Hi everybody

Time to share my new project... probably my craziest one to date, but faisible I think...

I like to completely built a Stargazer from scratch, all ready have the repro backglass, repro plastics set and a good lead for a repro playfield (thank's John).

I will take a donor Big Game for the playfield mechanism and harness (she will give the 3 drop target bank, 3 pop bumper, 2 flipper, 2 slingshot, and 2 spinner and all the other switch like outlane and the roll over) I will need 1 spinner and all the stand up target but they are available in repro...

The Big Game will also give me the cabinet harness and all the cabinet part like knocker and tilt mechanism.

I already have all the board in hand and a set of 7 digits display

I would like to find a Flight 2000 head for the head wiring harness and a regular Stern bottom cabinet.

A friend of mine will take care of the cabinet painting and the stencil.

There is a couple of unobtainium parts for the playfield:
-pop bumper cap (solution found)
-blue facetted post (solution found)
-metal guide (solution found)
-apron (solution found)
-playfield wiring harness

I already found all the schematic for the Stargazer and Big Game and after looking at it carefully, I'm pretty sure I can take the Big Game playfield harness to start my harness for the stargazer...

I can also take any pics that you can have of the Stargazer upper and bottom playfield... I already collect a lot and a follow collector help me a lot with this

I will try to document all the procedure about this crazy project!

First unobtanium part: Specific Stargazer Apron

Thank's Lowrent!

The first unobtanium part I decide to get is the apron...

I don't have any talent with photoshop so I need someone who can make the scan and correct the color and the file for me. I already had my Quicksilver apron available for the scanning prosess!

A friend of mine stop at my house and take my apron and shooter gauge for scanning... couple week later, I had a nice vectoriel files in my mail box coming from Lowrent!

I just send everything to one of my friend who had a vinyle shop and he can print white...

there is the result!

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The second part I will need and not available anywhere is the facetted plastics blue post. They are available in red, amber and clear, but not in blue

So I decided to try some stained glass paint... I found a pretty good match with the deep blue #10, the result are not perfect because the paint put an additionnal layer on the post but I think it look pretty good!

first pic: left one is mine, right one is the original

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Backglass from John awesome work and plastics set from Promojoe23

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Power supply from big game clean and stand up target, drop target oredered!

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Unobtanium part 3: specific Pop bumper cap!

A friend of mine scan his Stargazer pop bumper cap and clean the file for me! I made a decal with my laser printer and here you go! I will try to clearcoat it for durability and look...

finish result with the pop bumper rebuilt!

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Part cleaning... Tilt assembly with cabinet harness, playfield switch, slingshot assembly...

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new Flight 2000 backbox harness from Marco

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Repaint spinner! Just waiting for the decal...

I have to make a decision here... Stargazer come in many version for the spinner and standup target color.

http://members.iquest.net/~abc123/sg.html

I had to buy my standup target new and the only color available is yellow, so i decided to go with the yellow also for the spinner...

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The difficult part is the playfield wiring harness, but I'm pretty confident that I can do it!

I don't think a rusty and dirty Big Game without a Backglass, display and board, with a smashed backbox is a sacrifice... For me is more like a reincarnation... I'm a classic stern lover an there is no way I can sacrificed a good game or one that can be saved...

Sure! They did the F2k just after the stargazer, I will be surprise if there is a difference...

Apron repaint! Next decal...

don't have any reference for the color, but should look good and pretty closed compared to pics from IPDB

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Coin door repaint, inside cleaned, new coin door insert from CPR and credit decal

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decal!

Little deception, the yellow was a lot brighter with a white background... With the blue it's not so bright... and little bit greenish...

I will see if my printer can lay a white layer before he put the yellow...

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3 X 3 drop target bank rebuilt, new sleeve, new target, everything tumble and reassemble!

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Good news, I have all the assembly for the playfield: spinner, drop, sling, pop, flipper...
Next i will clean my Big Game playfield wiring harness and start to look at it for the conversion...

Flipper rebuilt, new coil, new sleeve, new EOS, new plunger, new crank

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woodrail, new wood, paint and clear...

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Big game Pplayfield harness remove, clean and dishwashed! It should be a good challenge to make one for the Stargazer... Still looking for the original schematic...

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Good info to know! Thank's

Tremclad hammerhead, and yes i repaint my leg too!

PM

And thank you very much, really appracieted!

That's great news! See you at the Ottawa show this week end!

Print some cab and backbox doc! I will put a coat of clear to protect everything!

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I have pretty much done what I can do for now, to go further, i will need the cabinet or the playfield...

