I'm in the process of restoring a Bullwinkle pinball I recently purchased. Although the playfield, ramps, and the hat trick backbox are in perfect working order, I got the machine for pretty cheap since the exterior cabinet paint job is pretty beat up on side and front.

So I'm just restoring everything else into pristine condition where I can. To Russ: I really like you idea of replacing the posts with colored ones. If you don't mind me asking, could you list the online places where you ordered all your parts from? I'd like to check them out myself as I may do something similar, though I will be going the black rubber route.

Speaking of cointaker, I'm not sure which I should go with. They have a game-specific kit for Bullwinkle, but I don't think it uses the anti-ghosting LEDs. I'm wondering why buy the kit when you could just directly order the anti-ghosting LEDs? Their web site is a bit confusing on all the options. It's not very well organized or "polished" web design I should say.

Anyway, I just got a brand new DMD in and installed that tonight. The original one in there was nearly 20 years old, and it was starting to show slight signs of outgassing on some animations. Now everything is razor sharp and perfect with the new display.

Thanks for the list of places you order from. I've already been ordering various parts from Marco, Mad, and Bay Area. I got the DMD for the best price at Mad Amusements. You can't beat $159 when the other sites are wanting near $200 and sometimes over $200 for one.

_{Post edited by FirebrandX : typos}

Just one more quick question, Russ:

How many of each color of star posts did you end up ordering to replace the boring DE ones?

Thanks!

You slept since then?

Thanks man. I'll just order like 25 of each clear and blue, and then 5x red and yellow should cover everything. I'm doing pretty much the same job on my machine as yours, except I'm going with white flipper buttons like the originals. While blue is my favorite color, the white ones seem to match the overall scheme better and pop more.

One last question: Where did you get those circular plastic wafers that act as protectors on the screw posts?

Cool thanks! I just ordered a bunch more pieces for my restoration project. Here's a snapshot of my current progress log:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorationproject.png

My Cliffy protectors and colored posts arrived today. I just spent the last 3 hours stripping the old hardware out, dremeling off rusted parts, installing new rubbers in the stripped areas, and then finally installing the protectors and posts. I did the same theme of color-matching the bomb posts and it does look slick. For the post near the Aesop hole, I went with metallic silver.

At any rate, I was a bit shocked at all the damage that had been done to the jackpot ramp over the past 20 years when I stripped it out and inspected it closely. The Cliffy protectors now hide all the damage from view, but I'd sure feel a lot better with a new ramp at some point in the future. Unfortunately the guys that make the reproduction ramps got snake-bit after their WABAC ramp was a poor seller, and they tell me they're not going near Bullwinkle again.

Edit:

Nevermind. Turns out it was blue wrap coating that can be peeled off.

I had a sudden bout of inspiration concerning the Red B.O.M.B. target's rear post. At first I went with Russ's idea of using a red star post, but it just didn't match as well as Cliffy's colored rubber posts do. So it occurred to me to try slicing a Cliffy post and force-fitting both ends on the original DE metal post. Although a bit crude of a prototype, the effect worked perfectly! Here are some pics of the modified post:

bullwinkleredbombpost01.jpg bullwinkleredbombpost02.jpg bullwinkleredbombpost03.jpg

I got another batch of LEDs from Cointaker as I'm in the process of designing the G.I. lighting scheme now that I've got the insert LEDs completed. For testing, I had ordered warm white frosted premiums, cool white frosted premiums, cool white 2-LED premiums, and cool white super Retros. Of the lot of them, the cool white frosted premiums really stood out as the best look. If you wanted an authentic retro lighting feel, then the warm white frosteds were best for that.

Thus far, I have used blue frosted premiums under the return lanes & upper lane guides (looks awesome), and then I used pink frosted premiums in the two sockets behind the SAVED targets (also looks awesome). I used a RED 2-LED premium for the shielded light in front of the NELL table, which helps to show the danger of the situation. The rest of the G.I. in the playfield I'm just going to finish off with cool white frosteds, though I may experiment with a couple of green frosteds just to see if they work with the overall scheme somewhere on the board.

