Just took possession of a Solar City last night. Much rougher shape than the craigslist ad would have lead one to believe. Of course, not terribly surprising, that's the nature of Craigslist.

I'll post pictures later today, but suffice it to say this thing is bordering on barn fresh. Mild flaking in back glass in purples primarily. Some planking on playfield, but mostly confined to the lacquer. Only a few areas minor down to the playfield paint due to planking. I suspect with magic eraser and some minor touch up it'll clean up nicely.

Cabinet marked up but not too bad. Standard mouse droppings in side cabinet. Wiring suspect. Definitely some rust on front door and many of the playfield parts underneath. Plastics definitely dirty but probably would clean up. None seem to be out right broken except for a couple of lanes guide on the field. Legs are rusted like they've been left out by the seashore, plunger too, rubber is destroyed everywhere.

My larger question is not can this be saved. It will be saved. The question is how far does one go in this hobby. Reproduction target alpha plastics are available, as is a CPR back glass. One can restencil the entire cabinet if it's too scratched up. And after playfield restore one can send it away for a $400 clearcoat job. All of this is clearly beyond what the market value of the system is even once fully restored. And none of it is staying entirely true to the original parts that were in there if you go replacing all those things.

On my Silver I did a full restore with reproduction everything (had to as back glass was terrible and plastics melted), and I'm waiting for a better Playfield from Shay to finish the job.

This is obviously more of a philosophical question, then it is time and expense . This is a hobby and I don't think anyone intends to make money at it. The larger question is how original showed one really try to keep their systems during restore and how ridiculous does one get trying to put in reproduction parts to take something that was sitting in a barn for probably 20 years and bring it back to life ? Obviously everyone has to decide for themselves, and almost certainly it is game dependent and condition dependent, but it is something I'm contemplating before I undertake what should be a massive job to get this thing back playing again.

Yeah I know what you mean. It's like going to Everest, once you've started hard to know when to turn around. Knowing my obsessive personality despite what seems logical to do for this case will end up beyond where I originally intended

Ok let's start the horror show. Unloaded the pin legs at 11pm and knew I was in trouble

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But wait, any pin that comes with its own free beer cans can't be that bad can it ?

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Coin door and plunger are a mess

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Playfield ain't much better but salvageable

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More playfield

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Back glass peeling in purples. Will seal for posterity but probably CPR it. Reds ok which I thought were the first to go on these older BG

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Inside (sans beer cans) better than expected.

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Finally cabinet graphics salvageable with some elbow grease

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That's all folks. Seller advertised it as"not working". Umm .... Yeah that's true but sorta besides the point. Moral of story ... Don't trust low res Craigslist pictures. Anyway can we make this work ? Yeah I think we can. It's got good bones here

Yeah I was dreading it to begin with but now looking forward to it. It's a challenge isn't it

Back glass in more detail

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ugh ! Anyone got a spare ?

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Still finishing this one up and about halfway done, but it didn't start much better. Lots of scoring issues and some paint to work out

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So anything is possible

$300. Not a steal, not a ripoff. Should give a couple months of fun and I've always wanted to own an el dorado, target alpha, solar city given the layout. Updates to follow over the next few weeks.

Actually I'm sure you have the skills as well because everything I know is by reading these awesome forums and pinrepair.com. 2 years ago I was scared of any EM or even doing a playfield restore for that matter. I turned to the EMs because you have to appreciate the amazing elegance and engineering of these machines. Just a bunch of switches, solenoids and wire and these guys made magic happen well before we had microprocessors.

Not had planking this bad before. Wanted to peel back the wallpaper and see what's underneath. Reasonably happy. As you can see still hairline cracks in paint +/- remaining lacquer, but at least linear dirt is gone. I'm a little worried by the red having few areas down to paint (white dots in photo). No yellow on magic eraser yet. If I go further do I get rid or the hairline cracks themselves (by removing lacquer if that's where they all are) or am I just digging down to paint itself eventually and the cracks go thru all layers anyway ? Not trying to be a purist here, but if I'm removing the lacquer anyway with Magic eraser just wondering if the planking crack aspect is in the paint itself or just the top layer lacquer.

Before is bottom one, after first two

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Yeah it's gonna clean up nicely. Just have to be real careful with Magic Eraser not to overdo it.

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My intention is to apply multiple wax layers when finally done and eventually once I am happy enough clear coat the final playfield. I know that magic eraser is controversial for some. I just like the look so much better. But I'm trying not to get too crazy here. Perfection is not to be had for this playfield. Sure would be nice if there were some reasonable clear coat options that didn't cost an arm and leg. That's my next adventure though, and will try it first on a trashed playfield to be certain I know what I am doing before clearing this one.

I will say that some of these swirls are quite dug in and as you can see even with ME I am not getting rid of all the dirt due to planking. Just too scared to go all out and leave no paint to speak of.

Maybe that explains the beer cans in the back. Someone may have beat me here and gave up in frustration. I totally hear what you are saying and couldn't agree more. My wife on the other hand might take more issue with the time and more importantly the cash involved in these endeavors

To be fair to her, that is indeed the problem. She actually encouraged me to get a pin several years ago, but didn't envision it turning into 7 machines, now expanding to the garage. She'd be fine if I sold a project or two. Her exact words were something to the effect of "if another pinball machine shows up at our house without you having gotten rid of one before it, I'm taking a sledge hammer to it." Note this is not a violent, but in fact the most even keeled woman I know. But I guess the thought of her house being taken over by pinballs can incite passion.

Looking 100 times better. Will need only minor touchup in these tiny pinpoint areas mostly in reds. Most problematic is this planking but pretty straightforward I think given the solid colors. Still not done with cleanup but a very good start I think.

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Just for before and after

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I decided to not be uber aggressive on some of these ball swirls even with magic eraser in hand. I was just going to be asking for trouble and wrecking the playfield. Almost entirely left swirls in purple because much less noticeable. Red got some pinpoint paint loss even with just trying to wipe with simple green which tells me the pinpoint paint was going to go anyway. And where the planking is (without the paint loss) I am just accepting that it is what it is. Overall this will be a great player when done

So as to the issue of how far to go I've decided to leave this pin alone as much as possible other than cleaning up things and doing a couple minor dot touch ups in the solid paint. And I'm not going to clear it just multiple layers of wax.

Basic feeling is that it's better to show its age and the fact it was clearly in the elements for many years rather than pretend its pristine. It will still make for a nice pin, and yet another one not in some landfill.

Always surprised what a little simple green and Novus 2 can do against 40 years of dirt and neglect

Before

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