St Joseph, MI
Quoted from dudah:Home Depot - $1
Cheapest trip to Home Depot ever! Nice.
(Topic ID: 186315)
Welp, I did it, I brought the cab inside.
Had to lose part of my couch and do some creative re-arranging of my living room. This is the only and last possible spot I can keep a game. At this point, thinking of keeping it for a month or three.
Set it up, two of the back plates have stripped threads. Fortunately, am going to the suburbs tomorrow, gonna swing by PinballLife on the way.
I noticed one of the legs I received was different. One was a WPC style. I have two sets of legs at my brother's house I'll pick up tomorrow and see what I have.
Addressed the neck.
Scoped out how it's going to get glued back together.
There were a few big wood pieces I kept, gorilla glued those back in.
There's a couple staples sticking up from the cab that I'll try to push into the neck.
After this round of glue sets I'll pop on the neck.
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Initial pieces glued perfect. Gorilla glued the head on. Really hammered it down in the corners where the nails were. Top looks good. Doesn't match up 100% in the back but I'll put a bunch of wood glue in there later. Kinda wanna drill some screws into it from the bottom to reinforce it. The head will be bolted, but I REALLY don't want this failing.
Nice realization while looking at the serial tag on the back, the Williams factory was 1.2 miles from my apartment!
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Victoria, BC
I was looking at the photo of your flipper rebuild and it looks to me you have the coils the wrong way around.
Quoted from TZpinboter:I was looking at the photo of your flipper rebuild and it looks to me you have the coils the wrong way around.
Thanks for that! I noticed that also, I was guiding the little nub into the groove, but I'll just cut it off and flip 'em. Also picked up the capacitors for the flippers.
A little progress tonight:
Reassembled the shooter assembly, real nice!
Cleaned up some of the new legs, they cleaned up real nice!
Replaced the two rear leg brackets
Put wood filler all in the rear gaps and screw holes
Wood filler needs 36 hours to set. After that I'll pop on the head and playfield!
Going to paint the transformer also.
Should be coming together real soon here!
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90 minutes today:
Cleaned up 2 legs and swapped them out. The game now has all System11 style legs that are decent looking.
Ran to home depot and got some head bolts/washers - $1
Removed the coin door, washed it in the shower, reassembled. Way better! I could use a new service button sticker after that, though
Wiped down all the wiring in the cabinet
Reinstalled the power switch, electrical box and power cable
Reinstalled the transformer, painted it the other day, turned out great!
Cleaned up my workspace and apartment, feels a lot better in here!
Nearly forgot yesterday I plastidipped the lockdown bar lever and playfield prop. Not necessary, but certainly an upgrade.
Jammed in the coin mechs, I found a few slugs, and a few coins.
Years: 1990, 1984, 1965, 1989 (x2), 1981 (x2).
I find this interesting.
Guessing this was taken off route in 1990 or shortly after.
There's residue from an operator sticker under the shooter rod but no other identifying information.
Going to need an extra hand to pop in the playfield and on the head, maybe this week.
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2 hours:
Put the head on
Put the playfield in
Put some wood filler in some holes and a gouge in the back of the head
Sprayed contact cleaner on all the connectors. My brother fixes CT machines and got me a can of this cleaner, he said it's like $100/can.
Hooked up the cables in the backbox and under the playfield
Added a bunch of missing screws to hold the boards
Cleaned the topper
Put the plexi/bulbs/topper back on
Soldered the volume cable I cut
Put in a new ground braid to the head
Secured the 2 loose displays with new adhesive
Home stretch!
Going to take a break and get back to it in a bit, should at least get it powered up tonight!
A couple more hours:
Replaced the plug, verified ground all around
Made the LED strip for under the ramp - blue right up to the helmet, red after on the ramp, looks great!
Fixed some of the LED strips that were falling off with hot glue
Finished putting the playfield back together! Ramp, helmet and mini playfield
Powered it up! Booted right up. Displays are very weak. The first one is semi legible and the rest barely have anything, may have to put them back up to 100V
Sound works fine
I pinched the lower blue LED strip while adjusting the apron so have to likely replace that section
A few LED's are out
Quoted from dudah:A few LED's are out
If you are using cheap LED's (like PinballLife Ablaze) you might just have to turn those 180 degrees. They are polarized and will only work one way in the circuit.
