Finished my Flash Gordon hardtop install and playfield swap. Love it!
I’ve included photos below of some before and after. Plays great! Looks great!
The PF in my game was actually not that bad, so I decided to salvage that rather than destroying it when adding the hardtop. So, that meant I had to do a playfield swap. My first. I picked up a very worn playfield set I bought from someone who purchased a CPR Set. As you would expect, that PF only had the sockets and bare wire - everything else was gone - thus the PF swap.
With a hardtop install, people tend to worry about the Star rollovers. You have to Dremel out the holes on the hardtop to match the holes in the playfield below. Sounded scary to me. Took my time installing the Star rollovers and that turned out to be more daunting than difficult. Really was much simpler than I had anticipated. They came out great.
I chose to clear my playfield sans the inserts. You should seal your PF if you add a hardtop. It keeps the gunk away from the hardtop adhesive. I added them afterwards since I know not what I do when it comes to clear coating things. I ordered all new inserts and sanded them in place on the PF with 80 grit and the I removed them and went through a couple of finer grits, ending with 1200 wet and a buffing with my Dremel and some compound. I glued them in so they were a hair below flush and added the Hardtop.
I rehabilitate the arrows since I couldn’t find new ones. Just used a chisel to scrape off the junk and sanded them back to almost like new. Helped that they were opaque.
I also worried about the ramps because of the now 1/16 inch increase to the height of the PF with hardtop but followed the lead of others, adding a shim from the strip of plastic with the adhesive supplied with the Hardtop, and it worked brilliantly. Super easy.
When I did the PF swap I put in yopsicles under all of the inserts and rollovers. Love 'em.
Between the Hardtop, the upgraded and awesome sound board [check out https://geeteoh.com/geeteoh/squawktalk.shtml] and the cabinet repaint, I think I am good to go.
I bought stickers for the spinners, but left in my old battered ones. I kind of like the look. I’d consider installing remakes, but the stickers just didn’t move me.
I might be interested in selling my old, now spare playfield, which has factory (it think) Mylar over about 90% of the painted surface. Still up in the air on that.
It was a long job due to the swap. If you are just putting it over your existing PF, it wouldn’t be bad. The biggest time suck with adding a Hardtop is waiting for the clear coat to dry and cure. Anyway, kudos to the folks at Hardtop. The game plays great and looks fantastic! I tossed on photos of the worn PF I bought before and after sanding, before and after of the arrow plastics, and some shots of the Hardtop after initial install and then when the game was put back together.
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