Bay Area, CA
Very nice work, particularly on the inserts.
(Topic ID: 96287)
Linked Games
Fish Tales
Williams, 1992
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Quoted from turbo20lbs:Oh noes not pincabs..... Any chance you put spacers in there first? I know some people just like the look of pincabs to match their other games, but have to put spacers in there first.
If you don't care about pincabs, just use the Stern style spacers. Your cab decals will be wrinkling shortly otherwise.
Why will they wrinkle? Would it help if they where mounted with small screws? Like this:
Unknown City
Hi again!
Youve come a long way with your game! It looks amazing from the pictures and though my bop is getting similar im still a bit jealous =)
Very nice with the clear coating too!
1 month later
Portimão
Christmas have been good, and a lot of pinball work has been completed during some time of from work .
Playfield is DONE!!! Both upside and down under. I reluctantly added a picture from the wire side since I know that I will generate some head shaking. But I prefere to have really good soldering (done at my workbench) and risk vibration issues with Molex. I however considered that risk lower compared to having poor soldering - which I know that I would produce if I tried to solder in the cramped space in between wires. image_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpeg
Now work with the PCB have started. Cleaning and some updating.... Today I swapped BR2 and C5/C4 (and repaired hacky previous work). Several through holes were gone from the start....Hope to light up within short...
1 week later
OK! Electronics ready for testing.
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First Light! (The very bright led on the power board is a replacement with a little to high candela).
Stable operation on the bench means - time to put the stuff back in the backbox.
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First PCB to go in.
And then the rest of the PCB - and check that they still are working.
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Old Dmd.... A little bit slow to light all dots (about 30 sec or so) - I guess it is outgassing and that I will have to get a new one....
And finally, all of then playfield connected, bit by bit - and it all works !!!
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Next step is to put the playfield back in the cab.....
Nice work!
Bra jobbat. 
Maybe you can help me out later on? I have a pretty beat up playfield but the game plays alright.
Playfield back in the cab!
Time to try it out real good. And, it actually works!
What a joy to play a game with fresh "everything"
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Now, I will rebuild the insert board and the topper. Good thing is that I can play as much as I like during the time.
Need to get new playfield and backbox glasses as well - old ones are really beaten up.
I need also to examin the translight - not sure if it is usable.....
It's getting close to start looking for the next one.......
Yes we're practically neighbours.
First question, is there supposed to be any GI in the DMD panel? Or have only seen mods?
Here's my FT. http://imgur.com/a/NwhMI
it looks like shit but plays ok. On the other hand, I got it rather cheap. Im currently just focusing on fixing gi and lights and some minor playfield restoration with decals and color toch ups, and general cleaning. Almost done with electrical stuff. Dont care that much about the cab, yet.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks neighbor (Aerobert)! I would say that you have "a little more than minor playfield restoration" to do - or maybe you are one of those optimists I've been hearing about. The playfield I started of with was in better base condition - once I got the dirt scraped off. Your cab is much better, even I had four legs on mine.
I've counted to 46 GI in the backbox and 12 flashers. GI is hocked up to J120 on the Power board.
Mine looked like this when I got it.... Looks like it is an area for hacks
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Quoted from aerobert:First question, is there supposed to be any GI in the DMD panel?
No GI in the speaker/DMD panel. You back box lights are out, so check connector J120 for damage.
Wow, that was nasty. I have all GI up and running now. I repinned J120 and J121. There are a few spots, 3 or 4, where the GI doesn't work but that's because the socket itself is probably corroded or affected by verdigris. Same thing with some inserts, the twist sockets are old so I've ordered a bunch of new ones. My J115 seems a bit odd, doesn't have any of the colored wires according to the manual, but all the lights seem to work fine, so I will not touch it for now. 
I have one annoying reset problem left though, it resets almost everytime I engage both flipper coils at the same time, mainly on the left one. I guess it's either a bad diode or some grounding issue, the ground braid is broken off on a few places on the sides of the cab underneath the playfield. The PF locking hinges has worn them off.
I also have bought new fat caps and bridges for the drive board, a friend will help me replace those, so hopefully that will eliminate any errors also.
