I picked up this Addams Family last summer. It is your pretty average 'players condition' Addams Family, one of over 20k built that did time in America's arcades and pizza joints. I fixed a few things on it, and got it running pretty well. So at least this one I am starting with a functional machine.

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Judging by the mess that I found inside the bottom of the machine, I think this one spent most of it's life in a pizza joint, and regularly had soda spilled down the front of it.

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At some point in its life, it had a magnet stick on, and the poor playfield show the marks from that incident. However, overall ive seen worse playfield on TAF machines.

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It's been through the hands of a few of my friends, and for the most part, the machine left them in better condition that when it arrived. You can tell there are touchups on the cabinet, and there are some corners missing that will have to be addressed.

This will be my 6th full up restoration, and my third WPC game. I am hoping to build on what I learned in those restorations to make this one go smoothly. So here is what I have planned:

1. replace the playfield. With the burn marks around the left magnet, there is no getting around this one. Lucky for me I picked up a CPR gold last year.

2. Re-finish the cabinet. I have a set of next-gen cabinet decals ready to install. My plan is to sand down the cabinet, address any nick and missing corners, and then prime it with high-build primer, block it flat, and then apply a coat of gloss black single stage automotive paint. This usually creates a very smooth base for the decals to go on to. The inside bottom of the cabinet will be painted a satin black. I would prefer to have it be a natural wood color, but the bottom is so messed up with stains, it will look much better painted.

3. Install a ColorDMD. I'd be crazy to go this far an not install one.

4. Upgrade the cabinet speakers, and install a level control for the bass. Ive done this to all the WPC games I have worked with, and this simple upgrade makes a huge difference it the way the game sounds. You can read more about it here: http://dziedzic.us/wpc_speaker_replacement.html

5. Clean, clean, and clean..... This machine looks like it more than served its time on route. It will take me a little more time than usual to go through every mech and wiring harness to clean them up. I may have to bribe my wife to go away for a week so I can take over the dishwasher to get wiring harnesses done.

So here we go..... IT'S SHOWTIME!

edit: as of 9 January 2022, I’m declaring this restoration done.

So the tear down of the machine is complete. I didn't find any real surprises in the process. The cabinet appears to be in overall good shape with the exception of some water stains down near the coin door. There isn't any real moisture damage in the bottom of the machine, it is just stained.
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One thing I did notice was the wear on the playfield pivot pins. This may be a testimony as to how much play this machine got back in the day. I've never seen one worn down like this.
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So this weekend I was able to get some shop time. I got one side sanded down, and found and applied bondo to all the imperfections I found. This cabinet is not too dinged up.
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I did try some more sanding on the bottom. You can still see where the liquid stains are. I’m debating leaving it as-is or painting the bottom a simi-gloss black.66269053-0825-4FC2-9B63-17F5131590E2 (resized).jpeg

The cabinet needed bondo in all the usual places, especially around the legs. I’m not worried about the legs tearing up the new paint and decals because I will be using metal standoffs with the legs.

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Well it was a productive weekend.

Painting with an HVLP setup has a bit of a learning curve. Ive had my share of disasters but experience is starting to pay off for me.

The first step for me is setting up my paint booth. I am blessed with a shop that is large enough that I can put the booth in nearly one corner, and have the exhaust end pointing out a door. I have gotten to where I can setup the booth in about 3 hours. The booth will now serve until painting season here is over, which should be sometime in October when it gets too cold to paint.

The booth is basicaly a 3/4" pvc pipe frame with plastic sheeting over it. The pipe has lasted me now for three years, and when its not in use, the pipe fits neatly in the corner. The plastic is 3.5mm plastic commonly found at Home Depot. An old box fan (in a box!) serves to push air into the booth, and a filter taped to the other side is the air exit. Over the years I have found that it doesn't take too much duct tape to make the thing pretty air tight.
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Now on to the cabinet! I decided not to paint the bottom of the cabinet. I spent a few more hours on it, and got It cleaned up better. I am going to paint the interior of the cabinet with a semi-gloss oil based enamel. So the bottom is getting taped off.
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The cabinet came out all right (the head was still drying when I took this). And next I will block sand the exterior, and give it one good sanding on the inside as well.
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The red line you see on the side next to the fan is a zipper. It’s made to stick to the sheeting and then be cut open. They are used when setting up plastic sheeting for facility abatement.

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Well here is something I’ve never seen before. This looks like it was stamped into the wood. I’m guessing an operator did it.

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So much sanding…. This is perhaps my least favorite part of the restoration. However it’s probably one of the most important steps. Block sanding the sides of the cabinet makes for a level surface for the paint and decal that will go over it. I’m hoping to shoot color next weekend.

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Well the color went on this weekend. The exterior is a single stage black (I use ppg defleet gloss black), and the interior is an oil based enamel satin black I picked up a few years ago for my TZ restoration.

The exterior went on great! I had one minor run in the head, but it looks pretty good.BA276423-3359-4F53-A173-8D953B28B47C (resized).jpeg62BFBBD1-B195-475C-906B-F3FBDAE1CF70 (resized).jpeg.

