Good morning Pinsiders!

I've started this thread to document my Haunted House restoration, plus the process of modifying it for multi-ball and speech. I'm almost a month into the project now, and have taken a TON of pictures along the way - it's the only sure way to get everything back together correctly. So here's a few to get started... enjoy!
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I love seeing the history of these games! Knowing this one was right here in Houston, in the Fun-Time Amusement Center at the Gulfgate Mall - that's super cool~!~! (...to me at least. BTW both Fun Time and the Mall are long gone now)

And the teardown begins. Overall the game is in pretty good condition despite being on route for several years back in the 80's. The underside of all three playfields looks great, and the backglass is near mint. There's the usual wear on the playfield, a couple broken plastics, and of course those terrible gouges on the cabinet.

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These are the dreaded pop bumper driver boards located under the playfield. These are 'original' and have not been updated per Gottlieb's recommendation. As such, this will be my first attempt at PCB repair, as opposed to just buying new boards like I usually do. ..more on that later.
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This should shine up nicely.
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The upper playfield is on the bench.
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Metal parts going into the tumbler.
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PARTS NEEDED FOR MULTIBALL:

I need to find the following parts in order to begin the conversion to multi-ball. I'd be VERY thankful for any leads or help acquiring them.

1) Multi-ball trough from Gottlieb wide body game such as Mars, Volcano, Black Hole, Devil’s Dare, Spirit, etc.
2) A four relay bracket (from Gottlieb EM perhaps) is needed to replace the 3 relay bracket.

THANKS!!

A few more pics for the lunch crowd.
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That 50 pin connector was hard to find, took some effort to re-pin, and was a BITCH to get re-seated on the board.

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Connectors, connectors, connectors!!

Before getting too far into the restoration, I wanted to make sure the game booted and worked (for the most part). Step #1 for me on almost any restoration is to re-pin all the connectors. It's a bit tedious, but for some whacky reason I find it somewhat relaxing in a Zen sort of way. Not pictured is the big 50 pin, dual sided connector it took a while to track down.

When reading up on Haunted House, one thing stood out - you need to make sure the pop bumper driver boards have been updated as recommended by Gottlieb. I checked, and of course, mine aren't. Since they are readily available, pretty cheap, and not very complicated - I took the opportunity to use this as my first attempt at PCB repair. Well...I did try once before...but we won't talk about that.

This time was much better. It helps to have the right tools, and enough experience not to totally screw it up.
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Updated board re-installed. ...and yeah, I'll probably end up replacing/re-pinning those IDC connectors as well.

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As I'm checking all the coils, I find one that's locked up, and a bit toasty. That fuse next to it was blown as well.
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Let's start today with some clean parts! Well - they're not perfect, but it's a good start. I usually give everything another good cleaning before re-populating the playfield.

And just to step back a bit - my plan is to eventually modify this game to include multi-ball and speech. However, I'm taking a measured approach, as I'd hate to devote all this time into a project just to find out there's some other underlying issues. So here's the plan.

1) Initial evaluation of game and documentation of parts needed. COMPLETED
2) Install the new PI-80 board from https://www.flippp.fr/pi80.php. I *highly* recommend these boards - not only for the reliability, but also for the ability to run 'stock' or 'enhanced' with added features. In my case, I'll be adding multi-ball and speech eventually. COMPLETED
3) Re-pin all connectors. COMPLETED
4) Double check all coils, etc (there's a TON of them on Haunted House). COMPLETED
5) Update the pop bumper driver boards as recommended by Gottlieb. COMPLETED
5) Ensure the game boots, and most everything works - flippers, pops, switches, sounds, displays, etc. COMPLETED

Once I knew I had a game that would run, I felt comfortable completely stripping all three playfields for cleaning, touchup and clear-coat. This is where I am in the process now. I've cleaned all the playfields (pictures pending), and will continue to clean/service parts like the drops, pops and flippers while working on the touchups and clear. I'm debating how best to do the touchups, and will most likely invest in an airbrush, as the blown out artwork is more than I feel comfortable doing free-hand.

6) Complete playfield touch-ups and clearcoat.

7) At this point I could (a) work on the changes necessary for multi-ball or (b) re-assemble the game - get it working 100% and THEN go back and do the multi-ball changes. While it may take longer, and I'll be repeating some steps, I think I'm going to go ahead and get the game running 100% before attempting the multi-ball conversion. Worse case, at least I will get to play a few games on it before I screw it up trying to do the multi-ball thing.

...and now some pics...
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Thanks Ken. Yeah, I'd read about that, and tried to be super careful. When I was done, I also tested continuity with the DMM before re-installing. Thankfully, everything turned out ok - and the pops tested successfully.

...and here's a few more pics...

A super mini rotisserie!
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Upper playfield before cleaning
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...and after cleaning with Formula 409 all purpose cleaner and Magic Eraser.
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And here is the bottom playfield before....

