Valhalla time has just begun

How the story started

This story starts on may 25th of 2013. Somebody placed a post on the Belgian flipperforum.be. The post was as follows:

Hello people,

I am Julian, a student and living in Wageningen (NL). I actually have a question about a pinball machine.

I have a stern lightning of 1981 with an unknown failure. Now I'm really curious about its value. Can someone give me an estimate?

greeting

Some forum members responded to this post, saying it was really dependent on the state that the machine was in. Julian never replied.

A few days later, a Lightning came up for sale on the Dutch online marketplace marktplaats.nl. The seller was not a student, but a second hand shop. Also in Wageningen. Coincidence? Nah, Wageningen is too small of a city for that. Asking price: € 50,-. Of course, biddings soon started to rise. When I saw the ad, the highest bid was already pretty high, sight unseen. Still, I was excited. Lightning has always been one of my favorite early solid state pins. I had one earler, sold it and regretted that I did.(featured here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjq9woBNZt4 ) And so I thought, let's give this a chance. I decided to call the seller.

Getting the machine

When, after about 10 tries, some guy picked up the phone, I asked if the machine was stil available. 'Sure!' the guy said. I told him I'd pay the asking price or more if necessary. 'No need. The price is €50,-', the guy said. 'But...' I hesitated. 'Cool, alright!' We agreed that I would come pick it up the next morning when the shop opened.

The next morning, I drove to Wageningen. When I arrived, the shop was just opening. I saw the Lightning in a corner of the shop. It looked alright on first look. So I went to one of the staff members and told him that I was there to pick up the machine. 'That's not possible', he said. I asked him why not. 'We're waiting to see until the weekend what people will bid on it.' I told him that I made an agreement to pickup the machine. 'Impossible', he told me. I told him I wasn't lying. Long story short, it turned out that another staff member didn't know about the online biddings or about the company decision to wait and see what biddings would be. At this point, one thing was clear to me: This was so not my problem. No matter what, I wasn't leaving without the Lightning in my trunk. So I had an intense discussion with the two staff members for about 15 minutes. No idea if one of these guys was actually called Julian, but who cares. Neither of them was a student, that's for sure. Finally, we agreed that, if I would pay a higher price for the machine, I could take it. Normally, I hate it when people don't stand for their agreements, but in this case the price was still so low that I agreed anyway. I was very happy when I drove home with the machine in my trunk.

After unloading the machine in my home, I took a closer look at it. The condition was not as good as I had hoped. There was mold all over the playfield, almost all inserts were rising above the playfield surface and a lot of them were very loose. When I took the playfield out, there were actually 2 dead moths clamping onto the wires. This machine needed some serious love. Luckily, the backglass and boards were in good shape. Still, a lot of technical work had to be done. I actually doubted if the machine was worth to be restored, but decided I would try.

Restoring the machine

From that moment, I worked off and on on this machine. A lot of times, it wasn't a pleasant machine to work on. A lot of hacks in the wiring and mechs and other unforseen and time consuming fixes. Because of this, I preferred to work on different projects and the Lightning started to gather dust in a corner for several times. Many times I asked myself if I should continue restoring the Lightning or just sell it as is. But I decided that it would be a waste of the work I already put in it. Over time, things I've done with it include:

• fixing the boards (With help. I'm not much of a technician myself);
• a lot of rewiring under the playfield and in the head;
• replacing all the connectors in the head;
• taking out all the inserts, flattening them and placing them back;
• touching up the playfields, backglass and cabinet;
• clearcoating both playfields;
• repainting the coin door and legs;
• cleaning all mechs and replacing broken parts;
• and of course the obvious rubbering and cleaning.

Enjoying the machine

Just now, almost 2 years after starting the project, I've played the first game on the machine without it having any errors. And I am so thrilled. Looking back, was it worth all the time it took? Definately. For me, one of the biggest thrills of this hobby is to fix a classic machine until the moment where it plays exactly like it did when it came out of the box. Or better. That moment where you realise that everything is just right for the first time since you've started the project, is priceless. Makes all of the blood, sweat and tears melt away.

Lightning is now finally a proud member of my collection of great playing and looking machines. It's an extremely fun double level talker with multiball, from what I think is of one of the golden ages in pinball: the early 1980's. I'm very happy to have saved one of these for people to enjoy.

Well, what's next?

Next in line for a full restoration is one of the classics that I've got in my basement right now: Cirqus Voltaire, TX-Sector or Haunted House. I have yet to decide which one comes first. Any suggestions?