Yes, my PF is in bad shape, it will never be perfect, but I will clean it, sand and even the worst places, and add decals. That will at least give me some cheap thrills. Maybe you could help me out with that? I'm no woodwork/paint guy at all, I'm terribly afraid I will make it even worse.
My humble amateur guess is that BR2 and C5 needs replacing. Watch those through plated holes! The snap cap is nasty. Best is to totally tear it down bit by bit as it still sits on the board, so you can get to the terminals "layed free" and unsolder them separately. Hopefully that takes care of your resets.
Flattering offer to be asked to work on somebody else's playfield, but I think that I should keep my day job . I let you know know when I'm ready to go proo
I have learned from a quality local repair tech that he has seen many games where the deterioration of the connectors on the power path have been the source of resets even when BR2 and C5 have been replaced. I just experienced this on both my BSD and TZ. I rebuilt the connectors in this power path and have had no issues with either game.
From his point of view, and also mine now, this is almost a must if you are having any reset issues on this generation game. This mostly covers the complete 5V path from the transformer through the PDB to the CPU board.
For TZ the connectors that were rebuilt, with new parts on both sides of the connection were:
1. Main body harness from transformer to PDB - two connectors in this path. Rebuilt the connectors for the two red wires in this path.
2. Rebuilt all of J101 on the PDB.
3. Rebuilt J115 on PDB.
4. Rebuilt J210 on CPU board.
5. Soldered solid and heatshrink the Z connector between J115 and J210 in items 3 and 4 above.
For BSD the connectors that were rebuilt, with new parts on both sides of the connection were:
1. Main body harness from transformer to PDB - one connector in this path. Rebuilt the connectors for the two red wires in this path.
2. Rebuilt all of J101 on the PDB.
3. Rebuilt J115 on PDB.
4. Rebuilt J210 on CPU board.
5. Installed NVRAM while I was in there and eliminated the batteries.
Below is a link to much insight into all of the issues that could contribute to resets of which the items I listed above are noted.
http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#WPC_5VDC_Power_Derivation_Path
lol Sunskift, I'm not expecting you to perform a full restoration for me.
To fix inserts and the wear around them (where wood is visible) my approach would be peeling and cleaning the inserts from any remaining paint/prints with xacto knifes/scalpel. Sand the inserts with fine sanding paper then polish them up. Finally leveling them by filling with clear lacquer, polish that once more, and then apply decals. What do you think about that approach?
Thanks for the info MikeO, but I will start with the simple stuff like grounding, reflowing solderings, and small component changes before going into rebuilding connectors on the boards.
lol - Yeah, that's what I thought Aerobert
I can tell you what I used to partly upgrade the playfield of my game (see earlier in this thread).
I used a mini plunge router attachment from Dremel. You can make that little piece of equipment make really thin cuts by shimming the thickness of a decal, then removing the shims and "milling" the area that needs to be replaced. After that you can Exacto cut the decal to precise the shape of the milled area. In my opinion, it is difficult to scrape of the damaged area with consistent result - at least, I haven't been able to do that with good results. 
I have no experience of partially clear coat patches of a playfield. In my opinion (again - very amateur) it sounds hard to get level... 
Ok, I saw your work, it looked really nice, but I don't have that equipment and no experience of working with it.
This is the decal I will work with. > http://i.imgur.com/Y8HbPpA.jpg
It is really thick and high quality, and will cover 95% of the damage I have on the center playfield. IF I manage to get it applied flush and level, then the rest is just some color touch ups and improving other inserts. Maybe it would be better to shim the exact same area and outline (huge!) as the decal would cover, instead of just focusing on the inserts and level them to the "print level".
1 week later
Quoted from Sunskift:OK! Electronics ready for testing....
How do you get everything to work outside of the unit. I have to keep plugging everything back in to the cabinet and wiring them up all the time.
Even simpler, just set up close to the cab (with the transformer) and have the completed playfield also close by. Then, you don't have to plug in a playfield simulator, just use the real thing. You will be debugging both your PCBs and your newly refurbished playfield at the same time - using the built in test of your machine. Well of cause you have to confirm, step by step, that your PCBs are firing up as they should with a minimum of connectors plugged in. By that I believe that you can eliminate a lot of grief having to much taking place at the same time.. image_(resized).jpeg
Then, you can start putting back PCB, by BCP and check one by one that you get everything back on lin just as you expect.
