My vote is to call and tire kick.

Restorations really depends on four major items.

#1. Parts
How many parts will you be replacing? This cost would include acquisition of better playfield, ramps, cabinet, decals, plastic sets, LEDs, hardware, etc.
#2. Art, paint & tech labor
Are there touch ups required? Do you need to have the playfield or cabinet artwork modified? Will you need your boards rebuilt? The amount of time to complete these tasks will affect your labor costs.
#3. The Rebuild
The labor to clean, rebuild and swap out playfield parts will increase your costs.
#4. The restoration team
The cost for the restoration will vary greatly from person to person.

Regardless of your choice of restoration team, I hope you post pictures of the final results!

Good Luck!

Marcus

There's been some rumors that TAF is the next PPS re-release as crazy as that sounds. I'd keep that in mind before throwing $5k into a regular TAF restore.

That does sound crazy. It's not like they are in short supply.

Really nice ones are though.

I think you are in line at 5k or so.

6k with everything except shipping, start to finish incl parts but not incl mods. From HEP, McCune, Keller.

Are you the one making up this rumor? First I have heard of it, and it will NEVER happen. There is zero possibility of PPS even being able of remaking a TAF and selling them for 5k which is what they would need to do in order to actually sell them.

the next remake will be one that actually makes sense from a business perspective and has a much lower BOM and a higher market cost on originals.

Side note: PPS does NOT have all of the needed liscenses in order to even think of redoing TAF.

Dante > I thought you were dumping TAF for TWD?

If you are going full resto then get a hold of Bryan Kelly. Great work and probably the closest to you? That alone means you could drive the game to/from him to save $800 in shipping.

Yea..on second thought closer to 6k is prob on target.

Brady Distributing in Charlotte was selling a HEP TAF for $11,999 but im not sure if its still available and if that helps. good luck

That's a pretty good number to use. But it really depends on the extent to which you want to go. You can start to get even more once you get to needing a new cab, play field, et cet. Sounds like you don't need those extras though.

Not me. I find it hard to believe as well and think it's crazy with the production run TAF had. However, some of the people who insist it's a very real possibility are very credible sources.

Well they are smoking crack.

As much as I dislike much of what PPS does/how they do it (PR is crap), I will be the first to admit that they are very savy at making good business decisions on what to make and when to make it.

UNLESS they can make and sell TAF for sub 5k, the math does not add up.

I do not believe that they can actually make a TAF remake for low enough that they would be happy with the profit margin on it.

Then you add in the inability for them to likely get the full liscensing needed and it just makes zero sense.

Yup, sounds pretty crazy. Never say never, but for a whole host of reasons, I think TAF would be way down on the remake list (assuming the whole Julia license issue can be resolved).

If TAF can be done, makes more sense for PPS to wait a few years and do a 25th anniversary edition.

that is not the only liscensing issue with TAF.

I agree with your post. The games that PPS would do well remaking are games that trade well above manufacturing cost and that the market really wants. MM had a solid reputation of getting well over $10K in price, they only made ~4000 of them... There are too many TAFs out there and TAF only sells for $4-6K.

A restoration isn't a simple quote.

Every restoration is different. Do you want everything plated? If so, in what finish? New playfield, restore original? New cabinet, restore original? How many flippers does the game have? Some have 2, others 3 or 4. That's more labor and parts. Do you need your boards gone through? Do you want coils replaced or restored? New ramps? Plastics? Are reasonably priced repros available, or do you need NOS, which will carry a premium price.

Call them up and I'm sure they can give you a range, as a TAF is a pretty common game, and most guys have restored a few of them at this point.

Sure. But it seems it is the most difficult one to resolve if the estate maintains the 'we won't do it, period" position.

Then why did that pinball ps3 game get the rights?

There are a million restoration threads here on PinSide (should provide some good guidance). Why not try restoring it yourself?

Actually, Fester and Pugsley were the only problems they said in their video. So they got the julia license.

Brian at HSA is another good option for playfield restore

Hell, I'd buy a NIB TAF for $5500. So lets hope rick uses the pinball parts license he has for TAF to somehow make that into a full machine license

Actors, the addams foundation wasn't a problem.

Hell, I'd buy a restored one for $5,500

The main reason I could offer is resale down the road. If he does it himself, he would be lucky to get 50% of his money back. Have it restored by a well know restorer, you have a much better chance of recouping that money.

He is close to Kelly in MN, that might be his best option to avoid shipping.

Restoring pinball machines isn’t an investment. You will lose money when you sell your game regardless of who restores it; the only question is how much (unless you bought your “insert top ten B/W title here” prior to the crazy price jump a few years ago – or you just googly eye your restoration and never play it). Hell, I’m happy when I can break even and I work pretty cheap on my own games

I understand your argument though, just not sure I agree with it. I guess it depends on how much you're willing to pay for someone’s labor.

Like I tell everyone I deal with, plan on spending $6000 and that's the same for most any game. That's labor, parts, (including playfield) and boards gone over by Clive at the Cauldron Costs can add up when you start adding mods, trim kits, etc.

Hope that helps.

Well I had several people state they would be willing to buy my restored AFM at my price if it was restored by a named restorer. It may be anecdotal but it happened to me first hand. To be clear, I never once stated it would be an investment. You said that. I stated my experience that down the line you will probably get more of your money back if it's professionally restored.

Sorry, not trying to be argumentative. I can certainly understand where you're coming from. Yes, a restored machine with "name branding" will probably resell for more. However, it probably cost the initial customer (the guy that commissioned the work) more money as well.

Typically you'll spend an extra $3-$5k to have a game professionally restored. This doesn't include plating, MODs, powder, etc. (just a base restoration). In addition, you have to figure in the costs for shipping the game - both ways.

I'm just saying, I think it's a wash at the end of the day once you sell the pin.

Best of luck to the OP, sorry if I hijacked your thread.

I don't understand why you don't contact who you want to use. Why would someone be bothered by potential business? The only reason would be if you aren't serious.

I have sold a few of my restorations and I know miked has as well it's all about documentation if you restore yourself take pictures make a thread show all the work and you will get good money at sale at least that's my experience if the work is done correctly and all details taken care of