I bought a machine from a guy in California who I became buddies with. He is an established tech and exceptional restoration specialist. I asked him to keep his eyes open for an Indy that needed restoration. Simply put, I had no clue what I was getting into. Indy is most certainly one of the toughest machines to restore. And it was my first. To follow is my journey.

Here are some still shots for a video the original owner sent showcasing it. From what I understand, he bought it with full intention of restoring it, but never found a opportunity to start. Instead, he sold it to me though my buddy who was kind enough to bring it to Florida 7 months later when he moved cross country, saving me circa $600 in shipping.

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My buddy Aaron has a pinball channel too, the Brotherhood of Pinball. Here’s a link

If you look closely in the cabinet, there were at least 1500 tiny presents that traveled across country. Rat droppings. Latex gloves and mask highly recommended.

The first thing I learned is that the manual has limited pics (IJPA PDF here: https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1267), but is incredibly valuable. And I can’t believe I’m able to use the ‘f’ word here......yes, it’s FREE.

Save yourself some time; print it and put it in a three ring binder old school style. If you don’t, you will waste a disproportionate amount of scroll time on your phone going back months trying to find the pic you need.

What’s more, when you think you have taken enough pics of the original placement of the areas of the machine for future reference, take some more. Inevitably, you will miss an angle or a wire will be in the way of the shot you need. In fact, if I had it to do over, I would have taken video since the smart phone typically has HD capability and plenty of storage.

(It’s ok, you will make the same mistake most of us did in the beginning of learning restoration and ignore the last few lines of this post. Don’t worry, the solidarity in the pinball community is wildly empathetic and typically go above and beyond to help each other out.)

Here’s an example of the back right playfield areas with the captive ball. Notice how many shots I took...

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Have you ever been on a road trip and averted interstate congestion? If so, you likely had to pass through small towns. There seems to be one common type store in any of these towns....the dollar store (or its competitor dollar general). This is an important place to save money for a variety of pinball restoration supplies including something likely in one our kitchen drawers, that you will need, but if you take them, your significant other will not be happy.

“It seems hard to believe it now, but people did not know how to open the bag,” Steven Ausnit, developer of the original Ziploc, recently told an audience at Marquette University. He recalled that sometime around the early 1960s, his company persuaded Columbia Records to try a plastic sleeve with the zipper on top for albums.

“At the final meeting, we were all set to go. The guy called in his assistant, handed her the sealed bag and said, ‘Open it.’ I thought to myself, Lady, please do the right thing! The more she looked at it, the more my heart sank. And then she tore the zipper right off the bag.”

Ausnit, who fled Communist Romania with his family in 1947, had been experimenting with plastic zippers since 1951. That was when he, his father (Max) and his uncle (Edgar) purchased the rights to the original plastic zipper, designed by a Danish inventor named Borge Madsen, who had no particular application in mind. They formed a company called Flexigrip to manufacture the zipper, which used a plastic slider to seal two interlocking grooves together. When the slider proved costly to manufacture, Ausnit, a mechanical engineer, created what we now know as the press-and-seal type zipper.”

You will need all sizes of the bags and a permanent sharpie to label them. There are many ways to organize the parts. I’ve found the best way is to take mechanism like a pop bumper and all the parts upper and lower playfield associated with it into its own bag to store until you are ready to clean it.

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Start with a clean work area. I found a discount on all these cabinets and work bench. The cleaner the area the better. So many parts are going to be all around and if you start with an organized beginning it will help as the chaos ensues.

This is a great deal for organization:

https://www.harborfreight.com/20-bin-medium-portable-parts-storage-case-93928.html

I made a cabinet to hang on my wall to keep several of these organizers accessible. In hindsight, I wish I would have made it bigger.
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I tend to prioritize the cabinet work first. Here’s the head.

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Bringing it back to life.

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Yes. I used the water damaged back box as a template and used plywood.

Here is a run down on what I did to the back box:

Stripped and sanded the metal backplate.
Tumbled the screw set fasteners for the boards
Sanded and painted the light panel
Cleaned the 20 plus years of dirt in the plastics that set the lamps
Semi gloss brush black paint and brush

I used the following cleaners:

HArbor Fr Ultrasonic with 60/40, simple green/water
Bubbles scrub spray on foam cleaner
Orbital sander
Tumbler
Patience
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I took a lot of photos as this was my first restoration and had to rely on them when it came time to put it back together. Even with all the photos I took, I still needed to find others who had the machine to ask them for a shot of a mech or angle I didn’t have.

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I wasn’t sure if I painted the ground braid it would still function properly. I asked the community on the forum and got mixed answers.

I really like the look of the painted braid. Most purists hate it. To each their own.

I used my multimeter to test for continuity throughout the braid after painting it and it still worked perfectly despite the paint.

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That’s awesome!

I made this make shift paint stand with an old
piece of wood and nails. It really makes spraying easier. Just be careful to not let it drip.

Also, I filled the holes and imperfections followed by sanding.

I also used a tack cloth before final rattle can spray. The tack cloth grabs any last particles. Don’t forget that last step.

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Now on to the cabinet.

Typical IJ with fading, needing glue and reinforcing, then filling the dings and sanding.

I started with a shop vac to remove the rat turds, dust and other suspects.

Once vacuumed, I used soap and water on towels to wipe down the crud.

If I’m being honest, I didn’t wear a mask. You win some, you learn some.

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This little guy is awesome. I put it in the top 10 tools I use during a restoration. Easy to empty and clean up at the end of the day.

You can find them for a discount on places like Facebook marketplace and offer up.

People buy containers of returns and refurbed goods. Then they sell them at a discount.

It’s how I’ve bought most of my tools, especially dewalt.

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Here’s a trick I haven’t tried yet but will be using on my next restore. It’s called guidecoat.

Basically, it’s gives you a guide on where the surface is not level. As you sand, it guides you where it’s not level. Credit: HEP. If you don’t follow his thread you are missing out.

https://www.collisionservices.com/product/sem-guide-coat-black-aerosol-38203

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I’ve used only one way to remove the decals.

1). Get a heat gun and a scraper
2). The old material will will bubble with the heat.
3). Scrape along with one hand and keep heating with the other.
4). Be prepared for a mess and a journey. Sometimes a long journey.

Once you get the material off, then you have to sand away all the glue. I use a dewalt orbital sander with 60 grit and many pads. Once the glue infiltrates the surface of the paper, don’t waste any more time. Throw it in the gutter and put on another.

Advice: wear gloves and a mask.

Heat Gun, Hot Air Gun 1500W with Variable Temperature 122℉-1022℉, 3-Te... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DNNW12F/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_glt_fabc_REHRJKV4TFY35WZGW19T

Great callout!

After sanding and sanding and filling and sanding I was able to get the inside of the cabinet painted and then get the decals on. Don’t forget the tack rag last wipe or dust will show through the decals.

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The transformer was in rough shape as far as aesthetics.

Nothing a good sand and rattle cans can’t fix. I use painters tape to ensure the wires and molex don’t get sprayed.

The screws, nuts and brackets head into the tumbler.
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