ID4.jpg
This wont be as comprehensive as my BOP restoration thread but im not sure anyone has posted an ID4 restoration before so I thought I could share my progress even though I did not plan to when I started. I decided to try to restore this one but maybe not be as anal as Ive been with the BOP resto. Still its a major task doing stuff like this. Before we start I should also say that I started this 4 months ago so this will be only the best parts documented and not every single screw.

ID4 is a game that is not really saught after as far as I know, it has a pretty shallow rule set and from what ive heard its a lot of multiball and thats it. But who doesnt like multiball?

Allright, Here we go!

Note: I also started an Independence Day Club thread here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/independence-day-id4-club-owners-and-fans#post-2986230

Some before pictures:

The display had the two top rows out:
display.jpg

The circuit boards all looked very nice:
boards.jpg

The cabinet had seen better days but nothing horrible:
front.jpg

The Playfield, a lot of dirt, worn rubbers, blown bulbs and the usual stuff:
pf.jpg

I always start out with testing the game after ive checked it roughly for evident faults like stuck coils, burned wires, nails instead of fuses and so on.

I found the following faults on this machine:

- The VUK (Vertical Up Kicker) seems weak, it tries to kick up the ball (this is after youve shot the ball into the virus hole on the right side) but it does not come all the way up. Instead it repeats firing like 3-4 times before the ball finally arrives back at the playfield. Maybe this is because of dirty coil mecks/sleeves. It could be something else too, like the coil was getting over heated in the past and is too tight for the plunger to move freely.

- The display had the two topmost rows out, could be faulty connectors or cables.

- When multiball starts the game fails to feed more balls and seem a bit confused at times too.

Other than that some wires looked bad, squeezed etc so those need to be fixed aswell.

Not much to fix here except cleaning and tuning stuff up.

Heres a picture of the wire guide under which the VUK assembly is located:
vholevuk.jpg

The display:
352410-i.jpg

I desperately tried to fix the display by trying various methods but eventually failed.
Only got this far:
356558-i.jpg
Note: The vertical line is from the systems internal DMD test and was not something i screwed up. It was enough with what else I screwed

Its super tricky to fix these displays because there are no real wires or solder joints to fix by conventional methods. Instead there is a flex cable (wide plastic sheet with some conductive graphite "paint" on it). These can be ordered new and then glued in place by using a soldering iron T-tip but I felt it was to much effort at the time. The whole DMD repair efforts can be read about in a separate thread i made:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/another-dmd-with-rows-out-need-tips

This is my first game that I restore that have optos in it (my second in total restoration) so I was not really familiar with them. However, looking under the PF I found something seemed to be missing at the ball through assembly.

Consulting the manual helped me conclude the ball through opto board set was missing the reciever side. No wonder the game was confused with the balls during multiball!

opto.jpg

optomanual.jpg

Ordered a set of new ones and mounted them but it still did not work. I was however unable to test it fully since I hade torn apart quite a lot of the PF stuff. So, in switch test this opto did not work (among other things). At first I was thinking something else had happened but then I realized the matrix must have been broken somewhere before the opto when I desoldered something. This, remains to be solved when I get that far in reassembling the game again.

It was a pain finding the correct screws, spacers and rubber grommets for mounting the board too. But finally I got everything.

So the teardown commenced starting with the bottom parts of the PF. All parts are photographed and put in marked ziplock bags for future reference. A standard procedure that I think many people use when restoring their games.

A lot of dirt everywhere, except maybe under the apron where the PF looks kinda good.
tear.jpg

id4dirt.jpg
Note the bare wood on the PF in the bumper area... not so nice!

Here are some bad areas, Dont know if its the original washers holding the space ship. Looks like a home made solution to me but not sure.

At the Alien head assembly the wires had been sqeezed and needs to be resoldered and shrink tubed. Might be possible to route them another way to prevent it from happening again in the future.
ship-washer.jpg

The Alien head on ID4 has to be called infamous.. On most pictures on the net that ive seen these have at least one of the ears broken off, probably from air balls. If youre unfamiliar with ID4 the toy works pretty much like the saucer in AFM, you shoot it once, it opens and you can lock balls. Next time you need to shoot it more than once to open it and so on to start multiball.

When I started the restoration replacement heads were not to be found anywhere but a guy here on pinside cast his own and sold them (Dont remember the name but do a search and youll find him and the thread). The price was a bit expensive for me but the prices were allright when you think about the efforts he made so no problem.

A while later the Alien head halves surfaced in marco specialties web shop and I think even at pinballcenter. If im not mistaken it was the same guy making them but now he'd struck a deal with these web shops. Pretty nice! However they sold out pretty fast and I felt the price was too high this time too. Not worth it for the small alien head.

I am a guy who very much likes to tinker and hack things up in general so my plan is to cast my own alien head and paint it. Have not really got to it yet but I am looking forward to it!

infamous-head.jpg

Speaking of the alien head, gotta love fixes like this one on one of the opto boards that sits in front of the head registering ball hits:
optohack.jpg

A new one needs to be purchased (or maybe ill etch my own board just to try that too )

Thanks! =) Maybe its useful for someone. Not a really common game to restore.

