There is the sticking face and some piece of tape. It sucks to remove.
I will try with a heat gun, even if I already removed the siderail, to remove this tape.
Thanks

Looking good as always Chris, the restoration that is

What do you use?

What polish?

Red & yellow make sense. I used red for the flippers and green for the magna-save buttons...green dragons. Excellent work as usual & thanks for all the pics. I am currently restoring my BK with a CPR playfield, new hardware where needed, custom decals, new oak shooter rails, etc.

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Point me to the next HEP restore thread please..

Great work as always!

Just a Question not a criticism. The work HEP is unmatched and without question perfection at it's highest form. I question why this would be done to this game though? While not a car, a 1970 Hemi Superbird with 0 miles and all it's spider paint cracks, slight dryrot, etc will Always be worth 50 Times what a restored trailer car is worth. It will only be NIB once and carry the story and prominence until it is wrecked or restored. To restore this game in my opinion while beautiful completely devalued the 37 year old story and value this game inherited? From this day forward it is simply a restored BK in line with tens of thousands of others. This game (I assume) was a time capsule and snap shot from another era and Extremely valuable based on that documented story. Just my thought. Will without question be an Amazing BK for the lucky owner, but it will loose its legendary prominence.

I'm not sure about that, but it is a good thought. I would think it may make more sense to sell the HUO and restore a nice one.

At this moment, pinball collectors are still buying any restored pin without hesitation.

In the future, that may all change, and like you said, the un-restored pins will have incredible value.

At every expo, just walk around and look at all the horribly repainted cabs........those are the Maco repainted 67 Mustangs of the future.

This is more important that a lot of people realize. As games degrade over time, they develop issues that take away from the overall enjoyment of the game. By doing a full-on restore you're ensuring the game will be enjoyed by many for years to come. It's like preserving a piece of history. The vast majority of pinball machines were made by companies that are now defunct or out of the pinball business, so what's left is what's left.

I'm catching flack in my inbox about my above comments.

Let me clarify, if you are going to play a NIB 80s game, you HAVE to clear (or otherwise protect) the playfield.

If you just start playing on it, you will instantly see insert wear; because the wood fibers were not compressed when the paint was fresh and flexible.

You will also have tons of airballs from the cupped inserts.

You see those problems all the time when somebody finds a NOS playfield, installs it, and then sees it wearing at an alarming rate.

-

My collector value comments were more aimed at those "0 mile" collector cars that are rolled on and off trailers and never driven.

This might be true for a collector item, a few of which were made, that should not be used / driven / played, and effectively belongs to a collection or a museum. In this case the only thing that's special about the game is that it was NIB. It's not even a prototype. I bet the value is going straight up the second Chris had finished doing his magic. It is very different from the thousands of other restored games out there. The fact that the restoration is fully documented in this thread ads to the game IMHO.

Are you saying pinball machines are not Collector items? Yes they are a blast of fun but as a whole I think most would owners would be classified as collectors? Typically a collector item appreciates in value the older, rarer, model (theme) it carries. Seems like the definition of pinball? I can see both sides and Truly this was not a question to stir the pot to anyone or for anyone. Speaking only as a buyer, if someone offered me say a TZ or CZ new in box I would Gladly pay a Mega premium (2-3x) for the chance even thought there are hundreds available in the restored/used market. Heck like most Collectables I would bet the Bally box would be worth some cash! Again, all sides are correct. Agreed, after HEP is done with it it will be amazing and better then new.

It all depends on what you're gonna *do* with it. If you're buying a NIB one and gonna leave it in the box and not play it, then sure, don't touch it. But if it's gonna come out and you're gonna ever actually *play* it, going with this HEP restore makes WAY more sense than not touching it. ESPECIALLY if you're going to play it a LOT.

Which way will be "worth" more? No way to know. Collector markets ebb and flow, and whether collectors are hot on untouched games versus restored ones changes with time, too. Hard to imagine you'll go *wrong* on an HEP game. But the reality is it doesn't matter...I don't know anyone who has Chris do games that they plan to flip. I've had Chris do a PILE of games (one is in background pics of this thread!), and never once was resale a consideration. The fact that they are now MUCH better protected AND *play* better than they did when new is what I love about HEP games. Oh, and they look STUNNING, too. But my games are done to be played. So if you're the "purist" collector type who wants all original and thinks I've "ruined" the game...TFB. It's mine to ruin.

--Donnie

Looking good! Going to be an amazing original specimen when complete.

Your work never ceases to amaze me my friend. Incredible as usual . I am 50 years old and grew up living in the arcades playing pinball. Never forget the days when i walked into the arcade and saw games like Firepower, Black Knight, Space Shuttle, Haunted House etc for the first time. It was magic !!! Im sure us older guys and gals remember these days. Ive only gotten back into pinball about 4 years ago and have been hooked since. When i purchased my first pinball machine (my F14 Tomcat)
I barely knew how to change a bulb. I have always been a really handy guy and over time I learned how to do all the needed repairs on my own and my knowledge grew from there which lead to a full restore of a Space Shuttle (obviously nowhere near your level ) but turned out pretty amazing. Then over time took a Getaway pin and went nuts and did a crazy restore on it learning as i went and once my new playfield from Peter from Germany arrives it will be one of the nicer Getaways in Canada which i`m really proud of. It will never leave my home for any amount of money as its my labor of love of learning. I have spent countless hrs just reading up on sooo many of your posts taking in all your truly incredible info and talent as it has helped me so much. Sorry for my long post but just wanted to say you are awesome my friend ! With all the negative garbage on this site sometimes ... its just so cool to see a guy doing what he loves and doing it soooo perfectly, i am i awe !!

Looks great!

A 40 year old NIB pin that you can actually play without worry....love it.

If my memory serves me correct, about 10yrs ago John Robertson @ John's Jukes in Vancouver had multiples of these NIB, who knows maybe he still has a few....

As a cool side-note, John supplied the machines for Flynn's Arcade in Tron Legacy and if I remember correctly he and some of his family were also cast as extras. I spoke w/ him during production and got a good laugh when he told me that I could have provided my Tron upright cabinet for filming if I would have had been paying attention to his request on one of the forums.... oh well, things happen for a reason.

Always wondered what they would look like up-close coming out of the box, great work as usual Chris!

Wow, that is the BK I would want.

Awesome.

You said you wouldn't do another bk2k unless they made new playfields, mirco just posted a pic of the new run.

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