Nice work!
Expect to have to adjust switches and teak things at this point. You are very close, don't get frustrated! 
1 week later
Got some black Createx paint and touched up the front and left side of the head. Took a bit but pretty easy and great results!
Had an issue with the displays not going on, turns out I put the new transistors in incorrectly.
Corrected it and fortunately, they worked fine. Displays look great!
Ran all the tests, looks good!
Popped in the new flippers, also look good!
Just need to:
Wire the flippers in
Put in the target bank assembly
Secure the visor
Fix the blue LED strip/wire in the 12V
Fix a couple malfunctioning LED's
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Quoted from billsfanmd:anyone match the white to the left of the grid on pf and the grey just ot the left of that?
Grey:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinbot-restoration-underway/page/2#post-3713486
White:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinbot-restoration-underway/page/2#post-3716353
Quoted from dudah:Looks great! Any idea of the formula for that? I also need to touch up my eyes area.
If I remember the key was adding some yellow to pretty much all the mix I did. Pure white is just too much. So most of the time, a bit of blue and yellow was the key.
Quoted from Plumonium:If I remember the key was adding some yellow to pretty much all the mix I did. Pure white is just too much. So most of the time, a bit of blue and yellow was the key.
Yellow was the key to the one I did.
Quoted from Plumonium:If I remember the key was adding some yellow to pretty much all the mix I did. Pure white is just too much. So most of the time, a bit of blue and yellow was the key.
What color gray? Off the shelf ? I need a light touch up on mine.thx
Quoted from billsfanmd:What color gray? Off the shelf ? I need a light touch up on mine.thx
You need to build up your gray from scratch. For sure it's more complicated than just mixing white and black.
Quoted from Plumonium:You need to build up your gray from scratch. For sure it's more complicated than just mixing white and black.
Crap. That's a dead end for me 
Mine's not terrible just some spots when I peeled up some tape.
Quoted from billsfanmd:Crap. That's a dead end for me Mine's not terrible just some spots when I peeled up some tape.
Oh you can do it no worries. I'm sure you can.
Quoted from Plumonium:Oh you can do it no worries. I'm sure you can.
send me the magic formula.....need about 20 drops
Quoted from billsfanmd:send me the magic formula.....need about 20 drops
Sent you PM but for the sake of sharing:
Do you have createx paint? If you do, start with a few drops of white and add a hair of black, I mean the tip of a needle, it is really darkening. Find the correct darkness, do not mind the color/tint.
Place a sheet of Saran Wrap over your playfield and put a drop of paint using a pointy stick over the original paint. From there, add blue/yellow/orange as needed, only a tiny bit at the time using the tip of your stick.
Ideally, you would dry each sample using a hairdryer because it will get darker as it dries.
Once you found the correct color, repeat in slightly larger quantity.
Ideally you would mask and paint the whole thing. In my case, I masked around the text near the eject holes and the match was good enough that it's not noticeable only from up close.
Got the flippers soldered on! Powered up a game.
Few things:
Ball eject solenoid seems to be not working
Shooter spring barely gets to the middle hole of the Vortex ramp, where's the skill!? I'm using the blue spring, but still have the one that came with it
Fixed the blue LED's under the apron
Few LED's not working - need to remove bases and spray them with contact cleaner, maybe replace some diodes
The bracket the target bank slides in is pretty fucked. My plan was to reuse the hack but I can't even get it to sit right in there. Ordered a new one - https://www.pinballinc.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=34_100&product_id=148
$277 + $1 home depot + $33 PinballLife pt. 2 (some parts weren't for Pinbot) + $9 Createx black + $24 target bracket = $344
And a lot of time.
A lot more than I was expecting. But I used to take the easy way out with my restorations, now I do as much as I can.
With this I've bulletproofed the electronics and displays, cleaned every mech, new solenoid sleeves all around - should stay great for a very long time!
