So I've had some movement in my collection the last week or so and landed a TZ today. Friend of mine hooked me up with one in South Philly. Spoke to the guy yesterday. In storage for years in a basement. 5 or 6 steps up.

Met the seller on site today. Neat story...one owner, bought for an exclusive Italian-American "social" club in South Philly. On site for years, but moved into the basement of an adjacent church years back during a remodel and just wanted it gone.

So...get there and, yeah, not 5 steps. At least 20 steps, steep and narrow. And just me and my daughter. Ouch.
Looked at the game. Filthy filthy as expected. Not working also as expected. Leaky batteries as expected. I was OK with the price until I reached down to flip the power switch. Didn't feel right. Looked underneath. Must have been placed under a leaky ceiling. Entire bottom was sagging and had dried mold. Front of the machine was separating. Legs were barely attached. I said I wouldn't take it without a much lower offer and actually walked away.

Guy actually chased me down the street and wanted to make a deal...worked out a very very good price and home it came. Not going to repair the cabinet. Just going to replace it.

The find!

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Got it home. Wife is sick so I didn't want to ask for help and since it's going to go to a new cabinet anyway, figured I might as well take it apart and bring it inside in pieces. Here's some pictures of the "as found" machine.

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I've seen that happen a bunch of times. Could be a bunch of reasons, but my guess is a fried transistor locked it on and it just got toasty and the plastic got melty!

Yep, that's my new cabinet

This one was totally original, never shopped or even touched in its life. Just really nice to find.

Can't wait to get it up on the rotisserie and see what's what with it...but wasn't gonna happen yesterday. I think I hurt myself in at least one place moving that thing!

Thanks, but TZ is a widebody, so that would be a bit more of a project than I'm after...either widening the AFM cab or narrowing the TZ playfield

This is going to be a fun game...I'm actually looking forward to playing it as much as getting it back into shape!

The hurt was moving it up the 20 steps by myself...the taking it apart in the driveway..well, not the first time I did it. Still doesn't mean I enjoyed it, but it had to be done!

Agreed. And today I'm realizing I definitely pulled something.

OK folks...I'm going to make this my mini-restore thread. I don't want to call this a full restoration. People get touchy about what qualifies as a restore. I'm not out to make this a full-blown restore. I'm swapping in a better cabinet than I have, total topside tear down, and general bottom of playfield cleanup.
Not a full playfield swap. Not going to pull the wiring off of this or any of that (at this point).

I'm going to make this a nice clean above-average player.

This is truly a one-owner, never shopped pin. Today I wanted to get the playfield on the rotisserie. Pulled the apron off and it's nice and clean. Looks like the cards were never ever touched!

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Here's some "before" shots.
I find the creative use of rubber bands amusing. Slingshot rubber must have let go, so they wrapped two rubber bands around it. Back side of the playfield...rubber band. Mini flipper had the rubber split and just left to crumble.

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The pictures can't capture the cobwebs I found on the playfield by the way!

Once I got it up on the rotisserie I was determined to see what the playfield looked like. I mean, 20 years without a shop job...I was hoping it would clean up nicely. I figured it would, but never know.

As you can see with some time, Novus, and elbow grease, I successfully made a clean spot!

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Local fella had one hanging around. He swapped it for one that he redid with new decals, etc. So it's cleaner than mine, and I picked it up for a few hundred.

OK folks...you're all wanting to see nasty cabinet pictures...

The artwork on the cabinet is gorgeous, but the entire front and the front half of the bottom of the cabinet is shot. I'm sure it's repairable, but you know what..for under $500 I have a complete solid cabinet ready to plug and play.

Transformer is rusty, I'm going to replace it. You can see the issues on the service outlet housing. You can see the plywood front is crumbling. You can see how low the bottom is bowing. I can clean up the lockdown bar probably.

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Hey Ted...
I don't think these guys came with mylar. None on this one, but the playfields were made well enough that they are super durable and this one will clean up nicely I hope!

i had a few people ask me what shape the scoop is in. Besides dirty, I'm gonna say good shape!

