Hello everyone, and thanks for checking out my thread.
As the title suggests, this will be about my very first playfield swap.
I wanted to create this thread for two reasons. First, to have the journey documented for me to look back on once I reach the end. And second, to have a place to ask lots of questions that I’m sure I’ll have as I go.
I’ve been pinball collecting, playing and fixing for about 2.5 years now. I’ve done various small fixes since getting into the hobby, but this is definitely my most adventurous project yet. So let’s jump in!

I picked up the South Park pin in a recent trade with a good friend. Overall it’s a players condition pin. You can tell it got a lot of play on route, which is typical for south parks.
The previous owner had started the playfield swap, but didn’t get too far into it.
The pin has all its original parts, and a lot of extras. It has a brand new old stock playfield, a brand new full plastics set, new decals set, new mr.hanky, Kenny, etc. I’m very excited to see how nice this thing can turn out with all these nos parts.

Here are a few pics of the pin as I got it:

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And the new playfield:

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The first thing I did was make a playfield rotisserie. I had two metal saw horses lying around not being used, so I figured I’d use those as the base. Plus, when not in use the fold up and tuck away nicely. I should mention that the one end does have a locking mechanism, it’s just hard to see. Here is what I ended up making:

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And here is a pic with the new playfield on it for a visual:

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Then I went back to the pin, labelled all the connections in the backbox, and removed the ones necessary for removing the playfield:

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With the connections removed and slid into the cabinet, I was able to remove the old playfield. I then removed what was necessary to put it into the rotisserie and clamp it down.

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I should mention that I have an old digital camera that I am using to take many many pics along the way. I’m also labelling everything that comes off that isn’t put directly onto the new playfield.

I should also mention that while the new playfield is in fantastic shape, one setback is that some holes are drilled, and some are missing. So I’ll have to drill the playfield. I’m a bit nervous about that, but will be as careful as I can, and I’ll ask lots of questions on here before I do drill.

Thanks!
It is a pin I’ve been after for quite a while. It’s also my brother-in-laws dream pin. So if I ever decide to move on from it once it’s back up and playing, I’m sure he’d love to take it off my hands.
Plus I figured that when it comes to dmd games, South Park is a bit more basic, so it might be a good playfield swap for me to cut my teeth on. With that being said, there’s still quite a bit of stuff to transfer over, so we’ll see how I do lol.

Here’s a few pics to show what little bit has been transferred to the new playfield so far (some by previous owner, some by myself). And that pretty much catches everything up to the point it is at now.

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A small but important move forward today.
I transferred 5 more posts today. But in doing so learned a couple things.
I took the plunge and drilled the topside of the playfield. Some of these had pilot holes, some did not. But the pilot holes didn’t go through all the way, and weren’t big enough. So I started with a small bit, and worked my way up through about 4 bits to get to the right size hole.
I also had to install my first ever t-nuts. These weren’t too bad. I carefully used the hammer method, using blocks of wood covered in very soft towels on the clearcoated side. The tnuts went in smoothly with no damage to the other side.
I also had to do my first partial depth holes, for the screws that hold the tnuts in place. I bought a countersink set, and the one worked just perfectly. I’m happy I invested in it before starting this project.
So while I didn’t get very far on the project, I accomplished 3 new feats that I hadn’t before, and each gave me more confidence in this swap. So I’m quite happy.

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Thanks prairie pal!
.... I’ll see myself out for that one..... lol

The previous owner actually bought it a few years ago, but from where and when I’m not entirely sure. It’s new old stock though I believe, not a reproduction.

Thanks for the offer, I’ll very likely have to take you up on that. The previous owner did send me what pics he had taken as he started removing things, but I’ll probably get stumped on a thing or two by the time I get to moving over what he had already removed.
And I can see how sometimes half removed playfield projects can be like that. I just want to clarify that this came from a good friend of mine, who’s very knowledgeable in fixing pins. He wasn’t really looking to move South Park, as he was hoping to finish it someday. It just ended up that I had a pin he wanted to trade for, and for me to give it up, South Park was what I wanted in return.

That’s crazy. I mean, I can completely see someone tearing a playfield down, losing interest and then just trying to sell it to get rid of it. But I can’t imagine tackling the rebuild without pics. I’ve probably taken 30-40 pics myself so far, and I’ve barely started.

So I noticed there’s a surface /clearcoat crack. I’m not worried as it’s in a hidden spot beneath ramps and plastics, and it’s not where I need to drill any holes. I don’t think it’s spread/grown at all since I got it, but I’m curious if I should be doing something with it or just leaving it as is. Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

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I should’ve posted this earlier, but better late than never:

Please do not follow this thread as a guide. There are much better restoration threads to learn from. This is more to document my journey as I stumble through my swap, learning from my mistakes as I go. I won’t be doing everything the most correct way, I wont be rebuilding everything as I go and using all new parts. Im just here to have fun and learn along the way.

