At home, I am working on "restoring" my Grand Lizard. One of my favorites.

When I got it, the machine played pretty well and had mostly just some cosmetic wear on the playfield, along with some broken targets and things like that. A few gameplay issues and minor electrical fixes, but nothing major mechanically.

What it needed most was a super deep clean and tune-up. As I was tearing everything down, I realized that the damage was really only all cosmetic. And in some cases, the damage to the cabinet and playfield looked kinda cool. I would feel a little bad putting a hard top on the playfield, or doing a full re-paint of the cabinet. Overkill for a machine that was in good shape.

What I decided on was to take steps to make sure the gameplay was fine-tuned and rocking and rolling 100% fast and smooth, and preserve the aesthetics of the worn machine while cleaning it up and making sure it is solid and ready for another 36 years.

So began the Battle-Damaged, Rat Rod, Sleeper pinball of my dreams.

Ron Kruzman was kind enough to accept my playfield and give it his beautiful clear coat without doing any restoration (aside from fixing some inserts). I honestly was super excited to see the results. All the worn spots look even better with a smooth, glassy surface. The pictures don't really do it justice.

Current playfield status: in progress...

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As far as the cabinet goes, the exterior paint was mostly in decent shape. There was some damage around the legs and on the corners of the cab and backbox, so I decided to repair those, make sure everything was tight and smooth, and leave the sanded-away areas alone after the fact. Then clear coat it. I am experimenting with the clear coat, brushing on a floor-grade polyurethane that is technically clear but has just the slightest hint of amber to it after a few coats. Kind of perfect for a machine that I want to look old and yellowed, but will surprise people when they see it is smooth to the touch and evenly finished.

Added a few bits of black paint back into it here and there for effect, but so far I like the way it is coming along...
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Look at these brutal drips on the inside of the back! Looks super evil. Maybe I will add more...Hmmm...

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I look forward to seeing where this thing goes, and very excited to finally get some gameplay on it once it is all back together. It is going to be fast and wicked.

Yes man, of course! You're always welcome to come play it if you're in the area. Who knows, maybe I can haul it to an event one day that's closer to you.

Yeah, it turned out really great. Ron did a great job, given the uneven and lumpy state of the original.

Agree...smooth it out and juice up the playability, while retaining some of what makes the machine unique and interesting looks-wise. Also, I'm not worried if I put a little ding in the freshened-up cabinet!

I like re-painting older pins to like-new again, but it never seems like you can quite recapture the character and quirkiness of the original painted cabs. It's almost like a reproduction at that point.

Rock on!

Yes, this is definitely the goal. Have it play unexpectedly well, maybe surprise a few people. Getting it dialed in will be fun.

Not a bad idea!

Made a little bit more progress on the top side today. Mostly just waiting on some lamp sockets I forgot to order so I can continue working on the bottom side.

I did manage to get the flipper/magnet button switches ready for the cabinet, as a time-filler.

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Oh sweet. I think this kind of approach would be perfect for Frontier. Like it just crawled out of the wilderness!

Thanks for the compliment. The pf turned out great, and I'm definitely going to do more like this. I love it personally, but was unsure how others would feel. I'm starting a Jungle Lord project right now as well, and think I'll give it a similar treatment. Feels appropriate.

Starting on some cab re-population today...

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Question for the group...I have one ongoing struggle on this project I can't seem to fix for good. If I could weld, it might not be an issue. But I have one metal ball guide that had a broken screw bracket. I made a replacement bracket for the broken one. I have tried some JB Weld and some other epoxies, but so far nothing will hold the replacement bracket to the ball guide. This ball guide is under a little bit of stress, so eventually it pops loose. Anybody have any good tips for a permanent fix? If not, I'll probably just take it to someone local who can weld it up for me.

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A rivet could possibly work. I'd just have to make sure to keep the rivet(s) out of the way of where the ball travels, but could be doable.

Successfully riveted this ball guide back together...AFTER DRILLING HOLES IN STUPID SPOTS. Let this be a lesson for us all. Don't drill holes first thing in the morning.

But I got it smoothed out and the ball rolls across without a hitch. Got it installed, and should work fine for now. Maybe RustyLizard will have some luck digging up an un-hacked one and eventually we can swap it out. And if not, at least we are okay to proceed. Luckily, you can't see it once the plastics are on.