So the one thing that's been bothering my about my restoration work on my Bullwinkle machine is the lack of options for restoring the ramps. I managed to get a new WABAC ramp installed. but the right "Ball Entrance" ramp had some severe damage at the bottom where it gets secured to the playfield. Furthermore, the metal flap for it was severely rusted. As luck would have it, I found a site in Norway that had a near perfect entrance ramp in stock! It's a miracle someone didn't snag it before me, so I quickly ordered it. Now all I need is a new decal for the "return" ramp, but I wouldn't mind just buying a new one of those as well.

Just finished restoring the original green Wells/Gardner coin buttons (which they no longer make in green, so hold onto them if you got 'em) and installed them with green LEDs from cointaker. They look quite attractive now! I attached a pic, but it's not very clear (should've used a tripod).

Also, I purchased a new Nell table decal from Bay Area Amusements. I had to disassemble the Nell table to swap the old decal out, and I'll say that removing the Nell log was quite tricky! Nell is riveted to the log, so you have to slightly loosen the nuts, then slide the log forward a half-centimeter so the screw posts are now in the wider slot area holes. Then you have to continue to loosen the nuts while lifting the log up the posts until it comes completely off.

At any rate, the Nell table is now almost entirely rebuilt from new parts except for the long hitching post plastic and the Nell log assembly. I took the opportunity to use plastic PETG 1/2 inch washers with the top mounting screws in order to protect the decal from damage. The old decal was shredded around the screws, so the new decal was a vast improvement. The plastic washers will keep it that way.

pinballcoinbuttons.jpg

Just got in a replacement entrance ramp from Norway, and also a set of NOS slingshot art pieces from a local dealer. Here are some comparison pics:

Bullwinklescans_-_Repro_Comparison_01..jpg bullwinkleentranceramps01.jpg bullwinkleentranceramps02.jpg

The entire cost for it with ensured and tracked postage ended up being $90, which is still a better price than if I had found a local dealer with one. They usually charge $100 for a ramp.

Arakissun let me raid his R&B for all the remaining parts I needed, including a replacement backglass. All I have to do now is cross my fingers and hope nothing goes wrong with the shipping from Bulgaria.

It's not NOS, but it doesn't have the severe scrapes and flake spots my current one does. Once I get everything in the mail, I'll take more pics.

The money pit continues:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorationproject.png

Currently waiting on two more shipments, one being from Pinrestore.com to replace all the remaining old screws and nuts, and the other to finish off the flashers in the playfield with LEDs. Speaking of which, I tallied up the cost of my custom LED job that used all premiums, and the total came to $255 USD. That covered everything from coin mechs to the backbox.

Thankfully I can get the glass channels, rails, and side armor all from the same place here in the States. In other news, I finally heard back from the online dealer in Norway, and they sent me a set of detailed photographs of their return lane ramp. The sucker is in pristine condition! So I ordered it immediately for $50 USD. This means I will have two spare return lane ramps if anyone ends up needing one. They are both intact and in working order, except that since they are used, the metal tongues have rusted spots on them and the air plane decal is worn on both. Maybe I will put up a for-sale thread for them at some point.

At any rate, I'm really stoked. All three plastic ramps will now look show-room quality, and yet I started off with little chance of replacing ANY of them! About the only things left I could replace are the playfield board itself and the pie display. Both are in good condition, but not NOS-quality flawless. I can live with that though.

Just got the LED flashers in the mail today. I installed all 30 of them, and all worked perfectly. I went with FLEX style on the majority of them, which gave me freedom to aim the light output where I needed it on the various flasher inserts. I also used some blue-colored flashers in a few key spots to keep up with my cool-white and blue G.I. combo. They looked stunning when I turned on the diagnostic flasher cycle test.

So this completely finishes off the LED conversion from head to toe. I used almost exclusively cointaker premiums and flashers, except for the pop-bumpers and and overhead ramps lights, which were from Noflix in Germany. Total cost of LED conversion (not counting shipping): $255. This means those pre-packaged LED kits don't save you any money, especially when you consider I used all premiums whenever possible.

Lastly, I placed another order with Marco and Pinrestore to completely finish off replacing the screws, washer, nuts, and spacers with shiny brand new ones. Project log is updated:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorationproject.png

Nice red scheme there, worm!

