Howdy,
I have an unique restore scenario. I bought an IJ in Feb and was working a restore with Mike Chestnut. The plan was to pull the Playfield and send for repair & clearcoating. I was to do the cabinet & head and Mike and I would reassemble the Playfield together. Although kinda different, Mike mentored me a bit (translate as put up with me ?) and we did my AFM that way years ago.

At any rate, I took the complete game there, pulled the Playfield and I brought cabinet & head home. Mike called me the next day and we finished Playfield stripping and I sent Playfield off to Brian @ HSA. In the meantime, Mike had my gun and wire forms brassed.

6 weeks later or so, I had the Playfield back and called Mike. He advised we wait 2 weeks or so to allow it to cure more and then we'd get on it. About 2-3 weeks later, Mike had his fatal accident.

About 2 weeks later, I picked up 7 boxes of Playfield top/bottom parts, brass, polished hardware, etc.

At that point, I had to chuckle about Mike mentoring me from a better place.

I've made some progress and I've thoroughly enjoyed it!

I've added some before and some progress so far pics. Enjoy!

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Here are some Playfield after repair pics.

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Here is my progress so far on reassembly.

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Mike's brass work.

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Boards gone over by Mike's Dad, all new or restored parts, refrained metal, lost plastic and light, mod to speaker panel for mode lights, new plane with propeller kit and about &800 worth of brass. Now if I can put this jigsaw puzzle back together!

Playfield had 3 X screw holes popped through on top from flipper mechanics below - needed repaired and minor other issues. I overpaid a bit I'd say and paid $5k but that did include complete cabinet decals and new glass. Mechanically playing well and cabinet & head had only normal wear.

Trying to catch the cabinet and head back up. After some additional work Friday & Saturday, was able to put 2 coats on each today. Still wet in photos.

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Here are some pics with cabinet decaled and new brass legs on.

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I'm off work today, hoping to make some forward progress!

Productive day - thoroughly cleaned and re-installed most of the cabinet harness and attachments. Enjoying this project!

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Found a hack on the super-ball button. Check this out !! Ideas?

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Ok, good to know. Sure looked like a hack to me! Thanks, Bob

A bit more progress. Installed brass gun and tilt graphics inner pin sides.

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I have decaled the head, installed the boards and mounted the head back on the cabinet. A little forward progress!

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Thanks, 9.5 ft tall ceilings!

After some travel and work, spent some time on my IJ restore this week. I went through every coil assembly, cleaning assemblies, clean or replace coils, coil sleeves and wrappers. Also rebuilt the pop bumpers and did complete rebuild on the flippers as well. While not done, forward progress was made!

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Refurbished 3 target bank and ball trough as well and installed both. Just a few hours of work and I should be able to plug in and start testing.

Yes it will be!

After long delay, did some more work on it.

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Alright - finally finished soldering all coil connections and pop bumper lights today. Finished up all the LED lights.

Made all the wire connections, then the ribbons...and fired it up. My plan was to check all lights and switches before building vertically with ramps and mini playfield.

So far, so good! Had to re-seat a few lights and may have to adjust or replace 2-3 switches.

The connection at J120 was heating up though. Will have to trace that and check it.

Eventually I started a game to hear the sounds and watch the game score as I touched each switch. Definitely satisfying!

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