Finally getting things somewhat sorted from my trip to St Louis and I have decided to dive into El Toro!

First off the machine is complete, and very dirty. the BG is flaking in the bull area and slightly around the score windows- the cabinet isn't too bad but will most likely get a repaint. The play field is pretty nice- just very very dirty. There is wear at the pop bumpers, and one lower plastic is broken. The coin door is rusty, not too sure how that will clean up but we'll tackle that a bit down the road.

Upon tearing down the PF components I noticed that one of the top targets had sheared off both rivets (see photo) and that one of the pop bumper rings was broken, but the game was played with this pop bumper for some time as the ring and rivet area are worn smooth and the base fell apart as I removed it.

Here is the broken target
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Playfield:
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Stripping PF:
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After the PF was stripped I attacked the really heavily soiled areas with Krud Kutter and some mean green ( the Krud Kutter worked better on the really bad spots IMHO)

Before:

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After a few hours of careful cleaning:el toro 088.JPG[att=2076115,448132

caption=""]el toro 090.JPG

Now after some Novus2:el toro 095.JPGel toro 096.JPGel toro 097.JPG

All metal parts are in the tumbler for a few days...

Next is triple thick on BG and touchups of the PF- I'll post progress as it occurs

Here is the BG
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triple thicked...

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I certainly hope so!
The center reel rotates and awards points when a target is hit based on the reel point value shown- I'm excited to get it back in shape and take it for a spin ( pun intended )

Any chance you can scan the left lower PF plastic? or tell me if it's a mirror image of the right side? too hard to tell on mine as it sites- I want to try my hand at making a new plastic for the missing piece- unless I luck out and find a nice used one.... there is a used set listed but it has all the pieces- save for the one I actually need....

close enough! if I can't find a replacement I'll try my hand at flipping a scan of the right side to replace the left.

Started on the PF touchups tonight. I start with black to get all the outlines in. Then I'll fill I. With colors. The process is tedious and a bit boring but I'll share before and after pictures as I go. image-247.jpgimage-109.jpgimage-320.jpgimage.jpg

Thanks alot- the tedium starts now with trying to color match the paint colors and get color back in the worn wood sections. Not sure how I am going to approach the sections that were cleared over bare wood. At the pops the clear-coat has warn away and the wood looks dingly- I'm not sure ifthe new clear coat will make this look better or not- I might take some 600-800-1000 grit paper to these areas and seal again prior to the clear-coat. I will do this with the shooter lane and the ball groove at the top of the PF. Any body have any ideas on how to treat these bare wood areas at the pop bumpers any differently? I can paint them with a color that is close to the wood color but I'd rather not if I didn't have to-

Thank you very much! Alot of projects in my collection but working on it!

I was thinking of 2K clearing this play field... a little apprehensive as it would be a first for me. We'll see as I go through it- The acrylic touch ups never seem to last too long- even some of the pinholes seem to comeback after a bit- so clear coating to seal it all in would be nice- but the touch-ups would have to be pretty good for me to be able to justify sealing them in...

I will be using the mylar rings for sure - even if I clear the PF- I like the added protection and they don't detract too much from the look of the game of how it plays.

Finally got back into El Toro over the weekend- a bit sidetracked with my brothers Power Play PF swap- but had a chance to wax the PF added Mylar rings at the bumpers, and started to install components that had been dangling under the PF while I worked on the aesthetics.

I was going to clear-coat this PF but decided against it - I will not be keeping this in my collection for too long and I hate the idea of locking in my touch-ups. I'm happy with the few spots I had to hit with a bit of paint, so I just gave it a good waxing.

I use a furniture wax for the PF and hit it with a heat gun- this melts the wax and it dries pretty quickly- the buffing it a bit of a pain but I use the random orbit buffer and it works a bit easier. I applied 9 layers apply, heat/melt, wait buff- then repeat. after the 9 coats of furniture wax I hit it with 3 coats of carnuba- right or wrong it's what I do and it works pretty good for me.

The repair on the target was pretty straightforward - I just drilled out the snapped rivets and installed 4-40 socket head cap screws and lock-nuts. I may just do this to the other target as well to assure it will stay together.
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Thank you!

Yep - this one is not the Bally- but should be a nice player- Time will tell-

So yesterday I received the ultrasonic cleaner I bought for $35.00 I didn't hold out much hope for it working too well (it is the brand sold by Harbor Freight and has a heat feature). I gave it a whirl with the posts and plastics for El Toro- I used one cup of Mean Green and filled the rest of the tank with hot water. I ran it for 4 cycles with the machines heater on and the results were really surprising!
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So much so that I grabbed the Power play posts ( bought all new posts for PP as these were pretty grungy and they have the ribs that make them a PIA to clean by hand). I threw them into the clear after I was done with El Toro parts- stunning results! This saves me so much time! Previously I would clean each post by hand and the results were always hit - or miss.

I thought about dropping the plastics in there as well tonight with clean water and Mean Green- but I'm not too sure if the cleaner will damage the paint-on them- has anybody used an ultrasonic cleaner for play field plastics?

Thinking about what else i can clean with this thing- not sure why it took me so long to get one!

Glad I asked about the plastics- now that you mention it- the pop bumper caps went in with more ink than they came out with....

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I'll try my hand at re-inking these with some paint... lesson learned