Just joined the Black Jack club! Scored a barn find this morning - perhaps literally. This Black Jack was in an estate sale and looks to have been sitting for years (and years). $98.75. Actually, I bought it for $100 but after I got it home, I found 5 quarters stuck in the coin mechs.

It was a slight gamble in that they didn't have any keys to open it up so I couldn't look inside to see what's there or not there. It powered on (most all of the GI lights come on) but it didn't boot. Of course, they wouldn't let me drill the locks out until I bought it. So I did...figured worst case I might get some cabinet hardware compatible with my other late 70's Bally projects and if any of the displays or boards worked or in good enough shape to be rebuilt, that would be a bonus.

Found lots of dirt, debris, and several abandoned wasp nests in both the cabinet and the backbox. The backglass is surprisingly about a 7/10....no flaking and just a few scratches. The cabinet is somewhere between poor and a basket case...MIGHT be salvageable but that'll be a big job. The MPU, SDB, and Lamp boards are all there and actually look good...no burns, hacks, or anything except for a spider's nest and wasp nest on the SDB. The MPU still has the original battery installed and no corrosion damage at all. The original cage around the power supply is even still there. Big old wasp nest camped out on the Player 3 display board. Someone put in a Stern SDU-100 at some point to replace the original Bally SDB.

The playfield has a few wear marks here and there but nothing serious. I think with a little elbow grease, the playfield will clean up nicely. No broken plastic pieces tho most are warped from the incandescent bulbs. The playfield underside is oddly clean and the metals parts free of rust.

I'm a few weeks away from finishing my Mata Hari project and then I'll dive into this and see if I can, at least at first, get it booted and running. First order of business will be to repin all of the connectors and go from there!

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Update: after re-pinning the connectors, putting the proper fuses in the power supply, replacing some bad transistors and rebuilding the 5V and HV areas of the SDB and some SCRs on the lamp board, my $98.75 Black Jack is up and running and fully functional! At first power on, there were several switches not working - traced that back to the switch matrix and got resolved by replacing a single J2 MPU pin that I did not crimp properly. After that, everything worked (even the coin door lights)....I was totally surprised. This thing probably hadn't run in 10 years. No bad coils, no mangled switches, and only a few lights out that got resolved either by new bulbs or new SCRs on the lamp board. Even the displays (all 5) are strong and look perfect.

Now that I've seen it work after several hours of labor and a few dollars in parts, it's time to take it apart. The playfield is out and in my basement storage area workshop to get the topside torn down for a good cleaning....there is a lot of ground-in dirt and ball swirls. There is very little in the way of paint loss/worn areas, so if it cleans up nice with a little elbow grease, I may put some $$ into fresh plastics, pop bumper caps, etc. Some inserts have cupping tho it's not as bad as the picture suggests (the shadows in the poorly lit room make it look worse). I haven't decided yet if I'm going to attempt to level them out by adding a bit of clear and then sanding down. Alternatively, a playfield protector would do the trick (I have one in my Black Knight and EBD) but I'm trying to keep the costs down as much as possible.

Pending success with the playfield, the biggest job will be the cabinet....there's a lot of weather damage on the one side, and the bottom fibreboard also needs to be replaced. And there's evidence of water damage on some of the cross-members. While contemplating repair, I'm keeping my eyes open for a donor cabinet that is in better shape than mine.
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Finally getting around to working on my Black Jack project again. I've got the topside torn down for a good cleaning. I'm not looking to do any paint touch ups, clear coating, or anything like that - just want to get to a nice player's condition on a playfield that is already only minimally worn (but faded). I've been through Vid's playfield restoration thread but most everything in there is overkill for what I want to do for this pin. I'm hoping that with a little elbow grease + some combination of magic cleaners some of the dirty dingy-ness will disappear, particularly in the "yellow" areas near the flippers. Any recommendations on products to use to clean her up?

I didn't realize how fluorescent those playfield colors were originally until I took the rails off and saw some of the paint that hasn't seen the light of day in 40+ years. Wow.

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Having various degrees of success trying different methods in a test spot:

- Magic Eraser
- Naphtha
- Mean Green
- Rubbing Alcohol
- Novus 2, both with a cloth and a toothbrush

I'd say it getting about 50% of the dirt out. I'm beginning to realize that this may be the best I'll get. Unless anyone else has any ideas?

Sort of - my BJ is an SS, not an EM, but the cabinet colors/paint types should be the same. I'm almost done with my SS cabinet repair and repaint (lower cabinet complete, working on the backbox as Colorado weather permits). I used:

- Kilz Original White Primer
- Rust-oleum 2x Ultra Cover Deep Blue - Gloss
- Rust-oleum 2x Ultra Cover Apple Red - Gloss
- Rust-oleum 2x Ultra Cover White - Gloss
- Rust-oleum 2x Ultra Cover Black - Gloss (for the neck)

I started lower cabinet re-assembly this week......
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Ooops....I should've known that.