BTW, I noticed no score cards in your apron display. I made my own free play card if you want to print it out and use it yourself:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/bullwinklecard.bmp

I still have the original instruction card, but even those are of poor print quality. I'm thinking of redesigning a new one, probably in color too.

The one on the metal plate? My guess is these shooter lanes were universal, so some games may have used that post to attach plastic art too possibly.

LOL. I've spent too much money restoring it at this point to even come close to breaking even. But I understood that going in. This was to be my introduction to pinball and restoration as I've never owned one before. I have plenty of experience with arcade machines, so I wasn't completely clueless, but honestly the trick is to just do a lot of research and get your hands dirty.

Edit: I also need to mention I found that replacing the 2 1/4 inch hex spacer holding up the return ramp with a 2 1/2 inch version seemed to improve the alignment of the ramp. With the shorter post, the underneath of the ramp was touching the WABAC ramp right where the decal is worn. Now they do not touch, and this will help protect the new ramp when I get it in the mail. Speaking of which, I heard back from Norway that my return ramp has been shipped. When it arrives, that will give me an excuse to swap out the pop-bumpers with the new parts sitting on my shelf. The old ones work perfectly fine, but putting in pristine new ones is all part of my effort to make it showroom quality. Here's a pic of the ramp coming in the mail (click on the image to zoom in):

bullwinklereturnramp.jpg

Well the wood is at least something you can restore without unique parts if you're willing build a new box. I'm considering rebuilding the entire cabinet with better quality wood on mine once I scan in all the artwork. Then I'm going to have laminated stickers made to scale with the artwork printed on them that can be applied to the cabinet.

Fantastic! If the price is reasonable, I'm in for an R&B cab as that will save me a lot of time and effort.

Yep. I've got two different backglasses, and both have damage to the nose. Putting a little square of self-adhesive felt padding on the screw head prevents this kind of damage, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a glass that isn't already ruined from it.

So I got bored and rebuilt the flippers with the kit I had on hand. What's funny is R&B doesn't use half the "default" parts online dealers include with these kits, like EOS switches and those large springs.

Anyway, when I stripped out the old parts, I noticed someone had installed the spring washers on the diode side instead of the coil-stop side. I checked the manual and indeed it shows they should be on the coil-stop side, so I'm going to assume whoever serviced the flippers prior had merely made a mistake.

So now I'm just waiting on the return ramp to get here, and then I will finish off the playfield restoration in one final swoop.

Edit:

I said "screw it" and when ahead and rebuilt all 3 pop-bumpers. Actually rebuilding them with new parts was easy, but getting everything stripped off the playfield to get to them was a major pain in the ass. I did take the opportunity to replace all the microswitch screws with new ones while I was stripping off parts. At any rate, start-to-finish took 5 hours and I'm beat. Now the new ramp will be a simple swap out when that arrives.

Finally nearing the end of the internal restoration:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorationproject.png

Couple of pro-tips after my experience with rebuilding/replacing the pop-bumpers:

1. Replace EVERYTHING you can. This includes the coil sleeves, but keep the coils if they are still working properly. I originally had attempted to clean the black sooty crap off the original sleeves, but for 50-cents a pop, I realized to just toss the old ones and use new ones from Marco. They are the 1-11/16ths sleeve FYI.

2. If the rods are old and crusty, it can be difficult to pull them free of the yokes. I found using a pair of pliers and applying pressure to the edge of the yokes and the tip of the rods causes them to pop loose much easier. Here again, everything should be replaced with new parts, including both metal and fiber yoke parts.

3. You'll have no choice but to unsolder and re-solder the lamp socket wires when doing a complete pop-bumper rebuild. I decided this was only going to happen once, so I got some extra wire length and made removable connectors mid-wire after soldering the other ends back in place. This makes it to where I can quickly unhook the pop-bumper lamp sockets next time around without having to do any soldering work.

4. Inspect the switch contacts underneath the spoons (since these are unobtainium at the moment). I used an emery board and gently polished off the black carbon off the contact heads. My pop-bumpers now react quickly and violently to any nudge by the skirt. That's what you want!

That's why I was careful. The only thing that came off was black soot, and it was shiny gold underneath. Obviously I did it right because all 3 bumpers worked splendidly.

