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.

De-harnessed the display panel and gave it a quick sand to try and remove some of the bulb skid marks.

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After prep it received a nice crisp coat of white.

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I had ventured into Home Depot for a few items and on a whim walked down the hardware isle. Scored a box of the screw nails used to secure the side rails to the lower cabinet.

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Sometimes its the little things.

Spent part of the evening installing the display panel onto the upper cabinet.
The harnesses and displays were wiped down and cleaned -- quite a few spiders had made their homes on the display boards.

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Once wired in the machine is starting to show the first signs of life after who knows how many years.

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I installed the Solenoid Driver Board to check DC Volts down at the Rectifier Board. The good news is the voltage is in the proper loaded range on the Rectifier. Bad news is after a minute or so I started smelling the subtle smell of cooking electronics. My nose localized it to the large blue capacitor at the upper left of the board -- probably not a surprise finding.

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No obvious signs of lifting, burnt joints/connections, etc. on the back.

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I will look into sourcing new capacitor(s) and have a try at replacing them -- worst case scenario I can acquire a new aftermarket replacement.

Before calling it a night I put the Wizard back into his safe space.

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Thanks for all the suggestions. I was reading up as much as I could on PinWiki last night, making a list of all the bits to order. There seems to be some variance in capacitors that are available, looking forward to giving the board fix a try.

I had thought about screws for the side rails and may go that route; Ive only installed the nails at the very back/under the upper cabinet at this point.

Of course the kit is out of stock.

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=BALLY-P22E-KIT

Hopefully they are back in soon as $14 is much better for the kit. Marcos wants $20 for just one capacitor (the one great plains does not have in stock of course). I will probably have to redo the soundboard as well; need to check into the sources Arcane recommended.

Thanks again!

Thanks again guys.
I did try looking them up individually, found C23 easily enough but not C26. I will check again.

barakandl eh97ac Arcane

Question on the C23 -- Radial Electrolytic 11700uF, 20 Volt Capacitor. I remember reading somewhere that there is an advantage to using a larger guage wire and shorter wire length when soldering in to the board. Cannot remember where, probably in another thread -- is this worth doing? I think I have some extra 18awg around but anything bigger I only have in copper (I do not know the size of the original wires). If the original wires are sufficient I may just leave them connected to the board and desolder at the capacitor terminals.

Thanks for any thoughts.

While waiting for board parts to arrive I turned my attentions to the playfield today.

The shooter lane looked rather filthy, this picture was taken even after I started sanding.

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In his guide Vid mentions using different size diameters of pipe for even sanding, I used various diameters of deep well sockets from the tool drawer.

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Just like everything else, not perfect but better.

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A good amount was sanded away and deeper cracks in the wood structure left me thinking this would be a good stopping point.

I also gave attention to the playfield surface.
Yet another one of Vid's helpful guides directed me to using isopropyl alcohol for this era of playfield to strip off whatever protective coating was used back in the day. Never having done this before I was not sure how aggressive I could be -- I started in the tiniest possible area under the apron and as I gained more confidence I eventually used the magic eraser/alcohol combo across the entire playfield. I was more cautious around the ball rack -- I was not sure how thin the paint was in this area and even though I wiped clean some of the areas I had previously tried touching up I do not think any further damage was done to the original art.

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The eventual plan is to spray a clear coat, but there are still a lot of small touch ups needed.

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Gave the coin door components some attention today.
A handful of items fresh out of the blasting cabinet:

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The Rustoleum Hammered Silver really does a nice job matching what I think the original finish must have looked like.

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Poor man's chrome.

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There was a good bit of rust on the outside of the coin slot bezel -- more than I could buff out. I am too impatient to send it out to get rechromed -- I suppose I can always do that with parts from the second machine. The "fake chrome" paint finish will probably never be noticed in the dark confines of the game room.

For the most part the cabinet art is original. There are/were areas I touched up with Createx Paints and basically I mixed colors (Red + Yellow = Orange) to get the right shade.
I did spray the interior of the lower cabinet and translite trim of the upper cabinet with fresh orange -- don't tell anyone but the new orange is not an exact match to the original -- but its close. You would never notice standing in front of the machine and probably wouldn't from the side either unless you were looking for it. I had grabbed about two dozen shades of orange samples from the paint store trying to find a match (without having to carry the entire upper cabinet in for them to match for me). At the end of the day the color that was closest was actually in a rattle can -- I think it was a Rustoleum Color and will look at the cap if it is something you want to know. Masked off the art, primed, and then painted the fresh orange. A final covering of Spray Max 2K Satin gave the colors a little more life -- I am finding myself wanting to rearrange the game room to highlight this cabinet as the design is getting more appealing every day.