Now, back to the clearcoat crack.
Because it’s hidden by plastics and ramps, I decided to give it a thorough clean, and then use some tough as nails clear nail polish to seal it up. The ball will never wear on it, so I don’t have to worry about that. I likely didn’t really have to do anything with it, but thought I’d do this as a preventative measure.
Also I dont believe this crack is at all a result of me hammering in t-nuts last night, but I’m going to try a different tnut installation method anyway tonight, just for fun.

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After reading a few threads on pinside, I built myself a new t-nut installer. Instead of hammering them in, it pulls them in. Simple to make and works great. I lined the large washer with two lines of felt padding, so that it wouldn’t scratch the playfield. Thanks to the pinsiders who shared this idea on here.

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Thanks for the advice!
So far I’ve been either taking tons of pics, or transferring straight from one playfield to another. So far, so good.
I put some more posts in tonight. Only two needed to be actually drilled out and t-nuts installed. The rest were simply clean out the pilot hole and screw in. I put in the posts that had pilot holes in the correct spots. I left out a few that seemed a bit off on the new playfield compared to the old. My plan is to use the plastics as a guide, as that’s what most of the remaining posts up top are used for. I also have some ball guides left up in that top corner, but I’ll work my confidence up to those lol.

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Usually I only work on my pins once the kids are asleep, but we’re having a lazy Sunday. So I put on the movie Matilda for them to watch, and got to work on transferring some more posts.
At this point, I had a few posts to transfer that had no pilot holes. So I used the plastic for that area from the old set I have, to mark out where I needed to drill.

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Some posts were screw style, some were bolt and t-nut style, and some were a “new-to-me” style of being half screw and half nail. These can be a doozy to get out of the old playfield, but with careful planning weren’t too hard to install in the new one.

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Two of these were easy to access. The third (and two tnuts) were hidden inside the subway plastic, so I had to remove the whole subway to access them. And on south park the subway for all the holes is one giant piece.

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I’ll clean the subway and then reinstall on the old playfield for now.

This pic shows the nail screws installed on the new playfield. I’m getting better at drilling cleaner holes. I find what works for me is to start with a very small bit, and work my way up. On the left side you can see two holes. One was 3 bits to get to that size. One was 6 bits. Now both are nicely covered by the rubbers and posts that use them, but still, I’d like to keep them as nice as my abilities allow me to. So while it adds a little bit of time, I’ll likely use 5-6 bits each hole from now on. I’m sure others have found better ways to keep the playfield from chipping around holes, but this is what works for me.

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And here is that section with all the posts transferred.

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And with the old plastic again to double check it all works together.

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Hooray! It all lines up nicely.

And one final pic to show post transferring progress.

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I believe I have about eight to ten hours into the swap so far. I haven’t been very good at keeping track.

Not too much new to post, I’ve just been adding posts still. It used to be nerve racking, but after transferring quite a few now I find it almost relaxing. Since the last pic, I’ve added some more posts up top, a few along the left side, and added the six posts that hold the two sling plastics. Some of the sling post holes were missing, so I again used the plastics as a guide, and then again to make sure everything works together after.

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Thanks LOTR_breath , I really appreciate you posting those. They clear up a few questions I had, and I’m sure will be very helpful as I go. Thanks!

Transferred 3 regular posts (2 of which formed a gate) and 3 long ramp posts tonight. The old playfield topside is starting to look a bit more bare.

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Also, thanks to LOTR_breath pics, I’ve already notice two posts I’m missing. They both look to be the kind that has the longer threaded top on them.

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I’ll have to put in a Marco order soon for parts. They recently improved their shipping rates to Canada, but I still need to make a solid order list first before ordering, as I want to minimize the amounts of orders and shipping costs I place.

If anyone has any tips for common parts to have on hand for when I do the underside playfield swap, please let me know. Or if there's anything in general that I should pick up for a South Park. I think I will put in a parts order soon, and with living in the middle of nowhere in Canada, am hoping to add possibly needed extras now as opposed to putting in multiple orders later.
Currently I have a list of extra posts in various styles, some rubbers/post sleeves, star posts, t-nuts, etc. but any other ideas would be welcome.

Thanks for the heads up! I know I have a new set or target stickers in my parts pile that came with the game, but I will have to see what they look like / condition they are in / where they are from.

Also thanks to those of you who gave me tips on parts to order. I just put in a Marco order this afternoon for 124 parts. 95% of those are for the South Park rebuild, while a few are for my Monopoly and Ripley's believe it or not.

Decided to switch it up from transferring posts, and started in on swapping the toilet over. I mostly wanted to pull it off and see how clean I could get it. I’ll post pics after I give it a good scrub.

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Also, for being something so silly, this toilet mechanisms were well thought out. Works pretty slick.

I’ve noticed that! Is it because of the way the mech pushes him up? I have a nos mr.hanky that has two arms, but I’m a bit afraid to put him in.

Also, the toilet has been cleaned up and installed on the new playfield. I’m not overly happy with how bowed out the top part is, but overall I can live with its condition.

