I'm hoping this thread may help someone in the future. The following is my restoration of an Addams Family. I've done a few restores, but this is the 1st "A" title that I get to keep. TAF was a grail machine for me, and I could not wait to bring it back to its glory.
I'm not going to post everything, since there are numerous better posts that cover the restore process. But, as i get feedback or questions, I can post updates and additional information as requested.

I'd be wrong to not mention 2 local Houston guys, whom recently assisted with Decal and Board testing.

I will be updating as i get time over the next few days/weeks.

Some background:

- Re-Import
- Came over 90% working
- A little bit more than normal cabinet damage (delimitation mainly, some areas missing wood, problems at the joints of the cab)
- Playfield had wear in the normal areas for TAF down to the bare wood
- Missing the knocker (Still looking for this, if anyone has one)
- Welds broken on every scoop (normal)
- Miscellaneous other broken parts
- Random rust everywhere...

Some Before Pics...
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I've got pictures of everything. I label all coils, before desoldering off of the wiring harness. Everything else (lamps, switches) are left on the harness. All parts are removed in quadrants, and I put them into separately labeled plastic bags. Helps me keep everything straight.

The Tear Down.
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I know my strengths and weaknesses... I can't draw a straight line, not alone touch up a playfield to where I would be happy.

Play field was sent out to Keller for repair/resto and clear coat.

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Playfield back from Resto. Looks good.
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Some Cab pictures...

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In the power box, busted MOV and Thermistor...
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A few more cab pictures. Numeorus spots had delamination/seperation. Depending on where, I used either Epoxy or wood glue. Used a little compressed air to ensure it spread into all areas. Clamped everything until dry. Sanded everything 80-120-220. Numerous Bondo applications throughout...

I decided to be a bit different, and painted the bottom of the cab purple (matching the theme). The black and purple looks great.

Interesting fact. In the forums we see many complain about Stern Quality Control.... From what i have seen, it's not worse than what happen back in the William/Bally days. The inside sidewalls of my cabinent, were rough, full of nots, uneven, had gaps, and their was a line where 2 pieces of plywood had been glued together. None of this was due to age/neglect, and obvious came from the factory.
I ended up filling many of these gaps/voids with Bondo.

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Decals on. Head was easy and a one person job.

Main body was a pia, two people was a huge help. My buddy had more experience on this part, and I was glad he was there for the assist...

Rails and lockbar on (white due to protective sticker)
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Nice'N'Easy...Is there such thing in Pinball?

No trick of light, I went crazy and painted the bottom purple. I wanted my machine to be different.

All paint was conventional Spray Paint. Rustoleum. The rustoleum paint seems to go on better then Krylon.

Next phase....Restored playfield. Tnuts first, then Pop Bumper leadsIMG_1277.jpgIMG_1275.jpg

Not posting everything done, since there are plenty of restore tutorials on Pinside.

- All parts tumbled, polished...
- Wiring harness was cleaned, and my labels put back (blue tags). Tags describe what coil they were connected to.
- Again, I left switches, targets, and lights soldered on the harness.
- Any damaged items were replace, all light sockets were manually cleaned. Thank god for the dremel tool.
- All of my targets were in pretty bad shape, so I bought all new targets (for Addams that will run you about $90)
- As long as you don't go crazy, the wiring harness has "memory" and generally falls back into place.
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One tip..on Pop Bumpers. They take a ton of abuse. Plus, they are a utter pain to get to once a game is fully assembled. I spend extra time to ensure a satisfactory result.

1) Replace the skirts and body. There 20+ years old and are cracked, brittle, yellow, etc..... They wont last much longer, and the parts are cheap.. Replace them!
2) Obviously new wire leads for the bulbs (should go without saying). I put shrink tubing on both leads (Bally usually did one). Anywhere other metal is close.......
3) Rod and Ring assembly. It usually can be salvaged/cleaned, but sometimes it may have deep gouges in the Ring. In my case, I had to replace one.
4) Clean everything in the mech. Sleeves are always replaced. Again, cheap.......
5) Check the yokes. All of my metal yokes were broke in half. All were replaced (ironically the fiber yokes were good)
6) Obviously check the condition of the switch and spoon. Make any adjustments
7) Check the plunger and coil stops. Mine were good, but if you see anything looking like a mushroom; it's time to replace.

Vid has an excellent guide on this, so I wont go into more detail.

The wiring bundle, I usually separate into layers. Trying to lay each down one at a time. Switch+target, Lights, Coil
- One other item to note. Sling shots. Check for "mushroom" on the plunger and stops. Mine were beat to hell.
- For the slingshots, I replaced the switches, plungers, coil stops, and of course the sleeves....

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Pic, shows some sloppy soldering at the pop bumper coils. This was temporary. Now has been cleaned up. Leaving it this way would have lead to problems in the future. Prior to installation, i threw all coils into the ultrasonic cleaner (w/wrappers on). In my restore, I did not replace any coil wrappers...(maybe someday later, right now they don't bug me.)
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Doh! Caught me while I was editing my post. I realized I had documented wrong.

I've learned a ton from your past posts...!

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To answer Altobalk's questions..
In your case, you could do the following:
-Mylar over the area (Easy and cheap)....Just realize that if you pull it up, other decals (on windows) might come up with it.
- I have friends whom spot clear areas when good sucess. Using crystal clear or etc...Takes some pratice, and blending
- Buy a mansion overlay....

Ideally restorers do the following: Clean the playfiled well. Fix any wood areas (no paint), apply first clear coat. Paint repairs are ontop of the first layer of clear. Once all the paint fixes are applied, then the additonal coats of clear.

Vid has a great guide on this. (very active thread)....Believe he even covers how to get paint to lay flat....

In my case, the playfiled had numeorus areas of wear down to the wood. Plus, I cant draw a straight line, not alone paint correctly.

I sent mine out to a professional restorer. Keller did a swap with me for a playfiled he previously restored (My PF+$$$). Fully restored, plus Clear Coat.

I'll post a bit more later this week.

You bought a TAF as a first pin?...that is impressive. Not exactly cheap.

Holy smokes....

I started out on an Chicago Coin EM....

Been a bit, a few more posts. The old ramp was a bit beat up. So i replaced with a new clear ramp. I never realized how many switches/lights are attached to the ramp. Took me a bit to clean, disconnect, and migrate to the new ramp....IMG_1308.jpg

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A few updates

Machine has color DMD, and for the first time used Comet LED's. I've bought a few mods (Bookcase and Thing sticker), and built a few on my own (Lighting added to flipper buttons, Topper, Swamp hole, Inside thing box, and bookcase). Also built my own Lurch car.

I'll try to post some photos of each shortly, once i get a decent picture.

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