When most of the PF stuff had been removed it was time for the cabinet to experience some cleaning:

id4cab.jpg

box.jpg

box2.jpg

Meanwhile, most parts went down the tumbler:

tumble.jpg

... And into the ultra sonic cleaner:
ul.jpg

My first time using an Ultra sonic for pinball restoration. I must say I am amazed by the good results!

Before I took off the backbox and removed the PF I had to take this picture:
odd.jpg

Feels kinda strange with everything removed but inserts flashing in attract mode =)

ngoett, looks nice! =) New coindoor and all if my eyes dont betray me..

ledge, theres a thread here on pinside about those or similar canisters. Think they can be found on ebay. Not a pinball related product but rather some old independence day merch. I might install a similar thing on my game with a LED that lights up together with the inserts below it or something. A color changer in it would be cool.

I did not plan to get new cabinet decals for the game since I want to keep the costs as low as possible. Besides, adding them later wont be too difficult anyway id I change my mind. What I did was to spray paint the worst areas black and I did a thin overlap around the edges of the top box, like 7mm or something. Looks allright to me. (In the picture the top right corner has not been painted yet)

The underside of the box was sanded and clear coated with standard furniture clear. Will make it a lot easier to clean in the future as opposed to the original and un cleared wood.
underbox.jpg

On my bride of pinbot I was going hardcore on the restoration so there I repainted everything and bought new decals. I even made my own screen print of the backbox warning text and the result came out really good. Here, I just left the backside as it is. Maybe some day I will make a screen for this backbox text too but right now, too much work =)

Inside the cabinet there was a lot of dirt too. And I noticed the front was a bit loose. So, I removed the old corner pieces and reglued everything with wood glue. Put in some new corner triangles and secured the whole thing with an air driven nail gun. If you try it be extremely careful since those things are pretty dangerous! Also, make sure to use nails that are the right length so they wont penetrate the cabinet and come out on the outside.
corners.jpg

The rest of the cabinet was stripped from anything thats not wood and the marks on the sides, from raising the Playfield, was repaired using wood putty and then sanded down. The transformer is still in there since its something I dont enjoy tuning up. Hence I just ignored it so far..
cabwork.jpg

Looking really nice! Not a fan of making holes in the plastic but well.. =)

When everything was taken out I sanded the bottom like crazy to get rid of all the old dirt. Then I masked it with some paper and painters tape and sprayed away with a black paint that will match the original color fairly well. I used a standard spray can for this and if you buy a decent brand you will get away with it.

spray.jpg

I added about two to three layers of paint and while they were drying I cleaned the wire harnesses in the bath tub. Used a kitchen cleaning spray and scrubbed the wires with a brush. Rinsed with water and blew out the connectors carefully with an air compressor. Then I hanged them to dry close to a heat source like a radiator in the house.

harness.jpg

When this tedious process was done it was time to start installing new ground braid in the cabinet. Thats always nice but also a bit boring after a while =) First though I also cleared the bottom with the same furniture clear I used on the underside of the backbox.

braid.jpg

After some more hours it was starting to look like a pinball cabinet again. Note the new style leg brackets in the corners:

partscab.jpg

The "line filter box" was cleaned up and I made myself a couple of new stickers for it. Came out good. I stuck with the country "SWISS" on the sticker even though I live in Sweden, just because it was like that originally. Ive seen games sold in Sweden too and they have the word "SWEDEN" on them so I couldve changed it but decided to keep the games history a bit.

stickers.jpg

Soldering the new ground strap. As you can see I like to have things organized and working on a clean work bench...
solder.jpg

Next the backbox metal plate was sanded down and sprayed with a grey spray paint that cunducts electricity for the grounding. Always buzz stuff like this out with my DMM to make sure it conducts.

plate.jpg

The old plastic for the display looked like someone tried to wipe it off with sanding paper... went to the local sign shop and got me a new piece that I cut for a neat fit on the backside of the speaker panel. Attached the plastic with some double sided foam tape.

I also bought an xpin LED DMD for the game and with it the display worked again. I went for the amber colored display. Its more reddish, slightly, than the original. If I remember correctly this amber one looks like the old plasma did back when it was new. The orange color we are used to nowadays is a bit faded but if you want to match the other games in your lineup you can then get the orange LED instead. I was also considering the red version to make it look more modern (think Stern) but finally settled for the Amber one. I bough the high voltage version. Will post more pics of it in action later on.

glassd.jpg

Some more cabinet reassembly pics.. note the new lockdown bar reciever:
morecab.jpg

Here is what the cabinet looks like so far. Did some touchups of the black color on the front, added a new coin door (The old one had been kicked in, which seem to be really common sadly) and a new ball launch button. The launch button is not super true to the original since its made for bally/williams games but I felt that was a minor issue. Its still the exact same in dimensions etc.

