Saturday afternoon I came in from working in the yard, ready to head out for lunch somewhere. Did my OCD thing of sitting down and searching "pinball" on Craigslist, and this ad popped up.

Pinball Machine - Whitewater by Williams - $1100 (West Houston). Posted one hour ago.

First thought - one of the (at) google scam spam emails. So I pulled up the ad and it looked legit. There was a phone number listed to contact him. I called it, still expecting a scam at worst, or to hear that it was already gone at best.

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I kept watching Pinside to see if anything came up about it.

The seller answered when we called. Somehow, I was the first caller. He bought the pin 10 years ago for his kids and put it under the porch on his patio by the pool. He said it used to work (I said I will take it). He said the kids used to play it all the time (I said I will take it). He said that a tech came out and told him for $800 he could fix it up good as new (I said I will take it). He finally heard me - when do you want to pick it up, today or tomorrow. I said in one hour. I knew what was coming.

We hit the ATM and started on the 45 minute drive. Ran into road work so had to detour and were running a little late. Gave him a call to let him know we were still coming. By the time we got to the seller, he had fielded a dozen other calls. He said people called from all over Texas, offering more money, sight unseen. The highest offer he got was $2,000. But he waited for us to get there.

We walked through his house to the back patio and there it sat in all its glory. Rusty legs, rusty coin door. Dead insects on the play field. Saggy bottom panel. Deteriorated rubber rings. Faded topper in a slightly cracked tub. Cabinet was not too badly faded, considering it had been outside for 10 years. He turned it on and opened the door and pushed a few buttons (like they always do). DMD lit up with the FACTORY RESET screen. Nothing else. He said it had started a game earlier, so he was not sure what was up. I told him probably exploded batteries in the backbox. I asked did he have a key for the backbox. Key - you mean that opens? So for 10 years, no batteries replaced, no balls replaced, no bands replaced.

Loaded it up (hearing you know if you had been 30 minutes later I would have sold this for $2,000 to someone else, don't you) and took it home. But he never asked us for more money. We had to drive with the head up - couldn't get into the backbox - so protected the topper with duct tape and a cardboard box and headed back to East BFE.

We got home with it, giggling like schoolgirls the whole way. Unloaded it into the garage and started looking at it more closely.

I removed the very rusted lock on the backbox, took out the translite and opened it up. I saw a dark mass of something coming over the top of the light panel from behind and thought oh my god look at that battery corrosion.
DSC06077.JPGOpened it up further and found this.
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Good. Not a mound of corrosion, but a mud dauber's nest made from very expensive West Houston soil. Thought - look at the unchanged batteries.
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Lucky day for me - not much damage.
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Looking it over, the only thing that jumped out at my untrained eyes was the crispy connector at J120. I put batteries in and turned it on. Got the same screen from when the owner turned it on. I realized he had put it into test mode when he opened the front and started pushing buttons. I got it to start up a game, and it kicked a very rusty ball (1 of 3) into the shooter lane. I decided to go into Test mode and check things out. The only issues were Whirlpool flasher was not working, and GI for upper playfield and backbox boat and sky were out. Maybe something to do that that J120 connector. DSC06099.JPG

Playfield is diamond coated. I noticed a couple of broken plastics, but not much else wrong.
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photo of inside before opening the hood
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Rusty legs and bolts, last tax sticker, manufacture sticker
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Thanks - Joystix had one a couple years ago for $2,600 I think, right before the prices skyrocketed. We thought that was too much, and had remorse ever since. We thought we were done buying DMD games for now, until the bubble bursts. I think this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime scores.

Anybody in Southeast Texas recollect Viper Pitt? Nothing to be found on Google.
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I have never done any board repairs and don't want to wait to see if I am capable. I decided to go ahead and buy a new Rottendog board. I will have this old board to practice on - repinning and replacing that burned out socket on the board. Placed an order with Great Plains for parts and tools to fix the burned connector. Also ordered bands, manual and a complete plastics set from Bay Area to replace the broken whirlpool plastic and right slingshot plastic. Got such a deal on the pin, why not splurge, right?

