I am a weak man, I just bought a translite, complete plastic set and I am currently tumbling. I really hope I can get this bastard working now.
(Topic ID: 100523)
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Playboy
Stern, 2002
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I think at this point you could start a pretty decent kickstarter fund from just the lurkers on this thread wanting to see this pin in action. Keep the updates coming.
[email protected] All paypal gifts will go to a good cause 
This is my usual project, a completely totaled game that any intelligent person will scrap it. I spend more than its worth but have fun doing it and save a game from annihilation.
After a day in the tumbler, I pulled all the metal out to better assess the ruat damage. I found a few spots that are pitted and I have those in EvapoRust now. Then I will put them back in the tumbler. One example you can see that this thin metal was hard to tell what was what so I tumbled first.
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Also, the habit trails are totaled. What color to powder coat them? I thought about pink but that might be too much as they are a large portion of the playfield. White and black are also possibilities. Thoughts?
I think the white might make it pop more and certainly reflect more light. But.. black might hide imperfections better.
Olympia, WA
Chatham-kent, ON
The oven trick will work great for this. Just make sure you have something setup at the angle before you start.
What are the rivets called that have a round end on them? I have the ones that leave the hole in the center but not these kind.
Quoted from rockinganker:The oven trick will work great for this. Just make sure you have something setup at the angle before you start.
I have used a heat gun to straighten several plastics and while it is effective, if the plastic is heated just a little hotter than you need it to be to allow it to bend effectively it will bubble permanently. I think one of the oven tricks is probably the best way to go for bending something into this shape, but I haven't personally tried it.
I want to thank some fellow Pinsiders real quick.
Kevgascan - he is giving me a ton of Stern parts that he no longer needs, I'll buy you a beer one of these days. Thanks again.
brewmeister_fla - he sold me his Playboy manual and some NOS girlie inserts for dirt cheap. And can I add how amazing Stern manuals are? Amazing detail for all you fellow B/W guys. Thanks again bud.
ChrisS - I couldn't find anyone to answer my photos needed thread so I attacked people who owned Playboy. I sent a dozen or so PMs out and not only did Chris answer but was an all around outstanding help with photos and info. Thanks again Chris.
Its Pinsiders like this that keep this hobby going
EDIT: Also KenLayton, he has amswered all of my PMs on certain fixes. Sorry I forgot to mention you in the first round.
Now, on to some photos for you lurkers!
I had to clean up some plungers for the flippers, slingshot and kickouts they were all rusted up and I cannot afford new parts any longer. I saving up for an attorney and my new Stern boards.
Why an attorney you ask, well...
Long story short I had two teens in trucks with small man syndrome having fun with me, I was in Camaro and they boxed me in and tried to push me off the road. I got pissed and drove around them and of course I was the one who got pulled over going very very fast. I sold my Camaro and now I wait for my court date. Anyone who has ever had a reckless please PM me with what happened.
Back to pinball. Here is my EvapoRust from this project haha.
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20141004_105547.jpgAdded a few plastics in finished areas. I did forget to order rubbers so some areas I will have to revisit. Look at the side by side of the slingshot plastics. Also, beaded curtain area completed. I touched up the screws on top of the beaded curtain plastic. They look much better.
That's all for today.
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I see you are plugging along just fine on this project. Sorry about the ticket. Just plead with the judge that you were fearful for your life because of the conduct of the other drivers and all you wanted to do was get away from them. It might work. On the other hand, I'll try to visit you in prison! 
Speaking of 'projects' . . . I've got this TAF and it is slowly disintegrating and beginning to cost me a bundle in repairs. I have played a grand total of less than 10 games on it. Problem started with the DMD doing some funny things and then just going blank. I have bought new ribbon cables, paid to have the DMD board to have new connector soldered on (will tell you about that later), replaced two fuses that were out, got my ass shocked in the process, have sent the DMD board out again for inspection and/or repair, EVERY light has gone out on the PF, the flippers no longer work, and I'm paying a guy to come here this week to diagnose and try to repair all these broken things. I've had some REAL bad luck. It's all in the timing! I should have waited just one more week before I picked up the pin from the seller. That way, it would have broken BEFORE I got to it, and HE would have had to do all these repairs!!! 
Melbourne
Ok, had several pieces in the tumbler and was not impressed with the results. These were important pieces like the bunny up kick and such. Got them in again and.hopefully it will do better but basically it looks like two pieces found each other in the tumbler and rubbed together. Another semi prominent piece, the circle base of the spinning triangle, is pitted horribly so I am trying my hand at painting that piece. The ramps I am still not happy with but I don't want to powder coat those as well, I think that would be too much so hopefully I can get those looking a bit better.
Done for the night. I have mostly beem working on boring stuff, new coil sleeves and whatnot. I did put on the big ball guide after I polished it up. It looks a ton better but the photos don't do the before and after justice, so I will just show installed. I am also getting fancier with my before and afters. This is the before and after on the magazine toy. I ran out of rivets so hopefully I will have installed photos tomorrow.
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20141006_204638.jpgCalling it an early night. I got the magazine toy and the Bunny UK done. The magazine I screwed up a rivet and had to drill it out. One thing led to another and I scuffed my new cover plastic. Such is life. The bunny didn't do so well in the tumbler. New bunnies are available, not incredibly worried about that right now. I forgot to order clear star posts so I am trying to clean the old ones as best I can since I am out of budget (besides boards) for this project. Also, my tumbler lid started spinning and look at the results. Time for a new tumbler....
