So I bought my one and only pin, CFTBL, in 2001. In its prior life, it had resided in an arcade and was in pretty bad shape when I bought it despite the vendor’s attempt to clean it up (it even still had bubble gum stuck to the cabinet when I bought it.) And since I didn’t know any better, I didn’t keep the playfield properly waxed, and over the years, I ended up with a dirty pin with some wear down to the bare wood over the right flipper.

IMG_1466.jpg

On top of that, the hologram was faded and blue, and there were dings and marks all over the cabinet.

IMG_1444.jpg
IMG_1448.jpg

I figured I had no chance of fixing this thing up. I’m not particularly handy, and the complexity of a pinball machine was daunting to a maintenance noob like me. I looked into selling or trading it, but then I found pinside, and I was inspired to attempt a near complete restore.

Now, after a month and a half, I’m pleased to present the results, and to offer my gratitude to all the folks from the following threads/places who helped me with this project.

- Replaced all lights with LEDs (using the kit from Cointaker)
- Got a ColorDMD (Awesome!)
- Replaced my faded blue hologram with the pinballmikeD mod (super awesome!)
- Replaced all rubbers, and put in green flipper bats (the creech has green flippers after all)
- Installed lights so the pop bumpers flash when they fire (using the kansaspinball method)
- Replaced the pop bumper caps with teal caps (like many others have done)
- Replaced the backboard and peeling decal with a backlit plexi backboard (from pinballdecals) and installed it using the method described here
- Polished the playfield using the Treasure Cove kit (which worked pretty well, but contrary to some reports it did not shine up the old mylar).
- Waxed playfield after polishing using Blitz carnauba wax
- Replaced all the star posts, and plastics for the snack bar, playground, whirlpool, KISS hole, and hologram window. Add plastic protectors.
- Polished all plastics, ramps and habitrails using Novus/XTREEM metal polish, as applicable.
- Removed the ball lines from all the metal ball guides using a rough, then a smooth, 3M combi wheel
- Touched up the playfield wear using acrylic paints from a craft store as described here. I found that attempting a spot touchup with varnish caused a glossy spot that didn’t match the rest of the playfield, even after everything was polished and waxed. Since I’m a noob and wasn’t about to tear down the bottom side of the playfield to bring it in for a clearcoat, I opted for a full playfield protector. It looks great and makes everything look glossy, but it does have drawbacks. It does get fine scratches on it, even with new balls, dust does get trapped underneath it, and on rare occasions the ball gets stuck in a rollover. But overall, I’m not regretting shying away from a paint shop clearcoat (yet)
- Painted the coin door, legs, and backbox hinges with a plain old rattlecan. I used a hammered finish on the hinges as one user suggested here. Added cabinet protectors for the legs.
- Installed a cliffy protector for the snack bar hole
- And paint touch-ups all over the cabinet!

Pictures below.

_SAM1073_SAM1073.jpg
6d2b4cfe-a738-48fe-a586-b17324e5f401.jpg
_SAM1078_SAM1078.jpg
_SAM1082_SAM1082.jpg

Originally, I tried to put the cliffy in over the protector, but the cliffy is so closely precision-cut, that it BENT because the playfield and the protector together were too thick for it. So I unbent it, and just went ahead and put the cliffy under the protector and it's nice and flush like that.

However - after running a test game, I found the bottom of the cliffy that hooks under the playfield snagged the ball and trapped it inside the snack bar scoop! So the ball went into the snack bar, got trapped, and never made it into the trough. I managed to fix this by putting in spacers on the two screws on the snack bar scoop closest to the trough to give a few milimeters of clearance. So now it works just fine.

The cliffy did a really good job of covering up the existing wear.

Ordered the taillight mod at around the time I started my project. Got it earlier this week, and installed it today.

So I've got this mod, the Pinball MikeD monitor (to replace the hologram), a backlit backboard, Color DMD, all LEDs and a playfield protector.

The question is, therefore, do I go all out and get the Crown Victoria and the Snack Bar mod?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/creature-cftbl-retro-building-neon-mod

IMG_8996.JPG

You're right. They sell a bunch of die cast classic cars at the local CVS that are just the right size for this. My only source of hesitation is the power -- not sure how to hook it up. I've got zero technical finesse and pretty much all these mods came with instructions, or someone had posted a tutorial online. Maybe I should try to locate one of these mods and reverse engineer it.

My backlit backboard was jury rigged. I used speaker wire and soldered them directly to the coin door board. They say soldering wires directly to the boards is a no-no; not sure why that's the case if it's sturdy and it works. Maybe I could do something similar for the car mod...