Still has not got any new legs but I will get some later on. The game came with four black legs but the feet were rusted and I was unable to remove all of them even though i tried anti rust solution and violence. After I had wasted like 1 hour on the feet I discovered three of the legs were of a different kind. So 3 out of 4 legs were of separate models!
getmeacab.jpg

I was planning to get the black standard stern legs. What are the differences? The manual says it should be like 30 1/4" but the sterns are 30 1/2" if I remember correctly. Will check pinballife. Would be nice to stay original. Not so experienced in sega stuff. Felt protectors would work fine, if I had new decals on it I would go for plastic or metal ones though. Feels it will bend a bit with the soft felt but again no experience =)
Thanks for liking the project, it's fun to share and maybe it will spark som inspiration for someone.

I see, stern bought the rights from sega right? So that's as close to original as you'll get. It will look great!
Speaking of original, I bought the stern black side rails with the flipper button protection extension. The original ones don't have it but since the cabinet is worn around the flippers it will cover that area and look nice. Still keep the originals for future needs though and will have them sand blastered and coated some day. I'm also keeping the lockdown bar recievers, coin doors etc for future tune up.

Yes painting is absolutely an option. And indeed spraying should do it. Maybe air brush.

Here is what it looks like now with the rails loosely mounted for testing. All screws are not in place yet..
srails.jpg

When I got the game the old mains plug was damaged and I once nudged it and the game reset. Very bad. Replaced it with a new one. I choose a cable about 4m long (about one of them is wasted inside the cabinet..) and rated for 10A. I think a standard pinball game draws somwhere between 4-8 amps so this one will work fine. Also made sure its a cable with ground/earth in it, otherwise things can get scary in my opinion.

mains.jpg

So, during the reassembly I found a few wires and connectors that were unknown to me. After some research in the manual and the schematics I figured them out. If I confused something please chime in for future reference.

I found connectors for optional gadgets like a printer unit to print audits, a stand alone coin meter, a bill validator should you not want to use coins (!) and then two wires that had been cut and looked like wires for a coil.

unknownwires.jpg

Long story short, some Sega games, like a frankenstein Ive seen, have an old school knocker placed in the cabinet on the left. Exactly where these wires are on my game. Looking in the schematic it indeed was connected to the knocker circuit. However there were no evidence of screws or anything so i doubt theres ever been one there. ID4 uses the digital knocker sound (which I dont really like btw) so a real knocker wouldve been unnecessary. Looking a bit more in the manual it says that its for an optional coil for a "Euro Token Dispenser". Now, I have no idea what that is really but I have a theory.

It goes like this: It was possible to add a token dispenser to the game. And when you got a replay and heard the knock the dispenser was connected to the knocker circuit and spit out a token for you. Then you could use that token in the game again for a free play instead of using quarters. But that would be pretty redundant (or what its called). The neat thing, and the only plausible explanation I can think of is that the token could be used in any game in, lets say, an arcade hall. That way if you did good on one game you could use the replay credit on another game of choice. Smart.

Not sure if this was how it worked and also I dont understand why its called a EURO(PEAN) token dispenser... Illegal in the US cause it was possible to arrange so it could be traded for cash?

Lastly I wonder why the connector for the printer sub assembly is cut.. maybe, if you hook one up a fuse or something blows.. dont have one to test it with but I will measure the voltage on it later and see if its there. For the sake of it I might repair the connector.

Yeah its pretty bulky, especially in that pic where the side rail looks really fat. I will decide later on. I think, if I replace the cabinet side art sometime might have had the time to repaint the stock side rails and then I can use them. And, extra screw holes can be repaired before that too.

Thanks for the compliments =)

Remember the transformer that I was ignoring... I finally got myself together.

First I unscrewed the brackets for it. They often have some of the varnish on them. To get rid of it I put them in a bath of label off, which is a solvent for removing glue from old stickers (ive tried pain thinner and all kinds of stuff without success earlier). Not sure what similar products exists in the US but anyway. Put them in the tumbler after that together with the nuts and bolts. Its great this game is fairly new since the manufacturer had started to use shorter screws in the bottom holes. This way its easier, or even possible, to put it back into the cabinet after mounting the brackets.

After that I carefully cleaned the wires with the kitchen spray I used on the wire harness. If you attempt this at home pay super attention to not getting any water whatsoever down into the windings!
A damp cloth could also do it.

When it was dry again I sealed everything but the block with painters tape and sanded it lightly to get rid of the old rust. After that, a grey spray paint.
Some say you need heat resistant paint but I dont think the transformer will get super hot so the paint I used will hopefully withstand the heat if there is any. After all, its mounted on wood so it cant just be super hot...

The sticker on top was scanned and I am working on a replica to replace it with.
trafoID4.jpg

yeah, I can always get one later on =)

The worn areas on the playfield had to be adjusted... im no expert in the field so this might not be super nicely done. However, I used some putty, a wood repairing one and filled the worn areas. Sanded before of course but not too fine grit. After that I bought some two part auto clear that came in a spray can that you need to activate to mix the hardener and the coat.

I tried this (first time ever) on the area between the bumpers and in the shooter lane. The lane did come out pretty nice but the area between the bumpers could benefit from some airbrushing or maybe a decal. However, as lazy as i am, I will leave it as is since, again, im no expert in the field of airbrushing. If the area wouldve been more visible i wouldve done it but in this game you hardly even see the bumpers.

woodpf.jpg

Did not plan to make a thread out of this so I have no really good pics of the shooter lane before the sanding and coating but heres the best I have:
oldlane.jpg

Much appreciated!