I like the finish the gloss gives for lay down decals over. It may be a bit of over kill to paint the whole cabinet, but I’ve used less than 20 oz of paint on the whole cabinet.

The interior didn’t turn out so hot. Painting the inside of cabinets is tough. It’s hard to see what your doing, you have to hold the gun at funny angles, and over spray can be a real problem. I was using a new spray gun, and I think I had the air pressure too high. I ended up with very uneven coverage and bad accumulation of overspray in the corners.

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All is not lost. I will sand out the inside, and try again next weekend. Some guys don’t pay much attention to the inside of the cabinet, I just like the inside to be clean looking when I’m done.

So after an hour or so of sanding, I reshot the interior. It’s not perfect, but it is much better.

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I think like most people, this summer has been pretty busy. To that end I haven't gotten as far as I would like to be on this restoration. I was hoping to apply the decals to the cabinet this weekend, but the schedule doesn't look like I will get much shop time this weekend. However, some progress has been made.

I did finish stripping down the old playfield this week.
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Ive seen worse playfields on TAFs before. The main reason I elected to replace this one is because it has burn damage around the left magnet. It is also missing some paint around some of the inserts that came off when the mylar was removed last year.

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Once this playfield fulfills it's duty as my reference material for populating the new playfield, it may join my growing collection of old playfields I have going up around my shop.
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So I was able to get at least the decals on the head today. The edges do still need to be sealed.

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Cabinet decals are now on! My SOP for cabinet decals involves sanding the cabinet down with 600 grit wet/dry paper to knock down any imperfections in the paint. I then use the wet method to apply the decals.
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One of the key things to keep in mind is you have to keep everything very clean (both the decals and cabinet) even when using the wet method. Dust under the decal can leave marks that show through.
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So I managed to grab a little shop time this weekend. The ground strap is in, and I installed the new leg plates. You will notice I only installed three new leg plates. This is because the power box interferes with the front plate on the plunger side. So that one gets a regular leg insert.

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Thanks guys, I will go back and consider my options on that corner.

I admit, this one is going slower than my last restoration, but sometimes have 7 kids in the house means time in the shop gets rare. I did manage to sneak into the kitchen today and used one of the dishwashers (yes, we have 2) to get my wiring harnesses cleaned up.
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I was also able to get my power box and transformer mounted up.C9866333-3405-492C-8397-C307AEEB4F1B (resized).jpeg

I’ve been taking advantage of the long weekend to try to make some progress on my restoration. The good news is the cabinet is nearly done.

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I was able to get some shop time today, and I made some progress on the playfield. I had installed the tee nuts a few weeks ago, so today I waxed the playfield, put on the rails, and then installed the ball guides. So with all the hammer work out of the way, the playfield will go on the rotisserie next to start the process of populating it.ABF1EEF3-38B2-4E88-A0A6-EB35E671C29F (resized).jpeg
I’ve learned to install ball guides, the best way is to use a 7/64 drill bit to get the clear out of the hole, and the drill out the hole with the same diameter bit as the ball guide (3/32 in most cases) to within about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the playfield. I don’t use the drill bits in a drill, I actually hand twist the bits for more control. I get nervous using power tools around new playfields. Drilling the holes out reduces the amount of hammering you have to do to get the guide to stay in place.
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I haven’t forgotten about this restoration. It is just going slow. The playfield is comes along, and I’m to the point that I’ve got most of the machinery cleaned up and mounted, and am working on the lighting wiring harness.

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So what has held me up (other than that whole ‘job’ thing). Well my shop isn’t heated very well, and I’ve got a paint season that ends at about October/November of every year because it gets too cold to paint. So I’ve been rushing to get a cabinet finished for another project.

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Well now that cabinet is painted and I can set it aside and work on TAF.

I’ve made some progress during the last few weeks. The wiring harnesses were installed on the playfield and I got it back in the cabinet today!

After the harnesses were reinstalled, I took the playfield off the rotisserie and put it on saw horses to attach the last few mechs. In this case that was the thing hand and the thing eject assembly.
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I then put the back wall on and the front playfield hangars. These can’t be mounted while the playfield is on the rotisserie. I also installed the plastics along the back wall because these are hard to get too when the playfield is in the cabinet.
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I then removed the thing mech, the bookcase mech and the thing eject mech to lighten the playfield to make it easier to install. With the help of my eldest son and wife we were able to get it back in the cabinet with no issues.
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The playfield topside is starting to come together.

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The playfield is almost finished. I’ve just got a few more of the plastics that require riveting to go. Then I will move on to reworking the audio, and installing the color dmd.

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The new speaker system is all installed and wired up now. I am also nearly done with the speaker panel mods.

