Covington, LA
I like the green lighting by your vertical drop targets.
My Flash Gordon is a total basket case, waiting to be restored. And it's still fun! Can't wait to get to work on it.
(Topic ID: 65903)
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Flash Gordon
Bally, 1981-
Flash Gordon
Bell Games, 1981
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Quoted from heckheck:Disclaimer: I might have become jaded in my views by having spent 100's of hours drawing it
Well thanks. I always thought a lot of stuff on this game would make awesome tattoo art. 
Quoted from BoP:I absolutely love mine so better make that 9997 available, its going nowhere either. I'm currently restoring it back to as close to original as I can make it. The first picture below is the new CPR playfield installed but currently the playfield is back out of the machine while the cabinet is being done so I can't play it at the moment.
That picture really pops. Makes me realize how terrible my playfield plastics look. Are those repros from somewhere? My backglass is toast and has to be replaced, so I was hoping to not have to buy plastics but I think I do.
Quoted from dj_xwing:Here is what I'm talking about...should I even bother trying...or just wax it, play the heck out of it & enjoy every minute of it?
Looks like a good restore candidate. I would paint out that crazing personally, especially the black since it is a freebie in terms of matching color. But, if you can get the dirt out of the seams, it may clear-coat away. To get an idea, clean a small test area and wipe with naphtha. Wax will likely seal in the dirt.
Toughest touchup I see is the wear around Ming's collar. The inserts need work too but not too bad.
Quoted from heckheck:Love the green painter's take to cover the saucer hole.
Oh yeah, the green tape mod? That costs extra.
Also check out the right flipper. Some guy sacrificed a piece of elastic off his undies to make that.
And the backbox is loaded with massive mud diver nests!
Quoted from heckheck:Looks like that puppy needs some TLC (and a new CPR field). FG is too good a machine to let one die!
Will be restoring this one. Unfortunately I can't afford a new CPR playfield, so it's going to be a lot of work. Was hoping to score a used playfield a little less destroyed than this one, but that's probably a longshot.
But, I won't part it out! 
4 years later
Need a new playfield? Not sure repros will happen again but there's an effort to get a hardtop for FG made.
Go here and vote and help keep the dream alive!
5 months later
2 weeks later
Quoted from Joydivision:I have just repaired mine as I prefer an original to a repro.
I replaced the Xenon tube, the two capacitors (22uf/250v) & re-flowed the headers on the board, also replaced the SCR (Q25) on the Aux Lamp driver board & re-flowed the headers. works 100% now, these are the most common faults with these units.
To be noted, the 22uf high voltage caps can be dangerous as they can hold an electrical charge for some time - they need to be discharged for the board to be be safe to work on.
I replaced the xenon tube with a drop in exact replacement that is also used in "Attack from mars" games (which I was able to buy locally here in Australia).
For buying in the US:
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/24-8835
Or the cheaper option which will work too. (this goldmine tube wasn't the cheaper option for me to buy as I am located in Australia).
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G13722
Caps:
http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G22471
Or
https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=CEA-22uF-250V-RMD
Thanks for the writeup! I’ll start there and see how it goes.
My lamp holder is in a bunch of pieces because i had to clean out the wasp nest. Hope I can get it back together!
Quoted from Fytr:That’s an interesting “back story” for your game. Kind of makes restoring that board worth it just so you can tell the tale.
Got any pics?
I don't have anything showing the wasp nests on the strobe board. They were mud dauber nests. You can still see mud on some of the boards below.
I bought this machine for, I think, $400 back in 2013. I repaired the electronics/mechanics to 100% (except for that strobe board). As you can see, cosmetically it is a total blowout, so it's been sitting in storage for **FIVE YEARS** now waiting for parts.
I found a beautiful original backglass for it ($100). I have finally tracked down a playfield replacement ($400). AND now that CPR is making the plastics again ($150), I will soon have everything I need to do a total tear down and restore on it!
IMG_2984.JPG
IMG_2980.JPG
IMG_2982.JPG
It should be like-new when I'm done for about $2000 all-in.
When I bought it, someone had a white hair tie on the right flipper.
2 months later
Quoted from FatPanda:For $100, this person will come to your house, turn on a flash light, and cover the lens repeatedly for the strobing effect to occur. Of course, only when you're playing Flash Gordon. For times outside of actual play, you will have to negotiate your terms.
That's pretty cool, what do I feed her?
2 months later
2 months later
Quoted from FatPanda:Thanks. I've contemplated getting a hard top or waiting for a CPR rerun. It might be a LONG while before CPR does their digital printing rerun. I know the FG hardtops are limited in number, so I may have to make that decision sooner rather than later, if any are still available. The inserts on my game are cracking/crazing as well, so if I go this route, I will probably have to replace them all before sanding the playfield down.
