Fort Worth, TX
My son and I are hoping to get out there tomorrow morning, so we'll be sure to give it a play.
(Topic ID: 328709)
Linked Games
Flash Gordon
Bally, 1981-
Freefall
Stern Electronics, 1981
-
Harlem Globetrotters On Tour
Bally, 1979
Topic Gallery
Quoted from mikeflstfi:My son and I are hoping to get out there tomorrow morning, so we'll be sure to give it a play.
Yeah come on by! I should be at the table in our booth. Come say hi!
Quoted from PantherCityPins:Yeah come on by! I should be at the table in our booth. Come say hi!
We swung by the game a couple of times while we were there this morning. You did a great job on it! Light years ahead of another Globetrotter I saw there. Sorry we missed you, though.
Quoted from mikeflstfi:We swung by the game a couple of times while we were there this morning. You did a great job on it! Light years ahead of another Globetrotter I saw there. Sorry we missed you, though.
Aw, sorry I missed you! I’ve been running around doing stuff all day. I’m beat!
Current schedule is:
Pop-A-Card
Flash Gordon
Taxi
Xenon
Freefall
Cyclone
Surf Champ
Jungle Queen
Guess I have some work to do…
Quoted from PantherCityPins:Globetrotters brought home some hardware!! It went to its new home as well. A little sad to see it go but excited to start the next project! The buyer of Globetrotters also sent me home with a Xenon to restore. It will go into the queue.
[quoted image]
Congratulations, and well deserved! I passed by several times yesterday, and people were always playing the game, saying positive things, and enjoying it.
Quoted from Mr_Tantrum:Congratulations, and well deserved! I passed by several times yesterday, and people were always playing the game, saying positive things, and enjoying it.
I think I was most proud that it stayed up the entire weekend without a single complaint! I literally cleaned the glass once and otherwise forgot about it!
I have recovered from my TPF fatigue and am progressing on Pop A Card. Got the cabinet repairs pretty much done. This one has some delaminating issues which are causing me a headache. Got it primed today. Using Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3 this time, water based. Planning to do a test with the Harlem water based enamel to see if it sticks better before I spend the money on the correct base color.
image (resized).jpgBase coat applied, just beat the rain!
The adhesion test with the Sherwin Williams Emerald went better but still had a couple small areas pull free. This was only after 6 hours dry time so it might have been ok with 24 hours. Anyhow, I sanded the test panel off, reprimed and shot Benjamin Moore Advance which is another water based alkyd enamel. This is “Easter Lily” in satin for anyone interested. Fingers crossed this one sticks better!!
I’ll let this dry for at least 24 hours and then web it.
Time to play some Jurassic Park!
Quoted from friscopinball:Taxi?!
Oh man, I bet that’s going to be a stunner.
Taxi is my personal game. Working on some custom touches for it.
Quoted from PantherCityPins:Taxi is my personal game. Working on some custom touches for it.
Beautiful. I loved your Harlem Globetrotters at TPF and was bummed it sold so quickly.
Keep up the great work!
Quoted from friscopinball:Beautiful. I loved your Harlem Globetrotters at TPF and was bummed it sold so quickly.
Keep up the great work!
Hey thanks! I really appreciate that! I’m just trying to learn more and get a little better with each machine I do.
1 week later
Lest you think I have gone dark, things continue to move along! This week the Pop A Card cabinet was base coated, webbed and stenciled. Looks good! The Benjamin Moore alkyd enamel paint over Bullseye 1-2-3 primer did well, no delamination. Going to get the cabinet put back together this week and then just have to wait on the playfield to come back from Vegas Playfields. If the playfield is still going to be more than a week or so, I will put the Pop-A-Card cabinet aside and start on Flash Gordon.
AAC99078-CD42-44B0-B869-6F88EA45BEA5 (resized).jpegHere’s our current state on Pop A Card. Back box board is done and reinstalled. Have to put in bulbs and some soft Velcro strips to cushion the backglass. Bottom board is in the process of being rebuilt. I stripped it and put on wipe on polyurethane before reinstalling the components. I will go through the switch stacks tomorrow and clean and adjust them. I will also print new relay ID strips and install those. Tilt board will be cleaned and installed. This weekend plan is to regrain the stainless and get the cabinet all done.
Bad news is the playfield will be another two months (ugh). So, once this cabinet is back together I will start on the next project, Flash Gordon!!
image (resized).jpgimage (resized).jpgOk, moving on to Flash Gordon!
