Hey Pinheads. I wanted to share what I've done to my first pin POTO. Been speaking with JBoner a while about it. I bought it 2 months ago and it was very dirty and trashed. It was covered in black grime, filthy, not sure if it was ever cleaned in 25 years, and had original rubbers. I bought it from the Asheville Pinball Museum and it had a million hours of brutal play on it just from there. This was my first restoration project and first pin which is now finished and I'm happy with it. I will share what I did. There were dozens of areas on the PF worn down to the wood. Here is a link to a short video I did for myself, but I'll share it here.

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Some dumbass put extra long bulbs under the Phantom face and melted it through in 4 places.
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You can see on the brim of his hat where it is bulging and burned through. There is melted bulb glass which you can see on front side.
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I wasnt going to clear coat this playfield or remove Mylar. So I hand painted all the areas and used tracing paper to do etchings with pencil where there was no mylar and cut out shapes and applied to all areas of the playfield where the ball rolls. I got it from Marcos and I really liked that stuff.

Repainted Skulls
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Hand painted gold work. Cant even tell it was damaged. The paint was all gone to the wood under both flippers too.
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Rings around bumpers repainted Gold, black, and red. Pain in the ass, but looks nice. Now those areas have Mylar going all the way around in a ring. Never lose it again. Terrible pain in the ass, but had to be done.
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I replaced all bulbs with Comet Pinball LED's "Comfort Bright LED's". I put two red ones in the Phantom's eyes on the backglass and it really looks cooler. I cleaned inside each PF insert with a Q-tip dipped in 91% alcohol. It brought them to life! They were black inside. The Comfort Brights brought the true colors out of the inserts where they were bland versions of their original colors. Here, the T is LED and the others incandescent. The whites seemed orange before. The pic doesn't really show the real difference in person. It was night and day.
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All LED'd Out
I recommend the Comfort Brights for inserts, but they seemed to be just a little bit too dim for GI. It still works, but I don't recommend Comforts in the pop bumpers..they need something brighter. Overall, game looks amazing. I added my own printer version of the targets and Magic Mirror. The magic mirror is the phantom in the mirror on the backglass. These were printed on gloss paper, cut out, glued on with epoxy and covered in Mylar. They're indestructible and look great.
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Thank you! Took me 2 months!

Yes. I used Warm Whites, frosted. I also think they look good in my backglass. I am happy with all the Comforts except in GI and in the pop bumpers. Im not disappointed, they would just probably be better a little brighter.

I recommend trying 2 red Comfort Brights in his eyes. Man, it really makes it creepy and cool when they light up. He looks like a White Walker from Game of Thrones..ha.

Can anyone help? The spit out is sometimes weak on the left hand red rail. You know, where it shoots up from the trough under the magic mirror and trap door. When there's two balls waiting in there for multiball, it will only throw the ball up an inch and it will fall back down. It will try to throw it up several times before it succeeds. Does that mean its a bad coil on that ball ejector? This is my first pin, so I dont know everything yet.

I spent about $75 (with shipping) to do the entire POTO in Comfort Bright LED's from Comet. That is all the 44s and 555s. That does not include the giant socket bulbs. I left them as incandescent because it would be like another $60 to LED them unless someone knows where I can get them cheap.

With the RED comfort brights in his eyes and warm white comforts in the backglass.
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Also, as you can see in that last post, I have a messed up top portion of my display. There are lines through letters and commas everywhere. Any idea on what to do? Replace the whole unit for $200? or something easier/cheaper?

OK Thanks!! I will check on it!

Thanks I will check on it!

JBoner - I applied JB WELD (original formula) around the magic mirror hole on mine. It was a little worse than yours with a major blow out. The wood was flaking away down into the red trough below and the hole was getting slowly larger. I covered everything around the edge of the hole and now its sealed. I think Cliffy told me to do that. I think its good now.

They weren't like that on mine either. I only have 1 rubber on each side.

I looked at the larger pics on IPDB and just sort of "Felt" it. There were very faint lines ( I mean VERY) left in the woodgrain and I kind of just followed them a little with my 2-hair paintbrush. It was mostly Art on my end and I didn't stress out too much about getting an exact replication. There was no way I was going to hurt this PF at all. It was destroyed. I just went over my mistakes in black paint and reapplied the gold again better. The Theater Box area with the men on top were gone and I just glanced here and there at online photos and just kind of made them happen. After I was finished, I took a closer look at the art and I was nearly spot on. Ha. thats what I did.

ok Got it JBoner. On my list. Thanks

I can't wait to see it. I'll post a video of mine to here when I get a chance of it flashing with all LED's and better visuals of my paint and mylar work.

