My latest “project” (not really a project as it’s a great playing machine as is) is shopping a new Big Indian. The cabinet front has been redone at some point with a new door, frame and brace. The backglass is a repro in great shape. The cabinets sides are the worst of it, but not horrible. Someone had already done some work on it, but it wasn’t known to the seller (who rescued it). A number of switches had been replaced, one of the bumpers had been rebuilt, flippers aren’t that old. The game meter has 111K on it. I cleaned up a bit with ME and alcohol along the left side of the bonus feathers, and the colors came out looking bright even though the pf doesn’t really look that bad (right side of the bonus) to start.

The only real pf wear is a spot by the left flipper. I love these older pf with areas of solid colors – much easier to work with. I’ve seen pages where others have touched up the pf, but none I’ve found go into detail as to what paint/color was used. Anyone know of color match info for a Big Indian/Brave?

Would I necessarily have to clear the whole pf after touching up this area? I’m sure I’ll eventually clear the whole thing (after filling the inserts), but now’s not the time. Of course I could just clean, polish and wax, and wait until I clear to touch it up.

The paint under the pop bumper mylars (loose) wasn’t bad at all. I was going to put new mylar down when I rebuild the bumpers. Any advice/experience as to loose or adhesive mylar here? Though there was some crud under the mylars, the loose ones seemed to hold up and not beat on the paint much.

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Yep, fun game but hard on the eys. Its a donor for a re-theme project.

This one looks to have some of the original mask clear over the original paint, and the cleaning I've done so far didn't eat thru it much. It should polish up nice.

I'm also looking for suggestions on replacing the pop bumper light sockets - perhaps to a blade socket - for an older Gott EM.

Sourcing them is the easy part. The questions is more along the lines of which to use as an alternative, if any.

Cleaned it up this weekend. Eraser and alcohol followed by a good polishing. Didn't lose much paint at all. Then a number of coats of wax. The difference in the cleaning can be see in the white areas where the posts were. I've gone as far as I can until the tumbling post screws polish up.

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Novus 2 and some auto-finish polish (the latter has a bit more cut to it). I have a powered polisher, but didn't use it here for fear of burning thru the already thin art. So I just used foam/terry applicator, some polishing cloths, and elbow grease.

I guess I already had it torn down when you were over last. I'm hoping to get it back together this week. However PBR (all of it) took the week off, and I'm not sure if they shipped my last order (from Thursday) beforehand. Guess I'll find out today. If not, complete reassembly might be delayed since the order included all the coil sleeves and some bumper springs. I might perhaps have to reorder as they seemed to have simply dumped all orders not filled and those that came in while they were closed.

Finished adding back all the pf gear. Rebuilt the flippers. Cleaned and gapped all the switches. new bulbs, rubbers, posts. tumbled everything. Had to lay the new plastics out as well - but won't secure them until the pop bumpers are in. So now its a wait for the mail tomorrow to see of PBR got my order out.

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Actually I think all the inserts are cupped to some degree. I opted to do a good shop job on it rather than a full pf restore (fix cupped inserts, retouch wear, clear) as I have too many other project machines and wanted an EM up and running. I'll monitor for worsening wear. If it gets too bad too quick, then I'll likely need to look at doing something further.

I finally got the parts in from Steve on Saturday. After getting the pop bumper light sockets soldered in, I decided to do a quick light test. The light worked fine, but I noticed that the B&G lights were tripped at the start of the game. No worries, has nothing to do with the bumpers.

I get the bumpers in and decided to give a quick gameplay before putting the plastics on. I very much dislike the Gott acorn post setup, and have no interest in having to take the plastics off any more than necessary. Started playing the game and noticed the same B&G lights tripped at the beginning (lit bumpers and rollovers score as expected). When the I lane was made, the GI lights dimmed and the insert lights went out. I turned if off. The B&G tripping at start ended up being the head of the relay having come off the end of leafs. The I lane was still a problem and was toasting the 10a fuse if left – but I could manually trip the relay at this point.

With the schematic I traced it to the relay, but couldn’t find anything. Knowing I had a couple other issues (player two oddness, slings=100 in player 3 & 4), I was not looking forward to tracing a bunch of little issues. I had already gone thru adjusted not only the new switches but most of the original switches, so I wasn’t going to have luck figuring it out if it was something I did.

I remembered that the inside was pretty clean when I got it, but I hadn’t vacuumed/blown it out. Fire up the compressor and gave it a quick once over. Closed it up and turned it on and it came up just as it should. The B&G behaved as they should, the I lane didn’t fry a fuse, two player game played at is should and slings scored correctly again. Only adjustment I had to make after that was the lower G lane would score points but wouldn’t trip the light. I love pins that get fixed by blowing on them.

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Played a bunch of games on it, tweaking switches and such. No problems with anything ... until ...

I decided the flipper ends were sitting a bit too low. It was difficult to hold the ball as the flippers fully up were just above horizontal. I adjust the flippers just a bit, and the I lane problem came back. Same symptoms - completing the I lane causes all insert lights to go out and the GI lights to dim. Eventually the 10a fuse goes. I'm hoping the problem is actually around the flippers as that's the only area I was messing with before it came back. Otherwise, I'm hoping another couple shots from the compressor fixes it again.

The I lane relay does stay energized (until I manually disengage it), so I'm guessing its a stuck I lane rollover switch as well.

The sling problem hasn't come back since I blew the cabinet out. I'm glad as it really didn't seem as it'd be an easy one.

I don't, and haven't found anything in my searches. I had started with simply setting them parallel to the wire guide in the pf behind them. I've since raised the end about 1/4 inch on each, but the return of the I lane issue kept me from testing the change.

When I adjusted them, I simply unscrewed the two set screws just enough to be able to move the bat, but still allow the screws to hold it in position to tighten it. Other than that, I just get it set and hold it in place while tightening. It took a couple tries to get them even, but that was more a matter of not having a good way to get them both aligned relative to each other than the process itself.