When that was done it was time for waxing. A much discussed topic here on pinside =)
Some like it, some say its impossible to play with a ball behaving like a bowling ball. Ive never tried it so i figured this would be a nice playfield to try it on.

I cleaned everything carefully with novus 2. First blew all the loose dirt off with the air compressor to reduce anything that could scrape the surface. Novus 2 works good on a playfield that is as dirty as this one but since its a bit abrasive I think its best to use novus 1 for regular maintenance.
On some areas, ball swirls and streaks where the ball rolls often like the tip of the shooter lane, I used magic eraser and some denaturated alcohol. Also did that on areas where the surface was a bit rough. This is another thing you need to be careful when doing cause all of a sudden you end up rubbing throguh the paint.

The wax I was using was One Grand Blitz Wax. Its a good carnauba wax that one of the pinside legends vid1900 recommends.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Grand-Blitz-Carnauba-Wax/dp/B0009KMH20

It contains no nasty stuff like silicone or something (which is super nice on your car but not on your PF). The reason you dont want silicone on the field is because it will repell (is it called that?) paints or clear coat should you need to clear and restore the playfield in the future.

The blitz wax was added with an old tshirt by hand (you could also use an orbital tool for it). One layer that I let sit for 5 days (Edit: It sat for like two hours, then wiped off. Then I waited for 5 days before the second layer) and then I wiped it off and added a second layer. I am pretty amazed by the result considering what it looked like before. Hopefully the game will play as good as it looks!

wax.jpg

Soon ive caught up with where im at right now..

Here a picture of some of the reassembled ball guides:
guides.jpg

And one of the slingshots:
sling.jpg

I will reuse the coils but i wipe them off a bit and replace all sleeves and springs and make sure they are not damaged and sluggy.

In the picture one of the inserts have a white area on it. Thats the original clear coat that has lifted. I will try to fix that by using a syringe with some new clear and inject it under the old clear. A surgery that Im still trying to figure out the better approach for.

Now.. someone make some hole protectors for this game!

The good old Alien head... I am going to fix this bastard.
alien1.jpg

Ive started to repair the broken "ear" with some putty. It was not possible to sculpt the whole ear in one part since the dough was to weak to stand by itself. So I need to work my way up.
alien3.jpg

The other half I have reinforced on the back. The plan is to cast this one in resin so this will make it a solid part when its done. Only need to make sure everything fits back together. Will check that before i cast it. I dont know if the reinforcement (to the tip of the ear) will be enough to withstand an attack from a flying air ball but we will see. If I can get my hands on some good casting stuff the head itself will probably hold up.
alien2.jpg

I doubt there are... but as usual I am thinking of a solution. Must be possible to get a sheet of metal, have it cut at a company and then just bend it to fit. Im thinking of the virus hole on the right and the alien head hole. And maybe the hole for the VUK for the virus hole.

Yeah, part of the days were because I had other things to do but I was told to wait long =)

Read on the wax container, its says to wait 5 days between the coats. Mustve read wrong there and thought i should wait 5 days before wiping it off hehe.. anyway, still looks good so i guess it did not hurt.

Thelastjay, sure I'll let you know! I would need one of them too, think it's the left one. The others are in decent shape. Will show them soon. They even had ramp protectors on them which is really nice! The broken one has been repaired with a lot of glue gun glue and an ugly thick metal piece. Might be possible to at least make it look better. Then we have the plastics... Many broken and quick repaired. I will try to reproduce them and I think it will get pretty good. But doing the artwork is a lot of work. Still worth a try!

Yeah it would be nice with a set of plastics. I don't know if it would sell good though so they can justify it. But this game seem to be one that officially is not talked about much and that is somewhat ignored. Still the ones who have it like it quite much. I will tell you my verdict once Ive played it enough. Only tested my own game when I got it but it was not really a fair example to judge it by =)

That's so true! It's the same over here. Sega mentality or b/w curse =) I will look into the sega titles and see what there is more. Working with the game is no different/harder than others at least and most parts are the same or very similar. The bumpers for example.

I've noticed that now that i am assembling the pf and want to think some more about what LEDs to use... Need to figure out that first. Or take out the sockets and come up with a great idea to put them back again. Can't get a stapler down there unless I get one with a long nose. I would like to invent some other type of socket add on to make it snapp in and out like nothing. Of course you can replace all sockets with Bally Williams ones but don't feel like that especially when I get LEDs that will probably not burn out any time soon.

Allright, the twin smds, are they any different than the 1SMDs considering brightness? I feel the one version is bigger and the 2smd is just made up of two chips to form a light source of similar size. 3SMDs might be brighter.. im very new to the art of ledding (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/leds-for-inserts-vac-or-vdc) so i have not really tested that much. I have put in some insert LEDs in my JB and im fairly happy with it. Still a bit of ghosting since i bought some cheap ones to try but im waiting for some higher quality ones for the GI.

ID4 though Id like to spend some more on, especially when the light sockets are so hard to reach. My dream is to have it looking somewhat like the new startrek from stern. Ill mess around with some teal/turquoise, purple, pink, red and blue and see if I can get it to look any good.

