Stern Catacomb.....nice!

I was surprised by Jungle Lord (in a good way). I don't see too many Catacombs around but the price on them probably just went up!

Yup, Catacomb!!
See bottom left corner of playfield..

925a74ac6807dbab98ecf7a7fc2972d0b4b974aa (resized).jpg

Sign me up, Wizard! and Catacomb can't wait till the official announcement.

Finally was able to have the time to make it out to the shop and pick up my playfield and fresh hot off the press Hardtop for my SBM!! Im telling you...... the pictures dont do this thing ANY justice! It is freaking beautiful in person. It killing me to try to fit some time in my schedule to start getting this installed.

I got to get a quick tour of the shop and see how Bruce makes these. Simply incredible how much work goes into them. They are worth every penny.

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William's Flash or Stern Lightning?Screenshot_20210805-090712_Samsung Internet (resized).jpg

Would be awesome if one of their ads showed crystals. A hardtop set is really needed for the Bally Elektra! At least the upper and lower playfields.

A lot of people could use these. Is it even on the list to be considered?

Looks awesome! Pics when you have it installed into your pin if you can. I just touched up my friends Silverball and didn’t know a hard top was being made.

I know I know!

I hoping to find some time here soon to get started on it. My schedule is crushed right now for the next few months. Its killing me looking at the hardtop and wanting to play it!!
Plus.... I just picked up a Flash Gordon (also with a hardtop to be installed) and it going to be wanting some of my time as well lol

I'm looking at purchasing an unused hardtop form someone who purchased it about a year or so ago. It is still in its original packaging. Do we know how long they should last for unused? I'm worried i may have 6 months or so before i use it but its a good deal and i'd hate to pass it up if there's no harm in it siting for a little bit.

I've got no data to back this up, but I do recall reading somewhere that the adhesive backing on the hardtop is good for about a year sitting on the shelf before installation. After that, it starts to diminish.

I'm still not sold on understanding why an adhesive backing is required for a Hardtop. Don't the screws and posts hold it in place? Why is it necessary to have it permanently stuck to the playfield surface?

3M says the 300LSE adhesive has an 18 month shelf life from the time it's shipped from 3M

https://www.hstmaterials.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/3M-300lse.pdf

It keeps it from bowing and swelling up.

It also allows Star Rollovers to be replaced flush with the surface.

Consider this my standard Funhouse request....

What type of glue are people using to reinstall their rollovers?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-hardtop-restoration-comet#post-4470140

Any word if Elektra is on the list to be made? Would be nice to know if it is a potential option or just off the list.

I know right? I wish we could just crowdsource to fund having more titles made. Great product, need more!

I use a two part epoxy, just make sure you clean up the opening and sand the side of the insert.

Bingo. I knew you were right.

Sorry Vid. They also made Taxi Hardtops and a couple of others that CPR had already released. I would venture I guess that CPR had a certain time frame to get their playfield released.

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I don’t see a problem having both CPR playfield and hardtop for same title. I would sell a Flash project before I spent $800 on a playfield for it... just not worth it for me. But I would put in a hardtop.

You must do Centaur!!

LOL! The Silver Ball I play on at our league venue is a lot worse! And the owner wants to buy the hardtop for it. So I'm hoping it does happen!

Any Hardtops in the queue for Elektra or Space Invaders? Both Bally games could use one.

Will not know until they give us hints.

It's nothing to be sorry about.

I just wish that the licensor would get this stuff straight so we don't have 2 companies releasing the same product at the same time.

There are thousands of playfields that have never been reproduced.

Now we have 2 companies that did a lot of work, yet sales will suffer for them both.

We’d have a lot more hardtop options if CPR would quit crying about Outside Edge.

I missed it.

What happened?

Last I herd, Kev was good with them.

Nothing I’m just poking the bear. I’m team Hardtop so just taking a side
As far as I know everyone is cool.

Sigh...

We'd have a lot more playfield options if they weren't duplicating each other's efforts

We'd have even more options if they would just share their vector art.

For what it’s worth, I have no interest in buying a repro playfield for Flash. I like it just enough to do a Hardtop. I’ll pick one up after I do my Gorgar hardtop.

I don't see it so much as duplicating each other's efforts. They are different products catering to differing markets and levels of refurbishment:

Hardtop: $300
Sometimes requires as little as partial top level tear down only, sometimes a full topside tear down, could be installed in as little as a weekend if motivated. Caters to the casual pinhead looking to spruce up his machine as quickly and economically as possible.

Repro Playfield: $800-$1000
Requires total teardown and rebuild of both topside and bottom side taking anywhere from a few weeks to a few months depending on the knowledge and skills of the pinhead doing the work. May require additional time for clear curing, or even a re-clear if not satisfied with the factory finish, adding more time and requiring more skills to do the job. Caters to the top level pinheads and purists wanting to fully restore a machine.