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Another first for me today. I added some wire ball guides. The previous owner had added a few before I got it, but this was the first time that I’d be swapping wire ball guides. And I started with the longest two on the playfield. Not sure if that was a smart, brave or just dumb move on my part. I’m kind of thinking the last one. While I did get both in, and they feel firmly planted, I am a bit hesitant to say it was a great success. I guess we will see how they hold up once I get playing the machine, but fingers crossed for now.

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I also spent a fair bit of time cleaning the two rails I was about to transfer, as well as all the rails the previous owner had already transferred. Most felt pretty rough to the touch, and I was worried they would scratch the balls up. I’m not sure the best way to clean rails, but with how gritty these felt, I chose to use a very fine sandpaper. It cleaned the rails really well and all feel way smoother now. I feel better about the balls coming into contact with them now.

I also added a few posts and a hole guide to the right side of the playfield.

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Another job I got done today was transferring some of the larger style t-nuts over. I transferred 6 in total tonight. 2 for the hole guide, and 2 for each of the playfield holders that ride the inside cabinet rails. That was poor pinball terminology, and I apologize haha.
The reason I mention this, is that I wanted to share my method in case anyone reading this has to transfer these as well. These t-nuts are larger than the post tnuts I transferred in the past, and I needed a new method. For these, I used a slim block of wood and a 2in c-clamp. Please excuse how rusty it is in the pics, my brand new ones were all busy holding the old playfield to the rotisserie. Worked like a charm though, and no hammering needed!

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And one final pic showing how things currently sit.

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Another small update.
(Edit: apparently I blabbered on and it’s longer than I was expecting. Sorry bout that!)

As you may have noticed, most of my posts are just small bits done here and there. That’s mostly because mon-fri, I work 8-4, then spend 4-9 with my wife and kids, and then usually try to work a bit on the South Park swap from 9-11ish. Some days I’m lazy and watch tv, play videogames, plays cards with my wife, etc instead of working on the swap. But I’d say that since starting, I’m averaging 4-5 days a week where I at least do a small bit of work. So it’s slowly but surely coming along. And I’m happy with the pace and progression so far.

Back on topic. Tonight I swapped 5 more posts, which includes the shooters lane gate. This took a bit longer as only one of the five posts had a pilot hole. So I had to carefully mark the other four holes before drilling.

For this, I couldn’t use the corresponding plastic to mark the holes, as there was a metal ball rail installed that was in the way. So instead I used some wax paper and a permanent market to make a template. I didn’t have any tracing paper, and wax paper actually worked quite well. Once I had a good guide drawn and cut, the rest went quite quickly.

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Thanks! And that’s a good question. The playfield came with Mylar in the factory spots for South Park, so in the pops, by the slings, and where the ball drops from the ramp and wire form. The previous owner also included a cliffy for the Kenny hole. I haven’t looked into where else south parks tend to wear, but I should do that soon. I do have extra Mylar I can add if needed, so if anyone has any suggestions I’d be happy to hear them.

Based on that pic above, you're saying I should mylar the top, bottom, and to the left of the hole? At that point should I just mylar all four sides, even with having a cliffy?
Technically the cliffy covers 3 of the sides, but I have a bunch of mylar so its not much trouble to add if recommended.

I’ve made some more progress.
First up, all the posts and ball wire rails have been transferred! Hooray!

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Well almost all the posts. I broke two posts when transferring, and two were missing when I got the pin. I do have replacements for all 4 coming in the mail though, along with some other goodies for the pin. So that’s exciting.

After transferring all the wire rails and posts, this is my conclusion for those two parts.
Posts transfers are fun, almost relaxing. They can take some careful planning to get in the right spot, but if you take your time, they are easy enough to tackle.
Wire rails, I did not enjoy transferring as much. By the end I had gotten a bit better, but I found with these that even if you carefully plan everything out, sometimes they go in smoothly, sometimes they fight you. In the end I believe I got them all in and tight enough though. But I didn’t really enjoy this part of the swap.

Here’s a good example pic. The wire rail circled in yellow, went in super nicely. The wire form in green, fought me.

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It fought me going in, even though I drilled the pilot holes the exact same as the others. Also as my luck would have it, it kind of broke a part of the back playfield edge a little bit. I “fixed” this by installing a screw with a washer. It helps push the edge back flat again, and also stops the rail from pushing out. Though I don’t think the rail would work it’s way out anyway, it feels pretty tight. This is an example of one of my learning failures lol. I’m not going for a HEP level pin here, so if this is the worst that happens for my playfield swap, I’ll consider myself lucky.

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So now onto the next part of the adventure. Swapping the underside of the playfield.
I flipped the rotisserie and will start taking lots of pics and tagging connections.

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Random question time. I noticed that if the lighting hits Satan’s insert just right, you can see it’s outline under the decal.

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Should I be worried? Well not so much worried, but is this a sign it could wear down quicker? I feel like it will be fine, but I could slap some Mylar over it if it’s likely to wear.
There’s one or two other decal/inserts that kind of look like this under certain lightning as well, so thought I ask. I’ve never owned a new playfield before.

