And so it Begins.
It all started with a Craigslist ad selling several pins for a decent price. Of course by the time I inquired the advertised pins had sold, but there were several other machines in the background so I asked if any others would be available. The seller responded with some titles and prices -- two Stern Nine Balls caught my ear so we worked out a deal that Id take everything (working or not!) for an agreed upon number.

After a two hour one way drive, two hours of talking pinball/dismantling/loading machines, and an hour and a half home (I took a wrong turn on the way there) I pulled in the drive with this haul.

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The next day I unloaded everything to see what I had gotten myself into. One machine clearly had a better playfield than the other, but that was all I knew from the outside. Overall the cabinets were in fair to good shape -- stenciling still had good color with no obvious dings, dents, beer, or other liquid damage.

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From there it was off with the glass to determine the extent of playfield wear.
Game number one has seen some use:

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Game number two looks much better:

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A quick wipe down revealed a little more color -- this playfield has potential!

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Next I took a peek down deep within. I scored some manuals, an extra lock down bar, a quarter, and a 45 record (Conway Twitty -- Tight Fitting Jeans??!) on the first machine.

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The second was a little less interesting -- loose parts in the cash box is never a good sign!

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Sadly, someone had their way with the drop down banks on both machines. All have been disassembled except one three bank. I have not done a complete inventory but hope to have at least enough parts to put a working set back together. Someone also removed all the flipper solenoids from both machines. Those should be easy enough to replace though.

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On the plus side all the wiring appears to be intact. Sadly the MPU boards have evidence of battery damage -- but that was almost expected. Luckily replacements are available if these cannot be repaired.

At the end of the day I think I have a solid foundation to rebuild one machine -- I feel my biggest challenge will be finding the parts/rebuilding the drop target assemblies. This is my first refurbishing of a pinball machine and while it is mildly intimidating this one seems simple enough to take on with confidence. More to come -- any advice, comments (positive or negative), or thoughts are welcome.

Oh, Ive had several inquiries already

Didn't realize it was that popular of a game -- I just liked the layout/reviews when I did some research. The leftovers will be offered up for sale but that may take some time, this will be a slow moving process no doubt with lots of questions.

Started to dig in a bit further today.

Before getting to far I wanted to take a picture of the contents from inside the machine. Many misc. parts, manuals, apron cards, and of course Conway Twitty.

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I wonder how long this key has been hanging just inside the door. . .

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Step One: Disassembly. The plastics were removed easily enough. Stopped to take plenty of pictures so I know which style of post lives in which location later.

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Removal of the posts should have been easy, but over half of them had an issue with stripped threads and took some effort. I do not know if they make this carriage style of bolt anymore but I think I can get a standard hex head in a 2" length.

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In the end I was able to remove all of the components attached from the topside.

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Bagged and tagged everything.

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I need to do some research on what type of touch up paints to acquire. There are a few little spots that need addressed around the four ball and along the left side lane.

Hopefully I can pull the eight bank drop target this week to determine what is needed for a rebuild.

Wished I could have grabbed the Flash Gordon and Paragon. . . but I'm not complaining and I obviously didn't have any more room in the truck anyway!

Took some time over lunch today to pull the eight bank drop target from under the playfield. This task was simplified by having a connector attaching it to the main harness, most everything else is hardwired in.

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Right off I found it interesting that one coil appears to be absent (fourth in from the right side) but no wires are loose or free at that location. I also do not yet know if the small "fingers" are broken off the contact plates on each outside coil. I will have to give a look at the assembly on the second machine and hope there is enough there to compare to.

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It appears the drop targets were the main goal of whomever tore into this assembly in the past. Those are the main pieces missing from the machine and the remaining springs look as if the drop targets were just pulled from their location.

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New springs will have to be acquired. I've looked up some options on the different parts supplier's websites, depending on how you measure the size I need will hover around an inch in length.

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The biggest need will be new reset links (OK, Drop Targets too. . . ) as all eight from this bank are completely worn out. I robbed a link from one of the partially disassembled three bank targets and the wallowed out holes/wear at the "tooth" are obvious. Worn link on the top, useable link on the bottom.

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If anyone can direct me to a source for new links that would be helpful. Checking some parts sites the closest I could find was one from Marcos -- it looks similar but lacks the tooth at the end. Perhaps the tooth is not necessary. . . but then why is it there?