BTW digging through the virtual "back alleys" of online dealer sites, I found something that will be a VERY nice part to replace for those that could use it like myself. If it turns out to be the correct part, I'll post the link here after I buy one.

Unfortunately, the part didn't pan out. It was a DE apron, but one had no kickback hole and the other had the hole on the wrong side. I suppose the one without a hole could be modified, but I'm going to try just using a chrome paint pen to touch up the Data East logo, which is the only reason I'd want to replace the apron anyway.

In other news, the return ramp arrived from Norway and I'm thrilled with it. Zero micro cracks around the rivets, and all the tongues and tabs are shiny new looking. The decal is also fully intact and vibrant. This now makes all 3 ramps in beautiful condition. That reminds me about a pro-tip: A poorly adjusted ramp divider arm will damage the return ramp over time. The two old return ramps I have (my original and the crappy one sent from Bulgaria) both have deep groove marks from repeated hits taken from the divider arm swinging open and smacking the plastic at the corner of the curved plate. The trick to prevent this is to reposition the linkage arm setting until the coil cannot pull the arm open wide enough to make contact with the plastic. I've been doing this as a practice since I got the machine, and naturally I made the same adjustment after putting the new ramp in.

So next up, I removed the current apron and serviced/cleaned all the coils and plungers for the kicker, returner, and launcher. I discovered the plastic striker ring was missing on the returner plate, and there was some rust in a few spots. The coil also had some slight heat damage, and the sleeve was permanently stuck inside it. I went on Marco and found they had every part listed in the entire assembly, so I ordered it all, including a new coil and new sleeves for the other apron coils as well.

Current progress:
http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorationproject.png

Edit: Just ordered a brand new complete lockdown receiver and bar assembly from pinball life. On mine, the bar wasn't factory original, and the receiver plate was completely covered in rust (which I had sanded off). Now once I order the side armor from Marco, I'll be pretty much down to restoring the cabinet wood itself as the last job.

Below is a list of what I call "keep dreaming" parts I'd like to get NOS versions of:

1. Long plastic art piece that runs underneath the Nell table.
2. Backglass.
3. Hat Trick target decals.
4. Apron.
5. Playfield board (not paying more than $300 for).

If I had the above, my machine would be in flawless showroom quality condition.

Mine isn't cracked or anything that severe, but I would like a fully intact paint job as mine has some yellow paint worn off in a few places. There is a shop here in the states that prints vinyl directly onto PETG plastics, so I'm considering sending them my scan of the piece (which I also had to do in two parts and splice the images together). Then they would just mail me the reproduction and I would cut the shape of it out of the sheet.

I've also scanned in the backglass in 8 segments, and I'm almost done editing the complete image in my paint program. I figure it might be worth getting a reproduction made of that as well, though I doubt the printing shops can handle printing the mirrored parts, so I may turn those into silver.

Some pics of my latest new parts installation on my Bullwinkle machine. You can see just how much rust can happen from years of kids spilling their sodas on the glass and down into the machine on the old lockdown assembly. Also pictured is the completely rebuilt ball return assembly with all brand new parts and a new coil:

pinballrestorepics-00.jpg

pinballrestorepics-01.jpg

pinballrestorepics-02.jpg

You're probably referring to Russ's machine in the OP, but mine's getting there. After the new side armor and legs arrive, I'll be pretty much down to restoring the wood parts, which I'm considering doing a complete rebuild.

I'm going to use a chrome paint pen to recolor it, though another option is to buy one of the aprons BAA has and drill a hole for the outlane kicker since the one they have doesn't have a hole (and another they have has the hole on the wrong side).

Be warned though that replacing the apron means replacing the stickers as well, and right now the purple 2-way level sticker that is specific to Bullwinkle is sold out.

Using one of Russ's photos, I attempted to reproduce the lockdown stickers myself using some cheap printer stickers. It seems to work well enough. My apologies for the wall-eye effect going on in the photo. I had zoomed in a little too close and it ended up curving straight edges:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorepics-03.jpg

Sure no problem, though the "Install 3 Balls" was just a text print out in Arial.