Good eye. 2 of the four missing posts are the ones that hold that up kicker wire form. They have a longer top on them, and I couldn’t find them in the parts that came with the pin. So I ordered a few and will get them installed when they get here.
Looking at the pics, I believe the one post should fit nicely where it needs to. Maybe the pic angles make it look off? The playfield had dimpled dots showing where to install the rounded wire rail. Maybe I’ll take out the upkicker wire form and see if it’s two bolt holes match the dots on the playfield.

Also thanks northerndude for that info. I’ll maybe toss a square of Mylar over it. I’ll recheck the other insert decals too and see if any others look that bad.

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Not too much progress happening on the South Park pin today, as I’m working on a different project.
With covid lockdowns in place, most people are building bars in their basements, not tearing them down haha. But we’re expanding/renovating our basement bathroom so that we can add a tub/shower, so the old bar needs to go. I should have the carpenter and plumber start coming later this week to help out with the actual bathroom renos.

Haha nope! I make sure to keep the pinball funds separate from the family funds.
Though with the bar removed, if we don’t renovate the bathroom, we have the space and funds for three more pins. I’ll have to run that idea past my wife, see what she thinks....

Back to South Park this evening.
Starting on the underside of the old playfield, I started by taking lots of pics.
Then I started to unclip the lights from their sockets, making sure to label each bulb as to which insert it belongs to.
My next planned step is to start transferring all the individual sockets over. These are those plastic rings in the pics, and each one has its own screw. I want to transfer these over so that later when I’m ready to move the harness to the new playfield, these are ready. Plus, it will help de-clutter the old playfield before I start on disconnecting and transferring mechs over.

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After labelling and unclipping some of the lights, I worked on the playfield subway. I removed it from the old playfield, and gave it a good cleaning. It’s not brand new, but it came out clean enough for my standards. Also, the subway is in great shape, with no cracks or broken parts.

Subway when I got the game:

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Subway now:

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Transferred some of the bulb socket holders over.
This is a fun stage. It’s easy to do, feels like your accomplishing a lot, and helps de-clutter the old playfield.
For these, I usually transferred 2-3 at a time. I’d drill the screw holes on the new playfield with my countersink bit (has been one of the best tool pickups for this whole swap), then remove the holder off the old playfield, give it a clean, and then install on the new playfield. I did 2-3 at a time, as I wanted to make sure I installed the screw for the holder in the exact same position as on the old playfield. This would ensure I don’t place them where another item, mech, etc has to screw in.

More tagging:

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Transfer results after about an hour and a half:

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I’m hoping to tackle the rest of the bulb socket holders tomorrow evening.

Thanks.
I can't imagine building a playfield from scratch, so I have a lot of respect for those who are able to do it. Without having the old playfield here to guide me, I'd be very lost. I might still be yet lol.

Its kind of a weird answer, but sort of. I have taken ramps, plastics, etc. off of playfields before to clean the playfield, or do small repairs. But I have never completely stripped the top of a playfield before to do a proper shop job on it. So this has really been jumping in with both feet for me. I felt that after being in the hobby for 3 years, and being on a limited pin budget, I had to eventually take the plunge and get better at working on pins, if I want to be able to buy project pins for cheaper and then bring them up to a solid player level.
That's also why this swap might not be quite as nice/extensive as others swaps have been on pinside. I applaud those who take the time to rebuild every mech, polish every metal part, etc. That's really the way a rebuild should be. For me, my skill level, and what I wanted to achieve with this South Park, I didn't really feel the need to take my rebuild/swap to that level. That's something I've noticed with reading some people's comments on other threads. That they could never rebuild or swap a pin to the level that some build have been on this forum. And I just want to share that its ok to not go to that level. Not every swap has to bring a pin to better than new levels. Its rad when people are able to do that, but realistically for someone at my current skill level, aiming a bit lower on this swap is ok. I'm building new skills with this swap, and maybe on my next one I'll aim for a higher level of finish, and learn even more. I think if I was to aim for the level that some people are capable of on here, I would have been discouraged before I even started. So I aimed for a more realistic level for me and my set of skills.
I realize that the first two sentences of my long winded paragraphs answered your question, so I apologize for talking so much haha. Your question just got me thinking of my thought process that I wanted to share with others who might be nervous about taking on a playfield swap for the first time.

Finished up transferring the bulb socket holders over. The only inserts without are the pop bumper inserts, and that’s because they only use flasher bulbs.

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Was slow to get these finished up as I had to work on the bathroom expansion project. I finished removing the bar, shelves and old tiles from the area. Should see the wall(s?) removed over the weekend.

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Decided to do a little more on South Park tonight once the kids were tucked into bed.

I labelled/tagged a fair bit more on the wiring harness on the old playfield, in preparation for the eventual swap to the new playfield. I didn’t take any pics of this though.

I moved the ball trough over to the new playfield. I’m not sure if the coil plunger that pushes the ball into the shooters lane looks quite right, so I’m going to go over to the South Park club thread after this and post some pics and ask.

