Today I put the finishing touches on my DM and told my family "It's done". Funny how things work cause a few hours after that a pin popped on craigslist less than 5 miles from my house. Stargate asking for $1650.

Stargate was on my short list for it's theme and cost to own so I scrambled a meet up. I got to the door and his wife said there was a disaster but come on in. The owner introduced himself and explained he was moving these collectors mugs they set on top the backglass and one fell right thru the glass. I actually noticed the mugs in the picture on craigs and thought that was a bad idea.

So I started helping him clean while I was checking it out and noted how dirty it was to myself. I said to him I would need to do a complete tear down to clean it anyways and now to remove glass also. I verified it powered up okay, inspected the cabinet which is very nice, and offered him $1300. They took it.

Now I have it home and plan to strip it down, remove the mylar which covers most of the PF, touch up & clear coat it, fix anything, etc. A lot of the metals need TLC and hopefully buff out.

Pic library started:
http://sdrv.ms/Qd60Nc

I am second guessing myself a little as $1300 is a lot of money. Hopefully I won't have to soak more than $2-300 more into it plus what it costs to get it clearcoated by a friend.

Oh and no key to the backglass. I tried removing the bracket but no go. I'm going to have to look into drilling it out.

Wow the 3 you own are top notch! Awesome.

He may have. I wanted to be fair and not get into a situation he waited for more people to come and see it. I'll be sweating it right up till its all fixed up

I fired it up this morning. It does play and surprisingly I made the right tall ramp shot a couple times. All solenoids need love, the right sling keeps firing, 4 or 5 switches show issues on the test menu, and there is a nasty ground buzz in the sound system. Should be a while

It turns out my local guy doesn't do clearcoating himself. Once tear down is complete I am going to try and Novus 2 buff out the Mylar and go from there.

Any suggestions on the initial wipe down? Stick to Novus 1 or use something with a little more umph? It is nasty. Inside it smells like their animals too, yuck. And I'm a dog owner

I learned my lesson in a tiny area with my DM. Freeze spray for now on.

I'm going to try and see if Novus 2 will shine up the Mylar and may leave it if I cannot find a person to clear it.

Thanks marlboroa, that relieves me quite a bit. I see it as me investing in a theme I really enjoy.

I may just do the replating. More than just that, the left side of the left ramp is completly separated except for the top and the first bottom right one is on the right ramp. Will they re-weld and plate them?

I updated my photo gallery http://sdrv.ms/Qd60Nc to start the tear down ones. I'm done for today ... Demolition Time

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Did that $300 include the bottom of the pyramid? So if it's that, the 2 ramps with weld work, and all wireform ramps that sounds like a really good deal. What was his contact info? Send in PM if you need to.

As soon as I saw that left ramp I said that needed a post installed also.

I sure will take high res pics of anything you want. Keep in mind my camera is a phone I can grab the wives camera though. The two hot spots in my opinion are the bottom left ball drop and the top right line up to a ball drop. I will get them up this weekend when I finish the tear down.

I agree with you about getting it up and running fully before making a trade desicion. I'm really new to this and the ramp welds and playfield touch ups are throwing me off a touch. I'd be tempted to trade for something that just needed cleaning .....I may have to take a more conservative approach at first and see if I want to invest more later.

So my current plan of attack is to buff the mylar, clean the playfield as best as I can without damaging, then add mylar the 2 wear spots to stop damage and its reversible later if clear coated. The wire forms and ramps should clean up pretty well but I need to figure out the weld issue. Then address flippers, switches, etc and see if I fall in love with the game before investing a lot of cash.

I like it up and away from kids and the dog. Plus space is tight.

I'm getting close. I took a couple weeks off as I've been busy. I should be playing tomorrow.

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Shoot the pyramid! Lol I fixed drop targets, sling, center kicker, left raise target, tournament play not switching on, and this pin is a lot of fun!

I still have to fix the outer target switch which is the only one out and do some flipper rebuilds.

Thanks, I plan to go back and do some touchups on the bottom left shooter and ball drop. I just needed to get it back together and play it some to see where I wanted to go with it and see what else was wrong. Maybe someone here can help on something.

The switch to operate the pyramid lift was initially stuck together. The Pyramid initially opened up with power up until I got the switch separated. The coil was also warm to touch when it was in this state. I thought I had the problem licked with just fixing the switch but the coil doesn't seem to have enough power to open the gate without a little help to get it started. Any ideas? My guess is the High power portion isn't firing now where it was stuck on before.

I figured it out today. The switch was fine to begin with and when I separated it I stopped the high power side. I assume the initial issue was resolved when I traced and soldered a couple wires that were broke in that area AFTER I fiddled with the switch. So it works great now! The ship coming out and moving is a trip lol.

I just have flipper rebuilds left, new legs, one switch (all on order) and some playfield touchups. Does anyone have some recommendations on a printer setup to use with some glossy sticker paper that I will Mylar over? I may go the water slide with mylar way but not sure.