Relocated all the coin door parts back to their proper locations. It was much easier having the second coin door available for a reference even though I took a number of pictures before hand.

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Yep, that is the kitchen island at home with dog salt and pepper shakers.
The door looks even better on the machine:

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I also took ectobar 's advice and replaced the plastic leg protectors with metal ones. I agree the metal looks better.
I have not yet placed the decals on the door. Decal placement has such an aura of finality to it -- I am hesitant to put them on in case I drag a screwdriver across the door or something. I can always take everything apart and repaint it but decals are a one shot deal. . . sort of.

Solenoid Driver Board Capacitors.

Removed C23 and C26 -- not sure what material zip ties were made of back in the early 80's but it was more of a challenge to remove those than desoldering. I did not have a proper snips available so a sharp thin pair of scissors did the job.

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The original C26 was 150 uF 350V, my replacement is 160 uF 350V.
The original C23 was 11000 uF 20V, my replacement is 15000 uF 25V.

Picture of old vs. new C23.

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Ordinarily I'd be worried about the size difference -- but I tell myself electronics have come along way over the last number of decades and everything from computers, cell phones, calculators, etc. come in smaller packages nowadays. I soldered two new pieces of 18awg wire to the new capacitor's terminals.

New capacitors in place. Left my stash of zip ties at the shop, but will grab a couple today.

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On the back of the board I grounded the negative posts to the board ground (wire at top right/white wire in center).

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I wanted to stop here and make a post to the thread to make sure I am on the correct path. Not needing my hand held or anything, but this is my first attempt at this sort of work -- using Pinside and Pinwiki has been helpful but it just guides you as to what to do -- they do not tell you if you have done it correctly.

I know there is more to address -- C24 replacement, Jumping TP1 to TP3, etc. All that can be accomplished if I am moving in the right direction.

Took a step or two forward this evening and found another challenge to conquer.
Plugged J3 into the Solenoid Driver Board and checked over my test points. Victory number one was the lack of burning electronics smell. Test Point 1 and Test Point 3 both checked out ok at 5.2VDC. Test Point 4 was good at 230VDC. Test Point 5 was a touch high at 15VDC (normal = 11.9 +/- 1.4) but I am optimistic replacing C24 Capacitor may help that.

The biggest disappointment was a reading of 25VDC at Test Point 2, which should read 190. I know my 190VDC supply wire tests good from the rectifier (and is also providing the 230VDC power), but somewhere in the jungle of resistors I am getting a loss.

Perhaps I am having an issue that barakandl eluded to:

If I look closely in the High Voltage area R51 (22K) might look a bit toasty.

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I am studying the schematic to try and follow the flow of power but it has been years since my physics classes in college and I am a bit rusty.

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If anyone has any suggestions or guidance I am open to it and would be grateful for the help.

I should also mention that I am getting the same reading at the top fuse clip so I know the loss is not happening across the fuse before it reaches TP2.

Edit: My mistake, power enters the fuse at the lower clip (and at TP2), then travels out the upper clip back to J3.

Basically ignore this post, all the important stuff is in the previous one!

Placed an order from Big Daddy for those pieces yesterday!

Thanks for the reply and suggestion. Thought I could get away with just Capacitor replacement but it looks like the smart thing to do is to update everything.

As a side note I was looking at the wiring schematic, looking at the board, looking at the wiring schematic again. . . the SD Board I have is the revision C and I am thinking the schematic is for an earlier (revision B?) board. There are a couple resistors on the schematic that are not on my board -- not sure if this is making any sense but I think I am slowly digging thru it. In some ways this is why I wanted to take on the challenge of this project machine -- to learn something new and see if I had it in me to make it work again.

Thanks again Ronnie1114

I am at a point in the playfield preparation where I need to see if I have what it takes to separate the boys from the men. The playfield has one ring of mylar around the pop bumper base. I've read enough of Vid's guide and the forum to know not to clear coat over it. Vid did not think simply masking the mylar off and clearing around it was a good idea either -- too much potential for compromise at the junction.

