Another grail pin found. Stern's "Seawitch" from 1980, the year I was born. I love this game so much: the artwork is gorgeous, the theme is incredible, the sound of the waves memorizing, and the gameplay blazing fast! I sold my Funhouse to generate funds to restore this baby, and won't be looking back.

I grabbed this off of a KLOV ad. She has been hanging out in California probably since the day she came off the assembly line. She's definitely seen plenty of arcade action, and some home use as well. I probably overpaid for this example, but these just don't come up for sale very often, and the seller seemed like a cool dude. Shipped her back to the Midwest this past week, and she arrived yesterday (12/9/15) via STI (another happy Michelle customer):
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I loved coming home to this site!
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Overall, I'm super pleased with what I've purchased. It's not horribly beat and is a great candidate to restore!
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Now I have 2 questions to ask myself:
1. Do I restore this playfield, or go with a new John Greatwich one?
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And question #2: do I restore the original backglass or buy a Greatwich repro?
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There's a number of scratches and flaked areas of the backglass, but it's really not too bad. Would love to hear some thoughts. I haven't done anything to her just yet, but am enjoying playing as is and listening to the sweet sounds of white noise imitating waves crashing in on the share.

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I hear you. I'm just concerned with how many times the playfields have been delayed. Any word on an official release date?

Awesome idea! Will take you up on this. Think I will try and keep the back glass original.

Not anything sexy being done right now, but last night I managed to get the boards all out, the head off, and the inside of the cab cleared out for restoration. I've got a few pics to update the progress.

Here's the head taken apart:
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The inside of the cabinet with 35 years of neglect:
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Just an example of how nicely some of this wood will clean up. On the left, you'll see the untouched side; the right shows what it looks like after light sanding:
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The inside of the cab with everything cleared out. Man I freaking love the COLORS on this game!
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And just for fun...the other Stern that's in the garage getting a full restore as well:
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It's been a good week to get some work in on this old girl!

For my standards, the cabinet is pretty much done. Out of all the pieces, the head probably came out the nicest:
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I did a full sand of certain areas, repainted any areas that were static colors, used wood filler on spots that had significant damage, and touched up any damaged areas. While not as consistent as a full re-stenciling, I'm very pleased with the results and personally like keeping the original art whenever and wherever possible.

For the inside of the cabinet, I decided to get a little creative after sanding the inside:
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I love the contrast of the dark blue against the light wood grain and light blue inside the cab (not that anyone ever looks inside). I still need to clean and refurb many of the components that go in the bottom of the cab, so for now that's about all to show besides the coin door (which needs new plastics) and legs:
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All in all, not a bad week's worth of work. Up next I'm going to start pulling everything off the playfield. Very soon I'll need to decide if I want to wait for the new repro playfields or just send in my playfield to HSA for a Stage 1 or Stage 2 restoration. While it might be a bit more expensive, I have a feeling HSA's turnaround time may be quicker, and I love the idea of keeping the original playfield if at all possible. Thoughts/opinions?

Tommy, I'm pumped to see your restore as well. You need to start posting stuff as well. Dude's got his playfield at Kruzman's, which will look uh-mazing. If you really want me to do something with yours, let me know. I'm really enjoying working on this classic Stern (vs the classic Gottlieb System 1 from hell previously this year)

Yeah, Brian already informed of that. Never reglued inserts, but they seem to come out easily enough...

Today's progress:

Now you see it...
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Now you don't...
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Tore down the entire backside of the playfield. My hands are absolutely disgusting. So much dirt and grime. I've got a few questions about this part:

1. I had to label every cut wire so I know where everything goes. That said, I want to clean the wiring harness. I've heard some folks putting it in the dishwasher, but I can't have my labels/writing falling/smearing off in the wash. Any tips of best way to clean this?
2. The stapled ground braid on the playfield sucks. I'm concerned about redoing this part when I jump back in. It's such a tangled mess right now too. Any tips on handling this part? So far, I haven't cut the braid, but unstapled it and have it all jumbled with the rest of the harness (bonus points for naming the libation on the floor):
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Here's where I am with the topside:
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Throw any tips my way. This certainly isn't my first playfield tear down and rebuild but I'm getting smarter each time, and welcome advice!

Why didn't I think of this?? Thanks Vid.

Mac, PM me. I'd love to get some help with this when the time comes. Plus, I'd love to catch up and see your collection!

Alright, well since I'm probably going to send my playfield off to HSA, I figured that should take priority right now. Within this post, you'll get to see some before and after pics of Magic Eraser. This is in attempt to prepare the playfield for HSA to focus on repainting and fixing, rather than cleaning. Regardless, here's what we've got...

Before I did anything to the playfield:
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Here's a side by side comparison (basically, this is me cleaning the left side of the playfield with ME and not touching the right side):
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Same thing here (notice especially her hair):
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As you can obviously tell, while the ME really does do wonders, it certainly doesn't eliminate ALL ball swirl marks. I'm sure I could have attacked the playfield harder, but I really didn't want to get into the paint and cause more work/headache for the restore.

Here's some final pics from this evening after I cleaning the ME up with some Novus 2 and a clean rag:
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Sad to see it go, but PUMPED to get it back!! Playfield is to HSA for a legit restore...
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Meanwhile, I've got plenty to restore myself besides the playfield. More after the holidays. Merry Christmas!

So while the playfield is away, I couldn't help myself: I decided to redo some of the artwork on the cabinet. I thought I could live with the planking happening, but I guess I couldn't. Here's what it looked like on the worst side:
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After Friskett was applied, here's the 1st coat going down:
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By the way, in case anyone is interested, here's the color matched paint for my cab. My guess is that (by now) every Seawitch has aged slightly different, but I brought my cab head in and this is what the darker blue came out to for me (Lowe's Valspar):
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In other (but related) news, I cleaned up the drop target mechs to look shiny and new again!
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Cap kits performed
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Very nice Chris! Mine actually spent the majority of its life in California too actually. Now she's back home in the Midwest.

A few more shots:

1. All drop targets and housings cleaned up. All but 3 originals survived (these 3 just didn't make the cut)
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2. New buttons and housings
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3. The difference between new and the original coin drop plastics. Not incredibly accurate, but look much nicer (purchased from Marco Spec)
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4. Finished coin door
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More sexy electronic nerdery: rebuilt the rectifier board.

Here's one of the connectors that needed to be replaced. The brown prongs are probably acting more like resistors than conductors at this point!
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Now bullet-proofed with new connectors installed, new bridge rectifiers, heat sink, and actually correctly rated fuses:
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LOVE the way it's looking inside the cab! Is it wrong that I find this shot incredibly sexy? Take a look at that before and after shot!
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Also, I caught myself saying to my wife, "I just love seeing that virgin wood come back." Something may be wrong w me...

Forgot to post the new shots of the cab after the repaint:image_(resized).jpeg
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Also installed LED boards. Unless these are installed on classic Bally/Stern games, LEDs flicker like crazy
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Busy work week for me. Cleaned and rebuilt the pop bumpers with many new parts today though! I have worked on almost all the pinball brands, and have to say that Classic Stern's way of putting their pops together was the best! I love how you can unscrew 4 screws and the entire unit comes out. Awesome!
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Nothing sexy to post but did wire up brand new GI light sockets. Didn't do it the quick way as I didn't have any stranded wire, but this will work just fine. Definitely need to get some lead-free solder as the stuff I have stinks and can't be good to breathe in.

In related news, I'm so stoked about this Seawitch that I've started to hunt for a decent Nine Ball...FullSizeRender_(resized).jpg