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/1A-491

I will place an ad in the marketplace to see what is available. Worst case scenario I can make or have some made -- they appear to match up in thickness to some 18ga plate steel I have laying around. Not looking forward to making eight of them if I have to go that route!!

I pulled the eight bank drop target from the second machine today.

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I admit, I am new to the pinball refurbishment world. I apologize if my vocabulary or understanding of components is not up to speed with some of you. . . but I am trying to learn. It appears the reset coil was the main component robbed from this bank, but several other wires were loose/pulled from their connections and noticeable wear is present. I can also see the fingers missing from atop the outside programmable coils on the first bank are indeed needed. Only one finger broken on this bank but I now see I their purpose is to hold the drop targets in the up position. I can also see the same programmable coil is not present in the same location on the second bank. . . so we call that normal.

I proceeded to pull the first eight bank target apart and gave everything a good cleaning.

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I put all the contact plates back in place; further assembly will be on hold until I can acquire new drop targets. The originals could be reused, but they are quite yellowed/dirty/show ball wear. . . new replacements are available so I will acquire them.

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I ordered a set of Createx paints for touchups on the playfield. Waiting for those to arrive.
In the meantime I started looking over the cabinet innards. I took notes on wire placements on the rectifier boards. Interestingly enough the same colored wires are on the same pins in each machine, but the connector to J1 was different between the machines and one wire (originating from the playfield I think) was soldered directly to a J1 pin -- but that wire with the direct connection was different between the machines.
Perhaps pictures will make more sense:

Machine One:

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Machine Two:

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Is it typical to solder one of the wires directly to a pin on the Rectifier Board J1?

Once the wire connections were noted I pulled the transformer/rectifier plank to better clean it up. I will probably pull the components off the wood and give it a good sanding/polish.

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I was planning on ordering a new replacement rectifier board -- are there sources out there that some prefer over others? Marcos looks to be out of stock and when I called they said it could be up to a month or more before a new order is in. I have a list of other things to be ordered and will get some new parts on the way. Even without new bits there is still a lot of cleaning to do; looking forward to the days when my hands are not black from coil dust, cigarette smoke, etc.

New parts arrived today. Quite the contrast between old and new.

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I had no luck sourcing new drop links thru the marketplace but salvaged enough good pieces from the second machine. The pivot dowel those links were/are mated to was also worn so I acquired some new stock (top), cut a matching length (middle), to replace the original (bottom).

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To recreate the retaining clip groove I chucked the dowel up in the drill and spun it over the vice held hack saw.

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My hillbilly lathe did the trick.

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Now having all the pieces I was able to reassemble the entire bank. Happily all the targets drop and reset just like they are supposed to.

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The coil plunger needs a little cleaning/installed then this bank should be ready to go.

First, take pictures. Mostly to remember how it goes back together.

When taking it apart I removed the screw from each side plate that held the lower spring retaining dowel pin in place. That later allowed me to pull the cover with the switches away from the coils and not pull/stretch the springs. When reassembling I hooked the springs to the targets first then slid that same dowel thru the lower spring openings -- I dropped the coil section down over the plate with the switches/targets and was able to get everything back together from there. A bit wordy, but hope it makes sense.

Tried my hand at some playfield touch ups today.
There is a reason I titled this thread as an overhaul vs. a restoration. I take pride in trying to make my stuff look nice, but I am aware my talents are far less than many others out there. I like doing my own work when I can, so rather than send the playfield out for an undetermined amount of time I had a go at some paint work.

From recommendations in Vid's guide I acquired several colors of Createx paint and started mixing (I thought I ordered Opaque but I see the violet/red are transparent?). This picture is in the early stages -- red + blue = purple, right? I found the playfield purple to have a lot more red in it than I expected.

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Today's efforts were focused on "the rack," specifically the four and two balls. A close up before picture:

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And one After:

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I was able to match the blue spot on but was a touch off on the purple. The paint dried slightly darker than it looked mixed -- at least that is the excuse I'll go with. I also touched up the black rings as those did not need color matched. Finally, yes. . . I used a brush. I felt the areas were small enough that I could get away with the brush and 1. I do not own an airbrush, 2. If I bought one I doubt Id be competent using it right off, and 3. The expense would have been a bit much for the areas that needed attention. I plan to give the playfield a coat of clear at some point, I have the proper tools (painting cars is more familiar to me than painting a playfield) for that job or I may consider the Spray-Max option.

