This EATPM had seen a lot of play and neglect over the years and needed some serious TLC. It first came my way on a mini-warehouse raid a few years ago. After bringing it back to somewhat playable condition, it was sold to Aurich who did a complete playfield teardown and custom paint job. It was then passed onto it’s current owner Charliex, who asked me to work on the cabinet restoration, since she’s a keeper for him.
E0000 (resized).jpg
E0001 (resized).jpg
E0002 (resized).jpg

As you can tell from the pictures, it was beat-up pretty good. I was glad to see the electronics were solid and the mechanical parts only needed some minor work, but the cabinet was thrashed. After too many years of being on route in Los Angeles, this Elvira was a great candidate for a complete restoration. I always enjoy other pinside restore threads and thought this machine had a good story and outcome.
E0003 (resized).jpg
E0005 (resized).jpg
E0006 (resized).jpg
E0007 (resized).jpg
E0008 (resized).jpg
E009 (resized).jpg
E0010 (resized).jpg

E0012 (resized).jpg
E0015 (resized).jpg
E0016 (resized).jpg
E0017 (resized).jpg
E0018 (resized).jpg
E0019.1 (resized).jpg

The first round of major work was done on the playfield by Aurich. He found some pictures of the work he did a while back, sending them over, along with a few notes:

- Redid all the under plastic white areas with a reflective silver
- Redid all the green areas with a pearlescent green
- Matched the purple DEAD FUCKING ON man I'm still proud of how exact that match is
- Used a big waterslide decal to repair Elvira
- Sealed with SprayMax 2000
- New Rottendog LED Displays
- Mirrored Backglass and New Plastics
E0020.01 (resized).jpg
E0020.02 (resized).jpg
E0020.03 (resized).jpg
E0020.04 (resized).jpg
E0020.05 (resized).jpg
E0020.06 (resized).jpg

(Back to current day cabinet work at my place)
Prep and Bondo work, fun fun.
E0020 (resized).jpg
E0025 (resized).jpg
E0026 (resized).jpg
E0027.5 (resized).jpg
E0027.6 (resized).jpg
E0027 (resized).jpg

Found these 5¼ Boss Phantom speakers with built-in Skulls. Normally, I wouldn’t pick something like this...but the skulls are removable and figured they matched the Elvira theme anyway. It turned out to be a good choice, when they are behind the backbox grill they’re just subtle enough, but still nicely noticeable.

E0031.5 (resized).jpg
E0041.2 (resized).jpg
E0043.5 (resized).jpg
E0045.5 (resized).jpg
E0046 (resized).jpg

Back to more cabinet work, primer and paint, the first couple coats of black were flat, then the final coat is satin.
E0047 (resized).jpg
E0048.4 (resized).jpg
E0051.5 (resized).jpg
E0052 (resized).jpg
E0055.5 (resized).jpg
E0057.5 (resized).jpg
E0058 (resized).jpg

Time to clean-up the power transformer, finally found some decent label paper that matched the existing wrapper.
E0062.5 (resized).jpg
E0064.5 (resized).jpg
E0067.5 (resized).jpg
E0069.5 (resized).jpg

Internal metal parts cleaned, some were tumbled, bigger parts were polished. The black hardware was powder coated with high gloss by a local company (except the coin door was done with semi-gloss).
E0069.6 (resized).jpg
E0070 (resized).jpg
E0072.5 (resized).jpg
E0081.5 (resized).jpg
E0082 (resized).jpg
E0083 (resized).jpg

E0085 (resized).jpg
E0086 (resized).jpg
E0087 (resized).jpg
E0088 (resized).jpg
E0090 (resized).jpg
E0092 (resized).jpg
E0093 (resized).jpg
E0096.5 (resized).jpg
E0097.5 (resized).jpg

E0097 (resized).jpg
E0098 (resized).jpg
E0101.5 (resized).jpg
E0105 (resized).jpg
E0106 (resized).jpg
E0110.5 (resized).jpg
E0111 (resized).jpg
E0112 (resized).jpg

E0114 (resized).jpg
E0115 (resized).jpg
E0117 (resized).jpg
E0118 (resized).jpg
E0119 (resized).jpg
E0120 (resized).jpg
E0121 (resized).jpg

E0122 (resized).jpg
E0123 (resized).jpg
E0124 (resized).jpg
E0125 (resized).jpg

Back to Charliex’s place to install the playfield (where it was left during this restore).
E0126 (resized).jpg
E0129 (resized).jpg
E0130 (resized).jpg
E0131.2 (resized).jpg
E0131.3 (resized).jpg
E0131 (resized).jpg
E0133 (resized).jpg
E0137 (resized).jpg

The playfield is now installed and playing great. The new speaker set-up improved the sound nicely. Better highs and stronger lows, didn’t expect that with a System 11 title. She’s now back at home and the Universe is one again.

ZZElviraFront (resized).jpg

Thanks, used black flat/satin rustoleum spray cans on this one. I have a HVLP set-up that I'll use for colored cabs and clear coating, but with some practice, you can get the same results with the cans (and no clean up which is the best part).