Here’s where we are starting:
0D8A44D8-85D1-4A9E-9F12-6448B8CEF029 (resized).jpeg40CE3996-A2CE-49AB-9F11-3EDA3423FC84 (resized).jpeg9FAF4736-2D46-4BAD-A4F6-C8B742B104F9 (resized).jpegA47110C4-2D4B-4C0F-B47E-956B764D6FDE (resized).jpegDD894DD4-6799-4E14-B698-1B1694B64ED5 (resized).jpeg
ECB21775-A45F-410B-B9BA-5F36A6FE7CF1 (resized).jpeg8BB32246-3C83-48EA-B20C-C6E9C11FE6E9 (resized).jpeg1D946F90-75BA-4EB2-85AE-D6533EA08E92 (resized).jpegProgress update on Flash Gordon:
- removed all ramps and rails from the old playfield, wood rails were sanded to 320 grit and painted gloss black. Both metal ball guides were removed from the wood rails and polished.
- fun discovery, someone decided to brush paint polyurethane onto the playfield in the past and didn’t remove everything so there is polyurethane residue all over the ball guides. Polishing wheel to the rescue…
- new wire inlane guides were made because both original ones were broken at the level of the playfield. Pretty common.
- all T nuts installed, made sure to countersink the one by the drop mech on the lower playfield. If you don’t do this the drop mech won’t sit flush.
- desoldered and removed the harness and main mechs from the old playfield. They are getting a soak overnight in simple green and water before going into the dishwasher tomorrow.
- did have a setback. I had a brand new screw snap the head off while trying to install a ramp. After a few choice words I drilled out the area and filled it with epoxy. I’ll let that cure overnight before redrilling the hole. Stupid screw.
BF6FD3BD-E278-45CF-89D3-7465870837C5 (resized).jpegE379D496-836B-4F78-80CF-50AB33140B15 (resized).jpeg
F88F985C-7879-4D38-A5E2-20423C9667D3 (resized).jpegF82553E4-075A-4195-ADE6-1E3EDEB8EE23 (resized).jpeg
image (resized).jpgWorking on upper playfield today. First step is getting the pop anchors installed. Often the holes and dimples from CPR are off so it’s important to verify everything sits correctly before drilling. In this case the dimples for the pop screw plate on the back were off, the center hole needed to be widened and the holes for the socket legs needed to be widened towards the center to accept the legs.
So, first step is putting on the pop base to locate the anchor plate. Then the screws are installed into that plate. After that the holes for the socket were widened and the socket installed. I countersink my pop anchor holes to make sure the heads sit flush on the playfield. The countersinks from CPR are never wide enough.
7EB5F5FA-A730-4ECF-9E23-4653CBD82007 (resized).jpeg
I install the anchors with a hammer until they are a couple mms above the playfield surface and then I use a small nut driver and my hammer so I don’t risk hitting the playfield clear.
I install Mylar around my pops, it’s probably overkill but it’s original.
D03DAFF1-723B-4C0D-893F-1E0F50F53F14 (resized).jpeg
Pop completed. Ignore the ugly green place holder skirt. I’m waiting for my order from Pinball Resource. It will be white.
1 week later
Alright! Progress update.
Over the past two weeks I:
- traveled to NYC for 4 days to celebrate my wife’s 50th birthday (saw Wicked on Broadway).
- got sick right after NYC and felt horrible for 3 days (not COVID, tested negative). It was all I could do to make it through work and come home and crash.
- bought a basically new Godzilla Premium (21 lifetime plays on it when I bought it). Traveled 4 hours round trip to get it, took another evening setting it up and installing a couple mods.
- painted and shipped 4 custom shooter rods for Foo Fighters.
- went to multiple events for my daughters graduation from High School.
Anyhow, needless to say, poor Flash Gordon sat for a bit.
However, there is hope! Today I installed the pop bumpers (got my white skirts in finally), moved all the sockets over to the new playfield, ran all the ground braid, soldered in all the ground braid and verified continuity.
Huzzah!
If anyone is interested, my method for this is as follows:
- install the pop nails and tee nuts on the playfield first.
- install the pop bumpers and sockets. I do this first because when you run the braid it is very nice to have a target to hit. I’ve had issues before where my braid was too short and I had to solder in an extension, looks ugly.