I decided to try something different tonight and move a few of the stand up targets over. In the end I got 5 moved over, so I still have 8 left to transfer.
I quite like how Sega designed their stand up targets. They seem sturdy and the fact you can reverse the body of it so that you can mount it on its front or backside is neat.
I had a few spares, which was good, as I needed parts from each to give me 5 nice stand up targets to use. Of the 5 I swapped over, most had a damaged component of some sort. So before transferring I disassembled, cleaned the old sticker off the target front, then reassembled using whatever spare parts were needed to give me 5 unbroken stand up targets. I then applied the decals, and installed on the new playfield.

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(I have two sets of brand new target decals, so if I ever need to swap in a new target I’ll be fine)

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I realize that Ned and the Scientist have different shades of green square targets. Basically, those are what I have, and they’re in nice shape. I have extra target decals of each character so possibly down the road I’ll make them match. But for now it’s fine.
Also, I’m assuming that out of the 8 stand up targets left to transfer, some will have broken housing parts. For now I’ll have to clean, redecal and transfer to the new playfield, but again down the road in a couple weeks I’ll likely order new ones, once I have a needed parts list built up again.

Also, after recently discovering dmacy high Speed playfield swap thread and reading it through, it made me realize I should post pics of my main two helpers as well.
Usually when I’m working on South Park, it’s quite late and my wife and kids are in bed for the night. So usually it’s just me and our two cats that are still up. So here’s pics of my helpers, Hudson and PJ.

Hudson

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PJ

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Sheepish confession time: I've never waxed a playfield. Most of the time I find waxed playfields play too fast for my noob skill level haha. But I do like the idea of having extra protection on the playfield, and you're right that now would be the ideal time to do it (technically when it was completely bare would've been the ideal time, but I can't go back in time haha). I'll have to watch some videos and get to that.

Interesting! I have seen pics of a red subway, and obviously have seen mine being clear. But your pic is the first blue one I have seen.

Another thing I noted yesterday was that half my coils are labelled Sega, and half are labelled Stern. I know that South Park came at the time they were transitioning from Sega to Stern, so I'm curious if it came from the factory like that, or if some coils were swapped in after as replacements. I'd say the coils are about 50/50 each company.

Today was a busy day. I went to work, and then after that did some work on the bathroom renos. Then I watched the latest episode of the mandelorian.
By the time I was done all that, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to work on South Park. But I told myself I could maybe just do some wire labelling on the old playfield to prep for the swap.
Well, of course once I got into it I ended up doing more than just labelling lol. I ended up moving the remaining 8 targets over. Similar process as before, remove, disassemble, clean, re-sticker, assemble and then install. These 8 went quicker than the last 5, mostly due to me better understanding how the target works and fits together.
I had mentioned it in my last post about these stand up targets, but just to mention it again. Originally the project came with a few extra stand up targets, but sadly I had to use all their unbroken parts on the first 5 targets I swapped. That left me with not many options if the remaining 8 had broken bits. Luckily, most were in decent condition. So overall, I have now swapped the 13 standing targets over, and for the very most part they are in quite good condition, clean and with new stickers.
Here’s a few pics:

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One thing I did note. At some point a previous owner of the old playfield swapped a target by the toilet, and installed it in backwards. This caused it to be angled as there wasn’t enough room for it to be screwed in on the same side as the others. So when I removed the target, I disassembled it so that it could be screwed in on the opposite side, as it should’ve been. Further evidence of this is the old screw holes on the old playfield, and the pilot holes on the new playfield.
Pics:

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Not too much of an update for today. I ended up getting the walls removed for the bathroom renovations, so that was good, but that sadly took time away from the South Park playfield swap.

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I did do a bit more labelling and removing though this evening. For most of the insert leds, I marked the led wire based on what insert it goes into. Pretty straightforward. For the GI lights, it’s not really as easy to label. So I took an easy way out and just numbered them, and marked their matching hole on the old playfield with a number too. None of this will show when installed on the new playfield. And the old playfield will likely become lit wall art, so no one will see the markings on its backside anyway.

Example:

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With the GI labelled, it’s only a few switches, mechs and the pop bumpers left screwed to the playfield. Those will likely get marked and removed soon enough too. For the wires, I think I’ll bag similar areas / branches together, so when I do swap the harness, I can concentrate on smaller areas at a time.

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Thanks for the info! I had read before that the harness has memory and will naturally bend back to the holes they should go to. I was just worried that if I didn't label them, knowing my luck mine wouldn't bend back right and I'd be screwed. I wasn't sure if my bag grouping idea would mess the way it bends back to its natural shape. So I figured better safe than sorry, even if it wasn't needed in the end.
If I end up doing a second playfield swap down the road, I will likely be able to eliminate a few steps, including this labelling. I'll chalk it up as part of the learning experience.

This post has more questions than answers, so I’ll likely be posting it in the South Park club thread as well.

I was able to get more of the wires and mechs labelled and off the old playfield:

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But ran into a few issues.

First. I noticed these wires ziptied up into the wiring harness. Did these come ziptied from the factory? And if not, does anyone recognize what they are for?