I'm sure there will be some haters on the LED's, but I love 'em all!
My camera makes it look very washed out, but in person the color is vibrant and awesome!
The under the apron LED's only really illuminate the lower half, may add some spotlights to help illuminate the planets area
On that note, the LED strips add an extra 700mA to the 12V circuit. Not sure if I should run this off the power supply or have a wall wart plugged into the service outlet. Paging @zaza?
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Quoted from dudah:Got the flippers soldered on! Powered up a game.
Few things:
Ball eject solenoid seems to be not working
Shooter spring barely gets to the middle hole of the Vortex ramp, where's the skill!? I'm using the blue spring, but still have the one that came with it
Fixed the blue LED's under the apron
Few LED's not working - need to remove bases and spray them with contact cleaner, maybe replace some diodes
The bracket the target bank slides in is pretty fucked. My plan was to reuse the hack but I can't even get it to sit right in there. Ordered a new one - https://www.pinballinc.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=34_100&product_id=148
$277 + $1 home depot + $33 PinballLife pt. 2 (some parts weren't for Pinbot) + $9 Createx black + $24 target bracket = $344
And a lot of time.
A lot more than I was expecting. But I used to take the easy way out with my restorations, now I do as much as I can.
With this I've bulletproofed the electronics and displays, cleaned every mech, new solenoid sleeves all around - should stay great for a very long time!
I'm sure there will be some haters on the LED's, but I love 'em all!
My camera makes it look very washed out, but in person the color is vibrant and awesome!
The under the apron LED's only really illuminate the lower half, may add some spotlights to help illuminate the planets area
On that note, the LED strips add an extra 700mA to the 12V circuit. Not sure if I should run this off the power supply or have a wall wart plugged into the service outlet. Paging zaza?
Looks cool, I would think that the Led's would be fine, since you have probably dropped the amps with all the other led's over regular bulbs. But I'm NO expert.
Quoted from Insane:Looks cool, I would think that the Led's would be fine, since you have probably dropped the amps with all the other led's over regular bulbs.
Good thinking
Quoted from Insane:Looks cool, I would think that the Led's would be fine, since you have probably dropped the amps with all the other led's over regular bulbs. But I'm NO expert.
Not sure as I dropped the amperage of the lamp circuit. The 12V circuit seems to feed the CPU, I'll analyze the schematic and see where it's coming from.
GI lamps come from the transformer as 6.3 volts AC.
Controlled lamps 18 volts come from the bridge rectifier on the ground back plate.
12 volts comes from the power supply bridge rectifier and is also making negative 12 and 5 volts for the CPU and sound board.
IMHO this should be connected to a external power supply so not to damage the game power supply, CPU, sound board or cause resets.
Quoted from GRUMPY:GI lamps come from the transformer as 6.3 volts AC.
Controlled lamps 18 volts come from the bridge rectifier on the ground back plate.
12 volts comes from the power supply bridge rectifier and is also making negative 12 and 5 volts for the CPU and sound board.
IMHO this should be connected to a external power supply so not to damage the game power supply, CPU, sound board or cause resets.
Good call. If it was under 500mA I wouldn't think much of it. But for a wall wart I already have an 10 minutes to wire it up, it's worth it to isolate my extra mods from the expensive boards. Plus I can add in some more LED's 
Been pretty busy lately. And waiting for the target bracket means this is still unplayable.
Today I fixed the LED's. Had a DOA bulb.
Put in some "chrome" vinyl I got cheap on ebay. The sides are so short it was pretty easy to put on, 7/10 results. Pinblades on this game wouldn't be worth it but this is!
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Plan for the rest is:
Wire up LED buttons
Wire up a lamp for the saucer
Wire the service outlet into the power switch.
Took the 3M wheels to the lockdown bar. Still some scratches but way better!
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Traveled Monday-Thursday night. Came home to find my replacement target bank mounting bracket! Looks great considering what I was coming from! With the original setup, one whole side of it blew out. There's a metal L bracket, a 1/8" plexi spacer, some fish paper, and 2 screws I need. I'm gonna go to Home Depot tomorrow to see if I can find something real close.
