![cat_its_beautiful[1].jpg](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
Quoted from Wolfmarsh: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!!!!
here, here. agreed +infinity
thanks much chris
(Topic ID: 81033)
Chapel Hill, NC
Not as many of my games in there as I would have thought. 
The one I was most curious of would have been the TAF you did for me. I know that one is WAY outside the realm of typical, but would be a cool gallery nonetheless.
The backstory...I got a wired and mostly complete prototype TAF playfield from Kerry Stair (finally talking him out of that was one of my greatest collecting achievements!). It came out of a machine that was HEAVILY routed. The playfield wear was terrible. Sadly, this was such a "prototype" that I believe some of the inserts were dry transfer and mylared over from the factory to change things on purpose, not as a repair. Would have been cool to restore, but it was just too far gone to make any sense.
It had red PCBs and almost all the weldments were obviously hand made. The wiring harness was hand done, too.
So what to do with it? I decided to have Chris build a game from scratch, but use as many of the proto pieces as we could. So I bought a clapped out donor to start somewhere. Then we got a brand new cabinet and all brand new art and an NOS playfield. And Chris built a new machine piece by piece. It was really just a lot of miscellaneous hardware and cabinet wiring harness and boards out of the donor and new everything else. It turned out gorgeous, plays better than a NIB one would have, and has been zero trouble. It's my favorite machine ever. So much so that I sold the HUO TAFG #999 that I also had.
(I do still have the original playfield that came out of that game. At some point I'm going to put lamp boards on it and a custom driver and make wall art out of it.)
Chris has done some seriously amazing work for me. And folks are right, he definitely redefined what a restoration can be on a pinball machine. My prototype Banzai was also a crazy amount of work, but it's amazing. That one is the kids favorite.
--Donnie
Quoted from chessiv:What ever happened to the Hercules? I thought it would be cool seeing the resto on that one.
I had to bail on that unfortunately.It was going to require that I take two more Hercules games in and piece it all together.I just didn't have the space or man power to deal with it by the time it came together nor could I justify it from a business perspective.
At some point you just have to minimize your losses and move on.As can be seen in the gallery rarely does that happen as often as it should here..
Quoted from MikeS: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!
Bondo works good for deeper scratches or chips,glaze is nice for scratches and minor chips.Spot putty for anything that paint would almost but not quite fill.
Quoted from djb_rh:Not as many of my games in there as I would have thought.
The one I was most curious of would have been the TAF you did for me. I know that one is WAY outside the realm of typical, but would be a cool gallery nonetheless.
The backstory...I got a wired and mostly complete prototype TAF playfield from Kerry Stair (finally talking him out of that was one of my greatest collecting achievements!). It came out of a machine that was HEAVILY routed. The playfield wear was terrible. Sadly, this was such a "prototype" that I believe some of the inserts were dry transfer and mylared over from the factory to change things on purpose, not as a repair. Would have been cool to restore, but it was just too far gone to make any sense.
It had red PCBs and almost all the weldments were obviously hand made. The wiring harness was hand done, too.
So what to do with it? I decided to have Chris build a game from scratch, but use as many of the proto pieces as we could. So I bought a clapped out donor to start somewhere. Then we got a brand new cabinet and all brand new art and an NOS playfield. And Chris built a new machine piece by piece. It was really just a lot of miscellaneous hardware and cabinet wiring harness and boards out of the donor and new everything else. It turned out gorgeous, plays better than a NIB one would have, and has been zero trouble. It's my favorite machine ever. So much so that I sold the HUO TAFG #999 that I also had.
(I do still have the original playfield that came out of that game. At some point I'm going to put lamp boards on it and a custom driver and make wall art out of it.)
Chris has done some seriously amazing work for me. And folks are right, he definitely redefined what a restoration can be on a pinball machine. My prototype Banzai was also a crazy amount of work, but it's amazing. That one is the kids favorite.
--Donnie
Yes I wish I would have done a better job of documenting the early days from 2000-2004.
You guys better start looking under the hood when you go purchase your HEP re-fake! It may look like a HEP but.....
Quoted from High_End_Pins:Yes I wish I would have done a better job of documenting the early days from 2000-2004.
Oh yeah, I didn't think about that. Digital camera pics would have been like VGA quality for most of my games. LOL.
--Donnie
I wonder how the satin finish on that Royal Flush will hold up.
I'd fear it would get polished ball tracks, or I'd mess up cleaning and waxing it. Love the look though.
Well thanks a lot! I just wasted 3 hours at work looking at these. My God you're good! Truly a very talented artist. Keep up the great work Chris.
Mike
Chris' work is truly amazing. Lots of other nice restorations but the level of detail does not compare.
Chris is the Master Artisan of pinball restoration. You have a faithful customer in the coming years. All I care about is obtaining my favorite 1990's Bally Williams machines with that HEP touch. Never stop what you are doing~
Just wondering. I have not used Friskit yet and it looks like you use it for a lot of detail stuff. Do you hand cut all that detail out before you paint? It seems like that could take hours to trim all that detail. And it seems like it would be impossible to cut curves uniform. My hats off to you guys. I have used masks cut from a vinyl cutter for most of my stuff.
Québec, QC
I saw that you replaced some generic red wire with the correct color coded type in a restoration. I guess you got it from another machine parted out?
