Ok I've fixed it !

This continuity problem from the score reset coil while having a good resistance (29ohms) on the reel coil made me suspicious about the soldering points.

First I removed the paper wrap and found that the coil wire was a little loose...

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so I removed the coil, took away few inches of wire and tried to solder it back right away. Bad idea. The coating on the wire prevents the soldering to stick. I bet it's the insulation that avoids a short inside the coil. Newbie in progress here
So I sanded the coil wire and soldered it back with freshly cut and cleaned cloth wires. The soldering doesn't look great on the picture but it's rock solid. Then I did put some masking blue tape around the coil, not sure it's gonna handle the heat but I'll let you know if I see some fire in the backbox...

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Finally I've checked the EOS and the 3 other switches for the 100th time and put the reel back.

Took a deep breath, tried the multimeter aaaannd... "beeeep" ! Got a continuity tone now !!

Turned ON the machine, pushed Start aaaannd... reel goes to 0 !

[pressure increases] fingers crossed I hit a 10 point switch aaaaannd........ it works! The score reel scores 10 points and no coil gets stucks !! works with the un-lit bumpers as well.

Cherry on top of the cake, the flickering on the bumpers has disappeared.

It feels so gooood. Thanks all for the tips and the troubleshooting.

Now I can go back to the restoration

ok false joy.

I turned the machine OFF and ON again, pushed Start and the reset sequence doesn't work ( damn'it.

When I push start the score motor spins for 2 seconds then stops and the P1 reels don't go down to 0.

Fixed one problem to get another one, is it the EM path of the Samuraï ?

Nope. The reset sequence doesn't work for any player.

Yep I've checked every coil in the backbox. Ohm values and continuity are ok. On the P1-10 point coil I've just unwrapped 2 or 3 windings so the resistance is still the same as the other coils.

So I went back to the cabinet and after checking that the fuses were ok I may have found the culprit :

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It was probably weak and died with this overflow of joy and electricity from my previous fix

Anyway I'll order a new to PBR tomorrow and will see if I can get that reset sequence back.

Ok thanks 4Max I'll leave the lock relay for now and you're right it seems to work even if it looks burnt.

I've tried to manually set all reels to 1. Power ON, start, still no reset sequence.

I've noticed that if I manually activate the reset coil (the one in the cabinet) then I have the reset sequence and can play, but then I have the all 4 players activated just like if I had push the Start button 4 times.

So, power OFF, manually set the Player Unit stepper to P1 (it was obviously on P4).

Re-start annnndd... reset sequence... with one stuck reel (P4-1000points),

So I've sanded the 3 switches and the EOS, adjusted the gaps (btw I'm getting better there, restarted annnnnnnd.... I have a clean reset sequence, player 1-2-3-4 are ok with all reels to 0 and all of the score switches work (10-100-500-1000), I have everything !!!

Almost. Just need to figure out why the 4000 points on the awesome Tunnel registers only 1000 points. 1000-2000-3000 and 5000 points work well.

I'm getting closer to a fully functional machine, yeah

Sorry 4Max my description wasn't clear, in fact the reset sequence is all good with all 4 players. Everything else works so far except for that 4000 score in the tunnel that registers only 1000 points where the other scores (1000-2000-3000-5000) register the correct number of points.

And yes I have the schematics but I'm so lazy that I will start to learn something easier like... Chinese

4Max you are awesome!!

9A was dirty and mis adjusted. My 4000 tunnel now registers 4000 points so I'm very close to perfection.

I was afraid that removing the switch stacks of the score motor would mess up even more, but it went fine.

I think I'm now gonna gently clean every contact. Just in case

Btw, after a light sanding, workbench press flattened QTips + 91% alcohol is a pretty good solution to clean the contacts without pushing the blades too much.

Ok the PF is now stripped. I've used the slided cardboard technique so everything kind of stayed in place.

Now ME + alcohol, then Novus 2, then mean green and I will start to worry about the clear.

I'd really like to follow vids tutorial and make a perfect job but this PF has too much wear and the color has faded a lot (especially the yellow) so it's never going to be perfect. I think I'll try to do my best to make it nice and playable. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna end up with spray cans of whatever you guys will recommend me to use

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I've taped the screws with masking blue tape, too lazy to put them aside a label everything.

Also I took like 200 hundred pictures

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Hey 4Max sorry I've been busy working on the playfield touchups.

I've used your Americana paint kit and it came out very good! Just a small issue with the light "blue". First I've found the perfect match, it was nice and very close to the original. Looked great with the naphta too, as per vid's recommendation. But after the first clear coat, it became more contrasted. I've tried to retouch it but was totally unable to find a better match. So I left it as is.

And then the clear coat nightmare began...

I have a good compressor but I was too lazy to invest in a water filtering, a spray gun, a spray booth etc. so I went for the Spraymax 2k cans solution.

After the first light coat I did what the others said and sprayed some in a glass jar, then used an eyedropper to fill the cupped inserts. I was happy and I left the garage where the playfield was curing at nice 75 degrees / 60% humidity.

