I brought this game home from Pinfest earlier this year, thanks to a great deal from Joe at PinballStar. Actually bought a pair of them, and both games were equally bad, in horrible shape.

Kept one with the “better” playfield, and passed the other one on to a fellow Pinsider for free a few months back.

I’ve been working on this alongside my Halloween retheme, and my buddy asked me to post a thread so he could consider restoring his. Thought I would document it here for anyone that wanted to follow.

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Here’s the beginning. Burn marks on PF somehow, no backglass, game is a filthy mess.

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Inside...I guess this is why the one leg wouldn’t go on. A small leg bolt in backwards?

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You’re always tempted to wipe down the playfield just to see what’s underneath. Not as horrible as it could be. Just a quick wipe of a section with CP100.

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Tear down...I guess just plain filthy was an understatement.

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Thanks man. Actually it wasn’t too bad. A little musty.

Definitely. Thanks for checkin in. Most people know I am not a purist, so I often don’t keep everything “original”. Usually do my games a little different.

More tear down...
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Good part of PF tear down and initial wipe down with CP100 and Novus done.

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Backbox brackets and other parts coming off. Siderails were pretty scratched up, so have to go with powder.

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First round of powdercoating. Went with metallic blue and metallic red (with flake accents).

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Disassembling inside of cab to coat all of this metal too.

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Transformer board and coin door removed.
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Yeah man...I told you I would get to it! Appreciate the good deal.

This thing should look pretty killer when I’m done with it. Playfield is getting touched up and clearcoated too.

Yes sir. Original Marvel art. Fantastic....so much better than the art on the more recent Vault Edition.

Now the backbox...

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Haha. I started this project a few weeks ago. My buddy is going to restore his and asked me to post a thread so he could follow, but I was delayed so I’m playing catch up.

But I did get the batch of parts back in a week. I use Bonehead Performance in Warrington. Killer shop, and luckily I know the owner.

More backbox disassembly.

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Came across this lovely hack...
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Backbox empty and light panel removed. Even the speaker grate is rusted slightly, so I’m just going to sandblast and powdercoat practically all of the metal.

MPU and driver boards look pretty crappy, so might just grab Swemmer boards.

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Transformer board is pretty dirty. Going to repaint and reassemble it, so might as well have some of that metal powdered too.

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You have to powder anything metal. Unless you want to polish and keep it original, or chrome it. Powdered parts won’t rust or oxidize....at least they shouldn’t for a very long damn time.

I tried simple spraying and clearcoating myself in the past, and even though it might look OK, it never looks as good...and it’s nowhere near as resilient as powder. I’ll still spray bolt and screw heads to match at home occasionally.

Exhibits from a trial I was working last year. I sometimes forget how observant people are of surrounding things in photos.

Cool...thanks for following.

Second round of parts for powder (dropped off late last week). Should be picked up tomorrow. Now we’re up to speed with where I’m at.

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Do you need any plastics? I don’t remember if any were cracked or chipped on the game you took.

These cleaned up pretty nice, but a few of them are warped and meh so I ordered a new repro set from PBR.

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Prepping and spraying/clearing the light panel. Removed all of the bezels.

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3 coats and done.

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Awesome. I’ve played a couple of them, and really like the game. Some people say it’s a clunker, but I just think they don’t shoot well enough. I was hitting shots pretty smoothly after a few games.

Love the art package on ACNC, and the audio is killer. Nice addition.

Interesting. I’ll have to try that sometime.

Already have some replacements 3D printed for Spidey. Much more durable than the originals. And some with tabs if I want to mount with screws or tacks, as opposed to glueing.

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A little care package from Mayfair today.

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And got the second batch of powdered parts back.
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Finishing stripping the playfield down for touchup and clearcoating. Dropping it off today.
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Done. Just have to pop off the rails.

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You bastard. LOL. Good to know. I don’t get WIP down where I’m at, and I’m avoiding my Eagles app.

Made a partial letter stencil and started playing with some reds via airbrush touch up. Just sprayed one coat. Overall the cabinet paint on this thing isn’t too bad, so not sure if I should sand down and redo the whole thing completely. Debating.

The gray areas could be a little tricky with that webbing either way.
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First round of deep cleaning, sanding, touch ups and insert leveling done on the playfield too. Here’s the top before and after...

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And the bottom...

Right side on the MJ and “Add Bonus” areas with the burn mark came out great. Bonus insert edges are nice and black again.
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I was thinking that, but I have to tend to some touchups on the gray/white regardless due to a few deeper scratches and dings. I’ll hit a test spot first and see how it looks.

New repro BG delivered from Shay today! Always happy to see a box come in from him.
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Yup, definitely worth it as Borg said. These Gottliebs, especially Spidey, always have spot flaking. More annoying than anything. Neither of these two pins had any backglass when I bought them.

This is the second or third Spidey repro glass I’ve gotten from Shay, amongst others. Top-notch reproductions, and licensed. And he’s awesome with service and shipping as well.