- move each socket over to the new playfield and lay it in place one at a time. I remove the screws first, then desolder each socket and move them one at a time, leaving the ground braid in place as a template. I will screw in the sockets every 6-8 sockets or so. This is so I make sure the screw orientation is correct, etc. easier on a dimpled playfield obviously.
- run the ground braid using the original playfield as a template. Solder it in once the staples are placed.
- verify continuity between all the sockets. Do this now! It’s a big pain in the arse to discover you have a cold solder joint on a ground braid with everything installed.
Pics of the process:
8337D928-AD59-421D-BB00-76354A516BC6 (resized).jpeg41266C15-06E9-4B99-863B-72688C15DE83 (resized).jpeg4D8EB041-F1B6-49C9-8660-CB92B963D5DD (resized).jpegD610B234-69E3-4322-B290-118D5DBC475F (resized).jpegBE9122AA-7632-4292-871E-D1F61EB48721 (resized).jpeg4BD418FE-FDDE-420D-9870-161298A8F7B5 (resized).jpeg
1 month later
I’ve been a major slacker on posting and have been busy with my nieces wedding, vacation, work, etc but progress has not stopped!
Flash Gordon playfield is done and awaiting the cabinet restoration which I will start this week.
Pop-A-Card is complete and will go back with its owner tomorrow! Came out nicely.
IMG_6477 (resized).jpegIMG_6478 (resized).jpegIMG_6479 (resized).jpegIMG_6480 (resized).jpegIMG_6481 (resized).jpegIMG_6482 (resized).jpegQuoted from PantherCityPins:The patient has been gutted and is ready for surgery sir![quoted image]
Looks like the patient may be going through an NDE at the moment. Good luck with resuscitation.
Quoted from Mr_Tantrum:Looks like the patient may be going through an NDE at the moment. Good luck with resuscitation.
IMG_6508 (resized).jpeg 3 weeks later
Here’s one side of the cabinet done. I’m not happy with the sheen on a section of black, the Montana spray paint works well for small areas like a stencil but it’s hard to get it to lay down really evenly over a large area like on this cabinet. I will probably tape over the gold color and try to respray that area of black on the front of this side.
I considered overspraying everything with polyurethane but I’m concerned it will either react with or dull the metallic paint which looks really nice.
IMG_6558 (resized).jpegWhich caps are you using with the Montana cans? I had a terrible time on my first repaint with them because I was just using the stock gold caps. Changing to their green ones made a huge difference. I use the biggest one for the base color: green with the pink nozzle.
Montana makes good topcoat sprays too that should be compatible with all their paints. I’ve used their varathane sprays before but I have not used any of their metallic paints.
Your works looking great!
I never knew such a thing existed: https://www.amazon.com/Spray-Paint-Compatible-Montana-Master/dp/B09623RBVT/ref=asc_df_B09623RBVT/
https://www.jerrysartarama.com/montana-replacement-caps
I think the colors are a bit in this image than the way they make them now. I usually go with the Ultra Fat Cap for the base coat and then either a Fat Cap or Soft Fat Cap for the stencils. Haven't tried the skinny ones.
Jerry's is a great source to order the paint too. Their site and search function is horrible but the prices are good and "free" (+$4.00 handling fee for combustibles) shipping over like $59 usually. I live just up the road from a Jerry's store here but the in-store prices are like 30% higher!
pasted_image (resized).pngOh yeah, bears worth saying. If you do use the Montana Varathane, the stock caps that come with those are great. No need to swap.
Quoted from Mr_Tantrum:I never knew such a thing existed: https://www.amazon.com/Spray-Paint-Compatible-Montana-Master/dp/B09623RBVT/ref=asc_df_B09623RBVT/
Just ordered a set. Thanks for posting the link!
1 month later
Quoted from DawnP:Mark and I met you at TPF this year. We visited with you for a little while and got a few games in on Globetrotters. That game was awesome and seeing where you started from is impressive.
Thanks I appreciate that! Still hammering away at Flash Gordon, it’s been the most difficult cabinet repaint yet. I’ve had to redo it completely twice now. Good news is I got it finally sorted and am happy with the results. Cabinet is going back together this weekend and then I can get the playfield back in and start chasing gremlins.
I’ll post some progress pics this weekend.
2 weeks later
3 weeks later
2 months later
Just finished Xenon!! I will be documenting my projects on my Youtube channel from now on.
Final reveal video:
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