That meant that to do the job right I had to remove the mylar. I've been dreading this step considering some of the horror stories I've read about mylar removal in the archives. I think I am working with a nice playfield and I did not want to ruin it for the world to see. The paint work in this area is quite detailed, so it would not be fun to recreate either.

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In Vid's Playfield restoration thread it was suggested that the older mylar is better removed with heat, so I busted out the heat gun and lifting tools. I used the second playfield for practice rather than botch the job straight off on the nicer one.

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Things were going well and I thought I had the process all figured out.

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Then disaster struck and paint started coming up with the mylar. I plan to fix this playfield at some future time but had to start touching up the orange to make myself feel better.

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The second playfield also had mylar installed in front of the slingshots. Going for broke I used a can of condensed air and tried the freeze method. In this situation it did a better job.

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I decided to go that route on the second pop bumper ring. . .

And it worked!

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I did not have any flour handy to help with the adhesive. . . but I did have some baby powder (I use it when installing tubes in a tire) and it worked well enough.

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Mission accomplished. Mylar free pop bumper hole.

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I will sleep a little easier at night with this step behind me. A few more touch ups and we will be prepping for clear coat soon.

It is still too cold outside/in the shop to move onto playfield clear coat and the Solenoid Driver bits I ordered from Big Daddy are on backorder so I thought I'd give some attention to the Sound Board. Knowing the capacitors on the SD Board were shot I thought the same would be true on the Sound Board, so I ordered a kit with the SD Capacitors.

Waited till the wife went to bed then took over the kitchen island again. I pulled the sound board from the second machine for comparison purposes.

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On the back of the boards one is labeled Rev (revision?) B and the other Rev C. The Rev. B board is the one with the red jumper wire; according to Pinwiki that is a mod when a speech board is also utilized. As far as I know Nine Ball does not have a speech card but I moved forward with the Rev. B board as it looked to have a cleaner backside (although closer inspection now has me thinking the Rev. C board just has some lingering flux from a potential past repair). I will replace the capacitors on the second board later anyway so it really did not matter which one I started with.

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After a little practice with the solder sucker I was able to get the old capacitors removed. The biggest challenge was where the trace had lifted on the negative end of the larger caps -- it took a few tries to quickly heat/remove enough solder to free the cap from the lifted material.

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Started replacement with the three larger caps. You can see where the lifting was more severe at the bottom right.

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An after picture once all the capacitors had been soldered in place. Not as pretty as the Rectifier Board, but I think acceptable. I dropped down a size on the soldering iron tip but I think the smaller leads on the capacitors took some getting used to.

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Flip side.

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A before/after of sorts.

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Cannot really test my work just yet, not until the solenoid driver is working properly at least (I think).

The next step in the overall process will depend on what happens first. . . better weather or a delivery from the mailman.

The weather warmed up enough so the playfield received some attention.

Taped off the open holes, gave everything a light sand with 400, put some old bulbs in the playfield sockets, wiped down with degreaser/wax remover.

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I chose to go with the Spray-Max Gloss Glamour as my clear for a couple reasons:
1. The smaller work area made using the can convenient vs. firing up the compressor, mixing, using/cleaning the gun (especially the cleaning!), etc.
2. According to the Archives Spray-Max seems to hold up well to pinballs -- the tread dedicated to it is going three years strong with few complaints.
3. A friend happens to be a sales rep for the company and gives me some of his sample cans from time to time to rotate his stock.

Split the first can between two coats. Aside from a speck of dust here or there things appear to look good. No fisheyes or other areas of suspected contamination.

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I will let this coat cure for a couple days before going over it with the sanding block and 400 grit in an attempt to flatten things out. From there I can decide whether a second can/coat will be sufficient or if a third will be needed.

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The colors certainly do pop under the clear coat.

Well, I think I have #6 covered.
I will pay more attention to the drop targets -- I remember reading somewhere that there were some differences between the originals and new/aftermarket options. I will check clearance on the displays vs. backglass -- I thought I was ok but will make sure there is sufficient space.

I will spend some time stalking your past posts Classic_Stern ; I am sure this is a lot there that I can learn. Thanks for the initial guidance points.

After watching several game play videos online I am looking forward to my first game.

I just hope I can #1. Get the machine working/playing and #2. Get it back together and meet the expectations of everyone that has been kind enough to give me advice!

Over lunch I decided to take a closer look at the drop targets -- placed the new ones side by side with the originals.

