So I picked up this Flash Gordon 3 years ago. After a failed attempt at a traditional overlay it sat in storage for the last 3ish years until Outside Edge released the hardtop. Finally finishing up with this Resto Mod style restoration. Scroll down for the most recent progress

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I'll be starting it this week so I'll keep you posted .

Took everything off the Playfield and Started sanding. You can see the before and after pics. This Playfield was pretty trashed. I'm gonna try something different that I haven't seen on any old Bally's. I'm gonna replace all the inserts with clear inserts, like you see ok modern Stern games and use LEDs so I can choose what color I want the inserts to light up. I have all inserts on order and will post some pics once I get them installed.

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cosmokramer

Thanks for the pictures and comments! The overlay I have came laminated with clear vinyl over it. The guy said it was already clearcoated and you can see the gloss on it from the second layer of film. I was going to clear it, but I'm just gonna install a Playfield protector over it once I finish.

Finished sanding the art off the Playfield. Installing new clear inserts. Need to glue and level inserts, then clear coat and then the overlay will go on.

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@isochronic_frost. Yes. Overlays are basically a printed sticker that you place over a prepared Playfield. Most overlays are not 100% accurate to the the original artwork and most of them have issues with not lighning up correctly to inserts and such. However in my case, since I couldn't find a NOS or CPR Playfield, it's the best I could Do. Eventually I will get a CPR or NOS and swap it out.

@nikpinball. I have the Bally/Stern adaptor boards that go between you standard Lamp driver board and the connectors. They worked good on my Xenon, so they should work on Flash as well. Really excited to have flexibility on color choice for the inserts. I'm using the ablaze 4smd led bulbs so it should be interesting lol.

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Started leveling and glueing the bottom half of the inserts tonight using plastic CA primer and thick CA. I did some test runs on a few insert and to make sure that method would work and they bonded very well. gonna try finish the Playfield by Wednesday.

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pinballrockstar my thoughts exactly lol!

Fytr You may be right. I'll know once I get them in there lol.

nikpinball it's been to cold to lay down the clear coat. I don't have a heated shop unfortunately so I gotta wait till it warms up a bit.

Got the overlay down and it's ready for reassembly!

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It’s currently in storage waiting for the Hardtop product to be produced. I had issues with the playfield overlay bubbling after I cleared the PF because I didn’t wait long enough for my clear to dry and it gassed out and caused bubbles under the overlay. If I could give you any advice I would say make sure your clear has fully cured before you lay down that overlay and after you lay it down maybe place a piece of acrylic over the whole playfield and place weights on it to hold it down. I’ve been keeping track of your restore project and it looks really good, keep up the good work and let me know if you have any other questions.

Looks awesome,
Nice Job!

So I finally have some updates! I got my hardtop in end of last year and I’ve slowly been putting this game back together. The last two months have been busy but I’m done with the hardtop install. Here are some pics of my progress. I’ve been posting in the FG thread but I’ll make sure to update this post as well moving forward.

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I just finished the led install tonight and I’m gonna play around a little with the color layout of the insert LED’s to get the look I want. All LEDs are from Comet. I used 2smd frosted for G.I. and faceted 2smd for inserts. Love the look of the LED’s with the clear inserts. They are pretty bright so I may sand the tops of the faceted covers to help diffuse the light a little more so it’s not so blinding. This is the setup so far. Let me know what you guys think.

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Get with Skypilot from outside edge and see if he has any left! He did a limited run on these and it’s totally worth it!

I wish mine was in the same condition as yours when I found it. Definitely would have preferred to play it the last 3 years instead of it sitting in storage lol.

had my wife do a quick photoshop of what I’m gonna do with the cabinet. I’m keeping some of the original elements of the cab artwork and adding a fuller Logo. Still not sure what I’m gonna do with the backbox so that’s up in the air. What do you guys think? First pic is of its current condition and second is what I’m thinking of doing.

I already had a sign shop print the new Flash Gordon logo for me so it will lay on top of the original cabinet stenciling

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