How did you get such clean holes in the plywood? I tried recently with a drill and I got a chewed up version. Do You sandwich another piece of wood between them? Maybe I used cheap plywood from Home Depot.

Good luck finding those lamp sockets. I looked for months, and finally found some used ones in Argentina from a guy Xpablo. I needed 37 of them in white and 10 in black (flashers). Though there is no difference other than color. Rewiring them has been a trip. I am sure there is a tool for that, but I used a thin blade screwdriver to push the wires in.

Goodluck on getting anything out of pinball center. They do not ship to the US anymore. Zitt was getting parts for a while through a 3rd party, but after the last shenanigans, lost shipment, and many months of delay. He is calling it quits with them as well.

link to your YOUTUBE channel? please.

I can relate to your recent IJ youtube vids. I bought a used wpc89 wiring harness for my Dr Who build. It was all balled up in a rats nest, with many sockets, switches and coils cut off. I proceeded to put new molex connectors on and then check pin to pin that it was connected. Especially after hearing your advice about possible broken internal wires. I have found that certain light sockets are not available at usual sources like Marcos. Thanks for the inspiration on your builds. I only have spare moments, due to being a full time daddy day care of an autism 29 year old son.

Interesting how the cam/motor on IJ has 3 sets of Optos. Where as, my Doctor Who has a huge Cam with several cutouts and only one Opto set. Different designers I guess but arriving at a similar outcome. Thanks for sharing.

https://www.pinballlife.com/black-vinyl-wrapped-wood-rail-for-playfield-edges-1-18-x-12.html

"Well do Ya?" - I used to hear that saying about being a .44 Magnum - the worlds most powerful hand gun and how many bullets had he shot. Great Movie.
Edited gun sizing. LOL.

I think I saw something similar at my grocery store, in the Feminine Aisle called Glide.

I have been using these posts and pictures as a benchmark/example of what to do for both of the rebuilds I have done these past 2 years. I am not rushed as it is my own project. I added Molex/Trifurcons to my rebuilds as well. I even numbered them (from numbers in the manual). It made it easier to fix problems recently, when I had the wire harness for 2 pop bumpers and 2 Flipper leaf switches hooked to the next door mech. I appreciate the details Chris provides in his posts and pictures.

From Another Chris.

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If I ever do another, I have learned to power up on the PinDOC before the PF goes in the cabinet. I was naive thinking micro switches were bent right, right out of the bag. I did trace out every wire in the used wiring harness while I was changing out the IDC connectors to Molex. I made a list of connectors and the colored wires and where they went, using both the manual, switch matrix, and a working game. I still got confused on a few wires as the colored dots or stripes on the old wires were vague. Brown, red and violet were always guesses. Stretching down into the cabinet to address issues with the pop bumpers at the bottom of Doctor Who was the worst. At least I got the spoons adjusted right, the first time out.

Chris in Bowie, MD.

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I feel really lucky that the cabinet I got from Ohio was perfect in every respect for my WPC 89.

In building and rebuilding 2 different 1992 Bally Dr Who's, I have come to the conclusion that they did the "whatever was on hand in the right color combination". Mostly the harness of both were barber pole stripe. Then on the Playfield daisy chains, it was a mixture of stripes and bands. This confused me. But was told that as long as the base color and the stripe or band was correct, then it was correct. Strange how two supposedly similar harnesses were built different.

LOL Welcome to Old Age Mens problems. You ain't felt nothin' till they say you have an enlarged prostate and we are going to take samples. Think 6 large needles loaded into a probe that go off one at a time like a shot gun. That probe is up where the sun don't shine. I almost fell off the table. Yes you are awake.

Back to beautiful restored Pinball machines....

I have sink envy now....

I have often wondered why the Black sockets get a washer on WPC games. Is it because of the flasher bulbs are bigger?