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The new targets are just a smidgen shorter than the originals.

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I looked at the drop target banks and see where shims can be added to the framework to compensate for the 1/8 inch or so difference. I've also read that the coil plunger needs to be shaved down -- will look into modifying pieces more when the time comes for installation of the banks on the playfield.

It is good to know there is a difference and that something can be done about it -- thanks again for the heads up Classic_Stern .

Started sanding the first coat of clear. Started with 400 grit and used the spray bottle to mist the sanding surface to keep the paper from clogging.

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Once finshed with the sanding block I used a scruff pad to rough up any remaining low spots to ensure proper adhesion of the second coat.

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After sanding the playfield looks a lot like it did when I first found it (dusty).

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After sanding everything was wiped down with degreaser/cleaner and a tack cloth. Old bulbs back in place and the second can/coat was applied.

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I can already see the second coat looks much more flat/smooth than the first coat did. It looks like another round of sanding and a third coat will be needed, but that might get me across the finish line.

Big Thanks Yous to Everyone.

Sort of in a holding pattern while waiting for parts to arrive or for paint to cure.

It is difficult to be patient but luckily there are plenty of other non-pinball projects around here to take up my time.

I really appreciate the feedback!

Took some time to polish the ball guides.

Used compound/the buffing wheel to clean them up as best I could. Somehow I forgot to take a before picture, but took a couple afters whilst admiring reflections of the playfield. The sort of blend in, don't they?

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Hello Mr. Wizard.

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Of course there is still a noticeable ball trail down the centers. I've read Vid's guide on making new stainless guides. I have not ruled out the possibility of doing so but I know I do not have one of the fancy rolling machines and to be honest the ball trails sort of fade away when the guides are in their proper locations. Oh pursuit of perfection, why must you tempt me??

It looks like my Big Daddy order arrived in the mail today. Will give the boards some attention later when time is available.

On somewhat of a side note, I dug out something that I knew I had in the barn but never really had a use for (and perhaps I still don't). Somewhere, sometime ago I acquired this small storage unit of electrical parts. The pooch is drawn in by the smell of barn dust and critters.

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In the drawers are loads of resistors, transistors, capacitors, etc. I am sure the capacitors are past their prime but some of the rest might be worth saving?

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It will take some deciphering of the color bands but I think that is used to ID the specifications of the resistors? I've never really had a need for electronics components before pinball machines but I have a difficult time parting with "stuff" when someone somewhere might have a need for it. I suppose my hoarding condition could be justified if anything in the box proves to be useful.

Replaced the bad resistors/capacitors on the Solenoid Driver board last night -- went to sleep around 1AM or so. I was past the point of taking pictures, nothing you have not already seen anyway but I did learn a few things. I was using the PinWiki Test Point Voltage Ranges and was struggling because several of mine were not spot on. Some help from fellow pinsiders (Thanks Quench and wiredoug ) taught me that my readings may not always fall into the published norms. Test Point 5 on the SDB was reading 17V, PinWiki's range was about 12V. Test Points 1 and 3 were reading at 5V, so the incoming voltage(which I thought was too high) was being filtered/stored (and elevated) by the C23 Capacitor as it should have been. The 5V was the important number, and I was right there.

I also thought SDB Test Point 2 was to be at 190V. I was getting a reading of 175-180V (give or take an adjustment with the potentiometer) and thought I was going to be too low. Reading the archives told me that lower than 190V is ok -- this is to be the display power and apparently sometimes a little less juice is preferred to prevent burning up the display units prematurely.

A lot of that is probably common knowledge for most, but this has been quite the learning curve for me. I am writing out my experience just in case the next me comes along -- maybe it will help someone going thru the same process with their first machine. Of course if anything I have written is out of line please do correct me.

After the todays chores I placed the boards in their places in the back box, set the switches on the MPU (New Alltek), held my breath, and turned on the machine.

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No smoke, no fire, all the blinky lights did what they were supposed to do. So far so good.
I swung the display panel over and quickly saw I had lit displays. Success!!

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I'm sure the displays were trying to tell me there is an issue somewhere (like the MPU is set incorrectly, the game is in audit mode, or something else -- like the playfield is missing. . . ) but for now I am just happy they are lit. I did not know if any of them would even light prior to today so I will take this as a win.

More attention coming to the playfield next. It is due for a sand and third coat of clear; hope to be posting about that soon.

