sorry pics not so great, cloudy here

"What do you mean Flash Gordon approaching!" Love that movie and this game.

Stunning work Rich. Enjoy getting everything back into the cabinet and seeing it come to life piece by piece. It really will be somthing to behold once you have the door and trimmings back on. I know when I did mine I spent just as much time standing back and admiring it as it came back together then the time I actually worked putting it back together. It won't be long now before Flash will be kick your butt again.

I am still on the hunt for a CPR playfield for mine.

FG is one of the tougher CPR's to find. I got mine from the beginning of the pre-order.

I worked on the game today. Mostly on the main cab harness. Replaced all connectors, new flipper switches, new line filter, MOV and AC cord. Cleaned the wires on both transformers and painted the main transformer with satin black paint. The part number on the top were very faint so painting over didn't do much harm. I'm thinking of making a label to put on the transformer. I had the L brackets chromed and will use new stainless screws to mount it. I removed the cover of the small transformer and had that chromed also. I have some hardware in the tumbler now, so waiting for that to finish.

Might have some pics by tomorrow evening.

what I did over the weekend. Painted transformer and put on the chromed L brackets and fuse holder. Re-pinned the connectors and replaced the housings. Put on the chromed coin door trim and ground straps. Lockdown receiver and release lever. Release lever carriage bolt and washer chromed as well.

PC081105-634.JPG

PC071102-900.JPG

PC081106.JPG

PC081109.JPG

PC081107.JPG

PC081110.JPG

E P I C

-mof

Thanks mof.
I bolted on the coin door today and it fit very well. I have chromed a few of these Bally doors and sometimes they rub against the trim when closing. The key is to make sure the hinge doesn't have any slack which is caused by people leaning on the top of the door when it's open. This one was rub free on the first try, so I was excited about that. I still have to install the mini transformer on the mounting plate. I don't know what's for, my guess would be the backbox strobe light. I have to order a 2 pin connector for that before I install it. There's finally light at the end of the tunnel for this 10 month restoration

Anyone know where I can find decent 5 inch full range speaker for the FG? Mine uses 2, like Xenon. 8 ohm. I bought the ones Marco sells but they look cheap, and the baskets are white metal, not the yellow anodized look which I think would look better.

Chrome up the wazoo! Everything on coin door chromed, coin bezel, entry plates, both hinges, start button, eject button and flapper. shooter rod and bezel. Mini transformer cover. Some think it's over the top, but in person it looks awesome.

PC111112.JPG

PC111114.JPG

I don't think it's over-the-top. I'm in the process of doing the same thing than mine right now

Thanks, did you find a backglass yet?

Yep. Somewhat local too. Did mike do your chrome?

Yes, Mike is the only guy I need for chrome.

This is what I did last week end. Returned main cab harness to game. Installed the tilt parts on a new piece of plywood. Installed speakers and cab vent screen that I chromed. Installed new aluminum sheet metal in backbox, replaced that gnarly cardboard foil stuff and the tech cards and labels.

PC121116.JPG

PC281120.JPG

PC281122.JPG

PC281125.JPG

PC291126.JPG

PC291129.JPG

PC291130.JPG

PC291134.JPG

PC291131.JPG

PC291135.JPG

PC291132.JPG

Nice!

Finally got back into the club this weekend. FG is back in the house. I have some work to do to get it playing 100% but looks fantastic on the PF and BG. Cab is, well, it's a cab.

On the home run, looking great!

Welcome back in! I hope it's back to 100% and your enjoying it soon.

I just picked one up to join the club. The odd thing was the hinges were still on the backbox but missing on the body. Anyone know where I can buy the hinges?

I know "never powder coat ramps!"
This FG was covered in rust and mold. The playfield chrome was garbage.
I got the chrome stuff powder coated, and covered it in mylar. I like the way it looks.
photo (2).JPG

Spent time replacing drop targets last night. I'll have to order some switches to make things work better but hope to have it fully playing tonight. Emperor Ming awaits! This is a game I'd love to redo rules and sound for, including adding a second ball. Might have to design a new system for driving it.