Several minor playfield touchups are needed in other areas but this was the most obvious. As of now I am happy with how things turned out. Hopefully I am not upsetting too many professionals/purists out there. . .

Pulled the three bank drop targets today.

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The coils/switches on these units are soldered directly to the harness. For now I've used zip ties to secure them to the harness in an attempt to minimize excess strain on the wires/connections.

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The three bank targets are much simpler than the eight bank -- minimal work to have the drop targets out.

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And after some cleaning back together with new targets. I am short several of the return springs so only one bank was completely reassembled.

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The new rectifier board arrived so replacing that is next on the list. . . time to brush up on my soldering skills!

Thanks for the kind words and advice. Considering the wear on the original targets a bit of Mylar on these might not be a bad idea.

I don't know if I was relieved or a little disappointed, but when the wife came home today she had nothing to say about this on the kitchen island.

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I guess she is used to my projects at this point in our marriage and gives as much attention to my toys as I give to all those shoes in the closet. The original board looks to have some toasty spots, lifted areas, and seems all around crusty/crunchy.

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After spending about 30 minutes documenting each wire's color and location I cut each one very close to the board. I stripped a small amount of the insulation and proceeded soldering them to the new board. This is/was my first attempt at board work. I spent some time studying terryb 's Soldering Guide and felt confident enough to give it a try. I cheated a little by bringing home my loupes from work -- I do not have the eyes of a 20 year old anymore and the magnification/light was a big help.

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One by one each wire was soldered to the board. I found it to be much like brazing/welding only on a miniature scale, which technically it is. I tried for a close up pic. Each connection is solid and I am happy with the results considering this is my first try at this sort of thing.

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I should be able to secure the transformer/new rectifier to the wood base tomorrow. I gave the base a sand/quick coat of polyurethane and I'm looking forward to seeing the sub unit put back together.

Transformer and Rectifier have been secured to their mounting plank. I also scanned and reprinted a copy of the wiring instructions to card stock and stapled it where the original was.

A repost before picture:

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And After:

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I think I will work on getting the playfield off the cabinet next and focus on cleaning up the cabinet interior. Trying to duplicate the orange color has been tricky, unfortunately I cannot pull a piece of the cabinet off for a computer match!

Pulled the playfield from the cabinet today.

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Set it up on temporary "legs" to avoid trauma to the electrics on the underside. A rotisserie would be nice if fixing these machines becomes a habit -- I will try to work with what is available this first go round.

I am at a point where I need to decide how far to dive into things. When I loaded the machines up on the truck I simply wanted to see if I could get the game working again. As it happens with most other projects I find I cannot stop taking things apart until they cannot come apart anymore before rebuilding everything. I can get away with cleaning/touching up the rest of the playfield as it sits while I decide whether or not to pull everything from the bottom. I know at a minimum I will need to pull and replace bulbs but removing all the staples/ground wire is the biggest holdup.

The lower cabinet is empty and I plan on trying to save the original artwork vs. re-stenciling (if those are even available). More to come on that with pictures later.

Focused on the lower cabinet today. Spent time removing nearly all the metal bits -- the most challenging were the stainless side rails due to the fact that they are nailed in. I am sure there is an easier way to remove them, but in the end I gently tapped a thin scraper behind each nail until it was out just enough for the hammer claw to catch it. Only had time to remove the right side, the left should come off quicker now that I have a system.

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Empty inside. The fella that stapled the ground braid in back in the day must have had to fill the staple gun several times during the process -- it was not going anywhere without a fight.

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Don't know if its fungus, mold, spilled beverages, or chemical changes in the paint over the years but there is a sporadic white scuzz on the cabinet artwork. This stuff does not come off with any standard/normal cleaner (at least none that I used) or with a magic eraser.

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In the end I used one of my automotive paint precleaners and it removed a lot of the ugly stuff. I had to be careful how long I stayed in one area though as it started to remove paint with aggressive scrubbing.