In my experience I've found that most folks/purists who do playfield swaps wouldn't entertain doing a hardtop even if a hardtop is available for a title where there is no repro playfield being made. And vice versa - the economically challenged or those who lack the skills or time tend to stick to hardtops and wouldn't attempt a repro playfield swap even if that was the only thing available for their title.

The point being....both CPR and Outside Edge are interested in making sales. Even in cases with duplicate titles, they're each catering to their respective markets and those respective markets rarely intersect.

I will agree full swaps are more work and more expensive. I’ve done two hardtops and would not regard them as a casual’s project, per se. There is no “partial” upper playfield tear down. Everything comes off the top side. They recommend putting down a coat of clear(rattle can is fine) after sanding it down. Also, there is always a bit of hole alignment drilling to be done on the hardtop. I replaced all the inserts on the two I did. Obviously you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. I realize that purists don’t like them and that is totally fine. Now, I have a Frontier which I love and isn’t in too bad a shape. I may very well send that playfield to someone to touch up and clear Vs put a hardtop on it. I just think it’s nice to have a variety of options to make games nice whether it’s a full swap, touch up or hardtop.

I've done three hardtops myself (two EBD and one MH) with a BK in the queue. The MH was my first - I left the DT banks and slingshot mechs in so I did have some stuff poking thru the top as I laid down the hardtop but I see your point. OK - full topside tear down needed. I didn't clear anything...just sanded off the insert artwork and then wet sanded the inserts to get them nice, smooth, and shiny.

When I did the two EBD's, I did remove some mechs for cleaning in addition to everything topside. I also did put a light coat of rattlecan clean on them instead of wet sanding the inserts before putting the hardtop tops down. Either method works IMO - not sure yet which one I'll use for the upcoming Black Knight.

Just finished my first playfield swap to a CPR Meteor and working on fixing the cabinet now before a re-stenciling. If Outside Edge offered a Meteor hardtop, I would've taken that in a second over a CPR playfield. And the only reason I got the CPR playfield was that a local guy was selling it so cheap I couldn't resist it (never used but had the "missing METEOR DT score values" blemish/omission). I got the swap done, but it's too nerve-wracking for me to be drilling dozens and dozens of holes in a $900 playfield, fearing I'm going to ruin it at any moment. I did make a bunch of mistakes but in the end was able to recover. Not worth the high blood pressure, tho....give me a hardtop any day!

I think the issue for some of us is that cpr has typically made a run of playfields and when they ran out there was no time frame for another run. I wanted to do a high speed years ago, didn't preorder and they sold out.
Hard tops just seem to be available if you want them.
It would appear cpr has much more in stock now, but is the damage already done?
I think one could argue that their lack of inventory itself helped create hard tops.

I'm open to using either one on my beater space shuttle. My kids love it as is, but it's hard for me to look at.
If i'm not mistaken on system 9 and older there is much more stapled to the bottom of the playfield, that could be the decision make for me.

That’s funny I was tempted with the exact same scenario on CPR Meteor repro that a friend got. He ended up sending it back.

A fellow pinsider hooked me up with the waterslide for the scores. I applied it and using a small brush, covered it up with some automotive touchup clear to feather in the edges (I've used this same stuff to protect saucers and kickouts I've repainted and it's held up great so I'm pretty confident in the durability). I know some people would've re-cleared the whole playfield after adding the scores waterslide but this is good enough for me!

METEOR DT Bank Scores (resized).jpg

Just here to keep requesting a Sorcerer hardtop. Every other system 9 has one...

Going to just mylar mine, from the players position you can't possibly see it.

Exzactly! The folks reproducing plastic ramps are working together. Why can't CPR and folks creating Hard-tops?

I have a question on a Gorgar Hardtop Installation. In my first photo you see the mounting screws for the pop bumpers are flush with the playfield. In the second photo I removed the screws and the playfield is left with the recess where the screws went. The last photo shows the Gorgar Hardtop. The holes in the Gorgar Hardtop are small and will not accommodate making the screws flush with the playfield.

How did other handle this? Do I need to drill out the Hardtop some so the screws with be flush with the playfield or do I let the screws sit on top of the Hardtop? What have other done?

The playfield is prepped and ready for install, just need some guidance on how to handle the pop bumper screws.

Thanks

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I think on my last hardtop I just stuck the screws through the hardtop - through the existing holes in your pic. Did not seem to be any issue with this.

If I did that the screws would sit above the hardtop and would not be flush with the playfield. I don't think it would interfere with play, just curious what others have done.

Enlarge the pop nail holes so the heads are not proud of the playfield

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/future-spa-hardtop-install-vid-s-guide#post-5910342

I missed the bumper shank screws/nails on my Xenon. I nailed them on from above the hardtop. Does not appear to affect operation of the bumper or switch.