You have some hacks there. Have fun.

Holy rip off Batman, I just saw a New lift ramp on ebay.....only $449.95.

I saw that, it's insane. I'm going to make my own, already got the lexan, rivets, blue spring steel. Here's the abomination that I extricated from my machine, I've never seen a worse lift ramp. Anyone interested in a how-to thread?

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That's bad for sure and if you can make your own more power to you. Did you know Freeplay40 make them?

I do. The Jackbot metal flaps are a little different than my Pinbot metal flaps, so I'm going to make both a Jackbot and a Pinbot lift ramp, and I might as well do Riverboat Gambler as well so that one looks new. Freeplay's ramps look great but for what I would spend on them I picked up all the supplies I need, plus a rivet cinching tool.

The Jackbot and Pinbot ramps should be identical as they both carry the same original Williams part number. It the ramp above came out of your Pinbot or Jackbot, the shape of the plastic at the entrance is not correct...should be a square bottom. Both flaps should be the same on both ramps.

Yeah, my Jackbot ramp in the photo is trashed. I don't know what happened to it before I bought the machine, but a previous owner apparently removed it, pop riveted the top flap, removed the lower flap (rusty, maybe?), whittled off about 1/2" from the bottom end of the ramp plastic, and beveled it so the ball wouldn't hit a 1/8" plastic curb going up. It's a friggin mess. I'm going to use my Pinbot ramp as a template to copy the plastic twice. The upper metal flaps are similar but slightly different for each game, Jackbot's corners seem a little more rounded. Luckily all the bracketry is still there.

Received the master rivet kit from Pinrestore yesterday and was finally able to finish the rebuilding of my visor 5-bank. Someone previously replaced the blue target with what looks like a piece of plastic cut from a Tidy Cats litter pail top (wtf?!), and crazy glued that switch stack together. Couldn't find a correct transparent blue target so I used an opaque one from Marco, which I think looks better than the transparent anyway as it matches the round blue standup. All cleaned and polished and awaiting reinstallation.

One other oddball note, the green target was riveted upside-down at the factory, but since the wear pattern on the plastic face is already there, I left it as-is. Before & after:

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That should work like a million bucks now. Good job.

Thanks. Slides as smooth as silk now.

Finally got a Jackbot woohoo!! Has faded decals though and I guess there aren't any available? I want to do a full restore on it. Anyone with any info would be greatly appreciated.....

Welcome to the club, don't know of any decals. Do you know any airbrush artist's?

Google "PinballPT". They just redid the Jackbot cabinet artwork in December. Their website says not for sale but then it also lists an email for more information, so who knows.

Well it's official. I just purchased a beautiful set of Black cabinet decals for my Jackbot. I will post photos after game is complete....

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Where did you get decals? I need a set as well

They look great. I hope the quality is good.

Will Let you know!! I just did my Bad Cats with 2nd gen decals from Planetary. Great quality so I will compare these to them.

Made & riveted my first ramp flap tonight, the one for the bottom of the spiral ramp. Figured I'd start with one that wasn't visible in case it didn't work out well, but it's not too bad for a first attempt. Much thanks to Freeplay40 for all the helpful advice.

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OUTSTANDING job. Your a Pro now.

Not even close, but thanks. Long learning curve ahead, but it's quite satisfying to replace a rusty flap with a fresh blue one, especially since just a short time ago I had no idea where to begin to tackle such a project. Next up is the lift ramp, much more complicated.

You'll do it no problem, just you wait and see.

Please fill us in how you did it. I tried to make a flap once, completely destroyed it

Making flaps is really pretty easy with the right tools. The material used is call shim stock. In the case of pinball flaps, it is blue tempered steel 1095.

As far as thickness, for example a Pinbot/Jackbot lift ramp, the upper flap blue tempered steel can be no thicker than .005". It has to be that thin in order for the ramp to be able fall to the playfield under its own weight. Any thicker and it won't fall, and the machine will go crazy...rapid up/down.