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After a bit more cleaning the inside of the cabinet should be ready for a new spray of orange. I will give the exterior a couple touch ups and then a coat of clear. My hopes are the clear will give the original artwork a bit of pop as well as seal it off from any future grossness.

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Thank You. That gives my confidence a bit of a boost!

That makes two of us. . . when it comes to pinball machines. I am taking advantage of everything Pinside has to offer to help me along. Hopefully the professionals will not be using this thread as how not to do something in the future.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate the feedback!

I believe the chemical that provided the best results is/was Acetone. Not sure if that is the absolute wrong thing to be using, but whatever this gunk is would not come off with anything else. The left side of the cabinet looked even worse. Some of my efforts from today:

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Still needs a little polishing, but much better than before. Biggest issue I am having is traces of the blue paint washing into the red/orange. While I was able to clean it up 90% (or so) of the way I will touch up the rest later with some cotton balls/tipped swabs in the tighter areas.

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Pulled the legs for complete access to all areas. Painting the cabinet interior and touching up the stenciling will be next.

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Started sanding the interior of the cabinet today. The more I cleaned up the wood slats and fiber panel at the bottom the more I liked the natural look against the painted sides.

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My original thought was to paint the entire interior orange, but after talking myself into the two tone look I taped off the bottom panel and sprayed away at the sides. I am glad I took the extra effort, even though most people will never see/know the interior details.

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And because I have the patience of a five year old I could not help but set the transformer/rectifier in place to see what it would look like.

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Exterior touchups and clear (semi gloss ) to the cabinet coming next.

Worked on cabinet touch ups.
A quick reminder of before:

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And After:

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Larger View:

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I am actually pleased that the colors blended as well as they did just using a small brush. Look close and you can see the touch up areas, as well as the brush lines on the cardboard along the bottom.

I started to realize that before too long the cabinet will be ready for legs. The originals look a little worse for wear.

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About 10 minutes each in the blasting cabinet. . .

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And they are starting to look a bit more respectable:

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Kept going and applied primer and paint:

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I attempted to duplicate the hammered paint surface held by the originals (as compared to the original door frame). The new paint is a bit brighter, but I will attribute some fading/yellowing to age. The new silver should look very nice against the dark blue/orange.

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Once disassembled the coin door and its framework will get the same treatment.

I do believe the Hammered Rustoleum (Silver) was what I used, but Thank You for the link.

Earlier this week I started a new/separate thread inquiring about the wrapping on my playfield's guide rails. My originals were dinged up/delaminating quite a bit.

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Fellow Pinsiders informed me it was a simulated wood wrap used back in the day to cover over cheap pieces of patched together pine. I learned the wrap can still be purchased, but others stated replacement/higher quality wood pieces can be substituted in. I chose to go the later route and make new pieces.

One of the advantages of living on a large farm is an abundance of trees (this can quickly become a disadvantage when sticks/leaves need picked up). Occasionally one of those trees comes down and it is large enough to make boards out of -- we have accumulated a quantity of lumber over the years.

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After rummaging thru a few piles I found several smaller scraps of cherry, a nice hardwood that should hold up well to ball traffic.
The first step was cutting to proper length.

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Then cut proper height/width on the table saw.

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A new set took about 30 minutes to make. . . I think I spent more time looking thru the wood piles for the starting pieces.

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I will drill pilot holes in the new rails to accommodate the mounting screws then find a very dark stain or even just black paint to finish them off.

I've always been a fan of billiards but not as much wizards. . . the more I am around the cabinet/playfield/backglass though the more I like the artwork. There is little subtlety to the color combination -- it really grabs your attention compared to my other machines. Stern put an unexpected combination together in a theme that seems to work; not bad considering the inspiration came from a T-shirt (or so I've heard).

Looking forward to playing the game -- I want it to be as fun as the art suggests.

Thanks!

I thought using Mahogany might be a bit over the top. . .

Sprayed the cabinet with a Can of Spray Max Satin earlier this week. The colors have a bit more pop and the satin does not shine too much -- I am happy with the result.

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Today I hauled the cabinet home and gave it some legs to stand on.

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It sure looks small next to the Williams Brothers!