I took the glass off finally, and raised the playfield. I expected to see lots of rust on switches, but everything was remarkably clean. I didn't see anything dangling or obviously missing. I noticed an envelope way in the back corner of the cabinet. Pulled it out, hoping for paperwork, and there were three NOS replacement plastics - Whirlpool, Bigfoot and right slingshot. Dangit. Should have checked before placing that order.

I am not knowledgeable enough about these things to be able to tell at this point if there is anything else there that is not working properly, or if anything is missing. I have not seen that many WH2O's up close and personally, so I am not sure just how faded is the cabinet or head. I will likely just touch up the blue paint around the head and slide it in between STTNG and TOTAN and let it ride. I worry about taking apart the topside to replace bands and clean, but did TNG recently and it somehow is still working after reassembly. I am not sure if I will document the disassembly, cleaning and reassembly as some have done. I do look forward to working on this what I hope to be easy repair job.

So the myriad EM's in my project pile will just have to wait a little longer.

Thanks - I will look at that and see what needs to be done. It is in a poorly lighted garage right now, and I really have not spent a lot of time going over everything. Good to have extra (sharper) eyes looking at it.

I started to not even post this - but how can you not boast about it. I am kind of absent-minded - will try to remember to take photos and post them as cleaning progresses. I am really anxious about tearing down the playfield and doing what needs to be done on the underside. It is pretty dirty, and everything needs to be cleaned - who knows where other dirt daubers might have gone. But I don't want to be posting a FS ad for a Whitewater cabinet and bucket of parts in a few months.

The seller had done some price research online ahead of time, just not enough. I was so happy it didn't turn into an auction when we got there, and that he honored our deal. I think this will be a very nice machine, and I could probably spend the money to redecal, etc. and would still come out ahead if I ever sell it.

I am too "immediate gratification" to wait to see if I can fix it or not. I plan to practice on this board. I have BSD and it uses the same board, and actually has a similar issue. So if I can get one of the two repaired, BSD will benefit.

I am nervous about doing it, but I intend to tear down the topside for sure and clean everything as well as I can. I plan to take photos of every step of the process, number parts and put in ziplocks, etc.

The tub for the topper has minor cracking, and the decal is faded and wrinkled somewhat after 10 years outside, but it works! The water falls. Impressed the hell out of my 12 year old son.

I have Colordmd in AFM and STTNG. Once WH2O is up and running, I need to order one for it and TOTAN. I really wanted Marc's (think it was his) RFM that was at the Houston Arcade Expo last November but kept my wallet in my pocket.

I said "if I ever sell it" but alas, I am a hoarder. Sold CV, SG and TOM when we moved last year and have regretted it ever since. Especially CV. My son told me yesterday that he might sell this one when he is older, but probably not. He is still peeved about my selling the others. Always told him these are his college fund. As if!

That's how I feel. I looked over ramps and subway today, and noticed no cracks, chips or fractures. The subway was much cleaner than I thought it would be. Couple of cracks in the mountains. The more I look the better it seems to be.

Ordered supplies are on their way.

Just ordered.

Getting psyched up and equipped. Hope to start this weekend

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This was from a quite swanky home - my whole house would have fit in their great room. The patio overhang was at least 20 feet. Considering it was outside for 10 years, it is not as faded or as rusty as it could have been, considering Houston humidity and pool proximity. Minimal rust inside and topside.

Lightning Rust Remover for the legs

I think all of the parts have come in. I started taking most everything off the top yesterday and finished today. I documented 30 steps, with 180 photos, in disassembly, and bagged and tagged screws, etc. as I went. I did a quick clean of the playfield with Novus 2 and am happy with the results, but plan on doing another pass.

I used Novus 2 on the plastic ramps. I found a few fractures and a couple of cracks that I had not noticed prior. They are solid though. I hand-polished the wire ramps and all of the ball guides - anything metal that will shine. They came out nicely.

I plan to start tumbling the metal hardware tonight or tomorrow. Trying to figure out how to keep track of which fasteners go where. Maybe use grid paper and lay everything out according to the step in which it was removed before photographing?

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155 - playfield after novus 2 first pass.jpg
134 - upper playfield.jpg
159 - novus 2 playfield detail.jpg