Thanks! Re-pinning will definitely be on the to do list. I know there is one connector from the display board that is not connected yet as well.

Sanded/sprayed the third (and hopefully final) coat of clear last night. Looking forward to stopping back at the shop later today to see how it turned out.

After work I stopped by the shop to get a closer look at the result of yesterday's clear coat. I set the new woodrails and ball guides in place to get an idea of how things were going to look.

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I also rolled the work table outside to get a better look at the playfield in day light. Even without the finish sand and polishing I am very happy with the outcome, as of now it looks better than I ever thought it would.

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Now I just need to be patient and let the clear fully cure. . .

I know you are likely kidding, but I'm gonna wait and see what kind of result I produce on the second playfield before I open the shop for restorations. I was lucky to have minor wear on this first attempt.

Honestly the clear coating was not that difficult. Like all painting situations proper preparation and use of safety equipment (due to isocyanates) is key. Come over and look at this one in person and you will still see imperfections. . . I just chose not to highlight those with the camera.

Thank You both Robotworkshop and RCA1 for the compliments.

Gave the playfield the final sand and polish today.

Started with 2000 grit, then went over everything again with 3000 grit.

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I wanted to take a picture of all the "stuff" I used to clear coat. The Spray Max Clear, Sand Paper/Block, Orbital Polisher.

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I just now realized that I forgot to add the polishing compound I used in the picture. I went with Meguiar's 105 followed by 205 followed by #7 Finishing Glaze.

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As always, not perfect but more than good for my purposes. The glare throws things off a bit, but still another nice overhead picture.

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The Drop Targets' reflection look nice.

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And the Money Shot.

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My next step will be to secure the new wood rails to the playfield surface, rotate 180 degrees, and start work on the bottom side.

Started to work with some wood rail/ball guide installation.
I thought it would be a good idea to have these pieces in place in order to flip the playfield (give it some legs to stand on if you will) and work on the underside. I know a rotisserie would make life a little easier in this area but I think I can manage without for this build (for now).

When securing the wood rails to the playfield I used a couple clamps to keep things snug and prevent a gap between the two.

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The left side (player's view) ball guide is secured to the wood rail with tiny little nails and one screw to the playfield itself. I installed the single screw and then used the holes in the ball guide to mark the nail locations. I know, I need to clean out my drop target holes a bit better.

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I removed the wood rail to install the ball guide so as not to scratch up the playfield clear. I used a punch to drive the nails in with the hammer to minimize trauma to the ball guide.

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When I emptied my parts bag I could only find three of the tiny little nails that held the ball guide to the rail. I thought I must have broke or lost three of them during removal but double checking the second machine found the nails were only used in the top holes, not the bottom. Luckily I was able to pull the bottom set out without scratching up the stainless. I think the ball would hit those nails if those holes were used.

Everything else was straight forward assembly.

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I hope to be bottoms up by the next post.

Starting to devote some attention to the less glamorous side of the playfield.

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I started by cleaning and replacing the rollover wires, slingshots, etc. that I removed to get the playfield flat for clear coating. The three wires in front were polished up while the fourth is still dingy.

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Busted out the new flipper coil assemblies that I had ordered from pinball life. The originals were missing parts and were likely worn so I thought new replacements were the way to go.

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Between the two machines there was one flipper coil still holding on. Assuming the coils are setup the same I should be able to transfer the wires from old to new. I need to do my homework on flipper coil wiring -- I know the two yellow wires will go to the switch but not sure if it matters which terminal. I am not as lucky on the opposite side; I have a double blue wire and single orange wire hanging from the harness. I will do some research to determine which coil post each should be soldered to.

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I also started cleaning the inserts from the underside. All that black on the swabs was from cleaning one insert. . . luckily I get those packages of swabs by the 100s from work because the Nine Ball playfield has a lot of inserts. . .

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Will be working my way back to the pop bumpers and drop targets once I have the flipper coil wiring sorted. I just might be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.

Worked with the three bank drop targets today. I'll probably break the update down into several posts to keep my pictures straight.
Previously in the thread it was mentioned that the new drop targets are slightly different than the originals in height. To get a baseline for what I was working with I installed one complete assembly without modifications to see how the drops looked from the playfield.

When in the down position, the drops are essentially level with the playfield -- which is good/what we want, right?