I think a lot about the playfield wiring harness and i decide i can probably have a look at the schematics

I made a templates for the insert lamp assignement. I print a mirror image of the playfield to simulated the back of the playfield and I tag all the insert with is place on the lamp driver board (the start to the end)

Next, selenoid wiring

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Backglass light panel!

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Backglass light panel!

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Little more! Light panel drill and paint! Thank's Lionel for the measurment of the controlled lamp localisation.

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File for the stencil done! Thank you Laurent for the illustrator work and lionel for the pics!

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Backglass light panel wiring... Done!

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Next fun project...

Metal guide line fabrication!

Order from MCmaster-Carr 2 stainless steal strip 1" x 36" 0.015 thick and 2 strip 0.024 thick. I will go with the thicker one. the real size is probably between this two, but not available...

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Metal ball guide, cut, drill and form

Drill jig
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Form jig
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New Stargazer backglass from John Greatwich test on my F2K machine! Look awesome!

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Rivet party! I bought a litlle rivet tool from ebay and it work pretty good!

I put all the bracket to the stainless steel guide! Next polishing!

ebay.com link: TUBULAR RIVET TOOL 1 8 DIE SETS 30 FREE RIVETS PERFECT FOR TONKA PINBALL

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Some polishing, not to much, just to remove the scratch and make it pretty

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Upgrade, right pop bumper for classic stern of this area!

Pics of older and newer pop bumper body!

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I have try to find a real classic assembly, but it's very difficult... I have the plastic ring in hand, but i don't know if i can fit it without the other plastic part that connect the ring to the coil?...

Hi everything is supposed to be there...

http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/

For the pics, i can send you what i have, just pm me your email adresse

Made some progress today, i did the wiring harness for the backglass... GI and controlled lamp

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I also put the harness for the display, the one I boight from Marco.

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Original display, i have a complete 7 digit set i bought a couple years ago

I bought the one from marco for my stargazer project. Marco as them in stock all the time.

Yes! Yellow only

Thank you lovef2k!

I Was looking for the plastic yoke! I will have an original pop bumper now!

Yes! Got the last piece of the puzzle in the mail today!

Awesome work John, clearcoat look real nice

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Built is start!

Waiting for this moment for 2 years now, can beleive I have everything in hand...

First, put the playfield rail on the playfeild. It will protect the playfield during the built. I drill the hole for the rail with my dremel router, with this, i have perfectly straight hole.

Next new bulb socket...

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Socket!

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Ground wire done

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I did the ground braid with this, you can probably find this in store... It's wire to hang frame. I remove two strand to have the same size as the originaleimage.jpg

I recommand you to buy a air stapler with a long nose, awesome to do the job!image.jpg

Next switch...

Very easy to solder... Done 4-5 playfield with it and no problem

It's a repro from john, look real good... He did and awesome job
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Nothing special to do for soldering... I used my temp controled iron pretty hot and it work good. The socket for the star rollover is 1 5/8 socket and nobody seem to carry idem. I have a friend who have a couple from an old gottlieb playfield.

I think john made 40 playfield...

Switch done!
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I had to take some precaution because, there is some stand up switch with a bulb socket, just behind. To be sure there is no contact, i put heat shrink sleeve around the target.

Next mechanism assembly

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It will be a lot of work one way or the other, because I have to recreate the wiring harness... it's not a swap, but a complete built!

I made a lot of swap before (6 swap) and never had an issue... I will keep this in mind for the futur.

Thank's

All the assenbly done! Start looking like a real playfield!

Next transplantation... Big Game harness on stargazer

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I will start with a donor Big Game harness, and will see from there what I need. I collect some old harness wire from the past two years for that project.

Yes

All my old stern have it...

I just look at a bunch of photo from IPDB and some have it some don't... so I don't know why.

I'm pretty sure i have it on my big game, F2K and Iron maiden... Can't remember for Quicksilver and Catacomb...

My friend Stargazer have it for sure cause i take some pics last week and they are there

Nothing have been done to the other side... I keep it for the end!

This week end, I start the wiring harness!

Yesterday was a big day. I start the playfeild harness construction with HPR pinball. Everything went smooth.

First we installed all the wire clip to run the new harness and keep everything organise.

We start with the playfeild fuse and flipper.

After that we did the solenoids power daisy chains and the signal.

And to finish the first day of harness construction, we did half part of the switch matrix.

Everything we did is soldering and ready to go! We try to keep everything as close as possible like the schematics regarding color code.

A pretty good and contructive day!

