I installed mine on a space shuttle in early 2020 well over 500 plays and it still looks as nice as the day I put it in. Best thing I ever did to that old bird.

My early space shuttle from 2017 looks and plays great but over time the balls pick up some kind of gunk. I don't know if it's from a surface coating or what. I have to clean or replace them about every 50 games.

IMG_20181104_000047233~2 (resized).jpg

Do you clean and/or treat your hardtop? Solenoid / switch dust will make their way to the playfield, especially if you didn't replace with new or clean/rebuild assemblies when you put the hardtop in. Balls will pick up that stuff over time and get gunky.

Every 100 plays or so, I wipe down my hardtops with a clean cloth and "wax" with Maguires spray cleaner. In addition to keeping them clean, it really helps to keep ball motion lively. Although OE says you can wax a hardtop just like a playfield, most people I've talked to don't and while I don't do that myself, I do clean it regularly with that stuff.

So close to finishing!

A9DBBBE3-4EB2-437D-ACFF-B7BC038319C3 (resized).jpeg

What's next after Whirlwhind and Ground Shaker?

I have an observation and question on waxing a Hardtop. Maybe OE can chime in.

It seems to me that waxing a Hardtop is of little benefit because the plastic surface is so non-porous. When I apply a coating of wax to it, it simply does not "soak" into the surface from what I can tell, and the wax seems to be quickly picked up by the ball. Obviously, a painted or clearcoated PF is far more porous than a HT, and therefore retains the wax like we expect it too.

I am questioning if there is any value to waxing the HT at all because of the non-porous surface.

Thoughts?

The notion of it being a non-porous surface isn't addressed, but OE has this comment in the FAQ on their website:
wax.jpg

http://www.outsideedgeproducts.com/hardtop-faq.html

Embryon would make a great hardtop. I’ve never seen one in really good condition.

I've got a project Embryon with a blown out playfield that's a perfect hardtop candidate. Not sure why but these games always seem to have damage in the center and in the house right section.

I just hit with some Novus 1, every once in a while.

Shipping a Hard Top to Australia only has one option at US$180 just for the shipping - wow makes it a far less attractive option. Has any one worked out a more economical way to get one down under?

Could you do a group buy and split cost?

Ask pinballspareparts.com.au if they could look into stocking them?

If anyone is currently at the Chicago Pinball Expo... would you please go to the Outside Edge booth & post a few quality pictures of the Whirlwind hardtop?

Also... please mention your thoughts & if you get a chance ask the guys from Outside Edge if they're happy with how it turned out.

Thank you very much!

I have shipped my PinDoc Playfield Rotisseries to Australia, and the cost was an arm and a leg too.

I have had large orders where several folks got together and divided up the shipping costs which made it more reasonable. I would also recommend finding folks for a group buy because you can tape many of the Hardtop boxes together and really knock that cost down. Just my two cents.

Ask around to other Australian collectors to see if any of them use a freight forwarder. A freight forwarder consolidates many packages into an ocean container, driving the cost per package down. Once the container arrives in Australia you can have the packages shipped to your house. I think I read somewhere that someone was shipping to a freight forwarder in Oregon.

On importing to Australia, thanks for the comments guys. We have group toying with a multiple import - a further issue for us is a local import tax of 10% that is applied when a certain $AU amount is exceeded and that value would be a single hardtop. I have been investigating freight forwarders but thought it was worth asking here in case anyone had any direct experience with them. I'll report back if I find anything out.

Skypilo

Skypilot - Thank you very much! It looks great!!

This is my struggle. I have a BK Limited Edition and cosmetically it looks great, but the game suffers from a little bit of English on the ball hitting inserts that are no longer level with the playfield or worse, the triangles have cupped. There's some wear down to the bare wood around a few of the inserts on the sword, but it's not really visible because its white. I've touched up the magna saves and not very many notice that it's been painted in some spots. It's tempting to put one of these on, but on a perfectly good game? I'm looking for the next winter project on it, but this one is where I cannot in good conscience pull the trigger on.

Sounds like you would be better off trying a playfield protector in this instance.

