Hi All,
new topic, Diner was our first SS game and has always been one of our favorites, even after the addition of much higher rated WPC games to the collection. I think it's mainly the theme, I love "real" diners, I would decorate my house in diner style if I was the only one deciding. There were various repairs over the years, including a thorough disassembly and cleaning of the playfield early on - man was it filthy) but I haven't yet touched the playfield in spite of the hack job done by one of the previous owners (see photo). So my question is can I fix this without a complete playfield restauration? In spite of my methodical nature I am not convinced I will get everything back on right, and of course the amount of time needed is daunting. So what was the Diner playfield like when new? Most games have painted wood and holes with plastic insers, but Diner is different, it has pictures over the inserts. My Diner seems to have a mylar cover over most of the playfield, but I am not sure what I'll find if I remove the mylar film. Are the images on the back side of the film or are there overlays below and a film on top. What will I find under the overlays, assuming some are there? Will I be able to remove the little pieces of Boris and put them in the right place? The DINER letters above the customers could stand a bit of improvement, too. Any thoughts, tips, insight or experienced would be appreciated.

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hey all you Diner enthusiasts - I finally completed my Diner corner !

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thanks - good catch about the stickers - one of the previous owners had bought the game from a dealer. The stickers are from that dealer - the stickers are kind of ugly, I should probably take them off

Diner has a ringer or bell ? Where is it ? I don't think mine has one.

my impression is microswitches do not always just fail suddenly, but that it is a slow process. In some cases it‘s best just to replace the switch (assuming the obvious things have already been checked).

btw - I‘m still not clear what you meant with bell or ringer in your previous post.

I bought mine at Ministry of Pinball in the Netherlands. I got the whole set of insert decals when I pulled off the mylar and redid the playfield. With some Novus I got the playfield looking really nice and shiny, replaced the damaged inserts then put down a proti.

The decals were quite usable, but I cannot say I’m completely satisfied. The faces of the diners are darker than on the original. I suppose they could have faded over time, but they looked like yours. The new ones are fine when you’re playing and the insert lights are on. It’s one big piece with all 5 diners - it fit pretty well.

What didn’t work so well was the decal over the DINER letters. It didn’t cover the inserts entirely so I had to start getting creative. I discovered that the red on a Time Magazine cover matched the red on Diner almost exactly. Also I kind of wish the yellow around the letters was less translucent.

The worst was the decal for the grill area - I wound up not using it at all and making my own.

I‘ve often thought that the piece of galvanized sheet metal welded on to the right ramp at the intersection of the two ramps is one of the less attractive spots on otherwise an artistic masterpiece.

somewhere further up in this thread someone suggested to change the flipper angle (tips closer to the apron). This worked well on my game - the 2.7 million cupshot became possible (but never easy) again.

this corner of the room is not very light, but I think you can get an idea of the angles.

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in some online guidelines there is a warning to the effect - “if you don’t know how to work on boards DON’T DO IT”, but everybody’s gotta learn it somewhere, right? If you’re not real familiar with soldering, practice a lot on other stuff, before you start on the boards.

sounds like a switch on the right ramp might not be registering. What does the diverter do?