped drillbit, otherwise you could get some lifting/damage to your new playfield. Just be careful and have patience and I'm sure you'll do just fine! Also, on this swap I re-used the existing ground wire/bulb sockets which saved some time and money. I did all new sockets/ground on my Flash Gordon swap because the older style "44" sockets are crap. The "555" sockets on my CII are much more reliable. In a few spots on the playfield I ran new ground wire because the old stuff got damaged when taking it off the old playfield.

That would be pretty funny

It plays really well but I still need to make some adjustments to the ORBS targets. I don't get SDTM drains but hard direct shots cause the drops to stay up. It's a common problem and I may need to add a second set of springs to the drops or modify the drops to allow them to fall easier. If I put black rubber behind them it works better but I think the white rubber is too bouncy and causes the drop to spring back before it gets a chance to drop. Other than that though the game plays great!

I think I will add some LED's in the future. Just need to experiment with what looks good before taking the full plunge and buying the boards.