The "game room" is an upstairs bedroom so hauling pieces up individually is easier on me. I can also work on putting things together at odd hours/during shorter periods of free time when it is inconvenient to drive over to the shop. The disadvantage is I have parts in two different places. . . I left my new pins/connectors at he shop so connecting J2 to the Rectifier Board will have to wait.

Yes, my IJ decals are faded. That is on the back burner as another someday project.

A few lower cabinet interior details.

Cleaned up the lower harness as best I could (still cannot bring myself to sneak it in the Dishwasher when the Mrs. isn't looking. . . ) and attempted to place everything back in its original location. I need to duplicate and install the information cards that are stapled to the right inside wall.

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The speaker is just sitting in place -- the original is still in the parts box back at the shop but I had this one handy after upgrading the speakers in IJ.

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I did manage to bring home the new pins/connectors for the rectifier board though.

Thinking I can give the back box some attention this weekend.

I emptied the upper cabinet this weekend for its turn. I did not take a picture of it (yet!) but I noticed the same serial number stamped into the upper and lower cabinet -- at least I know I am working with a numbers matching machine.

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The boards look clean front and back minus the MPU. Not the worst case of acid damage but probably enough to justify a replacement.

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The upper cabinet art will need touching up just like the lower cabinet. For starters a fresh coat of orange was given to the less intricate areas.

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I also gave a couple coats of black stain to the new wood rails. As much as I like the natural wood look I do not think a cherry finish would coordinate well with the wizard's paint scheme.

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Once home I gave the stainless cabinet trim a polishing on the compounding wheel. Not quite a mirror finish, but much better than they were.

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Orange and red flipper buttons? Not original I know but they look good with the cabinet. The originals may have been white but after 38 years they had the patina of an eight cup a day coffee drinker's teeth.

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Plans are to continue focusing on the upper cabinet -- touching up the artwork and then an overall spray of Satin Clear. That will get the bigger chunks out of the shop and then I can focus more attention on the playfield and coin door. I looked the door over today and it looks to be quite the little project just by itself!

There are some dings to the wood, but nothing splintering.
I will put a set of the metal protectors on the list -- I threw the plastic ones in on an impulse purchase thinking the red might somewhat go with the color scheme.

Thanks!

Thanks Vid. It looks like I read that one some time back. . . I had even upvoted it .
You have so much good stuff out there that I cannot remember it all. I need to start taking better notes.

Still working on the upper cabinet at the shop, meanwhile at home I have been targeting small details in the lower cabinet. Added a few more pieces including the speaker mounting, guide charts, and playfield supports.

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I even returned the back box key to its original spot.
Before:

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After:

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I felt I had enough together to plug the machine in to test the rectifier board. I felt a touch of defeat when no readings were displayed on the meter. . . then I remembered to flip the under cabinet switch on.
All the readings correspond with what the paperwork included with the rectifier board suggested except TP2. Paperwork stated an unloaded reading should be around 165 volts, I was showing 185. Hopefully there is variability and I did not botch the wiring job.

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Getting ahead of myself I had a friend in the decal business duplicate a couple of the Stern coin door decals:

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I do not know if there was design variability back in the day but I noticed the same decal on the second machine has a blue ring around the outside edge. There is no evidence of blue on the original pictured -- my buddy is going to print up a second set with the blue outline and try his hand at a couple of the blue foil "credit button" decals. I read they were available for purchase somewhere but I'd rather barter for a few beers and some time playing pinball.

When I have had a couple extra minutes here and there this week I have been working on the upper cabinet art. The upper cabinet was much worse in terms of whatever had compromised it. Of course I forgot to take a before picture of the machine I am working on. . . but having two of them comes in handy for such situations. Both have/had essentially the same degree of nastiness:

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After cleaning the colors were rather faded and I essentially repainted everything by hand:

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Not perfect, but looking much better. Spraying satin clear will be next.

Caught up on some yardwork this weekend, but I also took the time to spray clear on the new wood rails and drop targets:

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As well as the upper cabinet.

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Looking forward to joining the upper cabinet to the lower, that will happen this week. Next step is to apply a fresh coat of white to the display panel before rejoining it to the upper cabinet.

Back together again:

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And just for fun:

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Thought that would be a safer place for the translite vs. leaning up against the wall.

Lord Business Thanks You.

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I am well aware that I will fail to create anything near perfection but trying my best to make it nice.