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Nasty dirty...

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Cleaner! I swear they are smiling more!

But man, that's a lot of elbow grease for a few clean spots! I think this weekend if I get a chunk of time I'm hopefully going to tear it really apart and man, my Treasure Cove kit is going to get a workout!

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Yeah, I'm slacking

Actually I think either the wife or kids stole my teardown baggies, so that's part of the reason. Tonight I will get to the store and dig in! Just doing a topside teardown actually doesn't look like it will be too bad on this. The challenge is going to be getting everything working since I'm just poking around and seeing mechs broken or bent or missing.

What...you mean they weren't black plastic?

Good to know, saved me lots of cleaning!

Teardown time finally!

So....is it bad when you take the sling apart and the rubber holds its shape?

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Amazing...I think every bulb in this machine is blown!
And I'm not quite sure how they got a rubber band partly stuck on the flipper rubber.

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Coming apart...guess its time for me to take the balls out. Kind of feel bad though. It looks like they haven't been out of this machine in a while. Ever. Original balls?

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I guess this rubber just turned black and fell apart on its own, right?

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Ramp...out.

Rubber band spotted elsewhere!

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Powerfield out.
Silver bulbs multiplying rapidly...

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I'm betting bad transistor locked this flasher on. Must have smelled pretty when it happened.

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Cleaned up a bit more on the playfield. Is that a hint of a shine there?
Probably not, it's just a lack of dirt that looks shiny by comparison

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Agreed. I think back to when I was at the PHOF and seeing all of the newer Sterns with flipper button wear and if I recall, their IM had a wear spot on the playfield.

This morning's haul. It's a solid cabinet and head. Not perfect, but better than what I've got. I may see if a local buddy wants to take a crack at restoring the original one.

I also (thankfully) found a nice clean transformer. I would have hated to buy one and pay to get it shipped. But the one I have now is brown and furry and I'm not comfortable even plugging it in.

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Thanks. It's funny, rubber bands were definitely thrown in, but beyond that this pin is as delivered. I bet that almost every rubber on here is original (except the goofy white flipper ones).
Gonna see about getting the temporary cabinet together....

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When rubbers fall apart, I guess rubber bands suffice?

Cleaning out the old cabinet. Got me some treasured...

Let's see...AA battery that expired in 2001.
Plunger that's nice and extra furry.
Last but not least a pile of quarters that looks like something from a ship wreck!

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I actually think it's all from being under a leaky ceiling. All of the moisture damage was in the front of the machine. Leak right down the glass or something. Nothing touched the playfield or sides of the cabinet oddly enough.

Little bit of work and looks like it's (kind of) alive! The fun part is let's see how many bulbs I need to replace. I checked, there is at least one bulb working on every GI string so that means that the GI is good and, truly, every bulb is blown!

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Temporary TZ home.

Yeah it's going to get blown apart at least one or two more times. This was just to get the boards all tested to make sure it boots and cat proof it.

Still got that "forgotten about it for a decade" fresh coat of yumminess on the glass. I guess I will need to be cleaning that....

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Yeah yeah ted...

Ran around all day, so I'm pooped for a bit, but going to spend some more time on this shortly...!

As for all of the pictures...these are just my quickie cell phone pics. I have my digital camera that I take hundreds of pictures on for each project. For me its important to keep the photo train rolling. My memory isn't where it really should be so the pictures are the only thing I have to help me put everything back together.

I lucked out. Batteries leaked, but I've never seen it just not touch the board...until now. Pulled out the old one, put in a remote holder, won't have that worry again!

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pile o'nasty bulbs out!

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As I was pulling the ball guides out it really looks like this game had some seriously low plays. Almost no wear on them!

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And here is where we are tonight...!

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Aww crud...that means I actually should put it back together at some point, huh?

Funny, personally I hate videos. I can't ever seem to be able to easily stop and zoom in on something when I need it. I take pictures, and a LOT of them, in the order I disassemble. So when I pull ball guides off, I have a picture of ever one, when I pull it off, what came off of where, etc...so reassembly sometimes (in theory) is just flipping through my pictures backwards.