Pinball Caution Sticker.jpg

Pinball Level Sticker.jpg

I got my Krylon paint pens in the mail today. The "Sun Yellow" pen turned out to be a 100% perfect match for the yellow used in the playfield. I also got the chrome pen and painted out all the blemishes and scratches in the DE logo on the apron (ended up painting the entire logo to make it look nice and even). While not perfect, it was a vast improvement over the old beat-up appearance.

I just wish Krylon made a purple pen so I could do some touch-up work on the last remaining old plastic piece on my Nell table assembly (the others got replaced with NOS parts). I'll have to shop around and see if I can come up with one.

Here's a pic taken with the glass on after the first chrome coat. The logo before the paint job had scratches and flaked spots all over it. You can see that it definitely is looking better.

DE logo repainted.jpg

So next I'm going to replace the apron screws with news ones. They weren't listed in the manual, so I had to measure them to find out the exact specifications:

#10-24 x 2-1/4 Machine Screw Phillips Flat Head.

Yep, pretty much every metal part was dirty/rusty. That's why I think the machine survived a flood of some sort. These screws are pretty much the last of the metal to be replaced as I've already swapped/buffed all the other nuts & bolts. My next project is to have the original coin door shipped off to be blasted and repainted.

Hey worm, can you tell me the size of the carriage bolts used to secure the side armor? I went to replace the side armor on mine, and I discovered the bolts were rusted beyond all recognition. They in fact disintegrated when I attempted to remove the securing nuts. I want to replace them, but I can't tell what size they are. They look to be maybe 10-24 x 1-1/4 inch, but I need to be certain they are the right size of course.

Also on the apron screws, I found that 2-1/2 inchers will work perfectly fine instead of the 2-1/4, which are harder to find in hardware stores. Theses screws are secured by T-nuts, which allow for the extra 1/4 inch to pass through them.

I used Cointaker Frosted Premiums, and they are perfectly fine and easy on the eyes. However, an even better option is to use Noflix Plus from Germany. They are more expensive, but also have better color saturation.

Which post are you needing to replace exactly? If one with a threaded top, then the first entry is what you want (#6 tip). You can then secure it with a #6 Nylock nut.

Then you want one with a female top. The one that looks the closest in that list is this one:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=323

Well it might actually be the correct size. I've got to do some service work on my BOMB targets today, so I will take the opportunity to pull that post out and give you the official measurements.

No worries or hurries. I just ordered two of every "close enough" black bolts that Marco had in stock.

I've never had that happen in my game. I'd need to see a wider shot of your playfield to see if I can spot what's going wrong there. As for air balls, once in a great while I have a ball bounce clean over my flipper, but it's extremely rare.

How is the ball ending up in that spot though? Didn't you say you don't have the left gate?

I've got to see the rest of the playfield in that area in order to tell you what's causing it. I assume you're getting airballs off flipper shots to that area, right? Clearly the ball must be hitting something to pop it up.

You truncated what he typed:

Brand new coin door AND backbox locks.

This refers to locks on both items.

The lane guides are correct, though Russ and I both swapped out all those metal posts up there for plastic star ones. Refer to his image here to see what we both did:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37999418@N04/7071411083/in/set-72157629437568588/

The manual has several head-scratching errors on rubber assignments, so it's pretty much guess work in a few of those spots. Russ and I both opted to stretch rubbers outward from those left lane posts, as it seems to make more sense (and we don't have any ball hangups there as a result). Also, nothing in those playfield holes as far as I can remember, though there are a few spots where nails were driven in to prevent ball hangups and other issues: Next to the bottom turbo bumper, under the slingshot art, etc.

An excellent alternative are these (blue not shown in pic but they have them):
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2097

They are exactly the same size, with the only difference being the target faces do not have the 3D extended skirt. However, I've tried them out myself and they look plenty fine and work great. I plan on using them permanently if/when my original targets crap out.

In other news, I just scored a complete pristine set of original plastics on ebay. I'm going to scan them in at 300dpi before installing them in the machine. This will effectively make my entire playfield NOS-quality with the exception of the semi-faded bomb stickers on top of the bumpers, and the playfield itself has a couple of small nicks.