I know this is a stab in the dark - does anyone have a repro playfield for sale?

The red PC looks nice, I did that on some cab parts as seen posted earlier. Did you remove the L brackets from the upper ball guides before powder coat?

I started this way back with a Xenon resto. I make new guides and re-use the L brackets. It's a shit ton of work though. Finding the right size rivets and using a hand rivet sqeezer was the hardest part. I bought mirror stainless from a website call metal by the inch. I original bought a bunch cut to length for the left long guide on EBD. I used 2 of those pieces for FG, just cut them to proper length. I remove the old rivets by grinding off the front of the rivets until flat. I grind off the fronts so not too damage the L brackets. The original rivets are solid brass and grind down rather easily. The L brackets fall off but the rivet stays in the hole. After the rivet cools down, it's easily knocked out with a punch or similar tool. I then flatten the curved rail to get the length for the new piece. I use the old flattened piece as a template to drill the holes for the L brackets, in this case it's a 3/32 in bit. I leave the protective film on the metal while drilling. I drill form the finished side but being careful because metal shavings from drilling can cut through the protective film. Mirror stainless scuffs very easily. I place the rivets in the holes and place painter's tape on them to hold in place. My rivets are slightly too long so I needed to use a back up washer which isn't seen from the playfield. To make the the bends, I use a cheap 30in HF brake and various size shipping tubes with a soft cloth. You can also use the old pf as a guide for the bends and curves.

P1051148.JPG

P1051149.JPG

P1051150.JPG

P1051151.JPG

P1051152.JPG

P1051155.JPG

P1061158.JPG

P1051156.JPG

P1061160.JPG

Good luck finding them. I'm in the same boat on FG and silver ball mania. I you find extras look me up.

Will post if I can source the hinges or a close replacement. I apologize if I missed it in the manual - can fg be set to free play? If not, are free play roms available?

http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

Nope, crap, didn't think to remove the brackets.

Now that I think about it, it's better that you didn't because the powder coat would have made the holes smaller and then you would've had to ream them out risking damage to the finish.

@Lovef2k the red powder coating looks awesome,you powder coated parts I didn't even think about painting. I have two FG the first I am getting restored and the second I would like to chrome and powder coat it also.

On previous Bally restorations that I have done, the transformer mounting plate, coin box and coin door parts, I had re-plated and they never turned out that nice, that's why I went to the PC. I will be starting my 3rd EBD resto some time this year. I have already powdered the same parts in gold, and this time added in the lockdown receiver bar just to see how it turns out. My inpsiration was MikeD's Centaur and Fathom restos.

Just pleased with my game. Still working out silly kinks, but overall playing great.

2015-01-08 18.36.21.jpg2015-01-08 18.36.11.jpg

I just found out this morning that I may have to wait awhile on my custom FG. My resto has now hit the $10-11,000 in labor mark, and I don't know what a custom will cost yet. I was following what people were doing to there machines a few years ago on RPG but they shut that forum down and I was turned onto Pinside a month or so ago. Like I said though the powder coating looks badass.

Thanks. I don;t know what you mean by custom, do you mean a mod version like the Ghost Busters one? Restos are extremely expensive, so I know a custom must be off the chart.

Today was a good day. Well yesterday I mean. I powered up the FG playfield for the first time since the swap, no smoke and no blown fuses, yay. When I restored these Bally games, I only connect J1 on the power supply just to power up the GI's on the pf. Once that phase is done, I connect the rest of the power supply connections and boot the game without the pf 1A slow blow fuse, just in case there's any locked coils. That's as far as I got today. I still need to connect the jumper for the Alltek lamp driver because I'm running LED's in the feature lamps and GI's. So until that's done, I have alot of flickering going on.

Great stuff! You're on the home straight now. It's always a huge relief when you turn it on for the first time and nothing fries. Well done!

It's coming together nicely. Out of all the CPR swaps, this one had the closest dimples for the plastics and posts. Won't be too much longer.

LOL. yes indeed!