The last time I used a video it was poor and of course went blurry JUST at the moment I needed to see something. But they do work well for a lot of folks. Just not me.

Yours may have been filthier, but was it rustier?

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So what do we think...smoked subway?

Nah, just filthy.

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And here's where we finish tonight. Almost all of the posts out (except the few that I need to pull the subway for).

I dunno..from that view between the flippers I think it's ready to coin up!

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Yep...you have me beat in the filthy category

Huh. Pulled the subway. Not as bad as I thought it would be!

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Oh wait...the other half of the subway has the dirt handled!

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Officially de-flippered...no longer a pinball machine

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Further evidence that this didn't lead a hard life before being neglected...
Pulled the scoops and not a broken weld among them...!

Also the pop bumper switches are still nice and bright. These guys usually are kinda nasty, but seeing a shine on here was pretty nice.

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Here's one that really shocked me...the pop bumpers don't have so much as a chip in the wafers. That, to me, is the definitive "easy life" indicator.

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Gumball machine out as well.
So...I'm ready to start with the cleaning! Once I get the playfield cleaned up I need to drop all of the switches down and break out the treasure cove kit!

Its funny, this is the point where I'm half tempted to just keep going and tear everything off and swap a new playfield into this machine just because it's habit....but this machine is intended to be played.

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More rusty filthy nastiness...

I almost wish I had tried to get this game running before taking it apart just to see how dull and dark everything was.
Bulbs were one of the nastier ones I've seen.

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I pretty much have the playfield ready to be cleaned. Pulled down the standup targets, slings, kickers, etc. I may drop the other switches before Treasure Cove gets done, but for now it's ready for Novus. Lots and lots of Novus.

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Man...lots of work!

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Pretty pleased (and surprised) at how well the shooter cleaned up!

If you look, the other ball trail (right above the ball gate) came up too...I really thought that was part of the artwork!

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First crack at cleanup. Still more to clean, but for round one I am very pleased!

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Thought about it. Thought a lot about it. But looking at this playfield, it's probably a 9.8/10. I found one small nick in it and a very very tiny bit of wear around the scoops.

I would absolutely love to drop a brand new playfield into it, but I can't justify $900 on a playfield just because this one isn't perfect. Maybe I could sell this one for $500, but still, I'm into it for another $400. I just don't think it's going to be worth it...but I think I'll start a poll and see!

Voice your opinions folks!
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tz-keep-nice-original-pf-or-replace-with-repro#postbox

I've been all over the place on where to go with this. I know that if I swap the playfield that I'm gonna have to redo the cabinet...and then I'm getting into some serious money. Redoing the cabinet (body work and decals and stuff) is going to set me back $600 or more. Gonna go one way or the other....

Yeah...that's on the list.

Debating about doing the cabinet or not. Part of me says I should. I should do it right. I've got a local fella coming to look tomorrow and see.

Nah..it's just "protected" well!

Yeah, LEDs are next on tap for this.

I've got someone popping over in the next few days to take a look at my cabinets. If he thinks they are easy fixes I may have him do the cab in which case I'd probably do a new playfield too. Kind of the tipping point between just a clean player and a nice semi-restore.

Had a little bit of time tonight between my other activities. There was some mylar around the pops that had started to come up on its own. Very nervous about pulling it since I was worried it wouldn't come up cleanly. If it hadn't started to peel on its own I would have left it.

You can actually see in one picture how much it had lifted.

To broke out the dusters and the plastic blade and every piece came right up without so much as a flake of paint on them!

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Cleaned up the adhesive left over from the mylar.

Taking a break for a bit, but still not sure if I'm just going to swap the whole thing or not. Nice clearcoated playfield sure do sound nice...

But on the other hand I can just give this a good shop job and have it back together and play it which is where I'm leaning towards.