Im seriously considering to pull out all the GI sockets on ID4 and just screw them back with tiny screws through one lug (the one closest to the PF). I discovered the lugs allready have holes/ears in them, to solder the wires onto. So if you solder it tight its possible to use a flat head tiny screw to secure them again. That way its possible, still a bit of a hassle, to replace the GI lights from under the PF. I think its worth it.

Yes I'll post pictures of how I did with the sockets. Two downsides to it and that's 1, you need to put screws in the pf. On the underside but still.. And 2, the wires are really tight so let's say you want to change a bulb in the middle of a chain then you might need to loosen the others or some of them as well.

I've just recently started experiment with LEDs. It's a jungle before you get the feel for it. I get some sample bulbs here and there to test. Tried some turquoise frosted ones for the GI and the colors good but the brightness a bit dull under plastics. Will try some clear wide angles and see if it's better. Still thinking of the color scheme. Settled for blue bumper lights at least.

Here.. a picture of the reassembly =)
reas.jpg

And one from testing the bumper lights:
blubump.jpg

And lastly some testing of the GI LEDs:
leds.jpg

Now I have a couple of questions for anyone out there sitting on an ID4.

Im having trouble finding out about a post on the plastic left of the alien head. Im not sure if it should be there originally or if its a mod to prevent the ball from getting stuck. Also I wonder how its mounted. What I have now is a long screw that goes about the same length as the post down towards the PF but theres no hole there (thats why I think someone may have put it there). Sadly I did not take any pictures of the underside of the plastic when I teared it down. Lesson learned!

I also wonder about the rubber (the white one in the picture) on top of the plastic. The black rubber is mentioned in the manual but again, i suspect someone added two clear mini star posts and a rubber above the head aswell. What does it look like on your machines?
postrub.jpg

The last question is about the backbox hinges and how they are mounted to the cabinet. I know on the inside there is a round black plastic, then there is the wagon bolt of course and a nut. But, should there be any metal tube or something too? There was on one side in my cab but im not sure it really fits...
hinges.jpg

Here is what the assembly that I think is correct looks like..
hinges2.jpg

About that green post on the plastic.. found my picture =) Its just a fine threaded screw with a bolt under it. No longer than to be able to fit the bolt.

Some more reassembly stuff. The LEDs look really cool. The light from my window is making a white backlight which makes me wonder if I should maybe add some clear whites under the backbox to light it up. Im thinking something like a LED-strip. Will definetily look into that later when all is done.
cleaned.jpg

moreassem.jpg

moreleds.jpg

Yes i think its getting along well! I need to get some new flipper kits to bullet proof it. Too bad the game has 3 flippers so I cant get away with just one kit (containing two).

Soldered the bumpers back on today and will finish the underside (repairing broken wires, a few switches, clean the harness as good as I can, clean the inserts and the lamp boards and so on) then I will move the playfield into the cabinet and assemble the rest of it. Feels exciting!

The damaged area between the bumpers has been clear coated which I think will suffice for HUO. Ive scanned the mylar piece that was there before so I might add one later, or something thats easier to remove later on. Same with the half moon shaped mylar pieces in front of the sling shots and the ball drop areas at the inlanes and under one of the ramps.

Me neither.. I'll put something that fits in place of it. Looks to fill its purpose.

Just to send a sign of life.. I am working on the underside of the Playfield now. Replacing bad switches, lamp sockets and trying to clean up the wire harness while its still on the underside. Also cleaning all inserts, polishing the switch blades/wires and resoldering assemblies like the bumpers. Soon its time to move the playfield back into the cabinet. Once there I will reassemble the rest of the topside.

I have also replaced all the headers for the connectors on the CPU-board and now I will do the same on the power board. When all that is done I will do some initial tests with the partly assembled playfield in the game. Hopefully nothing will blow up!

Hi!

Amendes, I'm no professional in reproducing plastics but I will try to make my own to begin with. Somewhere there is someone holding the license for making the plastics and selling them I guess so if Im gonna let others buy them I really need to check that first. Don't want to step on any toes.

Hooked, I thought the missing cap did not fit under the ramp, that it was a design flaw. Can't see no other reason why it's not there. Did you make any tweaks to the ramp or something to fit it?

I'll test the third cap thing =)

And the head, maybe I should reinforce the new one with some metal, cast inside the resin... A rock hard indestructible super alien head!

Nice sample of the game by the way! Makes me want to play mine now now now

Hm.. yeah.. ill try some different stuff. I found a uhm.. what is it called, instead of resin some rubberstuff =), and then I was thinking that maybe I could cast some rubbers for my BOP skill shot lane too since they are hard, if at all possible, to find..