A man's got to do what a man's got to do. Ha

I made a short video showing my Mylar and repainting work. What I didn't mention in the video was that I also Mylared over the sticker on the Organ ramp. Also I mylared the insides of the Organ, the stone walls, on each side where the ball travels up the organ. I had a lot of peeling and dirt and frayed clear plastic hanging off the sides where the ball ate it. I peeled them down to the bare sticker on each side and covered them with a piece of mylar cut to shape. Makes it indestructible now and smooth.

I got mine from Marcos. I like it, but expensive. I'll try Office Max next.

Man, I can't imagine..Its gonna be a very expensive week.

Anybody tell me how I can get a Phantom manual without paying $20? Is there a full manual I can download or get emailed to me? Thanks
[email protected]

Hey, that would be great! Sorry, I've been tied up. My wife wrecked our car 2 days ago and now I'm crying..Got to pay for that. I would love a manual copy when you get the time. [email protected]

I'm having problems with Trough 2 switch. It does not work when activated. Multimeter is not reading any flow through it. The game is down now and says Ball Missing. UGH! I got a friend coming over FRIDAY to see it! UGH! Anyone know what that switch is called? Microswitch? Not sure what to order.

OK. found it in the online manual fragment listed on IPDB. Says Trough #2 switch is a 180-5009-00. Got it! I think switches that will fit that are at Radio Shack..for emergencies!

no proper POTO switch replacement at Radio Shack. Ordered 2 correct ones from Marcos Pinball today ($3.99) along with new flipper bushings (mine are weak) and a VUK spring ($3!!!!). Have a new badass soldering iron coming to fix several wires that have fallen off their spots. Got me a good one to last forever. This machine will be great soon. I found about 4 pins on the numeric display that are broken off.. I think that may be why my display has commas and lines everywhere. I might solder a piece of jump wire across to connect them. I wonder if that would work? THey really bashed this Phantom to crap at the arcade. It was destroyed, but looking nice now with my hand paint job and LED makeover.

Thanks to DARSCOT for scanning the manual and schematics for me!!!! You rock!

Wish I could have looked at these when I was handpainting my POTO. The one I used for reference on IPDB is different from yours..I believe. The ball drain area is different..so mine is painted different than your spare PF.

I got my switches, flipper bushings, spare diodes, and new VUK spring (needed badly to play game at all) from Marcos overnight. They are about 60 miles from me so I get most packages overnight with regular standard shipping. I also received my new Soldering Iron ordered from Amazon with killer reviews. Going to do my first soldering job ever today and install my Trough #2 switch on POTO. Wish me good karma. ha. I want this game working today! I only have one machine working for goodness' sake!!! My Eight Ball Deluxe is a 6 month overhaul job not ready till 2016!

Please document all of that in pictures. I need to know what you are trying/doing. My phantom face is destroyed from below and is severely bubbled, burned, and knotty. Post any pics/tips etc you can!

i soldered on the new Trough #2 switch and the game started right up! What a relief! Added a new mini spring in the second VUK that feeds from Organ into the red wire track. working now for the first time. Now on to my terribly weak flippers..replacing the plastic bushings tomorrow..hope it works without an all new kit or coils.

I did the same...took my wife to see it...Phantom is her favorite pinball machine..two birds one stone. Im working on my destroyed and try to bring me back to life Eight Ball Deluxe now..hope to get it to at least come on by Christmas!! Bad MPU board and Power Module.

I paid $2000 for mine. Terrible playfield damage which you can see in the video I posted earlier in this thread. Playfield had never been really cleaned and was completely covered in white and black crud. It was thick and all the star posts had to be replaced because of it. They were also cracked and crumbling. The rubbers were original and were cruddy. Whole machine under playfield was crap, many broken plastics, ruined Phantom face in PF from wrong bulbs beneath which caused mylar bubbling, melting, playfield melt lumps and damage. With all that wretched nightmare, I still forked over too freakin much for it.

You're making me insanely nervous JBoner with those pics of the playfield all stripped away from the removal of Mylar! The one with no Phantom face makes me cringe. I hope you got a good plan!

got that fixed a long time ago. All i needed was a new spring. Mine was bent up.. Original coil, plastics, etc are all fine. VUK shoots balls great now. My POTO is fully functioning and stellar now. It took me 6 months to paint it clean it fix it up. Good luck to all you guys.