The complete set of NOS Bullwinkle plastics arrived today and I must say I'm absolutely thrilled! EVERY single piece is brand frikkin NOS! All paint is intact with no scratches and zero fading. The only mistake in the set is the two medium Nell table walls instead of a short and a medium. However, I already have a NOS short wall I got from BAA, so the issue was instantly taken care of. Attached is a pic (sorry about the grainy quality) of the pieces laid out for scanning with the blue wrapping already removed on each:

nosbullwinkleplastics.jpg

It gets stacked on top of the grey mountains, and those cover the area where the pie display sticks out from.

I make an effort to check ebay on a daily basis, and wouldn't you know it, but an auction showed up for them. I paid $170 for the lot and it was worth every penny. I just got done scanning them all at 600dpi and I'm waiting for the zip package to finish uploading. Reproduction crews will NOT be wanting for better detail than this

Anyway. The same seller has put another auction up for an incomplete set, but now he's attempting to price-gouge based on how much I paid for the first set. I don't think he'll get much luck on that one.

Dan, do you have two spare NOS cap decals you'd be willing to sell me? The ones on my caps have most of the red ink faded off due to years of UV exposure.

Also, which Nell plastic are you looking for? Nell herself that is riveted to the log?

Ah I understand. I do have one spare Nell attached to a log, but it's used and so the paint isn't perfect.

Anyway, those caps are unobtainium (as is Nell). The closest you can get are red (maybe yellow) or green of the same style, and there is a clear version with an extended skirt available. I was thinking the skirted one might could be modified for those desperate enough.

If anyone is interested in my scan package of those NOS plastics, PM me and I'll link 'em to you.

My scans are just raw files without any touch-ups. Obviously you'd want to do some photo shop editing to remove any specs of dust or errors in the paint application before doing a print-off of them.

I just hit hat trick twice and then the jackpot. Gives you big bucks each time.

Yeah you have to use small thin squares. Enough to cover the center rivet impact area, but no larger. I don't think I've ever gotten any airballs, but isn't yours not using the 3D targets right?

Question for those with the topper intact:

What size screws are used to hold it onto the 4 brackets? I found the brackets on Marco, but I need some specifics on the fasteners. Thanks if you can help!

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/535-6072-00

It pretty much HAS to be those, or I'm a Chinese jet pilot.

You complete all pie colors while in Tri-ball, which gives 100 million on the right jackpot ramp at a 15 second timer. There are detailed rules in the last post of this thread:

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fractured-pinball-rules-rocky-and-bullwinkle-re-re-re-visited/page/2

On another note, while installing the new plastics in my machine, I worked out a mod to prevent the star posts behind the SAVED targets from rubbing paint off the plastic floor plate. What I did was use a hobby saw and remove the top "nubs" off the three star posts. Then I sanded the tops smooth and reinstalled them. Presto! They no longer push on the floor plate! Here's a pic of a star post and the nub that should be removed (ignore color):

starpostmod.jpg

So I got the topper brackets in from marco today and found out that not even 6-32 SEMS screws will fit the holes. I'm going to order some smaller sizes to see which ones will fit. I've also just won a NOS topper on ebay for $60 so that will take care of everything but the fasteners. Once again, if anyone has the topper intact on their machine, I'd appreciate any tips you can give on the type and size of fastener. Thanks!

After doing some googling, I found vague reference that they might actually have been riveted on originally. At any rate, I've ordered some 4-40 SEMS screws at 3/8 inch and some lock-nuts for them which should fit the brackets just fine. I guess I'll find out one way or another if I have to enlarge the holes in the topper when it arrives.

I got my NOS topper in the mail, and my size-matching for screws worked perfectly with the brackets for attaching the topper to them. First the brackets again:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/535-6072-00

The screws that work for attaching the topper to them:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/4004-01003-06

And the locknuts:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/4404-01119-00

Now all I need to do is source a correctly fitting sheet metal screw for the base of the bracket that secures the topper to the backbox. I'm guessing something simple like a #6 hex since the hole is larger in the base of the bracket, but I'll find out to make sure and report back.

Got the assortment of screws in from Marco. The #6 Hex Sheet Metal Screw at 1/2 inch long ended up being the perfect fit for securing the brackets to the top of the backbox. The antlers are now installed on my machine after having been missing for who knows how many years. They look great!

