Quoted from grandy:Found a very good condition Surf Champ for a very nice price and picked it up yesterday. The machine has a lot going for it, but like any pin that's been in somebody's basement for the last 20 years, it needs some help. I am knee deep in a different restoration now but I am looking for a couple of quick pointers to get this one playable:
1. The playfield is in decent condition, but it's got some planking and some minor wear. My plan was to clean and wax it until a later date when i can touch it up and clear it. Is there anything special i should know about cleaning an older playfleld like this (any cleaners or methods common for solid state machines that i should avoid here)? Am i risking a lot more wear by playing it with only wax protecting the playflied?
2. A lot of things work on the machine, but there are some switches that don't seem to register, surely some other small things. I was thinking about hiring out the repair as so many have said that when buying a first EM you should buy one that works 100%. Anybody have a repair guy recommendation for Chicagoland?
Happy for any advice or links, and looking forward to hanging out in the EM forums for a change
Actually I think if the game process works properly (steps through the players, end of ball registers and moves on to next player, kicks out the ball, etc.), and it's just certain switches not registering, I would advise you try to tackle those yourself.
They're generally pretty easy problems to fix, and that will ease you in to later tackle harder stuff (like the things I enumerated above).
Get the schematics, don't be overwhelmed by how they look and just remember that when something doesn't work the process is pretty simple: find the coil that should fire or activate and doesn't, then follow the path to it checking the indicated switches along the way.