Oh, man!

Dayuumm look at those labels!!

I'm a little confused. What are you labeling & removing under the playfield? Whole point of a hardtop install is so you don't have to remove everything from underneath. I'm close to this step, so I'm just curious how you're planning on tackling the task.

I was planning on rebuilding all my mechs (flippers, pops, slings, etc) first, then sanding the inserts/shooter lane, applying poly, & applying the hardtop as the very last step.

She's looking really sweet once again! Congrats! So what's your next obsession going to be?

I love my MH hardtop - with the complete tear down, drop target/flipper/pop bumper/sling rebuilds she's fast and furious like new. I'm gaining experience and confidence with the Black Jack cabinet restore/repaint I'm doing now that I think my spring project is shaping up to be restoring my MH cabinet next.

Looking great man. The hardtop looks fantastic. Where’d you get the plastic protectors? I was thinking of just putting clear washers on mine.

You can probably do a playfield swap in your sleep by now. Just kidding. Good luck with this one. She’s a beauty!

Oh she is so nice! I just had to check this one out again when I saw your check mark, I thought no way, it's done?
Freaking fantastic man, really nice job!

Yeap, that stuff is marvelous. I am very happy I used it on my Mata Hari and Playboy playfields.

Oh!! The Heresy.... but it is your machine and it looks fabulous.

Yves

Did you use the Spraymax just on the saucer, or did you use it on the inserts & shootlane as well before applying the hardtop? Hard to keep these threads straight.

Assuming you went with this?

https://www.amazon.com/U-S-Chemical-Plastics-4333062164-Spraymax/dp/B0043B7UQY

mrm_4 Arcane Based on your experiences, what to you think is the best way to approach the playfield on a hardtop install? Becausing I think I'm leaning....

Paint & then spraymax clear the saucer
Polyurethane the shooter lane & exposed wood areas
Wet sand the inserts to glossy shine, paint insert edges black as needed.
Apply the hardtop

I suppose a spraymax coat upon the entire sanded playfield would solve everything, but I'm really reluctant to do that as I've never used the stuff & the garage temps are dropping fast.

I have absolutely no experience with the so called "hardtops". I have glued what used to be called "overlay" on a Flash Gordon, long time ago, and did not like the "plasticky" look at the end. Plus the inserts sometimes do not match very well, and the light is considerably reduced, forcing you to use higher wattage bulbs or LEDs. I am a proponent of restoring playfields as much as possible (re-paint, touch-ups, clear coat) and cringe when I see all these salvageable playfields sanded to the wood, and covered with a hardtop. Would you do that to an old painting from a Master?

I really cannot comment.

Yves

FWIW, that is what I did with one deviation: instead of using Spraymax on the saucer (painted black with Createx), I used Krylon Crystal Clear gloss. It held up well for about 100 plays, but then some of the black toward the bottom back of the saucer started to wear away. Other than that, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The inserts, shooter lane, and exposed wood areas look terrific.

I'm not sure if the black wearing away in that spot is because the clear product I used isn't good enough or if I perhaps didn't get enough layers/coats in that particular area. Either way, I think when I restore the MH cabinet this spring/summer I'm going to repair the saucer and try Spraymax for the clear. I wasn't going to bother with the cabinet, but after having the MH playfield playing and looking like new I want to take the pin the whole way now.

Seems like everyone who has attempted to paint & clear the saucer all end up with some damage to the clear at the back of the saucer after playing. The only time I've read this not happening is when spraymax clear is used. But mainly it needs to be applied correctly. It would be really depressing to get damage like that after the hardtop is installed, because I don't think there would be anyway to repair the clear damage afterwards.

Care to elaborate why? Didn't get the right results with the wipe on poly?

I can tell Artoo is totally enraptured in your nice example...

That's certainly a unique name for a cat, love it. I'm sure there's an interesting story there!

Ah yes, fantastic!

My opinion is: Much less than you have spent on restoring the game.

You have a beautiful restore there. The game looks great. The other issue is that how many people in the hobby will spend for a Mata Hari?

I went overboard on redoing a Bally Rolling Stones. I will probably get half to two-thirds back of what I spent.

My guess is $2200?

There are some die-hard Mata Hari fans out there....myself included. You've got a beautiful machine and I'd have no qualms at starting the price at $2750 and try to hold as tight to that as possible. Another good angle for selling is that you've been thru your machine from top to bottom, inside and out, and I'd wager that as it stands today it's 110% more reliable that most every other Mata Hari out there and as reliable (perhaps even more) than when it was new.

I got mine from TNT. If I remember right it was around $2500. I've put so much more into it that I would never get my money back. I absolutely love the backglass and for that reason alone I don't think I could ever part with it.

Same here. I love Mata Hari for the colors, backglass artwork and overall sense of the game (all in rebounds).
Plus, it has a sentimental value and great memories attached to it.
It was an enormous amount of work to restore it but well worth it.

Yves

It seems like if u can get back what u paid for the game and the parts u put into it, your doing good. Not sure if u ever get anything for the labor. I had 3 games at one time and only 2 now but Mata Hari has always been the favorite when non pinball people come over and play. They can catch on to the rule set real easy and score good. They love the artwork and simplicity of it. My girlfriend loves playing Mata Hari. I keep it set to 5 ball and have the first replay set at 280k so they can hear the knocker if the play a decent game. They love that.

This is in another thread...

I have a mint Joker Poker. a few lights work, one leg is soldered permanently to the cab, the backglass was replaced with and old Paragon glass, and the coin door won't open. First $3,500 takes it.

If they get that price for that machine mrm_4 ....your Mata Hari must be worth at least $5K.

With all the new parts & electronics, cabinet work & hardtop....as well as the months I spent working on mine....I'd say around $5K? Mine won't ever be for sale, so it's a moot point. But MH is a beloved popular classic title. You would just have to find the right buyer who appreciates a restored version. I once sold my restored FG for $6K, so it's not crazy to ask that much.

Something must be going around. Twice in the last 4 weeks I've had something similarly weird on my MH (original MPU with NVRAM). I normally keep 10 or more credits on the game, and twice in the last 4 weeks it dropped to 0 without the game being played. I didn't witness it, I just know that the credits were >10 in the morning when I turned it on, and later in the day I went back downstairs to the basement and the credits were at 0. None of the other data normally saved in the NVRAM (high score, scoring thresholds, bookeeping audits, etc) were affected. Just the credits being "reset". Weird.

Yep, something going around with MHs. Mine rebooted right in the middle of a game last week. Power cycled it and the GI lighting lit up but the Alltec mpu didn't boot, nothing on the displays. I reseated the J4 connector and haven't had the problem since. I will be rebuilding my connectors soon.

I got ocd with both my MH and EK when I was working on them and replaced every connector on all the boards and even the displays. Took some time to do it, did a little everyday, but haven’t had any problems. Now that it’s over I’m so glad I did it.

Something I forgot to mention was it seemed like both machines came alive when I replaced all the connectors. Everything just seemed to work better/quicker/brighter.

I did the same. If you're doing a restore, might as well take the time do it right. And the right crimping tool can turn a tedious job into an easy one.

I like them. I did the same thing for my EBD but in yellow. I plan to add them to Mata Hari.

That's very cool, @mrm_4!

Very nice mrm_4!