Came back 2 hours after to find thousands of bubbles locked into the filled inserts... Damn. I had to take the dremel and grindstone the 4 inserts. A total mess. The perfect black rings and the paint around were damaged. Didn't take pictures, too upset at this point.

I ended up buying the real clear coat - just for my cupped inserts! yes $50 but I'll be able to fill at least 500 cupped inserts with it )
It's a good'ole very toxic 2 parts from a car paint shop. This time with a syringe, the inserts were filled by a crystal clear liquid and no bubbles appeared... pfeeww. Perfect result.

But it would have been to easy if I didn't fill the inserts... too much. As per vid's scale I'm a rookie and I'm supposed to use a hand sand block. So sending down these overfilled inserts took - literally - forever (500 grit). And of course, doing so, I've sanded some areas too low and I had to touchup paint again.

Anyway after that I've applied 2 "wet" coats, sanding in between. Now 2 cans are gone. Had to order another one. $60 so far. And I'm not sure it'll be enough to have a dead flat playfield...

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But now let's go back to the door In fact it's all in the picture. Just that, and lot of elbow grease.

I've used the wired wheels only on the back and on the hinge. These wheels go very deep so they're not recommended on the door skin and other visible parts unless you want to spend 3 days of sanding

On the door skin basically:

1. on a flat hard surface I used a hammer to de-bump some areas and get the whole square as flat as I possible.
2. sanding with the flaps wheel (I think it's a 80 grit), not pushing too hard, always moving and changing the sanding angle.
3. hand-wetsanding from 220-500-800-1000 with some dish soap and warm water in a bucket. Also make you have a comfortable chair and that you're listening to the entire Led Zeppelin discography in the meantime
4. Once dry I use the polishing wheels at max speed with the black stick first (emeri) and then the white stick. I've bought that at HF a while ago. I'm pretty sure there is an easier way with a real electric polisher and some metal/chrome car product but I've used what I had.
5. eventually a good Meangreen clean to get rid of the polishing wax and tadaa: a mirror for your crotch

I'll do the lockdown bar soon, I'll not make it shine too much because if I do I will have to do the side rails as well and it's way too much work !

Finally while the playfield will be curing, I will clean everything. I''ll do ALL the switches with Nico's magic brush (that's totally awesome), will put all metal parts/screws/springs in the tumbler, will rebuild the flippers, bumpers, change every coil sleeves. And while I have the dremel out I will go back the to backbox and disassemble every score reels relays and magic brush them to ensure perfect contacts.

And then we'll see

It's the Nicholas Schell (aka @nicovolta) "life-changing" pro-tip about the Dremel #443 carbon-steel brush

Here's the thing: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1515859252011820/permalink/1864209737176768/

He's about to post a video with details and I bet it will soon endup in the tech section here.

I was worried first because my brush didn't look like his. Out of the box the wires are straight. But after a moment they bend themselves around and form some kind of a "ball" and you can use the Dremel sideways to "gold-clean" every contact.

It works so well that after my playfield is done, I'll go through every contact on every relay on the relay board and in the backbox. It'll take some time because you need to loose down the switch stacks but after that, it will narrow down potential problems to bad adjustment, bad soldering, shorts and sick coils.

That's awesome. This stepper is probably 40 years old and it looks just new.

Meanwhile at Dremel's headquarters:

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And so the clear coat process turned into a nightmare...

The 4th coat was supposed to be the last but I had fisheye everywhere with one freaking hair + dust + a bug... all stuck in that last layer and I didn't see anything before it was dry. Unbelievable.

As per vid1900 tutorial I filled the low spots, flat-sanded the whole playfield and sprayed a 5th coat ($100 in total...)

After 2 weeks of curing everything looked good so I decided to start the wet sanding. I used a 6" orbital dual-action polisher from Harbor Freight with 6" wet/dry sand paper, from 600/800/1000/1500/2000, on low speed.

The final result looked good so I polished the playfield with the Meguiars Medium cut, just to discover a billion of deep swirls... really awful under the light.

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So I started over with 800 very carefully, then the grits up and then polished again. Still the swirls... argh.

I then went on YouTube to search for a good wet sanding tutorial and I saw this guy with a Target Alpha playfield. He just block sanded manually with a pretty fast motion and a LOT of water.

So tried that this morning, manually wet sanded from 800/1000/1500/2000 in a back and forth motion, from the bottom to the top of the playfield.

Swirls were gone and the sanding marks were really tiny so I started the polishing process.

Et voilà :

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What a nice playfield!!!!

Looks perfect right?

Well, it's not

I'm pretty sure that water found a way to the lowest - and most visible - insert. So it's now "cracking" while the rest of the playfield is absolutely perfect and flat.

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I think I'll just put some Mylar on it or maybe duct tape so I won't see it anymore. Or drill it down and bondo it and leave it like that. Or maybe put a bumper right there... I'm totally pissed off now. No way I start the process over

Thanks Vid. I was sure you were gonna say that and I was secretly hoping for a simpler method

From your experience, do you think I can get a not too visible result? Sanding flat on such a small area is not easy I presume. I'm concerned it's not gonna be even with the rest of the playfield.

