There has been several stunning TZ restoration threads in the past few weeks. HEP and Brian Kelly come obviously to mind, but also Skins' and others. Many other restoration threads were equally inspiring. After much debate, I decided to go ahead and start my own.

Virtually all the information needed to get it done right is available either on pinside or elsewhere on the internet thanks to the generous contributions of many. I don't believe I have very much original to contribute when it comes to the art and science of restorations, so I though I would focus on:

- What I found hard to do, what I did not do 100% right, and the lessons learned if any
- The few questions I still have not been able to sort out
- The local resources I used for a few key items

I will likely be a fairly slow thread with the family and work thing getting in the way, but here it goes.

I bought the machine over 18 months ago along with a STTNG. Whereas the STTNG was in beautiful shape and needed nothing, the TZ was very dirty and had some significant cabinet fading. The playfield was in very nice shape except for some ball grooves in a couple areas. I did some extensive work on two playfields in the past (High Speed and Monopoly). I thought that if I was to ever go all the way, TZ had to be the one.

Below is where I was in mid-September. The machine is 100% apart, with parts spread across many rooms in the house and the garden.

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A few comments on the cabinet preparation.

From reading existing threads, I anticipated that the cabinet prep was going to be the single most time consuming task, but I did not think it was going to be this painful.

My first mistake was in the removal of the existing artwork. I did about 3/4 of one side pulling hard on the vinyl and removing tiny wood splinters in the process. All of these had to be filled with Bondo afterward. Lesson learned...

A much better way to do it is with a heat gun and a scraper. Then use 91% isopropyl alcohol to remove the residual glue. It takes quite a bit of time but leave a nice smooth surface. I tried Goo Gone to remove mylar on a High Speed a few years ago. The glue was so old and dried it was not working so I switched to alcohol. I like it a lot better and this is what I have been using to remove mylar. It feels less toxic and any spill evaporates without damaging anything.

Some close-up shots of the surface ready for wet decal application. Warned that imperfections would show right through the decals, I obsessed over how to get a near perfect surface. Though it did not happen, I got pretty close. I used slightly different approaches for each side and I made a number of mistakes in the process that had to be corrected. I tried black gloss enamel spray paint, oil-based gloss clear, and Rust Oleum black semi-gloss paint applied with a 4 inch roller.

The oil-based clear was a big mistake. The intention was that it would fill surface imperfections better than paint. I applied it on a very hot day, it left a whole bunch of marks and I had to sand it away. Another lesson learned.

Though enamel black gloss or semi-gloss paint worked equally well, if I had to do it again (and I won’t) I would use the roller approach recommended to me by Sparky. Three coats of black semi-gloss with sanding in between. The result is showed on the picture. There is still a very minor amount of orange peel, but it is not noticeable with the decals on, even when looking very close.

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The decals have been installed wet. I followed Rob Milla's installation instructions almost to the letter and it worked great. One minor variant is that I used soapy water on one side and Glassex on the other side. The soapy water works ok but not as well as Glassex. Spray a generous amount and get someone to help holding the decal.

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I did use the sponge roller, and even then, it created a significant amount of orange peel that I had to sand. In addition, contrary to what one would expect, I believe that paint does not fill the surface imperfections but accentuate them. Probably linked to the same surface tension phenomenon I recall reading in vid's playfield restoration tutorial.

Unless there are more than one Brian's video, I saw it and it is great. He does it dry and it takes a lot more skill than I have. I found the whole process heart wrenching. You spend 60 or more hours getting the cabinet ready and one small mistake is enough to ruin it all.

I considered the 45 degrees beveling but did not do it. Instead, I used a long aluminum ruler to cut the decal 1/32 inch or so away from the edge. I did it in two steps. First, a rough cut immediately after installation, to avoid having the weight of the extra decal pulling on the edges and interfering with the decal adhesion. Then, later on, I took my time to get a nice clean cut. I found the cutting to be relatively easy relative to everything else. The only tricky part is to cut the round start holes and for this I used a plastic hole template.

The result...

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I am making some very slow progress on the cabinet as I only have a few minutes to spend here and there. This is starting to look like the interior of a pinball cabinet again.

