OP

Quoted from Mathazar:

Fairly productive day - got the lower cab all torn down and ready for sanding this week. Have a few dings and gouges to repair, but nothing major. This is my 5th cabinet restoration and by far the most structurally sound of them all before starting repairs.
[quoted image] [quoted image] [quoted image] [quoted image]
Will also begin working on refreshing the Tilt Board and Transformer Board this week as well. Sorting through the metal bits this weekend, picking out the ones that will be polished in the tumblers and which ones I'll be sending out to be powder coated (lockdown bar, legs, and side rails for sure).
[quoted image]
One other thing I've noticed while tearing down this cabinet is how original everything is....no hack jobs and most of all, all of the screws seem to be the "right" screws. Usually this is where you find a hodge-podge of different/non-matching (or missing) screws holding stuff in that have found their way into a cabinet over 40+ years. The only bad thing I've found is some dangerously frayed pieces and sections of the ground braid. Looking forward to getting a nice, new and shiny ground braid in after the cabinet gets the Pinball Pimp re-paint treatment.

OP

Quoted from Mathazar:

Time to knock out the back. Staples are removed from the label, but that thing is stuck stuck stuck....must've been adhesive, too.
[quoted image]
The extent of the gouge damage really becomes clear after stripping the paint off. These are deep....will likely bondo the back. Previous owner must've set up this game against a wall of nails at some point.
[quoted image]
Going to have to scrape off the label....a bit tedious, but it's coming up with patience.
[quoted image]

OP

Quoted from Mathazar:

Got the primer coat down yesterday, and knocked it down with 220 today for a nice smooth finish. Hit it with compressed air inside and out, vacuumed out the interior, a quick wipe down with naphtha, and I was all set to put down the black base color when the rain clouds rolled in.
I'll have to pick this up during the week. Meanwhile, I have some smaller metal bits in the tumblers, some larger metal bits out to be powder coated, and I've got to rewire the trough PCBs on my STTNG and get rid of a previous owner's hack job that I should have fixed when I got the machine a couple years ago.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

OP

Quoted from Mathazar:

Well....life gets in the way of pinball, doesn't it? I've had a hellava 40 days since my last update:
- Picked up two new engineering teams at my job resulting in a bunch more hours to get people acclimated and projects organized.
- My mother-in-law entered hospice and a couple weeks later passed away - spent several days in VA with family.
- I got knocked down for a couple of weeks with Covid. Only 3 really bad days, and the rest of the time I was just too exhausted and too apathetic to do anything.
On top of all that....I had one side of the cabinet stenciled already and during my pinball "downtown" over the last month a rack of shelves collapsed in the garage with some contents hitting the cabinet and causing some damage to the stencil paint, base paint, and wood. Instead of starting over on that side, I chose to strip only the damaged area, repair that wood, repaint that section, and make my own stencil to complete the artwork (fortunately, it was just a portion of a yellow stripe, not very graphically intricate).
I'm not very happy with the cabinet result. There are a few places where some edges aren't sharp - but as always, "perfect" is the enemy of "good" so I'm going to just let it go. The "reworked" area where I fixed the damage has a slightly different shade of black despite using the same primer and paint. In a not-so-bright room (like my game room) it will go unnoticed, but if you shine a flashlight on it from a certain angle you can see it. Again....I'm going to let that go.....it's time to move on.
Got a couple of minor touch up areas to do (a little yellow overspray on black due to a rip in my wrap mask) and then the cabinet goes downstairs into the rec room for the next phase. Before moving on to the backbox (which needs all the HW removed, paint stripped, and some wood repair), I need to freshen up the tilt board and transformer board and get the bottom cabinet reassembled.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

OP

Quoted from Mathazar:

Time for the tilt board. Going to run some of the metal bits thru the tumblers tho they don't look too bad as-is. I just noticed the cap on the bell switch has a leg broken - will need to replace that, tho I never had a problem with the bell before. The wire harness is going thru the dishwasher now and I'll be sanding and repainting the board later today. Tilt board build date: March 4, 1981!
[quoted image][quoted image]

OP

Quoted from Mathazar:

Finished refreshing the tilt board today. The metal bits turned out nice - overnight in the tumblers, a little Flitz and polishing by hand, and things look pretty good. Wire loom no longer leaves dirt and grime on my hands after a trip thru the dishwasher. I was going to put it in the cabinet tonight, but I just realized I don't have enough new grounding braid length to complete this job and that needs to be done before the tilt and transformer boards go in. The red should look nice against the black interior.[quoted image][quoted image]

OP

Quoted from Mathazar:

I had a wild idea, inspired by the "Meteor" restore I did last year. Meteor has the "Meteor" text/logo on the back of the backbox, and even tho no one really sees it since the pin is usually up against the wall, I thought it looked cool. So I traced the "Black Knight" text/logo from the coin door and made my own vinyl adhesive masking.
[quoted image]
I figured if it turned out like crap, I'd just repaint it black and move on. Turned out good I think, so I'm going to keep it!
[quoted image]
Overall, I'm pleased with how the backbox turned out....here are some final shots after a few touchups:
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
Next up: create reproduction stickers/labels for the inside of the backbox.

OP

Quoted from Mathazar:

Big milestone this evening - the backbox is installed on the cabinet!
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
[quoted image]
Next up - I need to tear down and clean the coin door. Likely will start that work next weekend.