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Roughly leveled the game
Fixed the backglass lock - the latch was getting stuck on the translite
Aligned the flippers with the Williams flipper spacing tool from Marco! Worked great rubber banded to the flippers!
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Went to insert replace the bridges and put in some fuses, only to find some genius soldered the connectors to the bridges. D'oh. I'll try to desolder them with the Hakko another time.
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Quoted from gutz:That idiot that soldered the lugs would be the factory
Yes indeed
You should solder the new connectors that you have installed. There is a lot of current flowing thru these bridge rectifiers.
Quoted from GRUMPY:You should solder the new connectors that you have installed. There is a lot of current flowing thru these bridge rectifiers.
You are probably right.
Quoted from GRUMPY:You should solder the new connectors that you have installed. There is a lot of current flowing thru these bridge rectifiers.
I question why even use connectors? I'm thinking of just snipping the wires off and soldering them into the new bridges.
Quoted from GRUMPY:Now its much easier to add a bit of solder to the two connectors then to redo all eight of them.
True. I fear how difficult it's going to be to pull them off.
When its time to replace the bridge I just cut the wires off, remove and install new bridge and solder wires directly to the lugs.
Finished up the target wall today. Found the exact screws at Home Depot (#6 5/8"). Was missing the plexi guide for the target wall, made another out of plexi. Missing the metal bracket on one side but whatever. Put in the target wall, leveled it, secured the motor, installed the visor linkage. Moves kind of choppy, going to clean the motor like I should have before.
Sat back and played a quick game. Flippers need adjustment and needs to be finely leveled, but it plays great!
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Snapped a few playfield shots as well. Working 100%! Just need to tweak and mod it now 
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2 weeks later
Finished a bunch of little stuff over today and yesterday! Pinbot is now 100%!!!
Installed new bridges and fused them. The bridge on the power supply board looked real old so I replaced it. It was a bitch to get off the board as it was a spade terminal soldered into the board.
Wired the service outlet into the switched AC line for the LED strips, works great!
Installed flipper button LED's
Installed the thumb lock on the coin door
Replaced the shooter spring with the original, now it's perfect!
Tweaked the target wall height
The top bumper didn't look right, the end of the leaf switch was barely getting stuck in the notch of the plunger and making the pop bumper real sticky, moved it a little and it's great now. I notice the pops are a bit more active, also!
Fixed a few LED's
Swapped out the nice lockdown bar with the one from my otherwise perfect BSD. It had some bolt heads on it. I think it looks better with Pinbot!
Painted the black on the right side. Head was pretty bad. Magic erasered it and got a lot of scuffs out! Did this on the cab also. Touched up the black on the right side, went back and hit the left again. The planking on the head looks pretty rough but is painting in nice.
Wiped down the cabinet
Played a bunch of games! It's fun! Certainly challenging. All the switches are adjusted perfect! The outlanes are a little rough. I feel like everytime I get multiball I lose one to the outlanes right away. Love the center post!
The flippers feel good. Playing BSD right after this it felt a little different though. Perhaps it has to do with the fliptronics vs. direct power to the coils with the buttons.
Overall very happy with how this turned out! This is the first I've really played an older game. I certainly love the theme and gameplay! Playing BSD after was a little intense 
I think this will be a keeper for a bit and maybe some trade currency if something interesting comes up.
Thanks for all of the kind comments on here! Makes me happy to see others appreciating the work I put into this hobby.
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And now some glamorous "it's done" shots
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Looks great but...... get that cabinet away from that window! Pinbot cabs are notorious for fading in sunlight. Your orange will quickly turn into a yucky grayish salmon.
Quoted from jibmums:Looks great but...... get that cabinet away from that window! Pinbot cabs are notorious for fading in sunlight. Your orange will quickly turn into a yucky grayish salmon.
Appreciated, but it faces an east/west street so there's light coming in, but not direct.
Quoted from dudah:Appreciated, but it faces an east/west street so there's light coming in, but not direct.
Either way it's going to affect it unless you put a UV blocking film on the window.....
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