I wasted some time on the playfield pivot hinges. I had not properly cleaned up the threads before putting back the step bolts. As a result, I was not able to tighten the bolts, and had to remove them (which brought another set of headaches) for proper cleaning.

I was able to do all the ground braided cable stapling with a hand stapler.

Pretty much everything that shows in the pictures was nickel-plated at Johnson Plating Works in downtown Oakland. This is a one-man business run by Jon. He is very friendly, easy to work with and did a really nice job. I dropped a whole bunch of stuff back in June and told him to take his time since I was not in a hurry.

I spent some time looking at the High-End Pins online gallery and more specifically the details of how Chris arranges and attaches cables. There are many differences which together lead to a very neat looking result. One such difference (at least in the example I saw), is the absence of the two green ground cables going for the services power outlet box to the playfield support bar. I am not sure what the exact reason was for removing these (i.e. cosmetic or useless).

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Coin door stripped, repainted, and installed. New coin mechanisms. All the other hardware was replated.

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Done with cabinet after having installed the Flipper Fidelity speaker.

The DMD display was next. I initially had a bit of trouble removing the artwork from the particle board. The glue was quite strong and I was worried about scratching the decal and bending the plastic. I used a dull flat kitchen knife and it all came out without damage.

I had to do a bit of repair on a couple of T-nuts that were stuck and ended up breaking the particle board when I took them out. This was easily repaired with some Bondo. I applied the Bondo first, then put the T-nut on top with the machine screw in it to avoid having some Bondo clog the hole. A bit of sanding, some painting, and with the new speakers, and it looks better then new. I used some standard (not super strong) 3M glue spray to re-attach the artwork.

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Onto the playfield. I lightly sanded the underside and addressed the pop bumpers first.

Unlike most, I went with a custom set-up for the light wiring. The factory set-up with the staples is great except when you have to rebuild the pop-bumbers, particularly with the wire harness and a whole bunch of other things in the way. I prefer the idea of having a reversible set-up that makes it easy to remove the whole assembly. I had no particular problem with the flexible wire lead lamp holder and did not need Vid's fix https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-rebuilding-pop-bumpers#post-485893. The wires are held in place by screws and washers which makes it easy to adjust the tension and pull the socket down.

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A view of the playfield with a bit more stuff on it. I added some lighting to the scoop, which came back from the plating nice and shiny.

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Steve_in_Escalon was kind enough to do the head warning silk screen for me this weekend. It came out perfect. It was great meeting him in person, seeing his collection of beautiful machines and talking about pinball. Thanks a lot Steve.

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Back to the playfield, I put together a couple of homemade led lights for the piano scoop. There is some two-part epoxy glue around the bottom of the led to strengthen the whole thing and limit the risk of metal contact and short.

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Johnson Plating Works in downtown Oakland. There were several metal parts that got corroded bad enough that even with a lot of buffing wheel work, it did not look good. I put together a couple of bags of parts and he gave me a good price to do the whole set as is without any prep work, which tends to be when it starts getting expensive.

If I was to do this again (which I won't), I probably would have plated everything that could be, and particularly the coils plates, mechanisms etc...

I hear you. My guy took nearly 5 months but I told him that I was not in a hurry. By then I had not even started working on the cab and I knew it was going to take forever. I admire how quickly you did the TZ and AFM and how well they turned out.

This said, you could give him a call. His name's Jon. Though I have not dealt with any other platers, it sounds from his Yelp reviews (http://www.yelp.com/biz/johnson-plating-works-oakland) that he is easier to deal with than most. From the work that he did for me, he might be able to tell you within a time frame that would work for you.

The head is back on the cabinet, with the mounting plate cleaned up and installed. Nowhere near Skins' insane mirror finish though (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/afm-restore-alien-invasion#post-2293793)

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Resto was asleep for a while, but not dead. The wheels are rolling again. The underside of the playfield is more or less completely done and I am not starting to repopulate the top side. Everything is clean and ready to go back in so it should not take too long now.

I debated what to use for the GI. For now, I used some super bright leds in the areas that are further away from the playder and covered by plastic. This might be a bit too much but I'll see.

Rails are from TaylorVA. Major thanks to him as these are super nice.