Anyway, I suppose I must fill it very carefully (maybe in 2 or 3 times?) until it's flush so the sanding would be very limited? Can I do it with a finger and tiny pieces of sand paper or should I use some kind of tool?

Thanks again !

Awesome Vid, thank you!

Will post the result soon.

Hey master vid1900 (or any other PF resto god I might need your expert advice again...

Dug in the crack with an exacto blade to find out it was deep and with weird angles so I ended up using a Dremel with a round tip to make it clean.

The crack was so deep that I've reached the black paint around the insert so I had to touch it up.

I've filled it with 2pac clear but the result wasn't good. It's like if the clear mixed up with the paint to reveal some clear areas underneath. Very ugly to look at especially in this very visible place.

So I've dremeled it again, painted it again and that where I am now:

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(Yes I have some bubbles caught right above the insert but I can live with that).

I'm just wondering if I should do one big overfill now or try to do several "light" fills. What do you think?

So I've filled this trench with some clear but once cured I had some "white" spots just like if air found its way underneath. And that's actually what happened.

So back to the Dremel and ready to start over:

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I was thinking to very lightly fill with clear so it would seal any air entry and then black paint and then clear overfill.

Or - foolish idea - maybe but I could fill it with a black sealer that will stay clean under the last overall clear shot ?? Yes, a black clear ))

It would make sense here because once sanded flat I'll have a nice black ring around the insert, maybe a little bit "floaty" but still better that the mess that I have now...

Any silicon free product you guys have in mind ?

Few months later

I'm done with the playfield but the fix will not make the purists happy. Pictures will follow. I didn't replace the inserts and that's probably what I should have done. Lessons learned for the next one. Instead, I've filled the inserts, sanded flat, covered them with white decals and finally added black ring decals. Please don't roast me ok?

Next is the cabinet.

Too many dents, scratches, lifted plywood, color fading on the side that was obviously exposed too sun everyday, etc.

So I sanded it down with some 60 grit and used 2 cans of bondo, followed by a whole tube of glazy putty to achieve a good flatness.

Primed with Killz original (oil based) using a Harbor Freignt HLVP gun, in a home-made spray booth.

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2 coats, sanding with 150 and 220

Then direction the rotisserie for the base coat and tooth brush splatter:

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No drama for the painting, spray cans, standard colors. It matched the original tones pretty well, but it's hard to know how they looked like straight from the factory in 1972. Even the flyers may have faded so I want to believe that it's a perfect match

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Final result includes some nice overspray and imperfections that I find pretty cool

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Finished the clear today (same Rustoleum cans, clear satin).

Got to dismantle the spray booth now and prepare everything for the next step: playfield polish and repopulation!

Playfield wet sanded and polished.

Yes, it's far from perfect. Some touch up are really obvious, especially around the bumpers. I spent few hours to match that blue, it was almost perfect when wiped with Naphta but once covered with clear, it turn out not so good. Worst part is definitely the masked inserts, but I couldn't find the strength to start over, replace them, and go through the whole clearing process. After 5 cans of SprayMax I gave up and thought it won't be too bad with the space theme and the surrounding colors.

Anyway, this is my first resto, hopefully next one will look better

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Now let's the fun begin !

99% finished!!!

Here are some before/after pictures:

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Everything works except for some light bulbs that dim/flicker then work again and dim/flicker again. It happens to:

Backglass:
- all "Ball in play"
- players 2-3-4

Playfield:
All playfield bulbs were 100% working before I moved the machine inside the house...
but then some lights started to have the same work/dim/flicker/work/etc. behaviour:

- lower gate
- all tunnel lights...

When I start the game they work for few seconds then dim/flicker, then randomly work again and dim again.

Yes they all are leds lights (cointaker retro for those visible and non-ghosting premium everywhere else) and the playfield lights were working prior to the disassembly, move and reassembly inside.

I'll check again all the switches and regap if necessary. I've checked all the soldering, tugged the wires, everything looks normal so far.

I didn't check back the board though, maybe something here?

Also, my transfo is making a loud buzz. Just read yesterday that a solid hit with a rubber malet should demagnetize it. We'll see.

Both flipper coils buzz too (when activated). I'll try to realign the plungers and coil stops + firmly screw everything back.

On a side note, my backglass is far from perfect and my touchups are ugly especially on the guy's face.
So to lessen the problem, I've removed the 3 lamps behind his face and plugged like 6-7 #455 GE flashers all around and it turned out awesome.
I strongly suggest that to all of you who have Space time/Time zone pinball machines, because the flashing lights around him make all buttons/gauges blinking like a real time machine, it's really awesome.

Thanks Bord )

Alright, I've fixed the playfield lights.

Now I just have to figure out that random flicker on the "ball in play" lights and sometimes the ones under the Players number.

I've checked all switches and all gaps. Maybe the stepper units?

Any pro advice will be much appreciated

I've used some thin packaging foam, cut with an xacto blade and then sprayed it in black, nothing fancy
I did several tries before having the round window completely flush, you definitely have to play with the screws.