That White Water looks awful familiar. Either it or its twin ugly sister was on route 2 years ago at Crofton Bowling Center. One of the flippers did not work. The PF was filthy. The lockdown bar was not even held down. I played it because it was the only pinball there, while my son bowled on a special league. I called the distributor to see if he would sell it. He said he knew what he had and it was worth $10k. I then asked if it was so valuable, why didn't he fix the broken pop bumper, Flipper and clean it. He said it made money without doing anything. I hung up. he replaced it last year with an equally broken and dirty Monopoly. Point is, that there are those people out there who do the bare minimum in life and work. Then there are those that obsess over making every solder joint perfect, replace balls frequently, clean the PF even when it does not need it.

Skin the squirrel and use that real fur for BigFoot! Waiting to see how he comes out with his hair blow dried and combed out!

I looked up what an ES was. EarthShaker? Selling for 3 to 3.6K on pinside. And you are at 1.2 k without labor costs in just the Cabinet alone without final paint and/or decals. Keep letting us know the costs. Very informative. I know how much I have in my current project and I don't even have a cabinet or PF yet.

I noticed that I also had to trim the back glass lock area. I even changed locks bar. Now I know.

I wish I lived closer and volunteer as QC game tester. To play better than new classic games with no errors, or PF problems...

Is that the original Dr Who playfield and MPF or is it a CPR new one? If it is a CPR with 5 coats of clear (according to website) why does it need more clear work. Inquiring minds want to know. All your PF's look amazing.

That makes 3 of them that I have heard about. Glad Chris knows how to operate a router with skill. And talking about skill 3 for 3 on ES. Wow.

Lucky owners of those games, for sure.

It is interesting to see all the road wear these pins get over the years. Left outside, dropped and rolled on a snowy hill from a cheap Harbor Frieght hand truck, over tightened leg bolts, Flood Damage from being on the coast during a hurricane and rodents. Same with Classic Car Barn Finds.

I love playing Scared Stiff and all the amusing call outs she does. I have never figured out what the rotating dial (watch the spider) in the head is going to do for the game. I am sure there is a strategy I am missing.

After my fall in January and breaking the top of my leg, Therapy is the way to keep your parts from freezing up and tieing you to a wheel chair or bed.

I love your Playfield display days! You get to see all the art work that gets covered up by plastics, pop bumpers and ramps.

Yea! A Bally WPC89 Doctor Who build!!! Watching with great interest. Looks like the cabinet decals are new already.

I see what you mean in the corners. It also bothered me that on the corners, you can never line up the red and yellow stripes with the ones on the coin door. Even the original is like that.

Yes, in DC they were flying what is known as an air cap.

I was working at a DoD facility in Reston VA. I went down to the first-floor cafeteria to get some caffeine and a glazed doughnut. That was the only place that live TV was permitted, and it was always on a news channel. As I got to the door, I saw the TV overhead and watched the first plane go in. Then a crowd of coworkers soon gathered. At first it was assumed that the plane had a malfunction, but we were still in shock when the second plane crashed. Then we were told to return to our desks and await instructions. Sitting in front of a computer and reading emails about how we had to stay in place. Then the Pentagon was hit and were told "Don't move the Govt. is in crisis mode". Finally at noon we were allowed to leave. But the normal 45-minute ride home on the DC Beltway turned into a 5-hour ride. There was no cell phone connectivity. I was sitting in stopped traffic on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge across the Potomac River and hoping another plane would not be heading my way. (As that is the flight path to and from DC Airport).

Will be paying close attention to this build before I start my next Dr Who build.
Looks like step 1 is to bondo the corners and any imperfections in the external plywood sides.
Step 2 is to sand it all smooth, ready for primer?

LOL. Launch Ball was installed upside down. Ugly mirror blades. The glass on, safety switch is laying unattached (probably because of mirror blades). Plastic ramps dirty/yellowed with age and probably brittle. The 15 red inserts in front of MPF are sinking (as they all do). Wrong new coin door with bill validator spot. But overall looks in great shape. Looking forward to the video. Interested to see if the underside is hacked and if GI connectors are burnt on power board.

