Greetings to all! I purchased my Bride of Pinbot about 2 weeks ago after searching for several months. I found it through a round about path that ended up with me at a pinball bash party. Lo and behold..... there was the owner playing Indiana Jones. Chat lead to invitation to play his Bride the next week and that lead to a purchase!

The cabinet is pretty nice with a scuff on the Start decal and a back box corner scrape. It has new legs, coin door (new style), unbroken plastics, a good playfield, leg protectors, new rubber, and rebuilt flippers. On the flip side (is it Yang or Ying?)...... the ramps are broken at the entrances and 2 playfield scuffs at the habit trail/ramp drop points. All the features work just fine (including the face positions) and it kicks my butt with side drains. Working as intended. I hope that you will allow me to lurk and pop up with uninformed questions....this is my first and only pinball machine.

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I have several things that I would like to replace on my machine. It looks to be a matter of practicality for me. The ramps need to be replaced for the machine to work well, so I just ordered the set from Starship Fantasy. There are only so many out there and with folks replacing playfields, they seem to be the first to go. The helmets are already gone (and mine has a tab or two that are suspect) so I will hope for a new run of them in the future. I would like to replace my translite with a true backglass, but with a budget, the ramps need to come first.

I would like to replace the helmet lights with LED's and also the ones behind the translite. On a bone stock BoP running L-5:

1. Which LED's will work without ghosting in the helmet? Since it isn't affected by patched ROM's, I would be grateful for what specific LED brand will work nicely.

2. Will LED's work well behind the translite without going to a patched ROM or is it a necessity to run a patched L-6?
Once again, I am depending on folks for advice since I am so new at this.
Thanks!

Mine just barely slides down the slingshot rubber to the end of the right hand flipper. It is a close angle but it doesn't quite touch the slingshot. Maybe your not quite level side to side.....just a thought. Good luck!

I believe that the playfield (including mini playfield) rubbers are all white. There are 3 yellow post covers and 2 black post covers. The flippers are both white with red rubbers. The plastic playfield flasher domes are all red.

Fourbyracer ..... That is a very nice looking machine that you have! The color choice is nicely done and blends well.

CheezeW .... that is a huge space shuttle that you have there! The rest of the game looks very nice also.

I am getting ready to replace the Shuttle ramp and the Heartbeat ramp tomorrow. Are there any hints, tips, tricks, etc. that you might offer a first timer in doing this? My digital camera and notepad are at the ready..... along with some misc. items like post rubbers to replace at the same time.

Thanks for all the tips!! I will now attempt to find my soldering iron and related items. Having moved across country a short time ago, they are still in a box................somewhere.........on a shelf in the garage......maybe. LOL.

The ramp protectors are next on the list to get but everything seems to have a budget/time line. The joys of reality.

Here is my first question about replacing the LH Shuttle Ramp. At the very top of the ramp is a part called the Ball Gate Actuator. It controls the ball going to the mini playfield or going down onto the face assembly. It was a real pain to remove since the two wires going to the coil didn't have much play. The two wires are both Violet/Yellow. I would like to use a Molex connector with longer leads off the coil to allow easier installation now and replacement if ever needed. Question - I don't see any diode across the terminals so is there any polarity to this coil?

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My next question..... How do you get the front off the Pinbot Values to replace the bulbs? This is the piece of plastic that is at the top of the Pinbot mini playfield that has 3 point value windows. I tried removing the two fasteners and that didn't seem to accomplish anything.... especially since they didn't come all the way out. Thanks for any help!

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Everything that I have found in the backbox and playfield so far has been 89 and 906.

Thanks lyonsden for the help on removing the plastic cover. I shall attack it again with renewed gusto!

Just a note to say that Comet Pinball has a great sense of humor! Today I received a shipping confirmation from them and it was really funny. It would be worth it to order from them this time of year just to read their shipping notice.