Alright, consider me 100% OUT on the "don't need to clearcoat" camp. This is now the second HT in a row I've had that's having issues pulling up in the middle (the last one was clearcoated). I still have one more mata hari to do after this one and I was considering doing a gorgar after that but I'm finding myself completely disinterested in even bothering now. Ugh.

Fwiw the batteries overnight didn't even get it pressed all the way back down (last two pics were this morning after removing the weight) I worry keeping them on there too long will warp the pf..

20221021_213601 (resized).jpg20221021_213852 (resized).jpg20221022_085947 (resized).jpg20221022_085955 (resized).jpg

Waiting on cabinet decals for Swords of Fury to do my refurb. Let’s go!

I’m a little underwhelmed at the quality of my hardtop. It’s requiring a lot more cleaning up than I expected.

This pic is just a sample

image (resized).jpg

Shouldn't all the fray on the edges come off after you peel the top plastic? It looks like you've not done that yet.

Note you DON'T do that until it's stuck down to your playfield. But it should be glossy and if it's not...you didn't peel the protective coating.

I figured that’s the last step. I don’t want any chance of debris falling in between the PF or the hardtop. I don’t want any of the frayed edges to fold over under the PF either.

I've yet to see that be an issue with the finished product. All the fray should be from the top plastic which gets peeled off and thrown away before you repopulate the topside.

You can clean up all the fray before sticking it if you feel so inclined but it shouldn't affect the finished product.

That is unfortunate.

It's not been a good run for me with these lately.

And yet, my High Speed (not clearcoated) continues to be great. I don't get it.

I was considering buying one for Nitro and testing.

Just picked two up at expo, these will be my first so I’m pretty excited. They have a totan showing their new metallic decals which looks incredible. I’ll definitely be picking those up when available.

My gorgar looks like crap, so I'll probably do it anyway. But I'm definitely frustrated at this point.

I remember reading back in this thread that there was a batch of these that had defective glue, could that be the problem with the one that you’re working on?

I don't think so. The two mata haris I bought were a direct result of the failed eight ball deluxe I paid to have installed and then redid myself with the replacement hardtop. The replacement one pulled up slightly in the middle too, if I'm being completely honest. But I traded it off and it's no longer my problem.

The failed adhesive they found was a much more catastrophic failure where the art completely separated. It was bad. This is general lifting without any separation between art and hardtop. In theory it should be able to be stuck down a bit more but weight overnight didn't seem to help.

20201215_194638 (resized).jpg

20201215_212831 (resized).jpg

20201217_100527 (resized).jpg

received_217611409742757 (resized).jpeg

received_393747268625275 (resized).jpeg

received_427864504914284 (resized).jpeg

received_719095808720562 (resized).jpeg

Were the HTs old, or were they freshly delivered and installed?

I don't have an exact delivery date that I can find but my earliest picture of the hardtops in the packaging was November of last year. I stuck this one down in March.

Obviously the second one has now aged some, but it's still hanging out in the packaging.

That 3M adhesive has a 2 year shelf life, so you should be fine

Yeah, I shouldn't be having lifting problems. It's very frustrating. Feels like I'm going backwards on these things. My high speed is still awesome and that was my first go-around with hardtops. I've done 3 more since and each one has had some sort of gotcha to deal with. I don't get it.

upon request I have created 2 reproduction parts to aid certain game hardtop owners:

- extended rollover buttons (button height raised)
- extended ball eater brackets (extended slots / holes for mounting hardware to the vertical face of the bracket)

both allow for button and mech to sit correctly with the now 1mm raised playfield surface

https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace?type=product&q=swinkshardtop

290x218_31718392_16693352_1590640334_1_0 (resized).png

290x218_37934714_20124514_1666386462_1_0 (resized).png

Thanks for all you do for this hobby, I'm loving my stern targets!

Do the factory ball eater brackets not work with the hardtop?

For one person it didn't so they had to hack the bracket

I’m hearing outside edge is bringing out decals? Any more info on this?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/outside-edge-is-expanding

Yes I saw a video which showcased your TOTAN. I heard the marco radcals for TOTAN are basically brown/wrong color.

Do you have a link of where to buy it? Sounds super easy to apply (easier than radcals)?

Is an Earthshaker in the pipeline for 2023?
Thanks

Skypilot

Any chance you guys will do F-14 Tomcat?