f417fdb4fa9b8fe6f139408990e737a4af5a0a0a (resized).jpgWell its about time to get this restoration started. A true Williams classic, one of my favorite games ended up in my possession last year. This FH belonged to a good friend of mine, he had it over ten years before selling it to me. My wife and I have been playing it pretty regularly, but now its time to give Rudy the love he deserves.

Here is the game as it sits now...

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My friend was very generous and sold me this game for exactly what he paid for it ten years ago, a steal in todays market. This leaves me quite a bit of room to really make this game pop without over investing as I have done on most of my previous restorations.
My game plan at the start is:

New head, but I think the cab is still solid
New Mirrored backglass from CPR
New set of ramps from starship
Pinscore display
New plastics, posts, fasteners, flipper bats etc for playfield
New cab decals, silk screen backbox warning
Sending boards to Chris Hibler for service
Sending Rudy to Modfather for paint
Sending playfield to Neo for touch up and clear
New hinges, side rails, lockdown bar and legs
Restore original coin door
Yellow/red shooter rods from Modfather (credit to @WackyBrakke)
New trap door
Leds with OCD boards
New speakers
Flipper rebuilds
Clean, tumble, polish mechs
Wash harnesses
New lamp sockets
New switches
Mod couple lampshade
All new Rudy parts
All new stand up targets
New disc assembly
Apron decals
Glass
Leg levelers and bolts
Rubber kit
Coil sleeves

Im sure I missed a few...

This is the first time I will be sending out the playfield for repair/clear, which means the first time that I have to remove and store all parts/mechs instead of transferring right to a new playfield.

I pulled all the boards and mailed them to @chrishibler...

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They look pretty good, no hacks but a few repairs that were done ok...

Stockpiling parts for the last few months...

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Tearing down always goes pretty quick, with the exception of taking pics...I took just over 1100 pics total when I did my TOM resto, probably overkill but it sure came in handy during reassembly. I try to take at least 2 angles of every shot. Because of the wait time to get playfield work done I will have much more time between part removal and reinstallation, therefore these pics will be even more important...

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Removed Rudy, boxed him up and sent to modfather for a new paint job...
Im not into mods, especially on classic B/W games. This resto will be geared towards a "stock" look with the exception of LEDs with OCD, lampshade, mirrored backglass and painted Rudy. I was going to go with chrome for the rails, lockdown bar, legs and hinges but have changed course and will be doing stock brushed finish...

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Removed wire harnesses, these will get cleaned and a few shoddy splices will be rectified. Since I will be replacing all micro switches I will be able to run the harnesses through the dishwasher without concern.

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Then continue to clear off playfield.... separate, bag and label all the parts making note of broken screws and parts as I go.

Someone used thread lock on a bunch of the playfield fasteners, mostly on the lower portion of the playfield.
As a result I have several broken screws and posts, along with fouled up T-nuts...

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Then finished stripping the rest of the field...

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Boxed up and shipped,. Not sure how long the repair/clear will take, plus the cure time. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. The last few restos I used Mirco playfields and had no real problems. I expect the restored original playfield is going to be a bit easier to install as all the mech locations should be correct.

So thats where Im at currently...boards shipped out, rudy shipped out and playfield at Neos awaiting its turn. What I have left is a cabinet to restore, a new head to build, sand, fill, prime, paint, decal, screen and ground braid the cab and head. Clean all mechs, regrain all guides, tumble, polish etc. Rebuild flippers, restore coin door, harnesses, etc etc blah blah...

... lots to do

Today I thought I would put the new head together. I still have a few pre cut sets from last year, I pull what I need...
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Then clamp it together and check the fit...

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Everything checks out and then it is disassembled to apply glue. I like to use the Titebond III as it offers a longer set time, not very important on the small head but when it comes to the main cab its nice to have a little extra time to get everything in position. Harbor freight sells these little brushes, perfect to spread glue...

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With the glue applied and spread its time to reassemble and clamp. Then the parts are brad nailed together and the clamps are left on overnight...

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Let it dry overnight. Yesterday I was able to spend a few minutes trimming out the head...

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Next the head will get drilled, believe it or not there are 36 holes to drill in a WPC head...

Busy with other stuff the last few days...managed to test fit the head before I proceed. Everything seems ok...

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Been going back and forth on whether to use the original cab or not
..its not in as bad of shape as the head is, but this front corner with the 3 construction screws is a little suspect...

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Its not anything that cant be fixed, but the loose corners, along with stained bottom and raised grain on side panels has pushed me towards a new cab as well. Its going to save me a lot of filling, sanding and repairing of the old cab so here we go.
Pieces pulled from dwindling stock...
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Clamped, squared and measured for accuracy...

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Then disassembled, glue is applied, and back together with additional clamps and brad nailing
I used 1 1/2" nails to assemble the cab and head, and 1" nails to plant on the trim pieces...

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While thats drying I pull the new decals out to check the color and quality.
I have a terrible eye for resolution issues or saturation problems, does anybody see any issues with these decals?
Blue color looks good to me (the other colors are so faded im not sure what they were originally) , quality of material is good (I've used these several time for other titles and been very happy)
..

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I did...Like a lot of hobby based endeavours, once I started doing it for profit it sucked the fun right out of it. That combined with several shipping mishaps just killed it for me.
I was hand cutting each piece from templates rather than using a cnc machine, it just got to be a bit much.