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Quoted from dudah:How'd you get all the metal so shiny? Specifically the wireforms?
The answer is unfortunately not any fun.... It is pure elbow grease 
Or actually "Dremel grease" - I've tried tumbling and all the usual standard solutions, but it ended up being to messy for too little result. Since I'm just doing one game at at time, at a pace (right now) of one game every year and a half, I'm willing to take the effort to do it "by hand". So, a collection of different Dremel wheels and rotating brushes gets the work done
Getting closer......
Insert board done and translite in place, as well as the topper!
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DMD (other than being a little bit outgased - a new one is in shipment from England as we speak) is working fine. The pictures however looking a bit strange due to lack of synch with my camera. Also, a new playfield top glass is on order. The original one is beyond saving.
The mailman was nice today 
New DMD delivered today! And YES! it looks great 
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The slight shade visible in the top picture is again from my camera - not visible in real life.
Also snapped some pictures from the refurbished Insert Board - All LED.
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It's also got totally new wiring - original one was totally hacked and wasn't possible to salvage.
This makes it easy to write the connection table: connect Green to Green, connect Green to Green.....
In the future, I will stock up on some more colors
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2 weeks later
Quoted from turbo20lbs:Oh noes not pincabs..... Any chance you put spacers in there first? I know some people just like the look of pincabs to match their other games, but have to put spacers in there first.
If you don't care about pincabs, just use the Stern style spacers. Your cab decals will be wrinkling shortly otherwise.
Finally in place! Thanks for the warning! And it looks so much better with the cabinet legs "floating" rather than having the plastic shields there. Also soon (if everything goes according to plans) I will move this game to my game room and start the next project. This time I can start with a little more confidence and hopefully do an even better job...........
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Orleans, ON
Now all you need is these. Which can be found hereL https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/warning-stickers-sets-sale-bogo-50-cdn-at-par
Quoted from mtdouble:Amazing Job! In my opinion FT is going to be in the 5 to 6k range very soon.
Man I hope not. Another pin out of my price range.
You should have installed my playfield plastic protectors...especially now that the new PF plastics are available:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-product-fishtales-plastic-protectors
My FT is now back in my game room, and with only some minor jobs left to do, I consider myself done....... 
Thanks for your interest and your support and your appreciation in my first stumbling steps in this great hobby
So, now what to do????
Well - here it is........ A CFTBL - also in dire need for a major overhaul - even if this one actually plays rather good, it has seen a lot of players pass by. Wish me luck!
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5 months later
Thanks RM! I have not been in this thread for quite some time - been busy playing pinball
This project was a lot of fun, and I'm rather pleased with the result myself.
Right now, I'm in the early phases of my CFTBL restoration. Playfield actually sent of for clear coat this week - knock on wood 
Haven't seen you on the forum for some time now (TM:BOP) - hope you are making good progress - last post looked like you will end up with a SUPER nice machine !
Belper
Hi, this looks fantastic! Very very smart!
Couple of questions regards the inside bottom of the cabinet. Have you got any more pictures? And what paint did you use? As it looks really good painted! Sort of like original, but not! What was the paint colour/code?
Brilliant
Dunc
Thanks a lot Dunc, glad you like it too!
The paint I used was Servalac Aqua, semigloss and before that, I primed with Servalac Aqua Base. Color code for the inside bottom is S 2030-Y30R. The paint is a regular indoor paint, and for the next project I will be using something a little more "tough" or "harder" since this paint is a little to easy to scratch. I agree the pictures look good (and it also look good in real life) but it does not really reproduce a real new MDF (the really difficult art of color matching ?). The paint is a little too yellow for that and next time I will be going with one step less yellow. You can maybe pick this up when you look at the picture with the bare speaker panel sitting next to it (when it later is painted black, it looks much better together) . Anyway, final result is quite good (and the game plays really nice - which is the ultimate goal) ???.
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