I mentioned replacing my inserts in another thread and was told the crazing is totally normal. Haven't decided yet if I will replace them anyway. Also haven't checked if all the colors/sizes are available anywhere.
6 months later
I just ordered a replacement AS-2518-62 strobe board from big daddy and noticed his page says he only has a few left as of 6/20.
http://bigdaddy-enterprises.com/ProductPages/PinPointBoards.html
If you need one, you might want to order soon in case they don't get remade for a while.
3 weeks later
Quoted from doghouse:Me too. Was the first run bad?
Depends. It was created with a different color process than the original, so the ones I’ve seen look different to my eye. Very saturated, with a heavy red/magenta look.
Might be best to pick one up at a show if possible so you can get a look at it first. I passed on the one I saw.
3 months later
Quoted from AUKraut:A few of the old ones were starting to disintegrate, so I needed to replace them. I had seen another hardtop done with clear starburst inserts and thought the clear starbursts looked a lot better than just using over original colored inserts. I also didn't like that the original color inserts were a mix of opaque and translucent. I'm planning on using the original color scheme, however just use color LEDs to light up the inserts.
I’m thinking of doing clear inserts as well. Could you pretty please post some pictures of how the colored leds looks? And let us know how you like it! Looks like you did a great job on the hardtop install.
4 months later
Quoted from AUKraut:So you want to repaint your Flash Gordon cabinet, yet keep the rest of the house (especially SWMBO) happy by not fuming up the whole house from paint smell and also keeping overspray in the garage to a minimum? You take some 1" PVC, some 4mil plastic sheeting, duct tape, wire ties, and some 20" fans and you build this: 8' by 8' by 7' (448 cu ft), and the fans produce 2500CFM. Air turns over in the booth once every 12 seconds......not professional quality, but it works!
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Very nice! I built one like this that I hang on the rails for my overhead garage door.
2 months later
Quoted from tomdrum:This is the 1st received of the digitally produced FG PF's. It looks great. This was a rescreen of of my OE PF. I'm having weatherbymag do the clear coat. I shipped mine plus a couple others to help them correct dimpling. I want to give a huge thanks to Mike Purcell for making this happen. He went far and above to make my PF nice and help me out. I installed red rollover targets rather then the OE orange in the upper PF, I liked them better than than the orange since there is so much red in the artwork.
[quoted image]
Looks good. Any chance you could post some close-up high-res pictures? I’m curious how the new process looks versus screening.
11 months later
Quoted from Ceckitti:Hoping to join the club here in a few days...... fingers crossed.
Emperor Ming awaits!
Quoted from ita47:Is this what you are talking about? Saw it here on PS
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1256-upkick-pinball/04471-flash-gordon-drop-target-decals-
[quoted image]
That’s pretty cool... wish the green was a tad closer to playfield color but still a cool mod
1 week later
Quoted from WorthWhilePanda:Alright, I think it's finally time to say that I'm officially part of the Saviors of the Universe Club!
I picked up this pin about a month ago, it's the first pin I've ever owned and may I say it's incredible have a pin of any kind. I hadn't played Flash Gordon before purchasing and I didn't know much about the machine but I've fully fallen in love with how incredibly BRUTAL this machine can be.
It's so much fun working on these machines as well. This was the first time I've been inside of a pin. I ended up replacing about 35 bulbs, I added green to the Wood Beast lane and red for the Ming lights and needed to swap out the smaller flipper.
The last of the 'basic' questions I had was cleaning and waxing. I'm planning to get some blitz for the wax as suggested by Vid, and I did pick up some Novus 1 and 2, however now I'm reading that Novus 1 can cause issues with older playfields that are not sealed. This is (as far as I can tell) the original playfield that came with this game and it does have some wear all the way to the wood. I was reading (again suggested by Vid and some others) that using Naphtha could be the answer however I'm seeing that is lighter fuel and a paint thinner.
I don't want to ruin the game by either cleaning to much or to little, so I just wanted to ask with the playfield in this condition, what would you use for a basic cleaner?
"Emperor Ming Awaits!"
[quoted image]
Is the backbox black? Because that looks pretty rad
2 months later
11 months later
1 month later
Quoted from digitaldocc:Happy to report I just joined the FG club. I was wondering if anyone had advice for a wobbly backbox issue. It's separating on the back side. Debating to use construction adhesive or not.
Here is a video to show the issue.
Also is it normal for the knocker to fire at the start of each game? I'm just not familiar. Knocker demo
Not construction adhesive, just good quality wood glue and clamp. If it’s still bad you could add some corner blocking on the inside.
3 months later
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Toronto, ON
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