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Now back to the underside and installing more new sockets...

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Ooh, that does look close. But no worries, thanks for checking!

Agree, and thanks! Shouldn't be too long now.

Appreciate the tips! Will make a note for next time.

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Things are progressing along. I got the coin door cleaned up and re-wired. Some of the illumination wires had been cut, so I figured might as well make a whole new harness for it. Just need a couple of $0.25 coin mechs now...holler if you have a couple!

Also finished rebuilding some of the mechs, specifically the 4-bank drop target which was not working right. I couldn't figure out the deal until I took it apart. But a previous owner had scratch made some replacement reset plates that were a little gnarly and catching on other parts of the mech. The coils were also a bit mangled and the coil sleeve was stuck in one, so I replaced those as well. It is moving smoothly now!

Will get back to more cabinet work today.

Original state of the coin door
Coin door with new harness
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Handmade replacement plate that was replaced
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Thanks Ron, it's been a labor of love so far. Help from pros like you and RustyLizard have been a blessing, and I can't wait until it's ready for action. Hope to get it plugged in and testing this weekend. At least to some degree.

Speaking of Russ, he helped me with getting some scans made for the prototype Grand Lizard plastics he has. They look super cool in my opinion (with art by Paul Faris that matches the playfield art), and I'd like to produce a replica set of them for my machine. I'm still working on cleaning up the art on them, but when they are done the art will look amazing.

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Cabinet is pretty much put back together. Got a fresh new speaker and flipper/magnet switches. Re-did the speaker wiring piece. Plus some other stuff. Now it's back to the playfield, and to start re-assembling the head.

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Was going to add a lockdown bar receiver decal, but I think I may leave it as-is. I kinda like the grimy look

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Now the fun part!

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On the top side of things, got all the bits from Cliffy installed...new flipper return guides, an outhole protector, and new ramp flaps! Thanks again Cliff, they look great.

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^ Look at those shorty post rubbers Will have to do for now until I can get some taller ones.

Yeah, Cliffy's flipper return guides are great. They are built a bit wider than the originals, so they eliminate the flipper hop and make everything flow smoother. I get them whenever I can.

Glad to hear Europe is responding positively

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Finished up the wiring underneath the playfield. No major issues, just a few tweaks here and there. Really just need to attach the lizard head on the top, and the playfield is ready.

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Added a new backbox speaker, and now it's on to putting the head back together!

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Got everything put back together and after a few quick checks fired it up to see how it looks! It was so good to hear those sounds again

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Got a few bugs to look at. The magnets aren't working, and I have several of the replacement LED bulbs that are ghosting/flickering. So I might have to spring for some non-ghosting or figure some other solution. Also still need to replace the lift channel on the backglass.

I'm sure there's more, but I'll give it a closer look and some test plays tomorrow and post some better images!

OK, magnets fixed (I just forgot to attach the ground ring in the backbox). Some switch and target adjustments, and found a microswitch that was bad. Pretty much everything solid now I think, except the LEDs that don't seem to be playing nice. But here's a couple quick video links of the Grand Liz back in action!

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First video: A quick close-up look at some of the playfield stuff.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/To1YvHfqC3EhQqd16

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Second video: A down-and-dirty slap-happy game being played. The glass is off, so the video is a bit loud. And kind of a weird angle, my apologies if watching this makes your neck hurt.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8RyE8DrTgnDaFxQ99

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Plenty more things I want to do on this machine, but it's up and playing good! Definitely needs a bit of cleanup now that it's playing solid, and will tighten up some of the cable routing. We'll keep fine-tuning and making it faster, cleaner---with even more gnarly cave-worn battle damage!---as we go along.

Also test fit the new BG Resto backglass. Not bad! I'll have to adjust the credit display a bit to get it to fit the window properly. The credit display is missing some segments anyway, and one of the other displays is a little burned up, so I will probably replace those before too long.

I also tried some red LED in the backbox for the Grand Lizard lettering. It's subtle, but in the image you can see that the "GRAND" is red LED, and the "LIZARD" is warm white. In person, the red looks much better, so I will swap the whole title to red.

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Agreed. The Faris version is definitely the more badass version