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Next up. I noticed this metal bracket was cracked in half. I’m not worried about making it look pretty. So I was wondering if some jb weld would work? Or is that a terrible idea? Should I just put it back on as is? My welding skills are terrible. I could find someone to weld it, but only if it’s really necessary.
Another possibility is to add a strip of metal that reaches across the crack, and is screwed in on each side using the existing screws.

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Third. This mech that pops the ball up into the lower wire form that feeds the right flipper. I noticed it had two screws on the bottom side, one screw on the outside, but nothing in the hole I’m pointing to. Should it? And if so, what?

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Any help would be greatly appreciated. Again, I’ll likely post in the south parks club thread too, just to be safe.

Thanks for both your reply here as well as the South Park club thread, I really appreciate it!

Thanks!
I looked at a few of the pics showing what posts I have currently on the playfield, as well as a pic showing how it looks fully assembled, and you are right, there's definitely a machine post there with a nut. It's just all hidden under a plastic, and I didn't remove that machine post, so I didn't realize it was originally there. Thanks for helping point it out.

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No pics to add tonight, but I did do a bit more.
I transferred over the 5 or so wire harness holder posts. I drilled two post holes that I had missed, and added t-nuts to each. I removed the mr.hankey mech from the old playfield, and one pop bumper.
I really only have two pop bumpers to disassemble and remove, and then the entire wire harness should be detached. I’m super eager to get it over to the new playfield and start reattaching things. But, before I do that I have to drill the 9 holes needed to insert the nail/screws that hold the pop bumper mechs on. Once that’s done, in theory, I should be done with the drill. But I’m not holding my breath on that lol

An exciting milestone was hit tonight!

But first:
I removed the remaining two pop bumpers from the old playfield, and then got to work putting the nail/screws into the new playfield. I was kind of nervous for this part. But once I got a system figured out, it was actually pretty smooth. I drilled the 9 holes, continuing up in bit size until I hit the required hole width. Then I slightly made the end of the hole a bit bigger, as the screw head would need to sink into the playfield a bit. With these being half screw half nail, I wasn’t sure if I should be hammering them in or what. Instead, I went with a method that used a nut and some washers on the backside to tighten them into the playfield. Then I’d remove the nut and washers, and move to the next nail/screw. It worked wonderfully. Here’s a few pics.

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And with those transferred, the old playfield is officially 100% stripped!

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And a few pics of the wear on the old playfield:

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And so now out with the old, and in with the new!

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The new playfield is officially on the rotisserie. Tomorrow I plan to flip it over and start attaching the wiring harness. I’ll start with the easy things like gi lighting, insert sockets, rollovers, etc to get the wires a bit tidied up. Then I’ll move to the bigger things that will require a bit more time. But I’m very excited to be starting this next phase!

Thank-you!

Thanks bud! I'm thinking when I go to put the topside completely back together, I'll be looking to your expertise for a few parts.

Another day, another midnight update post lol.

I started on attaching the wire harness to the back of the new playfield this evening. I didn’t get terribly far as I spent a good amount of time texting people about pinball and the bathroom renos, but I did get a bit done. My initial thoughts are that I’m (a) very glad I took so many pics, and (b) very glad I labelled everything with green tape. The bit that I started with was very easy to understand and place on the new playfield. I don’t want to jinx or get ahead of myself, but I hope the rest follows as smoothly.

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I just used plastic bags to bundle some ends of the wire harness together, so when I removed it off the old playfield, set it on the floor while I switched playfields on the rotisserie, and then moved it onto the new playfield, it was easier to move, and less chance of me confusing where things go/things getting tangled. It also helps me work on installing sections at a time. Its likely an unnecessary step, but I had seen someone else do it, and thought it was worth trying. It did work well enough though.

Thanks. I can’t really take credit for it, as I’m sure I saw it in another build thread. I just can’t for the life of me remember which one. It’s maybe not a technique everyone will like, but after two evenings of attaching the wiring harness to the new playfield, I must say I like the working in sections method.

Which brings me to another small update. I spent a bit of time this evening working on the playfield swap. It’s a bit tedious as there’s so many connections to clean, cut the painters tape off, then attach to the playfield. But overall it’s enjoyable work. Here’s an updated playfield progress pic:

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Oh and I almost forgot. The plumber made progress on the bathroom pipes today. He had to break the cement, but he got all the pipes moved/installed to their new locations. Monday he’s coming back to pour the cement and work on assembling the 3 piece shower/tub.
My carpenter friend who helped with the old wall removals, is coming over Sunday and we’re going to frame the new walls. So lots going on with both my current projects!

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Thank-you!

You’re probably more skilled at this stuff than I am, but I appreciate the compliment. I would like to stop by once covids relaxed though, I really want to try out some of your pins

Getting there. Less green tape each day.

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I mostly have a few flashers, the pops, the Kenny mech, and a few things along the back that I can’t install due to the rotisserie, left.

I might mod the flashers. I’m thinking an L shaped bracket would work to get them pointed at the insert. Going from a bulb to a led changes the way they point, and I’m thinking they won’t light the insert well as they currently are.

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Thanks for the idea. I’ve never seen these before.
I might try them, but with how slow shipping is now with covid and the holidays, I might try the L shaped bracket first. But I’ll definitely keep these in mind.