The wire forms were chrome plated.

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I put back the mini-playfield on the playfield yesterday. I thought this was going to be fairly straightforward. Wrong.

First, the long Cliffy protector hides the level adjustment nut. Second, the new fish paper protector was hitting the right bracket. I thought I was missing something obvious. After going crazy for over an hour, I ended up cutting it. Problem solved. I need to see if there is any way I can get the Cliffy back on now.

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I came across a few issues when reinstalling the double gate. I had to grind the flattened end of the shaft to remove it and get the flaps out. It wouldn't stay in place afterward. I made the mistake to have it nickel plated and it ended up being too thick to get back into the shaft hole anyway.

As a replacement, I ended up buying some thin steel wire and bending it not quite all the way. You have to bend it a bit so it gets in, but this insures that it stays in place. I'd be interested in hearing what others have done for this gate.

One unintended issue is that the returning end of the shaft hits the wood rail, so I had to grind it a bit an do some touch up.

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All the boards are back into the backbox, and I got ready to adjust the game before the playfield goes back in the cabinet. I used several towels to protect the cabinet, and tons on zip ties to keep the playfield wire harnesses together.

Every single board went to the Coin Op Cauldron so I wasn't holding my breath when I first turned the machine on. Maybe I should have because the game didn't boot. No GI, no display. Some solid leds on the board but nothing else. So I got a little nervous and started checking the fuses and disconnecting ribbon cables from the CPU board. Things started looking up once I realized I had inverted some ribbon cables. I still have a problem with the audio board that I will work on next.

The clock may have a problem as it does not automatically resets at noon when the game boots up. So I'll have to look into this as well.

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Hi Coyote, I'll take pictures later and post them.

For me the problem was with the fish cardboard underneath. It drove me crazy for a long time. I might try cutting the cliffy.

I also polished the ramp and ended up buying a clear one. Looks much better IMHO.

Take a look at http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album419/46_G?full=1. I'm tempted to say you can as long as you are willing to do some contortions to reach the bottom of the playfield and maybe have someone help you hold the back board using the metal return plates that are on each side. There is a screw that's hidden underneath the bottom/top diverter assembly so you have to remove this as well. Hopefully the wire harness does not get in the way. It looks like a real PITA though and I would avoid it at all cost.

Definitely do it before if it's already out. You could easily scratch the new decal putting back the backboard with the playfield in the cabinet, which would be a real bummer.

Hi Coyote, hopefully this helps.

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Thanks. There was really no method to it.

I am pretty close to being done. I ironed out a few wrinkles yesterday.

- I had a burned fuse, which was creating the problem with the clock no initializing correctly. None of the switches were working either. The clock is now working and so are the switches. All the opto switches are working properly which I really wanted to check because replacing some of them is really a pain without the playfield out.

- The lower left mini playfield switches were not working. Turns out I pushed too hard when putting the gray rubber switch protectorback on, and twisted a diode. There was a short that was easily corrected. The two switches work as one so if one is toast, sois the other.

- A few leds were not working and had to be replaced.

- I incorrectly rewired the pop bumper lights. The +5V are wired in a daisy chain and I forgot one link so none of the lights after the left pop light are working. This was fairly easily diagnosed. Luckily, I went for a removable set up instead of soldered wires and adding the link will be easy.

- The lower switch at the bottom of the right outlane just above the gate needs to be adjusted as it's not registering a ball that's in there.

Other than that, everything looks good. Once everything is working as it should, I'll tie up the wires nice and clean with a bunch of zip ties, and then the playfield goes back into the cabinet. This in itself is a bit tricky as I want to avoid any scratches on the cabinet side. I'll have it hanging from the ceiling joists and then will bring underneath and then up.

A few shots of the hole lighthing...

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Some additional comments on the rubber choice....
I used some blue titan silicone rings on the mini playfield because I like the color (which hide a bit better dirt than lighter colors and particularly white rubber, because it cleans up very easily with some Novus 1, and because it does not get too much abuse there. I used the same rings on my SM slingshots and it lasted less than 2 weeks. So my rule of thumb is to use silicone in areas that are not hit too hard and are a pain to access.