The .005" can also be used for just about any flap. Personally I like to do the entrance flaps with .007" or .008". I use both thicknesses because I like to order it in 100 foot strips, either 1.5" wide or 2.0" wide. Can't always get those widths in one or the other.

Chances are if you are looking to just fix your own flaps, you can buy pieces of the Blue Tempered 1095 Shim stock in 6"widths in lengths of either 50" or 25". 50" will cost between $20 and $30. 6" by 50" will easily do 75-100 flaps.

To cut out the flap. you can put some masking tape on the shim stock and simply trace out the shape as well as mark where the mounting holes should be.

The shape can be cut out with simple tin snips. I round the corners of the flaps on a belt sander.

Now I mentioned the need for the right tools. Tin snips...most people have them or can be easily purchased. To cut the holes in the flap for the rivet mounting or for the openings to screw the playfield down to the playfield, you cannot safely drill them. I use a metal punch set to put the holes in the flap. Harbor Freight has a pretty good one for around $39.... here's a link..

https://www.harborfreight.com/9-piece-punch-and-die-set-95547.html

I have punched easily over 1000 holes at 1/8" diameter and it is still going strong...So for a home hobbyist, it will last a lifetime.

So now that you have the flap cut, you need to be able to rivet. I use both a rivet press and for the ones the rivet press can't reach, I use a hand held punch. With the hand held punch you just need to be able to solidly support the rivet head when hammering the bottom of the rivet to "roll" it over. I posted a video showing the use of the hand held punch here...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/swords-of-fury-custom-ramps/page/8

Brings us down to the last piece...the rivets. All the rivets are the same width (shaft) at 1/8". The type of rivets used are called Oval head Semi-tubular rivets. The thickness of the material being riveted determines the length of the rivet necessary. I stock these lengths primarily 3/16", 7/32", 1/4", 9/32" and 5/16".

In addition to the right rivets, you also need small washers to use when the bottom of the rivet would be against plastic....Just take a look under most any ramp. I use nickel coated steel rivets. I order each length of rivet in lots of 500 or 1000. PinRestore sells both the hand held rivet roll over tool (like the one in the video above) for $28 and a nice starter kit with rivets and washers for $30. I use nickel coated steel rivets, but Pin Restore uses nickel coated brass rivets. Both steel and brass will work fine.

Here is a link to the rivet page at PinRestore…

http://www.pinrestore.com/Riveting.html

I did a couple of things slightly different than Freeplay. When I tried cutting the sheet stock with snips/scissors, it always left the resulting edge of the flap with a curvature that I could not eliminate, so what I did was cut around the edge with a dremel tool & cut-off wheel, leaving about 1/32" - 1/16", and then ground the rest down with a dremel grinding bit. This will, however, necessitate having to smooth the edge with sandpaper and a jeweler's file. I also taped the original flap to the sheet stock to used as a temple for punching the holes, and used this metal hole punch tool to make the holes before cutting the rest of the flap.

https://www.amazon.com/Neiko-02612A-Multi-Purpose-Power-Punch/dp/B0002T87CW

Here's the tool I used for clinching the rivets. You'll also find this invaluable if you ever replace the target faces on your standups.

http://www.arbortime.mountainminded.net/html/the_better_tonka_rivet_tool_-_.html

Opinions wanted:

Tonight I planned to reinstall the "shuttle" spiral ramp plastic. A previous owner, for whatever reason, bent one of the brackets outward. The plastic still fits but I really have to wrangle it in. I tried to bend the bracket back but it's thick enough that I really can't get enough leverage on it without damaging the metal or risking breaking the plastic. The plastic where the bracket was riveted already has numerous spider cracks, so it's not like it's in pristine condition overall anyway, but I don't want to snap it in two.