Happy birthday Chris. Enjoy your youth, while you can. Exercise is good. Use your muscles or lose them sitting on a couch drunk. Lol.

Agree with your assessment of short GI harness and those yellow daisy chain lights that are also found in the back corner of Dr Who as well.

Eastern Rat Snake. I had one challenge me on the stairs of a Rennaisance Faire Booth I was working on. They are harmless, unless you are a mouse or a Rat. Supposely.

I want to play that White Water right now. Does the owner live in the DC/MD/VA/DE area?

Your Dr Who build looks gorgeous! The wiring is better than factory! Noticed the back board of the PF is not on yet. Make sure to notch a hole for the PF glass wire not getting pinched on left rear side. I also slide a piece of cardboard in that switch to eliminate the PF glass error during testing. Not a fan of those 5-way flashers over the red dots and near the 15 square dots, for several reasons. First the bleed over of the light onto the 15 square dots. Second and more importantly the light bleed over into the 5 Opto array of the MPF. Just my opinion, of course. I also found that I had to dremel out the clear from where the MPF attaches, as it raises it too high.

Keep the pictures and videos flowing.

Looks Gorgeous. Damn you do good work! Can only hope mine is half as good.

Please tell me what the lower left corner board is, what the board in center hole of back box and I guess the lower right board is an GI OCD LED board.

Yes that Flasher does belong inside the Dalek topper. It flashes as the sound track of the Dalek talks. It lights up the 2 red dome ears and the eye stalk. Maybe it is an early photo before it got screwed down.

Chris - Very impressive. I like how the cabinet wiring is all locked down with Black clips.

A THING of beauty. I have played TAF many times since it came out. I have never noticed all the great artwork hidden under pieces parts. You never see train but here it when you go down that lane.
I like the gold caps too! I always try to make that skill shot on launch into the popper in front of Thing Box.
"We Gladly feast on those that would subdue us", in front of the tomb in between the pop bumpers.

I play one at Mom's Market in College Park. Thankfully, the sound board finally got fixed. It sounded horrible for like a year.

I had never seen the Motor gear box for Thing Hand before. That is a lot beefier than the Doctor Who MPF gear box.

The external Go Lamp driver is not part of the game, I guess. It is to test the GI lamps before PF goes in?

That Fish...Turd was filthy, dirty, corroded, rusted and stretched springs galore. You got some serious tumbling and plating to go. But we know you are up to the task.

As Captain Kirk would say "Space...the Final Frontier".
As Jack Nicholson would say about your whiskey tasting, "Neep Neep Neep!!!".

That xmas village looks great! I would have to have a train layout with it though.

OMG - That is one gorgeous cabinet!!!

I really like your choice of colors on this TAF. The Green and Black Pop bumpers. The Black and Grey Flippers and rubbers. This is a prize piece for someone. Good Job!

I am using a separate power supply (+5 and +12 V) on my Doctor Who (just like HEP) to power my COLORDMD and other MODs. I bought the power supply here on Pinside. It plugs into the service port and therefore shares the same ground as the rest of the machine.

Oh this confuses me. I have a ground strap from the Power junction box that goes to the transformer and my Aux power supply. Then the ground strap runs all the way through the cabinet and up into the head. Inside the head that same ground strap ties into the metal back plane that boards attach to, that the boards get ground from the screws that attach them to the back plane board. And you are saying it is not the same ground? Sure measures that way on my VOM.

Follows the Green wire Ground from where it plugs into the wall of the house into the power junction box. In my case, it attaches to a red wire that is soldered to the case of the EMI Filter, that is mechanically attached to the case of the power Junction box, that in turn is screwed into the ground braid strap. Then the ground braid feeds the boards in the back box through the metal back plane. I am probably missing something here.

