Well, it's been a long road. I purchased and paid for the machine back in late November and just took delivery of it this past Saturday. The pin was such a great deal that I was buying it with the intention of having it shipped from Denver. In the meantime, friends of mine in Bismark, ND (thanks John, Mark and Mark's wife) got wind of my purchase and offered to pick the machine up in Denver and bring it to me, as long as I could wait until after the holidays to receive it. Well, I agreed as it saved me $400. Little did I know how hard that nearly 2 month wait was gonna seem. Well all that's over now and the machine is here, set-up and plays great. I give you, my new favorite pin,The Flintstones:

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Thanks man. Taking pin pics in the dark always reminds me that I need to fix the damned GI in the backglass on my Congo. Half of it doesn't even light up (new bulbs), making it look like a dark dog in any lineup pics I take. Never made it to midnight madness, I'm just happy to earn a free game now and then.

Really? Is there an internal clock I need to check to make sure the pin knows what time it is? Crazy.

I won't cheat, and I'll be sure to let my wife 'discover' it first. She'll go nuts.

I won't be able to talk over her screams. I'll then have to wait and tell her what it was after she comes to.

Yeah, it goes great with the theme, same as the speaker grill area. My favorite part are the bedrock buildings, I need to read up on lighting mods for those babies.

Yep already bought my alternative translite. I think the game is killer.

Check out some Youtube vids. You get a good feel for the music and the overall feel of the game while watching those "player's perspective" vids. Nothing beats actually playing one though. Getting into "The Machine", bowling a strike, the sweet wrap-around ramps, all good.

BTB, Flintstones owners, does the big Bronto head do anything? Or is it just for looks? Seems like it should be used as some sort of crane or something.

Love it. Thanks again Mike.

This sounds awesome. How do I get the drop target decals. Do you have any extra?

Need to read up on this.

One side accepts a socket and the other doesn't? What did you do on that side? Drill a hole in the bottom?

Yours went to MN as well, yes? I saw yours, I never woulda let that one go.

Well I started buying parts in anticipation of an on-going shop job. I am starting with the plastics, as they are larger and some are broken, missing screws/nuts and/or mounted wrong. I received 2 NOS (or repro) plastics with the machine. First up, the plastic under the Joe's Diner billboard. Here is the extra plastic I was given:

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To replace this:

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Which was cleverly made from these two pieced together:

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I was hoping someone would identify it for me, thanks.

My Animated H-B translite arrived yesterday. I love it:

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This:

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Better than this:

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Started the LED process tonight. What a tedious task. Only have the playfield about 1/4 done but it already looks soooo much nicer.

Started the LED process tonight. What a tedious task. Only have the playfield about 1/4 done but it already looks soooo much nicer.

And here are a few pics. First, the entire playfield with about 1/3 LEDs, 2/3 555's:

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Here you can see the difference in the 2 sling plastics. The left one is now LEDed and actually looks purple instead of white!

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I like the look of the LEDs. I meant the sling actually looks purple like it should, the incandescent one looks yellow/white instead of purple.

Yep, I believe you are right. I ordered a bunch of bayonet style purples this morning. I only ordered bayonet style frosted and flat top whites with my first order. All the color LEDs I chose were wedge based on that order. This is my first LED job.

BTB, where would I get spot lights, and if I did, where would you put them on this machine? I'm thinking the Joe's Diner sign needs one. Anywhere else?

Dude that is

gorgeous.jpg

Which post? What heights?

What is needed to light the buildings? Where do you tie it into the wiring?

OK, thanks for the info. Yeah, he has invited me over to check it out in person actually.

Congratulations. Late to the party, but I always thought this was a cool looking pin (With the HB translite you put in).

Thanks! Well, I got a little further on the playfield before I ran out of time. I'd say this is about 2/3 complete:

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And I got about 2/3 of the translite done before I ran out of Frosted whites:

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I especially like the way the blues, purples and reds enhance certain colors that the regular 555's kinda just washed out.

Colored and white LED's:

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555's:

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I still have to figure out how to light the top center area up, as there are no sockets up there near the key. Those are the only real dark spots I can see.

Can someone link me to the light up Bedrock mod?

The Bedrock buildings. You said you've lit them up before. I'm just looking for a mini tutorial.

Hahahahahaha, I was like, who is this guy? Isn't he the one that was talking about it yesterday?

Awesome, that's what I needed. Thanks!

I actually removed both 'skylines' and have them in the sink where I am scrubbing them clean. I could send them to you, but I think I got this. I just have to order the parts. Thanks for all the help.