I had to modify my ‘Thing’ light board on the speaker panel to accommodate the colordmd. The stock board thing board sits too high off the speaker panel to allow the color dmd to be mounted on its lowest brackets. If you don’t modify the thing light board, you can still mount the color dmd, you just can’t open the light board without removing the speaker panel. This mod involved taking the case off some leds bulbs and soldering them in place. I also had to create a remote plug for the wiring from the driver board to connect to.
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The speaker panel also had to be modified to fir the new speaker in it. To do this, I used another speaker panel as a template. I then drilled out and installed the new tee nuts, and enlarged the speaker opening. You don’t have to cut a perfect opening for the speaker, as the speaker plexi cover conceals the outside edges of the speakers.
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I got everything together this evening for a test fit, and it all looks like it will work. I just need to clean up the speaker grills and get some small nails to reinstall them.6E7176E2-47E9-4C9E-ACE7-DACCFC6CE777 (resized).jpeg

Well it would be except for the fact that it’s 40 degrees in my shop and cold and snowy outside. I cant really paint anything right now. Hopefully we will get a stretch of warmer weather so I can finish up.
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I mix up a small batch of the paint I use on the body (like less than an ounce) and use a small brush to apply it along the edges of the decal. It dries in a few hours, and covers the white edges of the decals.

Well even with all the Christmas rush, I did manage to sneak out to the shop for a few minutes and put the decals I got from Marco on the apron. I used the we method just because it makes it easier to get them lined up. I can’t say I’m a fan of these decals. The black doesn’t match as well as I would have hoped. I thought about doing my tri-cut vinyl method to recreate the graphic, but ruled it out because of all the small text graphics.

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I got the back board finished and installed today. So it’s getting closer to being done…. I do need to buy some more 455 bulbs.

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I may have to check those out. At least what I have on there now can come off easily.

The weather finally cooperated today and I was able to paint the coin door finally. It got up into the 50s here today, so I was able to get the paint on, but it may take a day or two to setup before I can re-assemble the door.

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You need a full HVLP setup, which includes a compressor large enough to run the gun (around 10 CFPS) a spray booth, and the proper PPE. I wear a full painters suit, and a full face respirator when I paint. I takes a little practice to get used to using the gun, so don’t expect much out of your first project, as you will make mistakes. The paint direction state to put on a medium coat, wait 5 minutes for the paint to flash, and the apply another coat. I wasn’t getting consistent results until I used this method, and quit trying to do it all in one coat.

The coin door is done! It turned out pretty nice. I did a satin black with gloss black splatter. The gloss black splatter adds just a bit of texture which looks pretty original to me.63BBB17B-47C5-48A9-B996-1D8840C3D242 (resized).jpegA0248F35-C08E-4794-BA46-6C1FBB18287D (resized).jpeg

Going over the game last night I noticed something I am kicking myself for not noticing it earlier. the playfield registration is off just slightly around the jackpot insert. This is a CPR gold playfield, so I don't know how this got past their quality control process Well there are always one or two small issues when I do a restoration (like the sideways transformer in my TZ). I think this might be the one issue with this machine.

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For full disclosure, there is also one spot on one of the sides of the head that wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped and it showed through the cabinet decal. It’s hard to spot though.
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My new speaker panel came in today. The old one had some scratches on the backside that were visible when the THING lights were on. I should be able to get it installed this evening.

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It worked out fine in the end. My TZ turned out great. Your still my goto cabinet guy.

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I got the speaker panel mounted up this evening! It looks great. Sooo shiny...
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Next I turned my attention to the topper. It is in pretty good shape, so I didn't replace it. It just needed a good cleaning.
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It's all starting to come together now. If the honey-do list doesn't over take me this weekend, I should have it finished!
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Unfortunately i don't trust myself with a blowtorch.

I getting to those last little details, like the backglass lock, and the decals on the back of the machine. 5DEDAF96-0315-4150-A249-ED1660711248 (resized).jpeg

I got my last shipments of parts today, and the only thing left to do is replace the translite lift plastic (the old one is broken). Tomorrow it will be done.

Well I got the transite finished this afternoon. I’m using the original transite, but replaced the plastic trim around the edges. The old trim was split.
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I also took the opportunity to clean the back of the transite. It’s in pretty good condition overall, but I did find a new nicks in it near the top.A1D35281-AC7C-4B05-BAD7-6D0ACE1B5750 (resized).jpeg
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With the transite in, I’m calling this one complete. It’s only taken me 8 months. The machine is not perfect, but it is much improved over the condition it started in. The new speaker system sounds great and the color dmd looks pretty good too.
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So what’s next? A Firepower, but not just any Firepower, we’re going for Firepower PLUS!

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For anyone that is interested, the machine is now for sale. Were replacing a bunch of tile in my house (never buy a house with rough Spanish tile) and I need to raise some funds.

Machine - For Sale

Up For Sale: Fully restored Addams Family Archived

Fully restored (full original status) - “Up for Sale: Restored Addams Family Pinball Machine This is the real deal folks, not just some machine someone threw a new playfield into and then slapped some new decals on the c...”

2022-01-17

Bakersfield, CA

uncivil_engineer

14,000

Archived after: 7 days

Viewed: 594 times

Status: Didn't sell to Pinsider