Moe
Yes as Bryan said Chris, please consider putting all these on DVD's or a BluRay disk. I would think you would sell a lot of these. Or pass a 'master' copy to someone that is willing to burn, pack and send on your behalf for a small royalty perhaps?
those images are great! It's actually cool to see someone here that can actually do what they claim and show the images to prove it. Unlike others that grandstand.
Quoted from slicknick13:I wonder how the satin finish on that Royal Flush will hold up.
I'd fear it would get polished ball tracks, or I'd mess up cleaning and waxing it. Love the look though.
Holding up great so far.I don't usually offer the service on EMs because I find them to be very location sensitive and tougher to troubleshoot long distance but this was for a local so I have been able to keep up with it.
Quoted from o-din:Not your ordinary cabinet decal job here. This must take some kind of patience.
http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album69/DSC01644
The playfield was out of the ordinary too :-)I vow never to do another BK2K nor BR unless playfields are reproed.
Thank you turbo that is what I was looking for!! Many here are polishing turds and selling them as restored.
Quoted from lordloss:Ever have any finished products get forklift damaged?
Only once back in 2009 I had a fully crated game smashed and I do mean absolutely crushed.This happened not once but twice by Bax Global.
The first time they smashed it I filed a claim jumped through hoops and eventually had it returned for repair.
The second time they did it again to very same game once repaired and on the way back.
At that point a claim and fair settlement was like pulling teeth .
I couldn't believe it I thought it was a bad joke.
After the two claims they refused to insure any of my shipments for over $500 even though they had easily done so for the previous 3 years so of course I closed my account there and would never deal with them again.
Quoted from Lonzo:Just wondering. I have not used Friskit yet and it looks like you use it for a lot of detail stuff. Do you hand cut all that detail out before you paint? It seems like that could take hours to trim all that detail. And it seems like it would be impossible to cut curves uniform. My hats off to you guys. I have used masks cut from a vinyl cutter for most of my stuff.
I don't use Friskit exactly but it is similar.
I just cut it all out.Very tedious and time consuming.My hand is pretty steady and eyesight is still 20/20 which is not too bad for 41.
Quoted from PhilGreg:I saw that you replaced some generic red wire with the correct color coded type in a restoration. I guess you got it from another machine parted out?
Often I have the correct colors from old harnesses although these days I typically use new solid color wires since I have much more rewiring going on in the GI section etc.
Quoted from Zdoor:Beautiful pins. Love seeing the MB figures in the games. Looks great!!
Thanks Gio.I should have that MB finished gallery up soon.Doubt I will be doing too many more MBs without those custom painted figures unless they request otherwise.
Quoted from Pinballer73:Yes as Bryan said Chris, please consider putting all these on DVD's or a BluRay disk. I would think you would sell a lot of these. Or pass a 'master' copy to someone that is willing to burn, pack and send on your behalf for a small royalty perhaps?
I am not that computer savvy but hopefully some day I can put all the info to good use.
Quoted from High_End_Pins:The playfield was out of the ordinary too :-)I vow never to do another BK2K nor BR unless playfields are reproed.
I'm glad mines in great shape then! Would you consider doing another mylar removal and clear someday? Or should I just leave it be. It's still in great shape.
Quoted from High_End_Pins:I don't use Friskit exactly but it is similar.
I just cut it all out.Very tedious and time consuming.My hand is pretty steady and eyesight is still 20/20 which is not too bad for 41.
Would you be willing to share the product you use or is that a trade secret?
Well my hand is not as steady as it once was and I am a out to the point of reading glasses. I am 43 so you got a couple more years.
Quoted from High_End_Pins:not too bad for 41.
F'ing kids!!
Sana'a
Quoted from PhilGreg:I saw that you replaced some generic red wire with the correct color coded type in a restoration. I guess you got it from another machine parted out?
http://bayareaamusements.com has all the proper wire colors for us mere mortals.
Quoted from Zdoor:Beautiful pins. Love seeing the MB figures in the games. Looks great!!
Hey Gio. Here is the finished game link for one of the sets of figures you did for me. This one was done in black the next one coming up is going to be standard.Great job on those.
Quoted from vid1900:http://bayareaamusements.com has all the proper wire colors for us mere mortals.
Where? I looked around but couldn't find anything. I like BAA but their website gives me a migraine...
Quoted from yonkiman:Where? I looked around but couldn't find anything. I like BAA but their website gives me a migraine...
A search for "wire" will get you all you need.
Keep on keeping on Chris! Your work is BEYOND AMAZING!!!
Your PF's look like a piece of glass when your done with them. My wife could do her hair in one. 
Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:A search for "wire" will get you all you need.
Thanks Bryan. When I first did that I got 7 pages of search results and the visible ones weren't what I was looking for so I gave up thinking there must be an better way. But you're right, scrolling down there's plenty of 18AWG colored wire.
Cheers,
Fred
Quoted from yonkiman:Christopher - I was looking at the Getaway tear-down and noticed you were doing it in the cabinet and not on a rotisserie. Is that your usual procedure?
Thanks again for all the pics!
It depends on the age of the restoration.Most Getaway restores are at the very least a few years old at this point so it is might be how I was set up at the time or how much of the other tooling and racks were occupied but I never have used rotisseries though.
4 weeks later
Now
Quoted from High_End_Pins:One week left then these go back underground for a while.
Closed now - bummer....
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