Got some more work done this weekend. Finished LEDing the playfield and almost finished the back box:

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I ran out of the frosted LEDs so I am waiting to order a bunch more of every style for a little more experimenting.

Also got to install my (almost) fully populated, brand new coin door from Pinball Life.

Before:

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After:

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Man did that $135 save me a ton of work trying to find and restore a used one. Thanks Terry.

Also began cleaning the inside of the cab and scrubbing the transformer and wiring. This about 1/2 way through:

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Thanks. I was also able to finally mount my Joe's Diner Billboard. I could only find the front bracket for the billboard, so I just bought 2 of them and altered one. For the back bracket, I just twisted one of the front brackets a bit and used a black zip tie (until I can find a better solution). I also inverted the front L-bracket (long side down) so that the sign faces the player's perspective more (the front 'leg' is set back an extra half inch). It now sticks out over the right ramp entrance a bit more, but after playing several games I found this not to be an issue with ball travel. I just like being able to see it better. I secured the front bracket with a tiny Bally/Midway carriage bolt from an arcade coin door.

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I then turned my attention to the start and buy-in buttons. I noticed that the buy in button never lit up when the machine signalled you could buy in, and pushing the button did nothing anyway. When I went inside I found the wiring and quick disconnects for the buy in button just hanging there, but someone had soldered 2 wires to the micro switch and then hacked them into the wiring near the interface board. I removed all the hacks, then removed both buttons and replaced them with new chrome-collared LED buttons. I chose blue for start and yellow for buy-in just cuz I liked the color combo. Once I hooked them all up, both lit up and both did their jobs again:

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Next I decided I'd start trying figure out the best way to light up the Bedrock buildings.

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I drilled 3 1/2" holes into each building section on both skylines, then borrowed a small bulb harness from a Jungle King arcade machine.

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I set it up and hooked the wiring into one of the GI sockets just to test. It worked:

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Now to order the parts to do this permanently.

I am sure it is. There were a lot of things missing. I find something new every day, but that's half the fun.

I'll be using either frosted or superbright LEDs. These are concave LED's that I am testing with.

Thanks for the suggestion. I may try different colors as well.

Now all my flashers are intermittent. Sometimes they work in test, sometimes they don't. Also, how many strings of GI are there? I have one string that does nothing in test, while there are no bulbs visibly out when the game is on. Is one string supposed to be empty?

Really? How would you be able to access or advance the tests with the door closed?

Yeah, I guess I forgot about the other buttons advancing things. Sounds good, I'll try it tonight.

OK, I tried the tests with the door shut, and the flashers work, but only at like half strength. Also, the flippers, start, launch and buy in buttons do nothing once the test is going. So they work, but they should be brighter in test, shouldn't they?

Finally got my recent order and was able to try this out. Yep, you were right.

Before (one 1LED Frosted White/1 555 incandescent):

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After (2 purple Superbright 3LEDs):

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Topper you say? Sounds cool. I actually thought about buying both sets of Bedrock buildings and mounting those in conjunction with some lights, Flintstones figures and a back drop and using that as a topper.

I'll actually be starting to wire those permanently tonight. Cannot wait to get that done, add some spotlights (the 'machine' area in the back is so dark) and some EL wiring to the ramps (gotta get that neon look going with the 50's feel of Bedrock). I bought pink and blue post covers to replace the black ones, and purple star posts to replace the dull-looking orange ones.

I finally added a spotlight for the Joe's Diner sign. The cool thing is that it also illuminates the bowling alley. I attached it on a 1.5" post screwed in to the middle of the Fred's Choice A plastic area. I ran the wires next to the ramp gate/trigger wires and followed them out the bottom of the play field through the hole they exit. I tied the wires into the GI bulb terminals under the long purple and yellow plastic on the left of the playfield. Turned out perfect:

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And just look at the difference one spotlight makes:

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Can you take a pic of the top of your machine area? I'm missing something. I just have the studs with rubbers around them, but no plastic cover? Is anything missing on yours? Thanks.

I tried to add punctuation to your questions, so that I might better figure out what you were asking, but I am still not sure. The plastic star posts I am talking about are under the sling plastics on the lower part of the play field. I replaced the dull orange ones with purple ones:

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I also added rubber pink rubber post covers to the metal posts at the entrances to the ramps. One of mine was missing, and the other was basic and boring black:

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Does anyone know what #string the Fred's Choice bulbs are on? None of mine are working (neither A, the A flasher, B or C, and they were 2 weeks ago. I know I blew a solenoid fuse when I accidentally touched a wire to the lock down receiver while lifting the playfield, but I changed the fuse in question and the solenoids were back. I have looked over all fuses and don't see any blown ones.