So here is the link for the hex screws:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/4106-01088-08

The bumper caps from Ron Kruzman arrived today. After scanning them in as well as my originals, I noticed they are not the same drawings. If you look closely, you can tell they are different. Since I know my sun-bleached versions are factory original, I'm wondering if at some point somebody had replaced Ron's with a redrawn sticker kit. It's no big deal really, but it is interesting.

In other news, while I did find the rubber securing cord stashed in the cash box, I have determined that someone at some point had replaced the bottom cabinet board. Not only is there no spot on the board where an eye-hook screw used to be, but the board itself has no blue paint debris on it from when the cabinet got sprayed at the factory. This also supports all the other evidence I've found that this machine survived a flood at some point. For example, the transformer and the cabinet knocker are both covered in rust far beyond just from humid air.

Lastly, I got around to taking the wire gates apart and putting all the hardware into an acid bath (diluted with detergents and other ingredients). 20 years of corrosion melted off and left nice shiny new-looking hardware in a matter of a few minutes. I was glad to get this done as I had been putting it off for too long due to it being a major chore to strip out all those ramps and hardware.

So what's left for me to replace down the road for the playfield area is a new pie display (the white plastic on mine has a slightly brownish tinge to it from years of use), and of course getting a NOS playfield board itself to clear-coat and install. Then it's just find the holy grail of a pristine backglass and then rebuild the cabinet.

bombstickeralt.jpg
bombstickeroriginal.jpg

Thanks! To be sure, this will be the first and last time I do a pinball machine this way. Next machine, I'll have infinitely more knowledge on what to look for when buying a machine as well as how much to pay. I will say though that I recently came across a professional restoration site where the guy restored an R&B machine from top to bottom for something like $5,000 +, and I was tickled to see his plastics and decals were sun-bleached. With the swap of those bumper caps, now all my decals are vibrant and new looking, and of course the complete NOS plastics to boot.

Here's the (hopefully refreshed) current shop log:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorationproject.png

I'm going to bite the bullet and save up for the $500 NOS playfield and get it clear-coated. I might as well go the full 9 at this point.

Oh by the way, I just ordered a full set of new 3D targets too! Pinball Center in Germany has them (and is the ONLY site that does). They are the same company that makes the finest LEDs money can buy by the name of Noflix Plus.

New targets arrived and installed! They are beautiful compared to my crusty old originals, but there was a small issue: The targets are about 1mm wider than the originals. This made them too large to slip through the playfield holes, so I had to feed them through the top and reassemble the switch stacks from underneath. It was a little challenging, but nothing the right kind of tools couldn't handle. Here's a pic of the new targets up and running:

pinballbombtargets.jpg

Blue for example:

http://www.pinballcenter.eu/catalog/target-blue-small-p-3117.html?language=english

Never once has my Aesop VUK done anything like that. The only way this would be even possible is if the overhead bracket deflector is bent upward, allowing the ball to be thrown upward at a higher angle. The part is easily replaced though:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/535-5380-00

And proper coil to use:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/090-5001-00

Things are slowing down on my restoration project. There's only one thing left I could buy for the playfield area, and that's the pie display Marco has. Mine has slight yellowing of the plastic, but I'm not sure that's worth forking out $120 to Marco for a new one.

Other than that, I'm down to big-ticket items and having parts sent off to be sand-blasted and repainted. Here's the current shop log thus far:

http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/pinballrestorationproject.png

Marco shocked me today when I checked their stock and low & behold they have the decal set back in stock!

It seems almost too good to be true, so I ordered a set. If it looks kosher when it arrives in the mail, I'll post pics.

Got the stickers in the mail. While not original stock, they are very well-made acrylic decals. Definitely worth it if you need new hat trick and bomb decals. Also worth it if you are looking to get a new apron and need to apply the correct purple 2-way level for it.

A good substitute is the decal set offered on Marco, but they are repros. I got a set as you can see from my older post above.

They are no longer manufactured. However, there is a used set on ebay. Edit: Seems the seller ended the auction. That's a shame because it had been up there for like two months!

They look to be the ones that are 1mm too wide to fit through the bottom, just judging by the distance from the rivet to the edge of the plastic. You can see the difference by looking at the out of stock red one still listed on their site and comparing it to the new in stock red one.

So these new ones will do the trick, but you have to feed them through the top of the playfield since they won't fit the board holes.