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20141007_192638.jpgThanks, I really appreciate the encouragement.
I hope to get the playfield done this weekend then move to the two toys on the back of it. Those might take 2 weeks alone since one looks pretty intricate and there is about as much rust as the backbox. Then it's the cabinet's turn.
I am also restoring a Centipede arcade right now. Its almost complete. I am close to being done with a Ms Pac cocktail and I have a buyer lined up for it. Its proceeds go to Borygard and some new Whitestar boards!
Oh I also decided to make my own playmate pictures. I am more interested in natural looking girls and not a fan of the 'bolted on tit look'. The good news is I have been 'researching' my favorite Playmates for years now.
I am pleased to announce I am opening up my own pinball restoration company. Its called 'Low End Pins'. I take your pile of hope that everyone tells you to scrap and I make it a good quality game. My current aim is above player's quality. If you are looking for a company that charges more than the other guy and works at his own pace, look no further. I will also throw in the extra benefit of audio recording all of my work sessions, that way you can learn new curse words and laugh at my expense! Act now though... as my skills improve, the price goes up.
I think a lot when working on games.
Here we are for the night. I got the right ramp put back on, nothing huge. Also, you can see what I was able to do with the star posts but I might order some on another purchase. All of these are all behind the ramps and only purpose is to block airballs. I get my rubber kit in and nee pop bumper bodies soon. So I will have to wait on the rest of the reassemble until those arrive.
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20141008_193745.jpgQuoted from futurepinhead:I am opening up my own pinball restoration company. Its called 'Low End Pins'.
Hmmmm . . . think you ought to rename it "Never See Your Pin Again"? Or, what about "The End of Your Pins" 
Quoted from futurepinhead:I am pleased to announce I am opening up my own pinball restoration company. Its called 'Low End Pins'. I take your pile of hope that everyone tells you to scrap and I make it a good quality game. My current aim is above player's quality. If you are looking for a company that charges more than the other guy and works at his own pace, look no further. I will also throw in the extra benefit of audio recording all of my work sessions, that way you can learn new curse words and laugh at my expense! Act now though... as my skills improve, the price goes up.
Let me know if you need a partner, I'm good at spending more on repair than pins are worth and I curse like a sailor.
Quoted from knockerlover:Let me know if you need a partner, I'm good at spending more on repair than pins are worth and I curse like a sailor.
Your hired. I'll even provide the needed band aids
Getting there. Bottom of playfield complete. I believe I have the rest of the parts to complete the playfield.
I can't wait to get the new pop bumpers in!
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20141009_200437.jpgSo to be clear- you got this cleaned up without disassembling the entire top of the play field? Obviously the pops and posts etc are mostly off... but you managed to work around everything else and get it this clean? I would have thought you would have had to strip the damn thing to even start cleaning that.
Kinda amazing- its not perfect but damn, its looking like a little polish a few LEDs and holy shit- nice game. Most excellent job- it was worth the plastics.... not sure about the boards cause I don't know how much this goes for... but I would possibly done exactly what you did so thats in no way a negative comment. Its a sweet looking game and you will not be rid of it soon- I suspect.
I originally stripped it down in 3 sections, front middle and back. The back I further broke down to each individual ramp. I started off cleaning everything and reassembling and then after I got it running I was going to go back and restore/replace stuff. But the plastics and tarnished metal were killing me so I went back and started over.
Just sent off some metal pieces with my friend. Powder coating the habitrails white and a couple otherbpieces have to be painted black.
The left hand side has a large plastic that when you hit a bumper it moves down a fraction of an inch. If you hit the bumpers enough times, the plastic has gone down far enough to reveal a nude girl. The right hand side is supposed to be a 2 way mirror. I am not sure what you do in the game, but once you've done it, the lights come on and reveal another dame.
How did you even know to see the black part- I am trying to figure it out now because it actually sounds like a somewhat cool feature- given that its a bit outside of family gaming but the idea is interesting and I am now curious how it works.
So can you post this mechanism and the pics that are initially shown and then revealed? (if indeed not out of bounds). Yours presumably are quite damaged any how.
Here is its current state. It looks very rusty but it is not that bad. Most wipes off with my finger. You will see a large machine screw. This is what the plastic appears to be attached to. When a bumper switch is activated, the motor turns on for a bit. There is a switch that tells the motor when it is all the way down. This is mostly speculative from looking at whats attached to what and from playing the game many years ago. Now you can see why I was so nervous to work on this part.
I have played all Sterns except for Sopranos, Nascar, and Big Buck Hunter. This is the only Stern I liked from the first ball. It has toys everywhere and its a theme everyone in the family can enjoy. I will get a photo of my grandmother playing this game as soon as I get it running haha.
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20141012_230744.jpgThe motor is mounted to the metal back and on the bottom of the machine screw you can see how the plastic is attached to the screw (in the third photo you can barely see the bottom of the main machine screw poking up). The black triangular plastic on the right hand side is the bottom of the Tease plastic. The motor moves the entire assembly except for the motor downward (this photo is the mech upside down so it would go upwards here)
The wood on the back part is heavily damaged. I injected the bad parts with wood hardener so hopefully I will be able to sand the bad parts out. We'll see. The mech for the Tease toy apears to be okay however the switch broke off. The first of many switches I am sure I will have to replace. A lot of the screws also broke off. I know I need to find a two way mirror (plexi) if anyone knows where I can get some you'll get a thumbs up! I scrubbed the grease off of the metal piece as best I could. I will take it to a friend's house to see if I can sand blast the paint off and start fresh.
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