Cool, yeah it's a great game. Funny, my Flintstones was a reimport from Europe. Musta been a hit over there.

I've got a manual, but it's at home, and I'm at work. Just hoping for an easy answer before I start messing around.

Yeah, I know, but it's only THAT flasher that's not working, so I assume the bulb is bad.

It's my second fav currently, though Congo isn't too far ahead of it. To put it in perspective, I own 4 pins. Though I turn them all on, I only ever play Congo and Flintstones anymore, While JP and TFTC just sit there looking pretty. Maybe I've become a Williams Snob after all. Speaking of which, I'd trade my TFTC and cash for a Creetch in a heartbeat. Any takers? Sorry to derail my own thread.

Oh, that's OK.

Thanks for the understanding.

Congo is the best pin I've ever played. I love the jungle look, the smooth feel and the primal sounds. I sold my TOTAN to make room for my Congo and I've never looked back. Flintstones is almost as fun as Congo for different reasons. Congo is my serious pin, Flintstones is my silly pin.

Started the EL wire ramp mods. I did the outside of the right ramp first. It looks great, but I tried using hot-glue first (wouldn't stick), super glue (wouldn't cure fast enough) and finally crazy glue gel. That seemed to have the best holding power, but it did leave a bit of a white residue here and there that I'll need to address. I used steel wool, a jeweler's screwdriver and a flame to get rid of most of it, then used polishing compound to buff the plastic back to clear. Not perfect yet, but I'll keep refining the method til I get it right. The ramp I have is in rough shape (cracked, missing some of the lip around the rim, etc), so I thought it would be a great ramp to experiment on. I will most likely buy a repro and then drill it for zip ties like TRON did. This works in the meantime.

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And entire playfiled shots.

Lights on:

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Lights out:

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I did find one 2 position molex hanging disconnected under the play field but I can't seem to find it's mate if it has one. I assume that must be for some form of lighting.

There should be a round plastic with some bones on it above the main machine disc. It's held on to the disc with 2 screws screwed into 2 standoffs.

Finally got my buildings lit up. For those that make it sound like an easy 5 minute project, it isn't. The hardest part is getting all the sockets mounted, soldered and daisy chained in such a way that the terminals and wires are out of the way and sitting where you want them to be. The right side is easier, as more of the buildings sit behind the ramp. On the left one, the buildings sit right over the top of the ramp. Also, that square hole in the center isn't cut out for your convenience. It's actually cut out for an existing gate assembly, which also needs to fit in that space with the new bulb socket you're installing. I had to install and remove the left side buildings at least 5 times before I got everything routed and bent out of the way far enough or the ball would get caught in the left ramp. I also used shrink tubing on my connections so if they accidentally touched one of the metal support bars underneath, they wouldn't short themselves out. Here are some playfield pics, then views from the commercial side to residential, and vise versa:

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And I added another spotlight. This one I attached to the middle post of the right ramp. I faced it toward the Brontosaurus and threw a green Superbright in it. Helps to light up the dinosaur and add some more light to the back of the playfield:

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I think everything you guys need is shown on this dude's site:

http://thearcademan.net/williams-flintstones-pinball/

Ironically, I ran out of wedge based LEDs and had to stick old 555s in there for now. The hotspots look more intense in the pics. They're really not that noticeable in person.

that back plastic is not mounted right mine is mounted on the back board with lights behind it

This is how mine is mounted:

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And I had to remove, resolder and repopulate the little light board in the back to light up the back corner. Every bulb was dead, cold solder joints everywhere. No wonder it was so damn dark back here. This helps tremendously:

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Thanks David. Nice to hear from you again. How's that Monster Bash of yours? Man I'd love to find one of those, though I'd be just as happy getting a decent Creetch for half the cost.

So did any of the pics posted or linked help you fine fellows?

You can send me 3 if you want, I won't complain. I just can't believe I ran out of them just before I finished the mod. Irony.

Yep, I think you're just Chasing Ghosts and Shadows.

That's kinda what I think I'll think. I love classic Mid-Century Americana stuff. Trying to trade my TFTC + Cash for one right now.

OK, messed with the GI lighting in my backbox some more. I decided to use LEDs in the center area, and regular 555s in the surrounding translite. Which looks better?

Original translite, all incandescents:

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New translite, all LEDs:

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New Translite, mix of both:

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blue, red, purple and white ablaze 1s and 3s.