7 Years ago I found a project STTNG on Pinside. It cost $1500 plus shipping. Those were the days. It was a non-playable re-import.
The negatives: It was missing the sound and power board, the DMD, the glass, the Borg ship, and the lockdown bar. It also was missing many playfield parts. The playfield itself was in poor shape. The Klingon and Romulan ships were destroyed. The metal rails were dented. The legs needed to be refinished. There is no latch on the back. The translight is worn in spots.
The positives: The wiring harnesses were intact. The artwork on the cabinet was in pretty nice shape with little to no fading. There was a couple of small scratches and chips in the art but its not obvious. The cabinet and head wood was solid.
Back when I received my game, I didn't really know how to start. Then I came across a topic started by Pinside member sc204 (Stuart). He was doing a complete restore of a STTNG and documenting it in great detail. It was just what I needed. Here is the link to his excellent thread. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/star-trek-tng-next-chapter. When he finished his game, he sold it. Stuart lives in NY and sold it to a guy in Texas. As fate would have it, The guy that bought it lived 10 minutes from my home and allowed me to come play it. It was even nicer in person. It was HEP quality.
I followed his thread and tried to copy everything like he did. I'm afraid I do not have his skill, but I've tried my best. I worked hard for about a year, and made a lot of progress. I bought a lot of missing parts and cleaned up everything that was savable. But personal life suddenly got in the way of the project. Life issues drained my restoration money and my desire to have anything to do with my gameroom. I put the cabinet in the garage in a corner and the playfield on a rotisserie in the gameroom. And there it sat for over 5 years untouched.
Fast forward to March of 2021. I go to my gameroom upstairs and see my other pins sitting unplayed (IJ, WCS, LOTR). I decide to play some games. Next thing I know the old juices are flowing. I looked over and saw the STTNG playfield sitting there. So I made the decision to get back to finishing the restoration. However, I didn't remember where I left off. So I'll post pics from the beginning and document where I came from, where I left off, and where I'm at now. Spoiler alert, I have not finished yet, but getting real close.
Before 10-2014 (2) (resized).JPGBefore 10-2014 (4) (resized).JPGBefore 10-2014 (5) (resized).JPGBefore 10-2014 (7) (resized).JPGBefore 10-2014 (8) (resized).JPGBefore 10-2014 (9) (resized).JPG