Raleigh, NC
Matt,
This is a MASTERPIECE. Absolutely stunning, man!!!!
Yves
(Topic ID: 205939)
Amazing work. I've been watching your progress...
Where did you get the rubber / plastic pads for under the legs (where it touches the ground)?
Quoted from Skidave:Amazing work. I've been watching your progress...
Where did you get the rubber / plastic pads for under the legs (where it touches the ground)?
Thanks!
I got them from Marco. Looks like they are out of stock at the moment tho.
Just got home late from getting the playfield and my god do I want to stay up all night putting it back together. I know I didn’t do the best at painting this thing but annex did one hell of a job clearing it for me. Thanks again Andy!
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Matt, this is a superb playfield: what a shine and the painting underneath is very clean and well done.
I like your free interpretation of the top saucer, painted in black. I may actually do that on mine as the wood is a little bit damaged. I think it brings a dramatic element to that playfield, and the contrast between the steel shiny ball and that black hole will be perfect.
I bet you cannot resist putting it all together.
Were the rails fixed by staples or screws on your machine? Mine have these horrible staples and I am replacing them by screws, using the mounting holes of the playfield.
Yves
Quoted from Arcane:Matt, this is a superb playfield: what a shine and the painting underneath is very clean and well done.
I like your free interpretation of the top saucer, painted in black. I may actually do that on mine as the wood is a little bit damaged. I think it brings a dramatic element to that playfield, and the contrast between the steel shiny ball and that black hole will be perfect.
I bet you cannot resist putting it all together.
Were the rails fixed by staples or screws on your machine? Mine have these horrible staples and I am replacing them by screws, using the mounting holes of the playfield.
Yves
Thanks Yves, yeah those god awful staples were used. I replaced them with screws. In this previous pictures the rails are not attached I just rested them on the playfield to get a feel of how it'll look. I'll post some more pics as I set it back up and show the screws I used. I'm off work next week so I'm thinking that I'll be able to finish up this project soon!
As for the black up top, I initially did not want to do that at all. I screwed up the top ply of the field trying to sand a groove out and sanded too deep to the next ply. I was sick to my stomach thinking I ruined it, but decided to just black out the arch and the saucer. After seeing all that sleek black covered in clear coat, I'm actually glad I screwed up haha.
I don't know how long it's been since the final coat of clear was applied to your playfield but I strongly recommend following Vid's standard recommendation of a 30 day waiting period after clearing before repopulating. You can cause all sorts of awful problems by rushing it. Don't ask me how I know this! 
I've been quietly following your progress on this. Keep up the good work! It's nice to see Mata Hari getting some well deserved love on Pinside. Please be sure to post some game play video when you get it reassembled. I know how wicked fast my MH is after a fresh wax job. I can only imagine what yours will be like with that clear coat.
Quoted from pinheadpierre:I don't know how long it's been since the final coat of clear was applied to your playfield but I strongly recommend following Vid's standard recommendation of a 30 day waiting period after clearing before repopulating. You can cause all sorts of awful problems by rushing it. Don't ask me how I know this!
Yes thank you for the reminder on that, I asked last night if I should wait before I start doing things and Andy said its fully cured he finished it up several weeks ago so I should be good to go!
Quoted from zombywoof:I've been quietly following your progress on this. Keep up the good work! It's nice to see Mata Hari getting some well deserved love on Pinside. Please be sure to post some game play video when you get it reassembled. I know how wicked fast my MH is after a fresh wax job. I can only imagine what yours will be like with that clear coat.
Thank you
and yeah I was thinking the same thing about the speed, Im going to wax it before I start repopulating so its easy to wipe off finger prints and what not, but this ball is going to be flying for sure when its played.
Quoted from mrm_4:Just got home late from getting the playfield and my god do I want to stay up all night putting it back together. I know I didn’t do the best at painting this thing but annex did one hell of a job clearing it for me. Thanks again Andy!
Looking very nice Matt.
Quoted from mrm_4:Just got home late from getting the playfield and my god do I want to stay up all night putting it back together. I know I didn’t do the best at painting this thing but annex did one hell of a job clearing it for me. Thanks again Andy!
Andy introduced me to pinball and started me down this crazy road. He now clears all my playfields,NOS,Mirco,CPR....I put his clear coat up against anyone’s.
Quoted from Skypilot:Andy introduced me to pinball and started me down this crazy road. He now clears all my playfields,NOS,Mirco,CPR....I put his clear coat up against anyone’s.
Marvin gave me his number a few months back and I'm glad he did. I told Andy I'll definitely be using him on my 2nd project. Still need to figure out what that'll be though. Something Solid State for sure.
Quoted from mrm_4:Thanks!
I got them from Marco. Looks like they are out of stock at the moment tho.
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/LLPRC
Thanks for sharing that info!
A little more progress on the playfield...
It’s taking me what feels like forever to finish this. And it’s definitely coming with heart ache.