Hey HOOKED, what kind of color did you use (if any) on the LEDs under the inserts that have that turquoise color? Like the "20 mil" arrows below the ramps and the "I-D-4" inserts above the bumpers? The same color is on the large inserts "Release attackers" but there I can see youve put blue lamps..
It would suffice with white ones under the turquoise inserts i guess but just curious to know..

amendes, allright! Enjoy your game and be happy, if you dont feel like dismounting the plastics. =)

Hooked, there are a teal/turquoise led ive seen, same as the ones i tried in my GI above. Not sure if they are available without the frosted cap though. Otherwise I will stick with the cool whites. After all the inserts themselves were designed to work without pimping color underneath. In my jackbot ive chosen warm white GI since the color theme of the game is kinda red/orange-ish. Looks pretty good. Still.. theres this extra soul to the old incandescent bulbs. For GI that is.. I like it. A game like ID4 though could really benefit from GI LEDs I think.

yeah nice translites! I might get one later on to change around with =) Probably also install leds in the backbox instead of the old flourescent pipe...

Those red siderails and legs.. not my thing to be honest on this machine but on a game like getaway it would look super cool! =)

Broken plastics are really annoying! i know what you mean amendes..

Gonna move the playfield into the cabinet today! Looking around for something to put on the edges of the playfield so I wont scratch the cabinet insides when lifting it. Its tight between the cab and the playfield but anything thats soft enough and will stay in place and im happy. I imagine some kind of felt tape or something.. must be available at any local store..

I have now put the playfield back into the machine just for some testing and to continue to reassemble the top of the playfield.
Nothing exploded!

Even though theres a lot of things to assemble I went into test mode to test the coin door buttons and such. It worked. Had some problems with active switches that was stuck like the tilt switch, the right slingshot and the left inlane. Also the bottom bumper did not register. Also noticed the LED for the bottom bumper is probably inserted backwards since it wont light. Also experienced terrible ghosting in the bumper lights and ive heard these segas are pretty prone to ghosting. Dont know if there are any nonghosting wedge bumper LEDs available but if there is I will get some.

In coil test no coils did fire but im not worried yet since ive taken everything apart and this was just a quick test. Will have a look later on and see what else to adjust. The display however looks terrific, sounds there and blasting and I did not scratch the inside of the cabinet when putting in the playfield so I am very happy so far! Even the transformer I painted and cleaned up seem to have survived (unless it is the cause for the non operating coils).

I put some double sided foam tape on the edges of the playfield to protect the cabinet. Its partly a temporary solution since i just have the protective film still on it and not some other soft material. But, I will come up with something.

Still a lot to do but a mile stone was reached today! =)

testing.jpg

Thanks! Will add more parts now and see if I can make it work in the end. It says 4 balls missing... I wonder why... =)

Worked some more on the game today. Mounted the "ball feeder coil", and the auto plunger coil. Also some plastics. The coils are now working in test mode. Think it had something to do with the coin door interlock switch. Anyway, the biggest downside now is the broken plastics. I will repair them as good as possible and then be happy for now. Then I will reproduce them and change them later on cause it will take time to get the originals right for printing. Need to reproduce broken artwork etc but will make a small test with the slingshot plastics first. If it's good then I'll do the rest. Really eager to test the machine now! But I need to hold my horses a bit. 4th of July seems like a realistic date to have it completed hehe.

The playfield plastics were repaired pretty ugly. So I have tried to fix that. Its not really pretty but at least a bit better then loads of glue gun glue:
plasticfix.jpg

Next i found out that the plunger for the super VUK was too small... (the one on the left). The one on the right is the correct one. It makes me think that this was why the ball did not get kicked up every time but had to be kicked multiple times before it came all the way up. Maybe the thin plunger hit the ball slightly to the side and did not transfer the momentum to the ball completely. Of course it can be something else too, we will see when Ive tested it fully.
VUK-plunger.jpg

And now some more reassembly pictures. Its really a pretty huge difference from when I got the game:

clean1.jpg
clean2.jpg
clean3.jpg
clean4.jpg

And some details:
clean8.jpg
clean6.jpg
clean5.jpg
clean7.jpg

Im pretty satisfied with the result so far! Now Im waiting for an extra bumper cap, some screws for it and some other small bits and pieces.

Lets not forget about the underside. Its not as clean as the top side but the Subway and the Super VUK assembly are looking great!
cleanu.jpg
cleanvuk.jpg

Pew.. thats all for now! More pictures and info later on!

Im still working on the ball trough VUK opto.. it does not work. Its reported, and the only switch, as closed in the active switch test. And the transmitter does not light up. As opposed to bally williams games (at least that I know) this opto is on and when the light has a free path the switch is open, whereas when a ball blocks the light it will close. The opposite of the bally williams optos. Hence it should not be closed and by all means I should be able to see the beam since its not an IR opto. Will measure some volts on the connector to the transmitter. I bet its not there.. then I can backtrack the wires up to the board and see if there is a break somewhere or a bad connection. If however there is volts on the connector i will take the whole thing out and see if the transmitter works when I hook up a battery to it.

Would be nice.. or the one who feels like it can maybe replace the plastic part.. dont know if they are available though and it would also require some rivets and tools for it. I dont mind mine for now.. but yeah they are pretty worn.

Its my first sega that Im working on but I must say its pretty neat under the playfield. Ive heard segas are not as fun too work on but im happy with this.

Hi Elfman!