I am not sure if this would be very useful, but I made a layout showing where playfield bulbs are located and what type. These would be the bulbs under the plastics, bumper caps, and the egg crate. I thought it might help someone who wanted to order LED's but wasn't sure of the quantity or location. If it is too incorrect, let me know and I will change it or delete the post.
Pink = 555
Green = 89 flashers
Red = 44/47

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Thanks for all the help on replacing ramps and lamps. There is a lot to be learned from just doing it one time. It is interesting how all the gates and switches interact to provide the play flow. I polished all the plastics and was amazed at how clear they became and how dirty the microfiber towel became at the same time. I installed plastic savers under the plastics and am pleased with how they fit and look. Next up will be the Cliff protectors for the ramps. I decided to get a new soldering iron since my usual one is 20 years old. The new one is a soldering station type with rheostat and such.....and it worked a treat! I replaced switch covers and added new ones to the naked ones up top. The two large black ones got replaced with orange ones from FunHouse to tie in with the orange on that ramp. All the playfield lamps topside got LED's and so did the backbox. I lied......3 didn't get replaced.....the Pinbot Value lamps near the top of the mini playfield proved too much of a pain so they are untouched. I need to invite lyonsden over for dinner and con him into the contortions needed.

LED additions are sort of a brain game. You have to figure out what you want areas to look like, then (if this is your first time with LED's) make a guess at brightness and lens type, and finally be prepared to move/change some lamps to reach your vision. I went with Comet's lamps for most of my items. I used Natural White under the slings and flipper returns. The rest of the main playfield got Ice Blue, the pop bumpers got 6 LED fan shaped red bulbs, and the helmet got blue Comfort bulbs. All LED lenses are frosted. I love the playfield as it looks now. It has a clean look down at the bottom and a subtle tinting of blue elsewhere. New ramps let you see so much that was too dark to see that it is amazing. You can follow the ball over the entire playfield now and when the new flashers go off, it is wonderful.

The backbox was harder than the playfield for me to figure out. It is mostly Natural White and Ice Blue with a few other highlights. Some of the fun things are the Flame LED under the apple, the slow color changers for the brides 4 faces near the speakers, and the ultra purple lamp behind the wine glass. I used frosted lenses where I could and may change a few to clear (the bonus values up her leg). All in all, I am happy with the outcome and have a new respect for those who have nicely colored machines of any title. It isn't the easiest thing to make come out perfect when you replace over 100 bulbs. My hat is off to those of you who do it!

This is carved in Stone: I suck at taking photos! So with that in mind, here are some of the backglass and playfield.

The brightly lit playfield photo is just to show the new ramps, the orange switch covers, and the plastic protectors. It's things you all have seen before but for me it is a really nice transformation just to see through the ramps now.

The dark playfield is blurry at the top and the glass reflects badly but......it shows the natural white at the bottom and the ice blue coloring further up the surface.

The backglass rocketship on the left side has a slow color changer behind it and the apple has a flame bulb. Both have a fun color changing aspect to them that really makes me just stare at them. The 4 faces at the bottom are actually pretty evenly lit but look sort of uneven in the photo. The color changers behind them will sometimes all synchronize for a few seconds and then they all split off on coloring and after a few minutes they synch again. Once again, it's fun to just watch them. (I amuse very easily)

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Just a few thoughts to toss out to the Bride's faithful.

I found that the RH loop lights would not activate. I checked the connector and they would activate and then after a game or two, extinguish. I figured that this would be the time to try my hand at reflowing the solder on the pins as it probably had some cold joints. Since it is a small pcb, it was easy to get out and sure enough......3 cold joints. It was not hard at all to flow them with a new soldering iron. I kick myself for not buying a nice upgraded one years ago. Installation made it clear that the problem was the joints as it now lights up just great.

Now I have the problem of lamp 22 not working. It hasn't worked since I got the game and I need to trace its problem out. This is the light under the insert for the Billion....not the big flasher but the top lamp in the circle. I looked in the backbox at the J133 and J137 connectors to make sure they were seated and that wire #2 on both appeared fine. I changed the bulb with a known good one but no love. It was late and I buttoned things up for the night. More to come....it bugs me....lol.

Plastic protectors under your plastic pieces work well and look nice. However, they can have clearance problems with gate wires and spinning targets. I had to trim the wire gate end on the Jet Entrance...the one that makes the ball move to the side when coming back down. Its end would hang on the protector near it if it moved to the far side. Easy fix. Now I see that my heavy spinning target (in the same Jet Entrance) will actually spin over to one side and lay up on a protector edge. Again, easy fix but it has taken a dozen games for the problem to pop up. I should have moved everything around and checked when installing them but you know how it goes.....pretty shiny things....must play.