Can someone tell me where the ground wire goes for the strobe. I don't remember disconnecting it. I guess it goes on the strobe pcb mounting plate?

Hey you masters of the universe, I'm looking to pick one of these up in the Minnesota area, if you have any leads I'd live to become part of the group!

Hi Folks,
Am having some issues with my Squawk n Talk. "Out of Nowhere" the output volume on the board just dropped, with master volume and pots turned all the way up volume is very, very low. Caps, you say? Well, it was re-capped at some point in the past (not to say it doesn't need to be again) and I did replace the pots.

As a separate note, when I was searching around on other forum, I saw the attached pic of of the board and it had jumpers in the lower left corner, mine doesn't.

1. Should those traces be jumped? or was that just needed for the other machine, do you think (a Medusa)?

2. Any suggestions in general about the problem if not caps?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Death to Ming!

Kevin

Squawk-n-Talk.jpg

The EE jumpers must be installed if you have no sound chip in U12.

Yes, different games have different jumper settings. There's a chart on Pinwiki I believe. If it worked in your game then the jumpers were correct. Did you check the amplifier and/or the speaker? Another thing to inspect are the header pins for cold or cracked solder joints and the connectors. Also the input voltages, IIRC 12V and 5V.

Can somebody help me with a few FG things here? First is the ground wire by the strobe assy. When I tore down the machine, I don't remember where I disconnected it from. It seems to screw onto the strobe mounting plate which makes no sense because the mount is isolated from the board and the cab ground.

Second are the 4 lamps under Ming's face. The top 2 and the bottom 2 are controlled by the lamp driver. In test mode, they flash as they should. In attract, the top 2 stay lit and the bottom 2 do not light. Normal or short on driver?

TIA,Rich

All four of mine are solid in attract and controlled in game.

image.jpg

I haven't stripped my backboard yet. Visually this is the only ground wire I see near the strobe and its part of the harness. Not sure that helps.

image-897.jpg

Thanks for the pics! I guess the ground wire is a safety connection, as the wire color is the same as the cab grounds. So I'm not sure how the ming lamps are supposed to react. I was looking at some youtube FG vids in attract and in game play. Most have no Ming lamps lit in attract but when starting a game, they flash 3 or 4 times and then stay lit. I'm sure they flash when called for in game play depending on situation.
I'm also having an issue with the backbox switched lamps. In attract mode, the ball in play and the HSTD lamps are locked on. The game over lamp lights in unison with the HSTD score display change, which is what the HSTD lamp is supposed to do. I verified the connections at the lamp driver(J2) with all the backbox lamps and they all buzzed to the correct connections. Scratching head now.
All the lamps flash when in self test mode as they should. If there was a short somewhere, I would think that the lamps(s) in question would stay locked in test mode?
Also note I'm using brand new Alltek lamp drivers with the LED jumpers installed.
Finally the 7X lamp in the mini bonus area is strobing, but all the other LEDs are not.

I finished up a respray today; it wont turn out to be a full restore like the beautiful machine F2k is doing, but im happy with it!
image-7.jpg
image-742.jpg
image-602.jpg
image-429.jpg
image-347.jpg
image-419.jpg

It looks like I'm getting this resolved. I decided to double check all the connectors associated with the lamp driver and I discovered a crossed connection from the lamp driver's J2 to the MPU J1 pins 16 and 17. Not sure if it was my mistake when re-pinning or if it was pre-existing as the game wasn't 100% before the resto. So after correcting the connectors, the backbox lamps are working as they should.
The ming lamps are not locked but do not light during attract mode. They do flash in test mode.

Now I have to sort out the strobe. In attract mode, isn't the strobe supposed to flash when "emperor of ming awaits" plays? Mine isn't. I installed a new Pinpoint strobe assy and it's doing weird things. At first it made some loud popping sounds and I found the lead from the strobe bulb was arcing to the pcb. The board makes a steady clicking sound when in self test but only flashes about every 8 seconds, not on every click.

Has anyone here installed red Xpin displays in their FG? Would it be too much red? Any pics?