I was extremely worried about hammering the screws in for the pop bumpers. So I drilled out the threads and used a razor to score where the fins will be driven in. I screwed them in by hand all the way down to the fin and then hammered the rest down and it went perfect!
Then I realized.... shit I should’ve drilled a countersunk hole for the head of the nail to sit in so it would be flush to the field and so the ball wouldn’t hit the nail head before touching the pop bumper skirt.
So I gently tapped the screws back out. Got all out but the second to last one cracked the clear. I almost threw up from how pissed I got. 
Went and got a 5/16 bit and started drilling into the clear, everything went perfect, and then I got to the last hole and CRACK. Messed it up again. I haven’t felt self induced rage like this in my life.
2 days later, I tightened the nuts down from the under side of the playfield and a few of the screws that I didn’t make countersunk holes for (because they aren’t in the area of play) pulled down into the clear perfectly. I DIDNT EVEN NEED TO DO ALL THIS COUNTERSUNK STUFF!
I suck, and I have proof!
Well anyway here’s where am at with things. Maybe I’ll finish it maybe I’ll just burn it, or finish it then burn it. I can’t decide.
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Gorgeous work Matt, absolutely stunning. You are too hard on yourself and it will affect your health... 
Seriously, this is a masterpiece and none of the Mata Hari pinballs ever produced by Bally can come close to this little marvel.
If you ever decide to burn it, give me a call before lighting the match..... 
Also, I noticed that you did not put any Mylar protection around the pop-bumpers and slingshots. Are you sure you want to leave it like that? I have installed Mylars on my Clear-coated XENON and I am very happy I did, after so many years.
Yves
I’ve been asking about the Mylar in the heavy traffic areas and basically the response I’m getting is it’ll be ok without it on this, especially since there’s almost a 1/4” of clear on it haha. Ive been going back and forth on the decision and I think I’m leaving it without. Also I hammered those guides behind the flippers down like they are supposed to be. More pics tomorrow. I’m almost done.
Finished the playfield swap stayed up til 4am just cleaning and soldering away.
Hey Atari_Daze I finally put those coil wrappers to use!
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Surprisingly everything worked fine when I turned it on. I was excepting smoke and fire lol
Only issue is far left pop bumper isn’t firing. Need to figure that out tomorrow. Switch works, points register, chime digs, coil doesn’t fire.
Once I figure that out I’ll install the apron and plastics and seal it up and play the hell out of her 
Wellesley, ON
Limassol
Quoted from Mitch:What will you charge to do a game for me
Ha! I’ll take that as a compliment. This was my first try and it took me way to long!!! After about a dozen more tries I’ll give you a quote
Fantastic work Matt. A beauty. You can be proud of yourself as you now own one of the most beautiful Mata Hari in the pinball community.
For the coil, it could simply be a bad thyristor on the Solenoid Driver board or a bad connection. Check the coil too, as it could be simply burnt/open.
Yves
Ok all CPR plastics with plastic protectors inplace and also installed the apron. As for pieces and parts I believe she is all back together.
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While my wife was taking a nap I snuck down and took a few “intimate” pics with the lights off. I love the look of a clear coated playfield. I wish a camera could somehow attach to the ball to get a tour from it’s point of view.
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Not sure which is better, your restore or photography skills!
Small update with the machine, the transistor for the lower left pop bumper needed replaced so now the solenoid fires like a champ. I also had to do some significant switch cleaning and bending (almost reshaping) after replacing all the diodes associated with the drop targets. The run away scoring is now under control. Played about 10 games in a row and she plays incredibly smooth and fast as hell!
Quoted from mrm_4:Played about 10 games in a row and she plays incredibly smooth and fast as hell!
Hard to pause long enough to post updates huh!
Glad to read another update.
5 months later
Been a while since Ive done anything to this machine other than play it but I decided to get a flipper rebuilt kit. I now see why people do this part, I didnt know what i was missing with this game until today. The power in these flippers is amazing now. Easier to aim and now I can nail the orbits and actually get a full orbit on each side. Really wish I did this during the restoration, but I guess this is what happens when you decide to do a restore only being in the hobby for 10 minutes. My wife loves the flippers now too as you can see its her first time getting a better score than me.
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1 week later
I always wondered what was stapled next to the coinbox in the cab when I was doing the tear down of this thing.
Then I came across this picture of a Mata Hari and it just looks like some kind of dust cover.
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So I decided to recreate something similar to what goes over the display boards.
1 week later
Quoted from phillyfan64:mrm_4, this is absolutely stunning. Amazing job!
Minus those bent up drop switches lol
Thanks man! I love this machine
2 weeks later
mrm_4 which flipper rebuild kit did you use? I have one from PBR and the switches don’t seem to line up correctly. I also ordered Williams EOS switches and they don’t seem right either. I’m trying to redo mine again because the left flipper is too weak.
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/BFKIT80
I just used the Marco kit. Looks like they’re out at the moment. I will say this though. The white plastic circular bushing the flippers slide into seem to have a slightly wider hole on the replacements giving the flippers a slight bit of play. I’ve been contemplating putting the old ones back in.
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