Thanks for doing that Chris. I have learned a lot from your pics about how a proper restoration can and should be done.

Well I know what I'll be doing at work tonight. Thanks.

I've lost a few hours on these.

There's a downside to looking at these albums...they make the pins you personally own look like crap.

Thanks for sharing.

How do you clean up lock bar receivers so nicely? With all the tight spots I have found them to be very time consuming to clean up. wondering what method you use and if you could share the process?

thanks in advance

Pretty sure he has them replated a lot of the times. Zinc or nickel I think?

thanks

what is your hand polishing method and product/s of choice?

maybe that is where my issue lies/

We need a HEP wall calendar. 12 months of high end pin porn.

This is great! Hope you don't mind that I am saving a lot of BK2K pics because I am currently working on one! I notice when I am doing a game I am usually crawling all over your site for pics because I didn't do a good enough job documenting my disassembly. Besides just being beautiful and jaw dropping to look at I find the albums to be very useful as well.

This is cool ! I have studied Christopher's work for years and copy as much as I can . Chris is light years ahead of everybody when it comes to restorations . Who did Chris copy from ? He is the innovator of why we have unbelievable restorations! There is is king of restorations and his name is Christopher Hutchins!

This does not mean that some of us pinball hobbyist can't make some real nice pins ourselves! Just don't be dink and take a dump on the guy that brought us up to a very high level of what restored pins should look like .

Jim

Wtf does "dink" mean?

Holy crap, that is the best work I have ever seen. And after looking at the album for the last hour, I would never send a restore job to anybody else but Hutch. There is no doubt he is the best ever. I can only hope that he would still consider my business after the "clueless" comments I made.

Geez, what an idiot I am

Thanks for doing this. I'll have to wear a bib as I look through the albums to wipe my drool

Answered your own question!

Thanks for making the pictures available Chris. It's good to see all the fantastic restorations and I can't wait until you get started on my Centaur! You are truly an artist and a great person too. PS. We're really enjoying the Playboy and I'm playing the heck out of it!

Thanks HEP. I like learning from the best.

No shit, I went to mass today, had to go to confession for my transgressions, Father Jim said I was ok and only had to do 3 Hail Mary's!

Man I love this hobby!

I'm just glad that someone like yourself takes the time and effort to do this kind of work. That is rare in this world today. When I win the lotto, you will be able to add my Twister to your album. Seriously!

Thank you for sharing all these great pictures and knowledge with us! I'm in the process of doing my Whirlwind playfield swap and game restoration and this will be a big help in guiding me along the way. HEP is the best in the business and I'm grateful to be able to learn some techniques from the master! You are a true asset to the community.

Why would you delete any albums? Space is cheap

Really enjoying seeing esp. the older machines coming back to life... even though I prefer to collect and play the DMDs. It's just cool seeing something old, rusted, and dead looking really good again. You probably have one of those kinds of jobs that feels like being on vacation... it seems like it would be just too fun to quit.

Great work.....thanks for posting.!

Fantastic stuff as always, if I ever get into restoration work Id hope my stuff looks half as good as yours!

Did a few MM's Eh? LOL!

Thanks for doing this. I hope my turn comes up soon and I can drool at my machines being reborn better then new.

Bring back your YouTube archive too please.

Makes me want to get my TZ done.

I missed these albums...my MB needs to have this spa treatment someday! Unwrapping your 'new' game from HEP must be quite a thrill.

Now that's some amazing stuff! I didn't see our MM in there, you had done it back in the Fall of 2005 (we bought it from someone who sent it to you and we've owned it since then). Below are two pictures of it, one is how it looked when it left your place way back when and the other is from a few months ago. After 8 years it's still looks awesome!

DSC04912.JPG

cab 2.JPG

Thanks a lot for unlocking these albums. Learned a lot of all your documentation already. Spent hours reading these.

Thanks for unlocking these albums.
Many of the album titles have two letter abbreviations associated with them.
Example: Addams Family AC (2011)

What is the significance of these? Owners initials, etc?

Thanks Chris.
I'll be tackling a Banzai Run soon and your galleries for that game are a great inspiration.
Happy to get them back!

I've told you before, Chris, you need to put these on a DVD or two or three. You'd sell a ton of them.

Hey Chris,
I was curious as to what your thoughts were as far as putting LED's in restorations of games that originally came with incandescent bulbs. I tend to be a bit of a purist myself and have put incandescent bulbs in all 3 games that I've done complete swaps on as well as games that I've done regular shop jobs on. I may put a few strategic LED's to highlight a feature or brighten up dark inserts but for the most part I like to make games look as close to original as possible.

I know that the hobby now seems to be trending towards putting LED's in everything including GI. Are most of your customers now asking for full LED's in classic games like TAF, TZ, and MM or are you still mostly dealing with traditional bulbs? What is your personal preference? Thanks,
Mike

I think I would crap my pants. And then come down there to see it...after showering.

Amazing focus and process. Thank you for sharing with us. Also I think Bryan is right a DVD would be really cool to have available.

thanks HEP!!!

Also, I would happily buy a DVD with all these pictures oganized by game. It is a GREAT reference tool!

The top guy in the world just opened up his library of work. Incredible and truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for the quick response! That makes perfect sense and kind of what I was figuring.

Since you're taking questions, I've got one more:

On my Whirlwind that I'm currently restoring, the cabinet is actually quite nice and unfaded and I was planning on filling in/touching up vs. applying new decals. Is there a product that you would recommend for filling in small areas.-say a little chip on the corner of the head and filling in security bar holes that is easily sandable/paintable? On your site I see you often use a mix of resin/carbon filler and hardener. Is this what you would recommend for minor blemish repair or would something like Dolphin Glaze or Bondo be a better option? Thanks!

I don't think people can even wrap their heads around what a treasure trove of information is in these pics.

Thank you so much for opening these up!!!!

thanks Chris for posting the images! It's really nice to see what a real professional does to make a game look so nice. It's scary how many games that are out there look nice from 10 feet away but when you get close all you see is crappy powder coat and LED's.

Polished turds is the phrase you are looking for here.

I love going through chris's albums and picking up tips and tricks over the years. Tho , I don't do full games, it does help me when I do restore my own.

Thanks, Chris! Will enjoy browsing through these galleries this evening!