I did not realise the cabinet speaker is an upgrade! Thats cool, it was there when I got the game and I thought it was stock since ive only looked into older bally williams games. Interesting.. I might add the third speaker channel to it too to make the sound in the backbox stereo. As it is now, and stock, only the left speaker is sounding and even installed. I started to buy some parts for the upgrade but did not find them all at the time so I will need to look into it again.

Nice you like the restoration! I hope the game will play great and be fun when its completed!

Most likely found the problem with the trough VUK opto. The power for it originates at J16 and then goes to one side of the alien opto assembly. Then it continues to the board on the other side of the alien and from there down to the trough VUK opto transmitter board. It's not a separate 5vdc for each board. Since I cut the hacked up alien optos from this chain the current can't go all the way down to the trough so that's the problem here. Need a new alien opto board set and then it should be alright. Just some info if someone else needs it =)

Here a couple of more pictures of the reassembly process:
lside.jpg

I mentioned before that the coils did not work... it was my own fault. I did not notice you had to pull out the high current interlock switch inside the coin door to enable the high power for the coils when the coin door was open. You learn a lot by reading your games manual!
It was not really well described though, it just said you had to pull the switch. How to was not mentioned but it was pretty evident when I saw the switch with my own eyes. Heres a picture for all the other newbies out there:
hcurrentsw.jpg

Now all coils work in test mode! Great!

Reading furthere in the manual i discovered there is a "Play test" on these machines, maybe on newer sterns too? Anyway, it was perfect for when I was reassembling the super VUK and the plastics around it. The whole thing works like the game would in normal operation, lets say for example you put a ball in the shooter lane, the switch will trigger and the auto plunger fire. So its pretty neat. Dont get your fingers or any tools around the live coils though.. dangerous volts and not so nice to get hit by a coil or have tools flying when it fires.

Anyway, I tested the VUK (the one after the virus hole) in the play test by dropping a ball into the virus hole and it does now work very well! I dont really know what the problem was originally but I changed the plunger to the correct sized one, replaced the spring and the coil sleeve and cleaned everything up real good. My bet is on the too small plunger that was there originally.
vukwork.jpg

Hi! =)

I got them from the swedish pinball shop called "Free-Play", heres the link:
http://shop.textalk.se/en/article.php?id=31839&art=14326197

Not really sure I will go for them everywhere since they are frosted.. maybe its better using wider angle leds without frosting under the plastics and only use these where the bulb is clearly visible. They are also "Dimmed GI" and to be honest I dont know what the purpose of it is.. they fade out slowly when the power is turned of so i guess they contain a cap and maybe they are designed to prevent ghosting that way. Im new to leds so forgive me.. Im super in love with the color though so will dig into it later on. And yeah... it will be a pain to replace the bulbs now that the plastics are all there but thats life.

Better start working then =)

Agree! it will take some time but I have some ideas to make it work better in the future. I will try and see if its good or not =)

Next report is about one of all the hacks you find when restoring a machine. This time it was one of the flipper bases that had been hacked. For some reason one or more of these have been welded or has the worng screws, bolts and nuts on them on all my games... Guess the metal gets weakened by long term use.

Found two home made solutions here.. the first one is an ordenairy bolt screwed into the bracket to work as a coil stop. The original coil stop part mustve breaked down so they used the bracket from the other side of the coil and drove a bolt trough it. Problem solved! or?

The second one is hilarious.. the all time favourite wood screw was used to attach a coil bracket to the flipper base. And to top it off it was screwed TROUGH the old machine screw! Made me upset so I ordered some new flipper bases and will replace them.
hackofday.jpg

I know.. not fun restoring a game cost wise...

"A friend of mine is reproducing the keyrings for this machine..... if you're up to acquire some, PM me!"

Good to know! I'll let you know if I'm interested later on!

Here is a picture of the mod I made to the third bumper cap which is "missing" in the factory design. I dont really know why they left it out but I guess it was because of bad design (the ramps are too tight to make the cap fit).
It looks better with a third cap in the game even though you dont really see the area from the players POV. Thanks to HOOKED for pointing out it was possible to add a third cap.
capmod.jpg

And, I have been testing how the ramps fit and tried to figure out where all the supports and stuff should go. Not that hard to figure out but its a pain working with it since you dont want to leave finger prints under the ramps and also all the wires for the switches and flashers are a bit troublesome to sneak down through everything and out the backside of the playfield. Looks promising anyway and I say it again.. it looks a lot better now than before it was cleaned! Enjoy the special effect super lighting from my electric screw driver/screw gun.
ramptest.jpg

Hi there fantasygoat!

Thanks, i will continue till im done with it =) not much left now.. "only" new legs of the proper model, new alien opto boards, new flipper assemblies, a few side rail screws (security torx style ones), flipper rubbers, adding the metal wire ball guides, more LEDs and last thing.. casting a new alien head and mount it into the game. I may, if I feel like it later, add a third speaker channel on the board and a second speaker in the display panel to make it true stereo. Not sure its worth it but in visual pinball, that I use for testing, there is indeed some stereo sound. Im so excited to try this game for real when its all completed!

@amendes, hm.. maybe someone added a third bumper cap at some point? All pics ive seen on the net have only 2..