So my options are to either use it as is, and it will fit but I'll always know it's cracked and bent. Or, I can drill out all the rivets, use the plastic as a template to make another out of .118" lexan, straighten the bent bracket, and hope for the best once everything's reassembled. I don't know how "bendy" lexan is, and this plastic requires a bit of bending to get all the brackets screwed down. The shuttle decal is also an issue; I've removed and reused decals that are printed on mylar by warming them with a hair dryer, but this one doesn't seem as robust as that and I'd hate to ruin it. Right now I'm leaning towards playing it safe and using the plastic as-is; if it still bugs me in the future I could always remove it and try a remake. Thoughts please, gents.

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EDIT: Decided against making a new plastic, for now at least. I got that bracket bent back to where it should be, and the whole assembly fits much better now. I think a previous owner must have needed to change a rubber underneath, and instead of removing it, took the lazy and damaging way out and bent the bracket out of the way.

Lift ramp finished! Everything was scratchbuilt except the metal brackets, which were polished and reused. Damn thing was coming out perfect until it was time to rivet, then I managed a couple of minor scratches in the lexan, small enough at least not to notice once it's in the game.

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Here's the original it is replacing.

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That's gorgeous.

Thanks! Lot of work but it's so satisfying to see it finished.

Can you flame polish them out? That ramp looks GREAT.

Thanks! No, they're small but a little too deep for flame polishing. Not worried about it though, now that it's installed you can't even see them. In fact, you can't even see the ramp except for the flaps, it's so nice and clear.

what is the deal with this plastic?
I didn't take the playfield apart, but got almost everything back together despite that.
Just seemed a little weird that this tab would be hanging in mid-air like this.

is it's supposed be like this or am I missing something?

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Finished my Blackbot decals. thoughts?

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looks really good, should of been like this factory.

It's like that on mine too, just kinda hanging there, but it's wedged up against the metal ball guide pretty firmly so it's not going anywhere. Williams must have miscalculated the length of that bracket.

Dude, that rug really ties the room together...

BTW this flap, circled in yellow, should be tucked inside your spiral ramp, not outside of it. Otherwise all your plunged balls are gonna hit the edge of the ramp wall and break it.

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Blackbot complete and thanks for the compliments on the carpet Janus you have good taste. Garage too cold to work in so man cave became my workshop

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good catch, saved me from having to take off the ramp stuff again.
Appreciate it.

Good catch.

That's beautiful. Yeah know my white Leg Lights would look great on that and really highlight the front art around the legs.

What size rubber are you guys using in this spot? The manual calls for 1" diameter (D) but I tried that and it seems waaaaaay too tight. I'm thinking a 1½" diameter (E) should be correct, as the triangular shape is about the same size as the two above it, in front of the spiral ramp, and those are both 1½" rubbers. Even the regular Pinbot manual only calls for 1¼" and 1½" rubbers, but it doesn't specify which is used there.

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So 1½" was a perfect fit, and 1¼" was right for the one just below it. I had a 1" rubber in that lower one up to now but it was so tight, it was pulling the red post off-center.

Got my mini-playfield re-populated with red posts and ready to install. A test fit shows that the middle of the playfield rests on top of the pop bumper caps, I always thought there would be a little air between them. Also, the bracket that's riveted to the front of the mini-pf rests right on top of the plastic that surrounds the HIT ME insert, again I would have thought it "floats" a little above it. Pinbot has a support post at that corner to keep the mini-pf elevated but Jackbot has none and seems to kinda sag there. Can someone check their JB and tell me if these are correct (sitting on pop caps and sitting on plastic)?

Mines sits on the caps and has worn a bit of paint of my robot lady.

Foes anyone have any cool instruction cards?

Does

Not exactly a finished project but here is one I am working on.

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That looks amazing. I'd be proud to put it as is in my game. Great work! Any chance you have a free play card?

Thanks! I’ll make something up soon

My blue/red ramp from freeplay40 came today, it looks perfect.

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I want to see this installed!