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In the up position, they measure just under an inch (about 7/8") above the playfield surface. The other fixed targets measured out at an inch or slightly over.

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Looking at the front I get the impression the stars are sitting slightly lower than they should be.

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I pulled the bank assembly off and examined it to see how I could give the targets a touch more height in the up position.

This was my solution.
I cut a piece of thin sheetmetal, gave it a couple bends, and drilled a couple holes so it would mount on and raise the lip that the drop targets catch in the up position.

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I reassembled the bank assembly with the "shim" in place and it raised the drops to just a whisker over an inch when up.

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Happy with that, I made a second shim for the second three bank drop assembly.

Once both drop bank assemblies were back together (and once I cleaned out the corresponding inserts/installed new bulbs) I secured them back to the playfield and installed the switches/coils.

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Inspection of the surface with the drops down.

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And up.

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I do think the stars look more centered. . . if that makes sense.

Still admiring the reflections provided by the clear coat.

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Next up will be inspection of the large eight drop bank target. The lip that catches the drops in the up position is a different design and a universal shim for all eight targets will not be possible. Will have everything mounted up first to see how things look before getting too crazy with modifications.

Thanks cottonm4

I've read some of your comments in the Nine Ball Club and other threads.
If I can figure out my rights from my lefts wiring the coils should be no problem -- is that your right or mine, looking at the playfield top or bottom? (half kidding of course)

The Orange and Green wires should make differentiating between the two simple enough. Helpful to know no polarity to the switch -- one wire from power lug and one from center lug to each switch terminal. I will give the diodes/coil wire sizes a close inspection to make sure the new coils are wired the same as the originals to know which terminal receives the power wire.

I've found several other loose or disconnected wires on the playfield underside. Making a list so everything gets fixed back in place at one time.

Thanks Again!

Gave the flipper coils a quick inspection over lunch.
For simplicity I will refer to them as the "green" and "orange" sides.

Looks like the Green side will be swapped over exactly as it is on the original coil. Banded/power side is closest to the player.

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Orange side has the banded/power tab farthest from the player. Tried to set the ugly wires close to the correct lugs.

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I will be sure to clean up the wires/terminals/etc. before soldering everything up. Thanks again for the help!

Having an hour here or there limits how much I can accomplish some days -- today I had enough time to focus on several upper playfield components.
The process is dragging on because I ordered stud posts that were longer than the originals and I am cutting the new ones down to the correct size one by one. The originals were an oddball size (2 1/8"), had a carriage bolt style head, and most of them were broken during removal.

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My graphics design friend made up a number of decals for me to refurbish the spinner.

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I had him make a couple of the bulls eye (patterned of the top of the pop bumper cap) to potentially put on the large red drop and white stationary targets on the upper playfield.
Not 100% committed to using them -- will see how everything looks once together, but especially white one looks a little plain as is.

I don't want to profit off my buddy's talent. . . so no, I won't sell you any.

Send me a PM though and I'll be happy to mail you a couple. You took the time to walk me thru the flipper wiring after all, what goes around comes around!

Finished installing the thru-playfield stud posts and also polished/installed the wire forms.

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I also cleaned each insert from the underside and replaced the bulbs with new 47s. I ordered/have the new lamp boards offered by pinball life to replace the rack/12 grids on the underside but I put off installing those for another rainy day.

I think I have accomplished all I can in the shop at this point -- today the playfield was loaded into the back of the Wrangler and brought home, soon to be reunited with the cabinet.

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Yep, those are the ones I ordered/have. . . from pinballreplacementparts.com and not pinballlife.com !

Thanks for keeping me honest. I'd like to see what happens with the current metal bases before I switch everything out -- seems like a good winter project to me.

Flipper Coils (and about half a dozen other loose/disconnected wires under the playfield) have been soldered in place.

"Orange" side:

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"Green" side:

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I also took a minute to attach the eight bank drop target assembly. Unlike the three banks the drop targets sit just below the playfield surface this time. It should not take much, but a thin shim at the bottom/resting point should be able to bring them up to level.

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In the up position the blue circle drops appear to sit far too low -- they extend less than an inch above the playfield surface (I was able to get the stars up just over an inch). Because the design of the eight bank is different I cannot simply make one long shim to raise the targets in the up position. Each target has its own resting point.

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The simplest thing might be to bend each little metal tab upwards a small amount to achieve the desired height. Will work with the assembly this week and report back.