I like what you're doing so far. Nice work. Having done 3 ebd high end restores myself, I know how much work it can be.

To bad about the guy that did the repaint. That is the hardest part for me as well. I have done 7 so far. For F2K I cut my own stencils.

I'm pretty sure the kick stand or pf prop rod was already black as is the lockdown bar receiver. bally Midway thing.

Good call stripping the pf art completely off.

The tilt section. I take a new piece of plywood and cut it the same size. Then use the original board and drill pilot holes right through the screw holes to make dimples on the new board. If gives the inside of cab a fresh look.

It's neat to see the original cab art on the 84 cab. I'm guessing since the whole cab is particle board, the stencil job was not as good as a plywood cab would turn out? I'm thinking that might be 1 reason they went to decals. That and they are less expensive.

Also he could have used the front stencils to customize the front of the cab.

I will be following your thread.

All of the Bally games that I worked on had nails holding the leg brackets. Also a screw in the center hole to secure the ground braid to the brackets.

Looking good! I have a Spy Hunter which has basically the same cabinet. I need to remove the coin door trim in order to replace the cab decals. As you know there is one bolt at the top right corner for the upper coin door trim and the nut on the inside of the cab is recessed. Mine is so deep that I can't get any tool in there to remove the nut. What did you use for yours?

I have worked on many Ballys and they are usually very tight but I always manage getting the nut driver in far enough to reach the nut. This Spy seems to be extra deep. I will try the needled nosed pliers. I may have to chew some wood out of the way.

I agree with making the game the way you want it. The blue is not a permanent change so why not? I plan on doing the same on one of the next 3 EBD's I have lined up for restoration except I'm doing gold powder coat to match the gold on the cab. It will be mostly the inside of the cab, coin box, inner plate on coin door, coin return basket, lock down receiver, transformer plate, pf prop rod, vent screen between head and cab and the rear pf glass support bar.

I would have thought that the additional layer of the hardtop would throw all of the roll over switches out of whack?

I have restored many bally coin doors. Just a hint make sure to separate the parts for the sba slot as they slightly different but not very obvious. For example the sba coin shute doesn't have the small screw at the end by the opening. The slot opening on the bezel is just a hair longer. Small metal piece is flat where the coin falls into the area at the trip wire. The 25 cent will have an off set that won't allow the sba to drop.

so basically there 3 things that prevent an sba coin from being dropped in a 25 cent shute and causing a jam. First is the coin slot. Then the small set screw at the end of the shute. And finally the small metal piece where the coin falls into collection basket. I think but not sure if an sba makes that far it will jam or fall to the side and go into the coin return slot.

When I was a kid playing f2k in the arcade I was able to cheat the sba slot with a nickel and get 6 credits. It took a few tries but usually worked.

No 7th flash when 43v is dead from F4 blowing. If a playfield coil has shorted, the PF fuse should have blown first. Verify that you have a 1 amp slo-blo fuse on PF. Also the broken sling coil doesn't look shorted, only open? Unless it did short from the open diode?

Sorry for the slow reply, I was painting. A shorted transistor as mentioned above will cause the coil to lock on. Yes the RD numbers should be the same. I never had the 3 fuse version EBD, what are they for?

Good job! IDC connectors are the worst. On the 3 EBD restores that I complete, I replaced all connectors in the game to Molex. It adds hours of work but it's worth it. The last EBD I did in 2018, I called the guy that bought to see how the game was doing a year later and the game hasn't missed a beat!

Where did you find Sling switches? I usually rebuild the stacks with new blades from PBR. I still get the machine gunning even with new blades. An old pin head told me to stretch the rubbers on the slings and it seems to help.

I would also 86 those darn IDC connectors and install Molex. MPU and SDB.

When I read about the EBD HT issue, I contacted Outer Edge as well. The original EBD HT had not been installed and they sent a replacement anyway.

I agree. I have done 3 EBD CPR swaps. Just running the new trace wire and changing out the lamp sockets is a chore. Also getting the drop target banks aligned before pre-drilling the pilot holes for the banks is tricky and time consuming.

Either hardtop or swap, both are a crap ton of prep and work.

According to Outside Edge the bubbling was a result of the makers of the ht material. The glue that was used was changed wo their knowledge. OE sent me a replacement since I bought one of these when first released. I haven't installed the newer version to tell if any problems have had or will occur.

From the experts I have been told to use a 2 part clear coat as opposed to anything that may take a long time to out gas or cure. So I used spray max. It made the inserts look new again after sanding them from 400 grit all the to 2500 grit. I sanded them dry in fear of raising the surrounding wood grain.

I was also told to use all LED lamps to keep the heat to a minimum so that the HT doesn't bubble up.

No big deal, I sprayed outside with a respirator. I was doing a High Speed which has jeweled inserts so clearing is almost imperative. Plus I like adding clear to the ugly worn out shooter lane.

And true, HT is about 30% less work than a complete swap.

I'm with ya on that! I was considering a portable spray booth but they ain't cheap. Early Nov and it's already dipping in the low 30's over night in south Jersey.