I forgot to show that I routed the plunger holes just before gluing the cab together...

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After those were done then cab was assembled.

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Then marked location of start button from measurements off old cab. I found the correct size forchner bit...

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And drilled to the same depth as the example...

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The hole is then completed with the appropriate size butterfly (or spade) bit...

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Test fit and move on...

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Normally I would test fit the major components in the cab (playfield, lockdown bar receiver, lock down bar, glass guides, and playfield glass). Then I would proceed to prep, paint and decal the cab before putting it away for later use. However, since I dont have my playfield here for awhile I am just going to put the cab on the back burner until the playfield comes back...I dont want to get ahead of myself if there are any clearance issues so I will resume progress on the cab later.
By then I will have made a decision between stock speakers, flipper fidelity, or pinsound and be able to cut the speaker hole accordingly.

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I will look into this. Have you done this before? And if so do you have any pics?
Thanks

With the cab work on hold for the time being, there is no shortage of tasks to complete before the playfield returns. Just off the top of my head I know I need to clean the harnesses and replace the switches, prep the ramps with harnesses, protectors, rivet parts etc. Regrain ball guides, rebuild mechs etc etc
But first up will be the coin door. All in all this one is not terrible. The backside actually looks pretty good...

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The front has typical coin scratches and blemishes from use but thankfully is pretty straight with no dents...

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However there is an unsightly push button that someone wired to the coin up switch so they could easily add credits...
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Wire harness is removed first...

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Then coin mechs, push buttons and coin return are removed and the rest of the coin door is broken down into the pieces that need to be painted and textured...

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The remainder is bagged up and will be cleaned up during reassembly ..

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Whats up with the date on this coin door?

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I have to do something about the dime sized hole in the middle of the coin door....

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I know some pinsiders like to weld a hole like this up and grind it down, but thats not how I do it. Quite a few restorations ago I had to deal with a similar problem with a pinbot coin door. I know some of you may frown upon this solution, but I like it. If you acquire a game and notice this coin door repair, you know you have a genuine cosmo restored game.
More on that in a bit...

The coin door is the "face" of the cabinet, and one of the first things that will stand out if it doesnt look good. For that reason I really try to make it look correct, but it takes a bit of work.
First I strip most of the paint with 120 grit wet sandpaper...

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Then progress up to 320 to finish paint removal and take out some of the scratches from the 120 grit. I used to finish with glass blasting in a pillowcase (real high tech) but realized I get just as good results with sandpaper

I cant see a difference in the first pic but I can in the second. I can see how hard it is to get a good photo. I will talk to a local guy and then make a decision.
I like the idea of the extra protection

After flip flopping back and forth on the speaker choices, I have decided to go with pinsound, new speakers, and the shaker.
Looking for speaker recommendations...
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/funhouse-speaker-upgrade-questions#post-6213079

Hole is patched and bondo used to fill. After it is sanded smooth then the parts are cleaned with acetone and prepped for primer...

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Most of the coin door restorations I have seen/read do not involve removing all the paint, or using any primer. They just scuff up the door and shoot the black. Their end results look great so I probably go farther than I need to but this is how I have done it.

First coat of primer laid on thin, then sanded, then cleaned with naptha.

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After a few coats of primer its ready for paint...
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First attempt looks kinda crappy, lots of imperfections visible...wet sanded that down to clean it up a bit...
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Final coat came out better...
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Next up is to apply the texture to match the factory look. The texture will help hide any remaining blemishes.

First pass with the lacquer...best to go slow and steady. Its easy to add more and damn near impossible to remove any excess so I spray what I guess to be about 80% coverage with the first application and let it sit to dry...

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Final pass. This is pretty close, I think Im going to leave it at that.

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The photo makes it look quite a bit rougher than it is, it almost looks like sandpaper in the pics.

Next up is the bag of coin door parts.

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The harness still has the credit button attached. The harness will be cleaned an credit button removed with wiring returned to original.
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These dirty parts are put in the ultrasonic for a cleansing.
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I am changing the orange coin chutes and buttons with clear ones, I want to be able to change the color of them using the LED bulbs.
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Need to add this decal to a new Marcos order...

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I was asked about what paint and process I used on this coin door.
Bryan Kelly has a great video on the subject, although the process is almost the same, I do a few things a bit different. I choose to remove all existing paint and texture down to bare metal, some will just scuff up the existing finish but I like to remove it all. I also put the can of paint used for the splatter in the freezer for awhile, it helps me get the can to spit rather than spray.

I like to use this filler primer for most applications of a restoration, I use it on both metal parts and also use it for primer on the cabinet and head. I like it because it is high build and does a great job filling in imperfections. It dries to be very rough to the touch and almost feels like emery cloth, however with one quick pass with some sandpaper it knocks it down quickly and leaves a very smooth finish.....
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Again , you will see in the video that Bryan does not use primer.

Next can is satin black. I like the satin black, I have used semi-flat black as seen in the video and the two give you very similar results. Nothing fancy here, just spray a neat, clean coat and your good to go...
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The last step is the toughest
I like to use this can of lacquer instead of the high gloss black seen in the video. I put it in the freezer (after shaking) and the use it to make the splatter...

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Beginning reassembly ...

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Original paper inserts transferred to new push buttons...

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Starting with blue LEDs for the coin slot/reject button. I can always change it later if I dont like it...

Assembly is done, harness has been cleaned and the wiring for credit button has been sorted out and corrected.

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