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So...kind of on the fence on the playfield issue here. Part of me just says make this game a nice player and play it...
And the OCD part of me says go with NEW NEW NEW.

But I also know myself...if I go through doing a whole new playfield I'm going to not want to play it after the fact. When I go all out on these games I never want to play them and wind up selling em.

Think I'll keep what's in it....guess that means I better order the reassembly parts!

When i go nuts on a game and do a playfield and everything else it's so squeaky nice that I don't want to see it messed up or used. Every time I do a machine all out I just don't want to see anything on it...dirty rubbers, anything like that. So I sell them with less then a dozen plays usually.

This one I wanna keep.

New goodies

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Spent some time stripping the old cabinet. Man, this thing must have taken a bath on the front!
I've got a woodworking buddy coming by today to check out the two cabinets and see what can be repaired. I'm gonna get one of them done I think. Playfield probably going to stick with the original.

I was planning to clean up the lockdown receiver, but this thing is so rusty that I feel like it's not worth saving when I can get a new one for $70.

Even the ground braid is oxidized on the front side of the cabinet. Looks like the statue of liberty!

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Next batch of stuff out of the tumbler....mmm...shiny....

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Figured I'm going to give the Treasure Cove a run at this playfield. If I can get a nice shine on it I'm definitely going to keep it. If it's still "meh" I will swap it.

For those of you who have never used it, it can get MESSY! So I made a nice little treasure cove tent on my rotisserie...

And here's some of the after-effects...this stuff gets everywhere!

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And yes Ted...any time!

OK...playfield stays

Hit with Treasure Cove power cut #2 for a bit. Then some meguiars swirl remover. Then a quick touch of wax...

Now since this is the way I'm going to go I just need to drop the rest of the switches below the playfield and get ready to "mow the lawn"

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Shiny

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Goodies came today too

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Always welcome here Ted!

OK...lots of playfield love today...
Treasure Cove powercut #2....

Then I tried something new for the next round. Automotive swirl remover...put it on nice and lightly...

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Got a little nervous because it left things a bit dull at first....

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But in the end, after the swirl removed and three coats of good wax, here's what I got...very very happy with it!

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Flash back to what we started with...I think it's an improvement!

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Making some progress. Weekdays are slow, and I'm busy waiting on parts as well, but pulled some stuff out of the tumbler...

But I think I'm pretty much ready to start reassembly now!

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Lots of high hopes for this weekend...
Started on some more cleanup. Kicker....taken apart, cleaned, new sleeve, and back it goes.

Note that it's not my goal to go nuts on this machine. Its going to be my player, so I'm just trying to clean it up.

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This game has a LOT of coils!
My new favorite thing...Marco sells coil sleeve kits for games. Either they are a new offering or I never saw them before, but I love it....I could never keep the right size sleeves on hand.

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2014-03-07 20.23.31.jpgSee, just clean. Not crazy polishing everything.

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My other favorite thing...scrubbing bubbles!
As you can see, this part of the playfield was pretty nasty. I know I could have stripped the bottom of the playfield bare and given it a light sanding, but, again, not where I wanted to go with this.

But little bit of scrubbing bubbles, waiting a few minutes, and a good wipe down makes a world of difference!

Tomorrow, unless I wind up picking up a new machine on a whim, I'm going to get the bottom squared away....

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Oh, scrubbing bubbles work wonders on targets too!

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Yep...having a good time with this and seeing it start to come back together is exciting...
Just got word that my cabinet should be back from the "cabinet hospital" next week good as new!

Getting there

This morning is "washing the boards"

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Hey all. So this is a very common thing with boards. Warm (just cause I like warm) soapy water. Scrub with a toothbrush (preferably an old one). When done, rinse with isopropyl alcohol and let sit. The alcohol displaces the water and dries quickly.
Some people even run boards through the dishwasher.

The big thing with this is not to get boards with socketed chips or any ICs wet since they don't tolerate the water. Also anywhere water can get trapped is bad. People have their own different ways of doing this, but this is what's worked for me for a while.

Heck, I even do the lamp sockets!

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