Wow! That thing is rusty. Good luck with the restore. Have fun with it and if it starts to feel like work, walk away and come back a day or two later. If you can have fun, keep expenses low, and end up with a nice machine, it’s a win win and a worthy endeavor.

Win most likely do my TZ someday, I want it to be mint.

Wow. Looks like it will be hard work, but also very rewarding. How are the electronics? Would love to follow your work on this, so if you're updating on an external (personal) site, please send me the details!

Good luck with the restore. I'm about a week and a half into my JM restore and it is taking longer than I thought. But I think I'm in a similar situation as you where I can only spend an hour or so on it every day.

And Yes, post some pics of the process.

I'll be updating a thread with my progress. It's my first time completing tearing a machine apart so I'm learning as I go.

"This Old Pinball" DVD's have been really helpful.

Do the boards look pretty clean? No bulging capacitors or anything obviously not looking right? With a reset problem it is helpful to re-seat all connections securely to see if something as simple as a loose connection is the culprit before moving on to more complicated diagnostics.

Im scared to see the underside - I dealt with a rusty machine on the bottoms side, and wont do it again - good luck keep us posted

1100-1300 and your golden assuming the cab is good.
and thats going chrome with it.

STTNG is a great game to restore...very rewarding.

My workshop is certainly open to you if you need a place and tools to work.

Is it a treasure map?!

Just kidding. Good luck with the restore, you're off to a good start.

It is great to see you putting in all the time and effort to restore a worn out pin and making it shine once again action76!! Hope it all goes smoothly for you. Not sure what would be up with the paper towel unless it was to support a failing backstop.

Could it be that a ball was somehow getting stuck there?

I've got a pencil eraser (one of the big pink rectangular ones) wedged behind the magnaflip sign on my TZ, because balls keep getting stuck there (no idea how they're supposed to not get stuck there, or what the designers were thinking when they made a pinball sized hole right behind a springy sign that would hold the ball in).

I think its great that you are resurrecting STTNG. Its a super pin and well worth the effort. Best of luck action76. Remember....shop smart, shop s-mart. Or, walk lightly and carry a big boom-stick!!

That's strange. I've had my TZ for a year and a half, and I've never had a single ball get stuck anywhere near that sign. Perhaps your balls are somehow getting more air than mine?

Nice job! Kudos for bringing back a classic.

Nice! I like the new color on the Borg ship!