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Agree with getting 300 to 500 spams/junk a day with my 20year old email address. It was interesting to read that the MD DMV sells your email, address and phone number. Anytime you register your email with a company you buy something from, so you can track your delivery, you get a new set of advertising emails. I bought some parts from France and am now getting French spam emails. Several of the same Threat Emails Spam I deleted today, claimed to have watched me on my computer camera and wanted me to pay them $700 in Bitcoin. Identical threat messages from 2 different addresses. I don't have a camera connected to my computer and do not have a laptop with a camera. But I assume some guilty people fall for this scam.

I like the Pakistani calls saying they are from Microsoft and that my computer is sending out Trojan Virus to my contact list. They want to talk me into allowing them access to my computer, so that they can (for free) clean my computer and help me. I let them go on for awhile, telling how to go into settings and give them my IP address, etc. This is when I am really bored. After leading them on for 5 minutes, I stop them. I tell them, you know why I have kept you on the line for this amount of time, it is so that we could trace your IP address. You have reached the National Cyber Threat Center at Ft Meade Maryland. We are going to send a spike to your system and fry your servers. They hang up immediately. LOL.

Having been briefed on this and the African Prince money scam at work, I knew better than to click on any links. Another popular one is from someone in your address list, who has been infected. Their name is correct, but the address is different. In the body of the email it says " See my new pictures" . Nope not happening. Stay Cyber safe.

6 pop bumpers? Now the new Sterns are down to 1 on Godzilla and Jaws (although Rush had 3).

You deserve a nap after all that exertion. That red clay does not percolate, Water runs right off it to the lowest point. I hate mulch. I hate how it looks. I hate how it smells. I hate buying it and spreading it yearly. If I were Dr Seus, I would make that rhyme like Simon.

Turnbuckle from a swing set.

I can relate to this. My Autistic son (now 31), is a mimic. When he was younger in Elementary school, he would pick up other special kids behaviors. He would also hear either kids or teachers aids saying something inappropriate. Then he would come home and try his new word out on us. Just keep repeating it. Then his mother would go to the school and ask who was using this word. The school would always deny it of course. For the last few years, "Be patient" is repeated everyday. Like a shotgun of repeating words. At least it is not foul language anymore.

My take on TZ issue from Mirco, is they knew Chris could fix any issues they threw at him. Not that that is in any way to do business. Some companies will keep making and shipping lower quality products as long as customers keep buying them. Especially if they are the only company that produces that particular part. Just like the multiple missing cut holes in the Doctor Who PF and MPFs from CPR. Several of those PFs got shipped to different customers. If the holes are cut by an automated computer-controlled router, how does that happen or get past the QC phase. Back to Mirco, I have just read that multiple widebody PFs are severely warped from the factory. This does not bode well for the future of PF rebuilds with this sloppy work. It is hit or miss, whether you get a decent PF. Even then it is also know that the clear coat will be substandard. But who wants to pay $2k for a perfect PF when the title may not even be worth 2x or 3X or even 4X the value of a complete game.

I am retired and living on a fixed income from the Govt. I can relate as our 1 son has autism and will be with us till we can no longer take care of him. Relatives would not even babysit when he was younger. We are living comfortably in the suburbs. However, the latest economy is taking a huge chunk out money coming in. I have to limit my purchases every month, as I stretch the budget. Just turned 70 and figure I got 10 to 14 years left.

Chris - Thanks for explaining the process and the amount of money and effort that goes into your restores. Like many hobbies (Boats, Airplanes, Classic Cars, etc), they can quickly become money pits. If anyone is fixing up any hobbies or just doing maintenance, it costs money. I am also into Classic muscle cars. I bought a fixer upper 68 Camaro that ran. I have a certain amount of mechanical skills. The deeper I got into that project the more it cost. I had to sub out the engine rebuild, the painting, the upholstery. I rebuilt that car for the fun and ownership. I keep my toys. Much like my pinballs. I know flippers, that cut corners and put lipstick on pigs and hide problems that are going to bite the future customer. I found softball size lumps of bondo in the bottom of all 4 fenders. When I went to replace the carpet, the floor board came with it. I can see how your total restoration of an old pinball can cost as much or more than a new Stern. But Classics are just that. Keep up the great work!

