(Topic ID: 99177)

A way to make the plastic subways stronger on SF2?

By halo2jak

9 years ago



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#1 9 years ago

My current subways for my street fighter pin are in rough shape, cracking and starting to fall apart. They were bondo repaired by the previous owner but that is only delaying the inevitable. I ordered replacement subways from pbresource. Is there anything I can do to strengthen the new subways after I get them in the mail tomorrow? Was wondering if there was some awesome product that I could spray on or lacquer on them to extend the life or make them more durable. I've seen a number of other used subways on ebay that always seemed to have the same problem of getting damaged.

http://pbresource.com/plastic/gtb-29513.jpg

http://pbresource.com/plastic/gtb-29514.jpg

http://pbresource.com/plastic/gtb-29514A.jpg

#2 9 years ago

I've never owned a SF2 but do they really take that much abuse? In a home environment will you need to worry?

That being said one way to strengthen the part would be to make the weak areas thicker somehow. I've actually glued clear pop bottle plastic to thicken an area of a ramp that was already cracked using super glue, it's help up pretty well. An extreme method might be to carbon fibre re-enforce it but that's probably overkill. Unfortunately I don't know of any product that you can coat the plastic in to make them stronger.

#3 9 years ago

I've wrapped aluminum foil tape around cracked subways. Inside and out. Works great.

#4 9 years ago

I'm guessing that you have problems around the VUKs and perhaps the entrance to the upper left subway (Dahlism). These are the holes that can take direct shots from the flipper. The entrance to the upper right subway is the spinning kick and the ball simply drops in there with little added energy. I'd be surprise if the subway up there was broken.

Truth is as Prock suggests, in a home environment, you are probably not going to ever have issues with new subways as long as you own the machine. Gottlieb used pretty thick plastics and they held up reasonably well. If they were a real problem, you wouldn't have been able to buy them from Steve as he would have sold out a long time ago.

Having said that, in addition to the other suggestions, you can also try using some dead drop foam but you have to make sure it doesn't interfere with ball travel or mechanisms:

http://www.pinbits.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=131

viperrwk

#5 9 years ago

Thank you for the awesome ideas and feedback! Yeah, maybe I'm being a little paranoid, but that foam sounds like that might be just what I'm looking for. I will give that a whirl!

Funny thing is, I almost sold it because I have a second kid on the way. I didn't even know of the damage to the subways until a guy that was going to buy the pin from me showed me the damage while he was checking it out, and how it was bondo repaired with electrical tape covering it. I never checked for that because its my first and only pin that I bought off ebay and I didn't know what to look for. Its a great pin, and everything else works just fine.

Needless to say he ended up not wanting it after seeing that. Which was ok, because my 3 year old enjoys it a lot anf I would have been sad to see it go.

#6 9 years ago

I'd pick up some epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth, scuff the underside for some adhesion and start lamming it up.
the epoxyglass will stick better than polyester resin (normal fiberglass), its lighter weight, and stays a little flexible so it doesnt crack up like regular fiberglass. a pack of fiberglass cloth from hardware or auto supply will be a little thicker than what I'd usually use for boatbuilding but its a convenient grab and more than enough to do the job. 4 layers of it 2 layers per day (lay up two, next day sand and 2 more layers), day 3 oughtta be ready to install and a whole lot tougher than stock.. or if you dont think so, do another day adding 2 more layers to that. it'll back up the plastic from behind very solidly once done.

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