Long time follower; First time restorer...
For the first post in this thread I want to thank some of the folks who documented a restoration here before me.
Restorations documented are among my favorite things about pinside.
I wouldn't have attempted this but for the inspiration provided by:
vid1900
High_End_Pins
Bryan_Kelly
Soulrider911
cosmokramer
Sunskift
northerndude
and
PjM
Sincere thanks to you all.
Wish me luck...
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After owning a string of games, usually one at a time, i sold my RFM and went in search of a Fish Tales.
In January 2018, not finding one locally i bought one sight unseen and had it shipped from MO to my home in MN.
It was playable and came with a new CPR gold playfield.
I didn't know at the time if I would attempt the playfield swap, restore, or just sell the playfield and enjoy the game.
I did enjoy it. enough to go whole hog on the restoration project.
here's what i have so far...

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As purchased:

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I built this 'bench top' rotisserie

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Some issues...

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more little issues.

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My rotisserie with an old dolly test fit.
and the new CPR gold playfield; just for fun...

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Playfield teardown begins.

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cabinet was just full of broken bulbs and other garbage...

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Sadly,
This class is worse than most...

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Boards removed and set out for 'bulletproofing'

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Disassembling mechs for tubbling and rebuilding...

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re-gluing weak corners of the head.

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Remove dented old rails.

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Coin door off.

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cabinet floor had a huge nasty belly in it.
some say it's because the game was such a good earner...
more likely some old operator stored his tools in there.
it's gotta go.

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other cabinet repairs to be attended to...

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Let the sanding begin.

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Remove gussets; repair weak corners.

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Fill, sand, repeat.
getting there...

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Thanks! A little progress every day...

Not sure how old you think I am, but, those console radios from the 20s and 30s just keep following me home...

There are 3 here now; that's probably 2 too many.

New cabinet floor made by my good buddy Jeremy on a CNC.

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Much better than this...

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Gluing and reinforcing.

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More filler...

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quick update:
progress continues on the cabinet.
at first i wasn't sure about priming with a brush and roller.
but, after talking with a painter friend, i did with oil based zinsser primer.
the build was very good and it powdered up nicely when sanded.

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Primer and sanding helped to uncover more imperfections.
I filled those with bondo glazing compound.
Its a 1-part filler; finer than the 2-part bondo I used almost a quart of earlier...

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After this I primed everything again with gray primer from a rattle can.
Painters touch.

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and found more imperfections to put glazing compound on...

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it's a bit tedious, and i'm sure a pro wouldn't have taken nearly as many steps to get to the same place, but it's getting there.
the good parts like the the front (coin door face) feel smooth as glass now and the edges are arrow straight.

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It's been a minute.
(1100 days ago)?
I'm back at it.

Seem to have lost my pictures tonight?

I noticed that my CPR gold playfield didn't have nearly as much relief in the shooter lane as my original Williams playfield.
I decided to make that groove match, near as I can, the original.

Hope to be able to support this soon with pictures.
Stay tuned,
Adam.