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...and after cleaning. There was a big piece of mylar over the wear spots that when removed, took up even more paint around the 'drop zones'. And it's always touch and go when working with Magic Eraser - you get to the point where you almost have to make a decision between removing ball swirls, and removing paint.
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After getting the upper and lower playfields cleaned, it's time to move onto the main playfield. Man, there are 14+ coils on the main playfield. It's PACKED under there.

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FORMULA 409 !! ...not WD40 - I'm an idiot. Thanks for catching that - would hate to see someone spray WD40 all over their playfield. Jeez - I'll need to go back and edit that.

I used FORMULA 409 !!

I just wanted a decent all purpose cleaner to knock of most of the 'easy' dirt before moving on to the Magic Eraser.

Here's a great link: http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_80#Updating_the_Pop_Bumper_Driver_Board

Main playfield before....
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...and after cleaning.
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Ahhh, but that would take all the fun out of it.

So this gets us caught up to where I am now. Over the next few weeks I'm going to clear/touchup the playfields, then reassemble and play for a while before starting to work on the multiball.

Of course! ...and the tax stamps too.

Now that all three playfields have been cleaned, I spent time this weekend starting the touch-ups. First, I laid down a protective coat of clear to lock in the remaining paint. Then, I decided to try the water slide decal route. There's another HH resto thread that posted some images of the worst wear spots - and when printed look like they may work pretty well.

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However, I found out that unless you slide them onto a surface that is as white as the paper underneath, they aren't going to work. So do I feel confident that they will look good enough to trust painting the white? ..no... not yet. So I reverted back to my old school 'touch up by hand technique'. Getting the green paint to match was nearly impossible....so I did the best I could. I started on the lower playfield - figuring it's easier to hide stuff that doesn't look perfect down there. I'm reasonably pleased with the results....though I may go back and try to touch up more if needed. Here's the lower playfield as it stands now (pending final coats of clear).

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Upper playfield before....
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...and after paint touchups. The lighting is different between these pics - top is sunshine while bottom isn't.
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Thanks Edward. Hey poibug - do you have a link to that article? I'f be really interested to see it.

Great article! Poibug, you are pretty brave to have attempted that mod - pretty much on the fly and without any firm documentation. THANK YOU for working with them (and many thanks to the guys at Flipp as well).

So I was cleaning the pops, and realized I hadn't labeled a couple of them. Can you tell which of the un-labeled pops goes on the upper vs lower playfield? ….it was pretty easy to figure out.

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I've finished the 1st pass of touchups on the main playfield. I'm ok with the results, but not especially proud. Here's what happened - I tried to touch up those areas blown out by the pop bumpers, but wasn't having much success. I decided - what the hell - just glue down those waterslide decals (without sliding them off). It looked ok, but created a raised spot that, when cleared/sanded removes the ink and exposes the paper. I'll have to go back and try to touch that up on another pass. Sometimes you have to take a few steps forward, a step back, etc...

Here's some pics of just the playfield touchups before they were cleared/sanded.

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After the first round of touchups, I laid down a thick coat of clear on all three playfields, let it dry, and then began sanding. For me, this is where you have to be careful, as it's easy to sand right through the paint. Of course, the goal is to have a playfield that is smooth as glass - so you do sometimes have to sacrifice some art to level things out. Like those decals - they are too raised. This is why I usually have a second round of touchups once everything is reasonably flat.

I suspect that I'll end up laying down and sanding three to four more coats of clear before I finally apply the final one.

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First, it requires the new PI-80 board from Pascal found here: https://www.flippp.fr/index.php

Then, you have several hardware changes to make like adding a multi-ball capable ball trough, adding additional relays, coils and switches.

Here's a link to the PDF outlining the changes: https://www.flippp.fr/media/pdf/HAUNTED_HOUSE_MULTIBALL%20v1.0g%20ENG.pdf

Sanding....and more sanding. You can really see the low spots now. I am going to try and fill those with clear using a dropper (pipette).

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...and damn - applying those decals the way I did was a stupid mistake. No doubt it's going to be more work now than it would have been if I just would've had the patience to touch up correctly the first time. Thankfully most of it will be hidden by the pop bumper anyway... and f*ck it, worse case scenario is I totally screw it up and end up spending $1,000 for the repo playfields...

...nahhh - I can do it!

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I've filled all the low spots with clear, let that dry, and then laid down another coat. Once dried, this should sand completely flat, or at least show the last spots that need attention. That picture with the reflection of the rug encourages me to keep going.
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ALLRIGHT! I'm calling it DONE on the two smaller playfields. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

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Here's a before / after comparison.

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I'm ready to be done with touchup/clear. Eventually you get the point of diminishing returns. It's far from perfect, but for me it's good enough not to spend over a grand for the new playfields. UP NEXT - the rebuild (and mechanical refurb).
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Before / after...

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