Thanks for sharing, those are really neat! I live in a small town so I don’t think anyone local does, but I’ll ask around.

Thanks for the offer! I may have found a solution, but depending how it looks when I actually get to testing it out, I may still contact you.

I decided to try making a little form out of tin, that could reposition the flashers so that they point more down towards the insert. I had some sheet tin left from when I made custom ramp protectors for a pin I used to own, so I figured why not try. It was a bit thin, so I ended up doubling it over, as well as bending some extra around the sides. This not only made it stronger, but also made all the edges rounded, so I am a lot less likely to cut myself on them later. They’re not perfectly shaped, and that’s ok, as they’re hidden under the playfield.

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Also, we got the framing done for the new bathroom walls. Tomorrow should be the pouring of concrete and more electrical work done.

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Busy day today! Though not much in regards to South Park haha.

3 piece tub/shower kit got delivered today, and should be installed tomorrow.

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Cement was poured early today, should be ok to work on by tomorrow when they go to install the 3 piece tub/shower combo.

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I made a trip into the nearest city that has a shipping depot, which is a 4 hour round trip. Brought back the bathroom vanity my wife wanted:

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And something from the shipping depot for me:

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My son and I have been very excited for this to arrive. It’s midnight here so that’s as far as I’m unpacking it tonight (it was plastic wrapped, then cardboard wrapped, then plastic wrapped again). From what I can see it is minty minty minty. Lots of worthwhile mods too. This, with South Park, are my brother in laws two dream pins, and two of my dream pins as well. I’m not telling them I have them, I’m going to let him casually find out next time he’s over visiting, so that I can see his reaction. I know for a fact he’s not on pinside, so this is the only safe platform that I can share my new pin without him knowing haha.

One small update with South Park. The large Marco order I bought about 3-4 weeks ago, finally arrived today to my post office, though it was after hours. So I’ll pick it up tomorrow. Which is great as I was at a stand still for the pops without it. So should be able to move forward with a few more parts of the South Park swap now.

A small update. Basically saying I haven’t ditched or forgotten about this project haha.

My new xmen pin has been taking up some of my free time. What an awesome game. Right now it has a finicky Xavier switch, but I’ll get that sorted sometime.

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I’ve also been spending a lot of my free time with my family, getting into the Christmas spirit. It’s been fun so far. I have this coming week off from work, so I should have lots of time for family and the playfield swap.

As far as South Park goes, I finished up 90% of the wiring on the underside. The only thing left is soldering a few wires together, finishing the pops (though I’m waiting on a package with the parts I need to fix the under playfield parts of the pops), and a few wires along the very back that I can’t access due to the playfield rotisserie edge. So I turned it back over and started adding a few rubbers, flippers, etc to the topside of the playfield.

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I did install one one pop assembly today, and will likely do the other two tomorrow. I went with a yellow body and red skirt, to match the top pop bumper cap. I’m happy enough with how it looks. Beats the plain white at least.

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And, as it has become customary (for reasons I’m not even sure) here is an up to date pick of the basement bathroom expansion. Most if the plumbing and electrical is done, so we will drywall, mud and then paint hopefully this week.

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Random question.
For the light sockets in pop bumpers, does it matter which black wire connects back to which original spot? I have the two connection spots marked for each, and I believe I have it straight which of the two from each goes where. But if I happened to have messed it up, does it matter if I got the two black wires on one light socket crossed? If my wording makes sense.

Also obligatory update pic:
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Awesome, thanks for the info!

It’s soldering time!

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Now admittedly I’ve been putting this step off for a bit. My soldering skills aren’t great, and I just kept finding other things that needed done. But today I figured I’d better get to it.
With the way I swapped most mechs over, I really only had a couple things to solder. The gi sockets for the pop bumpers had to be cut to transfer, and one slingshot broke its connection when moving. There may be more connections I choose to re-solder later, but for today it was just the 8 wires.

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Then some heat shrink:

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Those two pops I was smart and cut the wire, and resoldered wire to wire. On the third pop, I needed to solder wire to connection.

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A little globby, but strong.

Then the brown wires onto the right side sling:

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And with that, all the green tape on the middle and bottom is gone!

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Just a bit left up top, though I can’t get those done as they’re too close to the edge hidden under the rotisserie lip. I’ll have to remove it soon from the rotisserie to finish the bits at the very top and bottom. But it’s getting closer to going back in the cabinet, which is exciting.

Merry Christmas everyone!
Today was mostly spent enjoying time with my family, watching my kids get excited for what Santa brought them. They’re 2, 6 and 8 years old, so Christmas Day is such a magical and fun time in our house.

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Usually at this time of year it’s between -30 to -40 Celsius around here. But this afternoon it was a beautiful -1. So I took the opportunity to move South Park’s cabinet out of the garage and into the basement. I really hope to get the playfield into the cabinet soon, and finish up this swap. I won’t rush the last stretch of swap, but I am excited to see the finish line soon.

