Hey, I just finished a ground up restorations of a Dr. Dude and I had some question and comments now that it is playing:

1. Why is this game so underrated? I see no love for this game. Great theme, great callouts, and fun to play.

2. Just saw the post above about GI issues. I had a bunch. What I learned was that the GI sockets bent tab can easily get pulled into the center and short things out. I had an intermittent problem that every time I pulled the wire harness in the wrong way it shorted. I went through every GI socket and made sure they weren't close. I also replaced my security bar and if I accidently closed the coin door when the glass was off and the lever was open it would hit and short the coin GI.

3. Does anyone know where to find replacement displays? My internet search was unsuccessful.

4. After playing for a while I am confused about the Jackpot meter and "Dude" level? How do these effect jackpots? I think the Dude level goes up every time you get a multi-ball but I am not sure. What make the Jackpot go up?

Hey thanks, they are out of stock a bunch of places but I think I found them at the Pinball Wizard.

I notice the difficulty effects things as well. Alas, it may always be a mystery

Here you go.

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Those games are filthy, were they routed in a coal mine?

I know you said the fuse seemed normal but first thing is to pull the fuse for the GIs and test them separate from the game. It is not always obvious and of course the easiest fix. I personally had a lot of issue with the GI sockets shorting. It is really easy to do as they swivel. The eject solonoid may have moved something. However, I would expect this to blow a fuse.

If the fuses are all right I would scan the area around the upper left looking for loose wires.

Then it is time to start checking voltages...

However, someone more experienced than me may have a better idea. I start simple and move up.

I would touch up and clear it but it is a lot of work. I did mine (worse shape than yours) and it came out in the end. I wouldn't clear it unless you touched it up well. You don't want to bury any defects under the clear. Also I wouldn't consider anything other than 2 Part Automative. I messed up mine up initially just using acrylic clear. The 2PACC takes some work but looks great when done. You need to be very careful about safety though.

For me depopulating was a lot of work too so once you have it stripped you might want to just do the whole thing.

I would note that to my knowledge there is no place to buy new playfields or hardtops. Dr. Dude just doesn't seem to be popular enough. So you need to take care of the one you got.

One challenge on Dr. Dude is that a lot of the art is in the "Pop Art" style with a bunch of dots and it is hard to touch up. The simplest way to do it is to repaint the entire area in one solid color. It is not obvious to the player but is not original. I "faked" it in some areas and it looks okay (great from a distance) but you can tell close up.

Otherwise wax and play.

Here is my before and after around Molecular Million where I "faked" the pattern.

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However, here you can see it as a whole playfield and it look pretty good.

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You can see how everything is a solid color without the dots but you would only know if you were comparing directly against an original.

Yeah I stripped it totally. Some people just strip the top and then mask the holes but it is tricky and handling the playfield with all the stuff on the back is a pain. However if you fully strip it you don't need to mask anything. The clear doesn't really mess up the holes and you can easily re-drill any small holes.

You can see my labeling of the wire harness in the back.

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Actually, I just noticed that is Taxi but you get the idea.

If you are interested I layed out the whole process and lesson-learned here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dr-dude-first-time-restoration#post-6092450

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You can see why I recommended the 2PACC. I think the key is the order of operations, this is what I would recommend:

1. Clean the Playfield
2. Remove and replace worn inserts (make sure they are flush)
3. Light coat of clear (this is critical to avoid any chemical reactions and have a consistent surface for painting and decals)
4. Touch up paint
5. New decals
6. Final coat/s of clear
7. Sand and polish

Also, you are right, you should de-solder as little a possible. On my second one I only disconnected the heavy mechs (i.e. coils) but kept all the lighting sockets and switches on the harness. I did a lot of labeling and it went back together really easy. I like the idea of connectors for future ease of repair but resoldering once you get used to it is easy.

The simple method I used was to put masking tape on the coil before soldering and give it a number (PB 1 for Pop Bumper 1) and then label each wire connection with a 1 or 2. Then label the wires as they come off as PB 1 - 1. Then you know exactly where they should go.

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I would also recommend labeling where the wire harness clips location and orientation so you can remember the overall routing. I put a label on the playfield like this:

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And I also put a label on the wire harness and put a wire tie to mark the location.

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It takes time up front but goes back together really easy.