The ramps, as far as I know they are not available to buy anywhere (yet) so I had to clean mine. I used a kitchen cleaning spray that takes away grease and dirt. Then flushed them in water and let them dry. After that I flame polished them which really makes a huge difference to the appearance! Word of warning though should you ever try it. Practice doing it on something less important like a broken old ramp or something first time if youre not used to do it. Otherwise its easy to ruin the ramps. Its also super important the ramps are very clean since the flame polishing will make any grain of dust or even fingerprints permanent!

Fingers crossed!

Yeah they have added a red cap in that picture.. And maybe you know that if you unscrew one plastic you're going to take the whole game apart =) lots of work!

By the way, does anyone know where and how the spotlight should be mounted in the game? Mine was just dingling around loose... I've seen pics where it sits on a maybe 2-3" hex post at the top of the right wire guide, but also some pics without that post as well as other variants. Would be nice to know how it was meant to be.

It would indeed look and sound great with those upgrades. The downside to getting a "rotten" machine for a fair price is you need to buy everything before you can play it. It's not like you get a decent machine and then have the chance to save up for buying a speaker kit after some time. But, adding the third sound channel could do in my case.

The spotlight can be found in the manual at Page 60, section 4, chapter 1. Not really easy to tell how tall it is though. At least you can see where it should be and the direction of it. Adding a few more could be something.

Amendes, cool! Also you've got some alien art on the inside of the cabinet. Never seen that before...

Nice sling plastics too! When everything is complete and working I will have a look and see if there's anything that needs modding =)

Finally another update!

Ive replaced the flipper bases since the old ones were hacked up and welded. Not good. This is how the new ones look:
flipperbase.jpg

Next I replaced the alien head opto that was also hacked up, even worse than the flipper bases!
I also replaced the connector housings for the opto boards:
aopto.jpg

Soldering the wires, that are supposed to be looped trough the new connectors:
aoptoconn.jpg

The red opto light will actually add to the look of the game:
aopto2.jpg

And, the active switch test showed the opto was triggered when I put something between the boards to interrupt the light beam:
aoptoworks.jpg

Now, i will have to wait for the casting material so I can cast my new Alien head. Its not possible to re mount the ramps before the Alien head which feels kinda annoying right now.

Stay tuned!

Thanks! need a new glass before it gets all dusty again!

Now, finally an update! Ive been doing a lot of research about casting and now ive finally made a few tests.

The old alien head getting prepared for the mold, and how the cocoon looks on the inside:
cast.jpg

Newly hatched right side alien baby!:
hatched.jpg

The other half getting prepared for casting... think it feel great inside that alien chamber!
Note the tip of the "ear" that I have sculpted with a bondo-like dough to repair it. Hopefully it will get seemless once casted.
nexthead.jpg

And lastly, this is how the right side model looks when test mounted into the game:
testhead.jpg

This is really time consuming and makes me scratch my head a lot, but fun nevertheless!
Hardest part is to try to align and drill the holes at the back of the head to fit the shafts from the gearbox below the playfield.
After both halves have been cast, aligned to perfection and actually working in the game I will airbrush paint them. Lastly a coat of clear should make the model pop.

More to come!

Hi there amendes!
Thanks for the support =) I will probably make a few spares while I'm at it. Not sure if I can officially put them on sale though because of any licensing issue that I'm not yet aware of. Will need to investigate that first. If theres no problem I can let some of them get a new home =)

Hi there! Yeah I've seen it, that's where I got the idea from. Wanted to try some new stuff so I decided to cast one myself. Don't know how the final result will work but I think it looks promising.

Ledge, thanks! =)

I might look into the licenses etc and see how it works. All I know is that it's a jungle!

Still working on the alien head, heres a picture of the complete set! Its a pain to align it in the game on the shafts from the servo below but I think this will do. Its probably possible to align it so there is almost zero gap between the halves but looking at pics on the internet it looks like this or worse. Now off to the paint shop! A friend of mine is going to paint it so im eagerly waiting for the results!
Note: The right picture shows it better aligned than the left one, and thats how it will line up when done.

2heads.jpg

Thanks ledge! I think the left side tip of the "ear" came out pretty good too, that's the one that I had to re sculpt.

Yes and same with the right side. Either the material has become brittle during the years or it was not any good to begin with. I've tried to drop one of the halves I've made from like 3 meters into a concrete floor and not a scratch. Maybe I should try to really throw it into the floor too just for a test. Any way I think it will hold up fine. The shafts it's mounted on do flex a bit too when a ball strikes so that will absorb some of the energy. I've also made the ears a bit thicker to prevent the head from cracking.

Almost a month since any update but guess what, the alien head has been painted! It looks great imo. I'll post a few pics of it tomorrow.

Ok, here are a few pictures of just test mounting the new alien head.
painthead.jpg

I think it looks great! Will be interesting to see if everything holds up when its getting blasted by balls but I think it will.
Many thanks to my friend Matt for painting this little thing for me!

Now I can finally continue the reassembly and I am really eager to try the game so hopefully it will get pretty fast!

@Flippermatt hehe.. thats strange! wonder why...

Thanks amendes! Always nice when people like the result of all the hard work!