For the cabinet today, I installed light blue cabinet protectors, light blue t-molding trim, and I also painted the inside of the cabinet (or at least what would be visible on the sides above the playfield). The cabinet isn’t the most immaculate, but overall it’s cleaning up nicely.

Sides before:
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Sides after:
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T-trim and cabinet protectors installed:
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Current lineup:
(Two are sold but due to covid restrictions the new owners have not gotten their games yet)

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And it’s in the cabinet!
Today felt like a big milestone to hit. It’s the first time this playfield has ever been in a cabinet. I reattached quite a few pieces today on both the front and back of the playfield to get it to go in.
Still have lots to do though. I have ramps and plastics to attach. I need to reattach all backbox connections. Then install colordmd. But it’s getting there.

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Thanks! Your high speed playfield swap was a big motivator to keep me chugging along at this one. Yours turned out amazing.

Thanks! I was debating between light blue or white, but decided on light blue as I also had the light blue cabinet protectors. I’m happy with how it looks though.

A bit more tackled on the right side. The left side ramp is ready to be installed, but I’m waiting on new pop bumper metal and fiber yokes to arrive in the mail. So until that package gets here, I’m kind of at a stand still on the playfield for the most part. I hope to tackle the backbox wiring tomorrow. I’m also waiting on a pin2dmd to arrive for South Park too.
So a bit more tomorrow, and then I’ll be at the mercy of the post office. Both packages were ordered two weeks ago, but Canada Post is so backed up their mail is at a snails pace currently.

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Got the wiring harness back into the backbox and all the connectors attached again. The finish line is within sight!

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I was waiting on packages coming in the mail for the last week and a half, but today both the pin2dmd display as well as the parts to finish the pop bumpers all arrived at the post office. I'm hoping to tackle as much as I can tonight, and power this up for the first time since taking ownership.

Well, I spoke too soon lol.
Remember how I was posting basement bathroom renovation pics? Well that’s ended up as a whole basement renovation project lol. And right now we’re at the painting stage. So my night consisted of masking, cutting in and rolling paint. I got a lot painted, but sadly nothing done on South Park. Fingers crossed that tomorrow evening is a different story.

Well, I spoke too soon again lol.

I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to do a bit of work with South Park. I ended up installing its pin2dmd display.

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It’s a whitestar system so it’s a bit trickier to setup as it has the extra board, but in the end I think I got it. Shout-out to dzorbas , for being my supplier of pin2dmd displays. Not only does he make great display boards and custom power connections so it’s a simple plug and play, but he’s also a super nice, friendly and helpful guy. I can’t recommend him enough if you need a pin2dmd display.

After the pin2dmd display was installed, I also added new batteries and added a bent plastic dmd reflection eliminator.

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And I believe that’s where I’ll call it quits tonight. Hopefully I can fall asleep now and then tackle the pop bumpers tomorrow.

Here’s a few updated pics to show the bathroom/basement renovation progress.

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Put in the new metal and fiber yokes in each pop, and cleaned the coil, sleeve, etc.

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Should be just the left side ramp now and then it’s time to test! I already cleaned and installed new posts and rubbers on the ramp, so shouldn’t take long this evening.

Well I spent more time on South Park tonight, but didn’t get to starting it up yet.
I installed the left side ramp. I ended up being 4 bolts short on the ramp install, which considering this pin had sat disassembled for a couple years, then was moved to a completely new home, I’m actually surprised I wasn’t missing more overall. I’ll go to the store tomorrow to grab the bolts and finish the ramp up.

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Then I installed the new ball trough plunger. Here’s a pic for comparison of old vs new. The white one is the new one.

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After that I installed some blue flipper buttons to match the t-molding and cabinet protectors. They look dark in the pic, but in real life they match up decently well.

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I have a set of cabinet button wear covers coming in the mail. They look like this:

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I had ordered stern lollipop rails for South Park, but it ended up being they would need cut to fit. So I decided to toss them on my new to me xmen pin instead, and then go with these cheaper covers on South Park.

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And that’s as far as I got today.
Tomorrow I’ll probably have to paint more basement walls again, but time permitting I’ll install the pin2dmd color file for South Park, finish installing the ramp, and then start the pin up. Unless I’m forgetting more small things like I was today haha.

Whoops double post

It’s alive!

I finished up bolting the ramp in and putting the color files on a card for the dmd. Fired it up and.... it works!
No smoke, no fire, no odd noises! Woohoo!

I spent time testing all the rollovers, targets, mechs, etc. Everything works great. I adjusted 2 LEDs and that was it!

I’ve played 3 games so far on it, testing it all out. It’s a pretty fun game! Yeah it’s a bit of a basic layout and code, but the shots are fun, and the humour is fantastic!

I was worried that with being from so early on in south parks lifespan, that it might feel slightly outdated. But it really doesn’t. I love the Terence and Phillip fart pop bumpers, the mr.hankey multiball and all the callouts.

I’m so pumped! I wasn’t sure if I could handle a project of this size, and now that it’s all done, I’m pretty happy with my new skill set and accomplishment.

I’ll attach some pics to hopefully show how nicely it turned out.

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