Medieval Madness
Williams, 1997Breaking the seal on this one today.
I will be restoring this original Medieval Madness and doing so in a manner that keeps it as original as possible meaning no decals,no replacement playfield nor any other parts unless they are service parts or needed in the best interest of the work itself or customer.
Dont even know what I have yet so first things first I am going to put it up on 4 legs.
Quoted from High_End_Pins:Breaking the seal on this one today.
I will be restoring this original Medieval Madness and doing so in a manner that keeps it as original as possible meaning no decals,no replacement playfield nor any other parts unless they are service parts or needed in the best interest of the work itself or customer.
Dont even know what I have yet so first things first I am going to put it up on 4 legs.
That's the way. 
Doubling the felt at set up.Do not want to make any extra work for myself.
Large standard plus smaller cut per leg .
Keeping the leg off the cab with a soft touch.
Original screened MM cabs are awesome but the art is fragile against sharp metal.This wont be a concern once cleared.
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Quoted from cooked71:Leg wear? What leg wear?
If the pf is as good as the cab looks, this one looks like a beauty.
Yes if you want to do this type of restoration on this type of game you really have to start in a reasonable position or else you end up needing to go the decal route.
Quoted from cooked71:Does that mean you touch up the cab or leave it as is?
My plan is repaint or retouch as needed and then clear coat entirely in an appropriate gloss level for long term durability.
Looks like a darn good start as long as you either have the missing bits on hand, or can source them easy enough.
Quoted from GotAQuestion:Looks like a darn good start as long as you either have the missing bits on hand, or can source them easy enough.
Yes I have definitely seen and done much worse but the point of this thread is really about showing different styles and approaches to getting the same results.
Also showcasing that even nice games can be enhanced .Restoring junk becomes common place and easy at times.
Glass is off and the playfield has good potential to say the least.
The game is not huo but it was probably operated privately, in the middle of nowhere or perhaps had a tech issue that took it out of circulation early on.
I don't know but always try to guess.
Ball drop and Merlin hole look great.
Will know more once it is completely stripped and cleaned.
The biggest issue I run into with MM playfields is the insert cracking and need to paint these yellow "burst".
It is tedious regardless of condition.I have seen and done it on even on NOS playfields as well.
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About to raise the playfield.
Small gouge in the apron but the metal condition looks good.
Will be coordinating with the owner on just how original we want to be but if metal finish is part of that equation then I feel like these will polish up manually well.
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Underside looks good only minor corrosion which I have come to expect on any metal parts of the era.
Inner cab is clean for MM.
MM is a game that from the factory has a slightly oversprayed floor.It is the only one that is consistently like this I can think of with the exception of CFTBL but that is due to the hologram window.
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That is pretty much it for evaluation..
It might surprise some how much work will go into this even with a nice starting platform.
But saving,perfecting and enhancing that platform is a bit more work in some ways than just stripping it all down so it should be a change of pace in terms of restore threads.
Quoted from hoby1:decals?
Quoted from High_End_Pins:keeps it as original as possible meaning no decals,
LTG : )
I was the previous owner of this machine before selling my spot at HEP to another collector. I purchased it from the original owner who told me they purchased it NIB. They were very wealthy and had a lot of expensive toys so I have no reason to doubt them. Compared to their boat, cars, and other expensive toys a NIB pinball machine would have been a drop in the bucket for them. However they were not a pinball collector so it was neglected and got very dirty. They purchased the machine when they lived in PA and it took it with them when they moved to Florida, so the transposition could explain the cabinet flaws and FL climate could explain any corrosion. I had it shipped to me from FL with NAVL and the legs were on so that could have added to the wear around the legs.
Obviously we will never know if it was truly HUO however I have owned a lot of older HUO machines and this had a lot characteristics of what I typically see on those machines (very nice shooter lane, clean lockdown receiver/PF bottom/cabinet inside, matching boards, etc). I don't think you can see the full shooter lane in his pictures so here is how it looked:
The machine worked properly when I received it and the only reason I tore down some of the topside was to get a better look at the playfield because I didn't want to send a machine to HEP that needed a reproduction playfield. Every part that I removed was in those boxes and packaged safely so it should all be there. The only thing missing was the DMD and that was because I removed it for a color DMD.
This was one of the nicest original MM's I have seen and my plans were always to have Chris restore this as close to original as possible since it was a very nice starting example. Most restored MM's are far from the original and have lots of reproduction parts, so I think it will be one of the nicest MM's in existence when done. I'm glad the new owner has a similar vision and is doing the restore how I always wanted to see it done. I will be following and look forward to seeing how it turns out.
Quoted from lb1:I'm really looking forward to see the cabinet restoration. I just can't see how anyone could replicate the tiny dots patterns and blend the restored areas with the original ones but I'm sure Chris will work his magic again.
Yeah there is never a perfect solution to that problem but I have had to address it many times before. I remember doing these before you could even get decals and they were trashed so it is just like a step back to the old days.
I used the flap wheel yesterday to regrain some FG ramp protectors. It's a great tool. The only problem I have is that I find it hard to get a straight grain. Some hand wet sanding with 600 grit afterwards eliminates the problem.
All playfield guides are prepped so now I need to talk about the ramps before I break those down to get the guides off.
The original ramps look good and useable but due to the split design they will need to be fully torn down and will require new splits,flaps and decals.
I will see what I have for these ramps in my MM bin.
Almost never what I need.
Quoted from High_End_Pins:Damsel ramp torn down. Will remove the decals and glue then clean flame etc
That is just where I pull out the Novus and get it "as good as it will get". 
Great work. Looking forward to watching the rest of the thread. Interesting approach, really.
It is possible to make nearly any machine a nice "restored" example these days if you pop in a new playfield in and paint/decal the cabinet but this will show the true original condition of the machine mixed with great restoring skills shown in the end result. Keep it up!
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Matthews, NC
Sydney