Here’s the reverse. He only did a limited run this time though, so I’d grab one now if you plan on it.

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New set of repro plastics from PBR arrived. And got an update that all the inserts are leveled and clearcoat is getting started on the playfield.

Going to start doing some cabinet work during the break this week.

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Feeling a little better, so going to get back to tackling this and Halloween. Itching to see this game with all the powdered metal in place.

Paint is so nice on the cab under the siderails...wish the rest of the gray and webbing looked as good. Lots of staining, patina and scrapes on this thing.

I’m really debating sanding the entire cab down and completely redoing it. Would look so killer. But that webbing splatter....
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Backbox is a little banged up too. So I’ll have to patch, reform the corners and sand this regardless...
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Why use glue and a clamp, when you can just drill a bunch of screws through it? Whoever had this game before me...
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Disassembling the transformer board before indulging in some yardbird. A few decades of more filth...

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Stripped. Fuse cover might even clean up.

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Squeaked in 3 coats of paint and clear while I had good temperature.

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Reassembling...

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Transformer board reassembled. New hardware, everything polished and cleaned. All fuses replaced with appropriate values.
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Some of them are powdered red. OCD in full swing.

Thanks man....should be able to hit the cab again and start reassembly this weekend. Waiting on word for the playfield to be done. Still might have to let the clear cure for 2-3 more weeks.

I’ll switch it out later. It tested OK before I broke the game down.

I’ll order one. Thanks for the heads up. I can always powdercoat the new bracket later.

Awesome. Thanks for following.

Playfield touch ups and clearing done. 9 coats of clear so it still has to cure a bit more before repopulating, but came out awesome.

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I use a fellow hobbyist down in Maryland, who also does touch ups when needed. Some auto shops will do a clearcoat for you. You’d have to check around.

Thanks for following Shawn. Haven’t locked anything down yet for the webbing, but so far I’ve played with some test panels spraying through stretched out cotton balls, grid sandpaper and small netting from AC Moore.

Haven’t been completely happy with any result yet.

Move closer!!

The webbing on this game (ironically) is a little tough. Much more plentiful and prominent than the light or “background” splattering that you see on EM games.

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I tried something similar to that on a game a few years ago, and it was splattering a bit much once it hit the cabinet.

66 degree weather allowed me to hit the first patching. Time to make those corners and edges nice again.

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Sanding done. Two of the corners aren’t perfect, so might hit them with some fiberglass patch. Much better though.
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What you use on the sides doesn’t particularly matter, but I usually use this, and then reinforce the corners with either fiberglass or JB Weld. Much stronger and much more durable.

In my experience, if you use straight wood filler or just Bondo on the corners and it gets hit or bumped with any force, the whole piece will chunk or break right off.

When using resin or fiberglass, I usually just use double-sided tape. You can get a roughly good 90° angle, then peel off the tape and just sand lightly to make it as square as possible.

Been mulling this over for a bit now. This cab is a little rough, so I’m going to repaint it. All the powdered metal and cleared PF came out fantastic, so I don’t want to reassemble in a half-assed touched up cabinet.

It has too many divots and scrapes in it, and has way too much discoloring/yellowing in the gray anyway to just to try to touch it up. I guess we’ll see how good I can replicate that webbing now.

Going to scan, but making a paper stencil for backup and sizing. Red first. Lines can be rough, I’ll straighten them up with a level before I cut.
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Blue done.

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Your Alien Star came out awesome. Seeing that may have nudged me to repaint this.

Wish they had a stencil kit for Spidey...but no luck. Twisted Pins made some years ago that Ministry sold, but apparently they were horrible anyway. Art isn’t too complicated on this one though...so it shouldn’t be hard.

Playfield just about done curing. Shiny and smooth.

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Was supposed to paint the base on the cab today, but rain put a damper on that.

I think the clear is good at this point, so at least going to reassemble some of the playfield during the Bowl.

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Haha...I’m watching it.

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Red looks good.

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Nice...that was the last project. Came out real good.

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Psyched! Marco and Titan orders came in today, so I’ll be able to finish up the playfield. Thinking about going with blue/red posts and red rubbers.

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Some reassembly done. Coming out nice with brand new flip bats, posts, plastics, hardware, etc.

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Yeah man! It’s come a long way already from the mess it was.
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Got most of it done, but fell two lane guides and a few post screws short.

Not putting the new plastic set on until the playfield is in the cab.

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Marco has the web drops on backorder, but I was actually debating on doing something more custom. What you see there are the oddball ones left in by previous owner on mine as well.

Nice...PM sent.

Busy two weeks, but saw a little break in the cold weather so stripped and painted the playfield rails. Hopefully the warm weather holds up so I can get to the cabinet this weekend.

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Haha...that’s awesome.

Polished the guides and installed the rails. I think the red looks sweet! Before and after.
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