Feel free to ask me any questions here or you can PM me. You should read through VID's playfield info as well but I found it a little overwhelming (there is a lot) and your situation will always be a little different.

Be very careful with the clear coat, it is super toxic. You need to make a booth and get good full body PPE. I made a booth in my garage.

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Yeah I thought seriously about doing the same but you will have to make at least two trips. One for the initial layer and one after you paint and decal.

I don't know the laws of the Czech Rep. but it might be illegal to buy 2PACC as a individual.

That is not the end of the world but there are two problems that I ran into. The first is that the original surface (even after you clean it) has wax and other contaminates on it. These can react with the clear coat and cause problems like "fish eyes". Also, sometimes people wax their playfield with stuff that has silicone in it (minwax for example). This also reacts badly with the clear coat. I believe this is what happened on mine with the acrylic clear. So you want to do a thin base layer of clear first so you can touch up any issues and not have to worry about it from then on.

The second issue I had was that my paint kept coming off on my frisket. The frisket is low-tack but it can still pull up old paint. So you are trying to fix one area and you pull up the frisket and have created an issue somewhere else. This quickly becomes counter-productive. If you get that first layer of clear down it locks the old paint in place.

However if you have done some touch-up it should be fine but I wouldn't do all of them and then hope the clear coat works. The worst case is you do everything and then take it to a shop and they cover it and there are fish-eyes everywhere and you have to start again.

I think there are two fuses. Mine went out only on the left.

I don't want to come across as some all-knowing expert, I am not. I have done two playfields and one was a bit of a disaster. However I did do a Dr. Dude which likely has the same paint, age, substrate as your machine and I had issues. My impression is the first light coat of clear is an insurance policy against future issues. But I see your logic and maybe you will be fine. There is ton of stuff on Pinside about clearcoating (in some ways, too much) but you should read through Vids guide. It seems to be the "bible". Also you might check out this video by Cary Hardy and see some of the issues he had:

Ultimately it is up to you, it will probably be fine to do one last coat but you should know there might be some risks that there are issues.

Just curious but where did you find a NOS playfield. I couldn't find one when I looked.

Here you go. You will need to skip past a bunch of tangents. Just read the stuff he writes and ignore the comments.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration

Looking good, you are committed now.

I suspect that wire will be too soft and won't keep its shape after playing for a while. If it doesn't work I measured the wire on my machine at it is .08", I used this hardened SS wire from MCM (89085K86):

https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/127/4057/

One simple fix that has worked for me in the past is simply to remove and replace the connectors on both sides. I think they get a little corrosion or something. Probably won't work but worth trying.

Well it is always worth trying the easy stuff first. I would think about reposting in the System 11 club as this is a generic problem and I think this Dr. Dude group is relatively small.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/system-11-club

Or you can always ask Lloyd, he has helped me in the past.

I think it looks great but would like to see how it looks in game.

My Dr. Dude says the same thing on the inside:

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My F1 was 2A (not 2.5A)
My F4 was 7A
My F7 was 15A? Honestly not sure because there was no clear number except for 15. I changed it to a 4A and played a game and it seemed fine.

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Your welcome, and I am happy I found that 15A fuse. I would have never known.

Exactly

I haven't had any issue with mine but I did restore it. To be honest I think reliability has way more to do with the history of the particular machine than the particular type of machine. Sometimes old machines break and when they do you fix them, this machine is pretty simple.

If everything is off then I would guess either the entire column or row connector is disconnected. Start simple and just check everything is connected right. If the wires are tight connectors can get pulled off if you lower the head. This happens to me on my whirlwind.

After that I would check to see if you are getting the right voltages off the board.

Does the switch work in test mode? If it is flakey there I would just recommend replacing it. I don't think they are too expensive.

Here is a picture of mine. How is the white plastic piece? Is it binding at all?

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Yes it floats on the solenoid rod but there is a spring in there I think. I would pull the solenoid assembly and make sure everything is free moving as it should be. There is a cross pin that may have moved on yours and bound up the plastic piece.

Yes, it is supposed to move. There is a roll pin across the shaft and the plastic piece has a slot that it is suppose to ride in. I think there is a spring inside as well.

Here you go

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How about this? It appears there is only one diode on the lower (playfield lifted) position.

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Here are a couple from my restoration and some as-is. Hope it helps.

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