I would have picked stainless also and red flipper buttons.

I can relate to this every day. Thought it was just my son doing this. Every mealtime includes 4 paper towels before he sits down. And don't try and stop or modify this behavior or else risk a meltdown. Trips to the bathroom every couple hours include: using half a bottle of foaming soap, flushing the toilet 4 times and using half a roll of toilet paper. That sometimes clogs the toilet. But am extremely thankful that we are toilet trained. Another quirk is having to turn all the lights on (day or night) as he goes through the house on his inspection and closing all doors that are open.

My job is to keep the toilet paper and paper towels full. Fixing the toilet (replacing the handle mech every year) and clearing the toilet. Going behind my son and turning off most all of the lights. We get notified that we have the highest electric bill in our neighborhood every month.

I laughed my way through vid #2 of TZ. That F'in Doll, then the last F'in Doll broken had me on the floor. Thanks.

Darn, I went to revisit the video but now it is set to Private. I wanted to read the snarky comments and have missed my chance. I have to say that I saw the video and it was priceless. I am guilty of adding some Mods. Except for Godzilla. I have gone off the reservation in Mods for that pinball.

I prefer HEP style and have copied it twice! I know how much prep work goes into that, cause Black shows everything. I had a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am painted. When I went to pick it up. The painter came out to personally cuss at me. Because he had to redo it. Plus he did not put flex agent in the hood (the one where the Hood Scoop sticks out in the middle). He said it cracked twice.

Now I am looking for a link to that OCC show unveiling the pinball machine. I used to watch that stupid show. It was obvious that most, if not all, of the drama was made up to promote the reality. Like a lot of those Reality Car and Motorcycle shows, it is always about the deadline. It is always about getting that critical part at the last moment. There is always a class clown that they make fun of. There is always the expert that saves the day. Then they added the cute girl to the plot.

Here are some links for those that are curious>
https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=6173
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/occ-pinball-to-be-auctioned

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MMMmmm Brussel sprouts. Gonna cook some for me tonight too.

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with IJ.

Technical question about painting the Head. Why is the bottom not painted and left raw wood? Was this the original way it was done? Similar to how the bottom of the PF is not painted as a way to save paint at the factory? Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. I guess because I have not lowered the head on my game, I don't know that the paint has attached to itself like a sandwich. Now I know. DOH! as Homer Simpson would say...

Like this past week, I had pools of water in my yard, water gushing out of my downspouts like a fire hydrant, and a literal river flowing down the street and into the sewer drains down the street.

Still waiting for where and when the doll gets installed. LOL.

Marked Private, so no one can view, I guess...?

So interested in seeing the custom build journey! I was also a Kiss fan. I had the first Kiss 8 track playing in my car with amplified speakers. I first saw them in Miami in 1976. Then again in 1978 in Houston Texas. I was working offshore in the Santa Barbra Channel California for an oil exploration company. We flew back to home base from LAX to Houston. My big/tall red neck supervisor made some bad remarks as we entered the plane, about "God Damn Freaking Hippies" sitting in first class. They were all leathered up with high heal boots (no make-up). He also called them "Queers" as we walked back to the economy section. When we got off the plane and went to baggage claim, these same long-haired hippies, were picking up guitar cases that said "KISS". I knew instantly who they were. I went from the airport to the concert venue and bought a ticket. Great Show by the way. Gene spitting fake blood as he stuck his long tongue out at the crowd.

There is a Kiss pinball at my local arcade (Crab Towne, Pasadena, MD). It is in great original shape. They also have a newer Kiss machine as well.