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Today I manage to run the power for the comtrolled lamp. This was the last part i was not sure how is done... There is two wire coming from the power supply and two circuit for that.

I have a stargazer playfeild on hand to copy and understand how the wiring harness is done. It's help me a lot, but it's still a big enterprise!

Just a nice place to put flipper wire before soldering! :-p

Progress one wire at the time... GI is done!

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Switch matrix done! Next controlled lamp...

I will test everything in the game... I just test the GI with battery pack, but for the rest, i will test it in the game.

I'm pretty confident because i have a complete working stargazer playfield for reference. We check the continuity for each wire we did to be sure where it start and where it goes. After that, we did this wire on my strgazer. Look more complicated then it's seem, but it's pretty straight foreward.

Controlled lamp almost done! Every wire are at his place. Just need to solder it, but i want to clean and tie-wrap everything before i solder to avoid to have too long wire...

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I have a friend of mine doing the cab for me, he is a lot better then me for this job...

Some progress pic...

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Yes! Now i have a complete harness! Next... Fun part... Top playfeild!

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Had a lot of free time today, i made some progress on top. All the part I have done so far fit pretty good!

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Thank's everybody! I still have to test everything, but i'm pretty confident....

There is a lot of variation about the color for the spinner and stand up target on stargazer... I choise to match the target and spinner. Recently one of my friend bought one like mine... Yellow target and yellow spinner

Yes repro target from Pinball resources. I didn't have to modify my mech because the repro playfeild is little bit thinner. It fit perfectly with the repro drop target

I had to shime the pop bumper assembly to fit with the top of the playfield. For the rest, everything is straight forward...

Pretty much done with the playfield... Need to put the rubber ring, but i need to tight all the hardware before... I want to wait little more before tighting everything, to let the clear cure a little more.

Next cabinet!

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Thank's everybody! It's a pretty fun project.

After all this year collecting and restoring pinball and jukebox, this was a natural step for me when i see John will do the playfeild. With playfield, backglass and plastics sets available at this time, there is nothing to stop me building one...

Pop bumper cap done! Thank's Ottogd

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Made some documentation for futur used... comtrolled lamp wire color!

stargazer Lamp wire color_Page_1.jpeg

Good question Royf... I used a sheet that someone made before for a template. I assumed is something related with the software. I just reajust the color wire to fit my new harness

Plastics and apron intalled

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Look here for the decal for the pop Bumper...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/would-you-prepay-500-us-for-a-new-stern-seawitch-or-star-gazer-playfield/page/12#post-2396650

I have the file for quicksilver.

Pinball rescue have the decal for seawitch and galaxie

http://www.pinballrescue.net/Decals_Apron_Stern.html

Easy to buy on amazone... Print it at home with laser or ink printer...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_16

I don't know... Probably after Allentown. May is already pretty busy, but sooner will be better.

I still need the cab to finish the project. Should be ready after allentown, maybe before if I'm lucky!

Will be nice to see your work in person!

Thank's Lovef2k for the help with the backbox ground sheild! Really appraciated

There is a lot of people involved in this project, everyone with a little contribution make this happen!
Thank's

It's supposed to be blue/yellow, but the printer forgot to put a white layer under the yellow... Yellow on blue= green

I will probably do it again when i will find a printer who can print white...

Marco speciality has the stand up target and pinball resource for the drop...

Long

I'm on holiday and i'm waiting for my cabinet...

Testing playfield this friday!

Va chier!

My friend who did the cab for me just send me some pictures... He's almost done! Yeah

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What an awesome evening!

Tonight I went to HPR pinball house to test my playfield in his stargazer.

First we remove the fuse under the playfeild to eliminated the solenoids.

After that we plug the connector on the power supply and turn the game on... All th GI was ok and bright.

Next step we plug all the connector and turn the game on, the attrack mode work and seem coherent. We put the game in test and all the controlled light was on.

After that we test the switch matrix and everything is ok, we also find a little mistake in the switch number in the schematic.

Finally we put the fuse under the playfield and test the solenoids... Everything was working perfectly.

The biggest problem we got is a drop target switch that won't register all the time, with a little adjustement and love, we finally resolve the little problem

I have now a 100% working stargazer playfeild

This is one of the first gameplay video with my scratch built playfeild!

Thank maxime to share your stargazer and help me with that project!

Got my cab from my friend today, very happy with what he did.

I start with the head tonight, tomorrow the cab.

Everything went smooth, the light panel was perfect and all the display are adjust in there place... A good evening of work!

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More progress

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