Finally......I got my high score today at 47,356,680 and it felt good....even with my lamp 22 dead to the world. I never made it to Metamorphosis once but the loop combos were insane. The playfield and backbox were a hoot when everything starts flashing....made me glad that I went to LED's and silicone rubber for the posts and flippers. Good times!

I have only found 1 metal item as you show in the top photo. Of course mine is nowhere close to that clean/shiny. Something that I am curious about is whether you use an individual rubber ring on yours or a two post loop rubber. I have seen both ways.

This is a photo that I took as I was getting ready to replace my ramps. If you look just to the Right of the Apple Leaf, you can see where mine is mounted. It had a machine screw on top holding the skill shot plastic down. The very Left side of the skill shot plastic (left of the shuttle) was fastened down and the ramp sagged down on it and was wearing through the decal of the snake/apple and the plastic ramp.

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Oh....and I forgot to ask if you use a big rubber ring (like mine is above) to connect the blue plastic post to the metal post. Or.....do you use a separate rubber ring on each? I have seen both ways and would switch mine to the separate rings like the left outlane setup has.

You have done great things with your bare playfield! When it came to rubber on my two posts over there.....the blue plastic post and the metal post.....they are two different sizes. The plastic post was a normal 5/16" id rubber. The metal post was smaller and the same rubber would just flop around on it. I looked in the BoP manual and saw that a different part number was listed for 4 rubbers on the playfield. According to Marco Specialties site, it is a 27/64 or 7/16" od ring : http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/38-2764 I need to
order one for that post so that if I ever get the energy to pull the ramp off again, I can put the correct rings on and get rid of the big looping ring. I think the Williams number for that metal post is 23-6535

LOL......On my Left outlane, there was a big looping ring and not individual ones. I changed them over and my left hand drains have gone way down. The ball seems more lively with the individual rings and less of a dead hit and fall down the drain. I agree that the silicone small post rubbers are not fun to remove. They don't seem to just roll off the post. I may try silicone rings on that side just for fun.

Here is a shot of my game before I took it apart for ramp replacement and clean up. The small plastic piece is one that I have seen turned both directions. Make sure that the red domes are fastened with the lip on the "inside" of the helmet. Fastened on the outside, they will be too long for clearance.

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You are looking at it from the Rear view as you suggested. Faces 1 and 2 are listed with "stop plates" which would be the plates to keep the balls from dropping through too far. Since the top face (2) has the ball diverter for the eyes, then face 1 is the mouth to the right side.

I wish that I could help you but I have never seen the face apart before. On the bright side of things, your malfunctioning face mechanism sure is clean and pretty!

Congratulations Sir!!!

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Mine is a reimport also. The pf is stamped 4 16 91 on the coin door end. The metal piece in question is on mine and was on it when the previous owner bought it 5 years ago.

As a side note, I got my ramp protectors today from Cliff (very nice guy to deal with) and they work a treat. I can now watch my ball go halfway up the protected ramps and then drain right down the middle......as Williams intended!

A very nice video indeed! The cat was the co-star of the video and seemed to have helped....not at all. Thanks for posting it and congratulations on a beautiful bride.

Today I did 2 pinball related things:
1. I received and installed my new backglass from CPR
2. I replaced my board batteries and put a new date label on them and the inside of the coin door. The previous owner used the same label method every year he owned the game....thank Goodness.

The new backglass is gorgeous and I really like the look over my old translite. Now I need to figure out what to do with an old translite. So if anybody could use one in good condition, let me know.

The battery replacement was a Learning Experience. My BOP was an export model when produced. So...... when you take out the batteries guess what you have when you start up? That's right....German!! So off to Google to translate Drucker and Einstellung and fun words I never knew. Finally I got to E.1 21 .......French, English, German.....and suddenly everything was back to English. Also, I did come up with a nice way to remove/replace the batteries. I have fat, callused fingers and didn't want to start prying in there with a screwdriver. So I used a pair of spark plug boot pliers. They are insulated and grip a AA battery perfectly. The photos aren't the best but you get the idea.

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