Please participate in our Next Hardtop Poll!

Jungle Lord I have your blackout which is perfect

Centaur

I feel as though I once read somewhere (I may be incorrect), a statement from OutsideEdge saying they weren't keen to do titles already available through other makers. However, I'd think, theoretically, for every new repro playfield sold and used, there is now a beat up playfield unused, laying around.. awaiting rebirth with a hardtop!

It's Centaur.

full disclosure, I'm presently staring at a post-swap beat out C pf wondering what to do with it.

Earthshaker, Funhouse, Police Force, Whirlwind

Since you are licensed with Gottlieb how about some classic wedgeheads? King of Diamonds, Cross Town, Bank a Ball, Kings and Queens to name a few.

Hmmm...where do you see this posted? I don't believe they inquired on the Gottlieb IP yet.

Strikes and Spares is a Bally game, which is in the poll. Strikes 'n Spares is a Gottlieb game, not in the poll.

Earthshaker please, please, please

Cyclone!!!!

Cyclone

Eight ball

Cyclone and possibly Checkpoint?

Earthshaker, Whirlwind, Police Force please.

Laser Cue

Bally Rolling Stones. No options other than the vinyl overlay.

Did anyone mention Supersonic

Seriously, with 10K of them, this is a popular title that always has a playfield totally blown out.

I second the motion for Laser Cue.

Jungle Lord seems to be taking longer than other titles to compete

So after banging out a hard top in under 3 hrs (total man hours). I’ve watched all the YouTube vids and have come to the conclusion you guys really have over thought this hard top install. This thing is stupid easy no need to tape and clamp the hard top. No need for a second person. Just use 3 star post with hardware to secure the hardtop after fitting it ( diametrically ) and bam peel and stick. Hell I didn’t even remove the playfield from the game. No need for a rotisserie ( even tho I think people buy these to just say they have one, and say rotisserie as many times as they can) if you’ve changed a set of brakes on a car you can do this in a night. No clear coat required just polish the inserts.

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To each their own. I've done three hardtop installs so far:

- No way would I want to sand off the insert art/shine with the playfield still in the cabinet, just from a sheer dust perspective (unless your pin is in your garage or driveway, and you don't care about dirtying up the rest of your cabinet interior). Also - how the hell are you supposed to get the factory stapled rails out of a Bally SS machine while it's still in the cabinet?

- I did my first hardtop by putting the playfield on a couple of sawhorses for the topside teardown, hardtop install, and topside repopulation. Then I got a rotisserie and used that for the next two hardtop installs. Hands down, way better/easier with rotisserie.

- I've done two installs where I just wet sanded the inserts and a third where I laid down a couple of light coats of rattle can clear on the inserts. No appreciable difference IMO and will probably just go the wet sand polished route for my next hardtop install.

- Clamps holding the hardtop in place during installation is a quick and easy no brainer. I do agree that one person can install it easily by himself (I did two that way) if everything goes right in the peeling back of the backing. However....if that peeling part doesn't go well and that backing rips or does something that requires you to use an Xacto knife or a pair of scissors to recover and get back on track, a second pair of hands really comes in handy. I make sure my son is within shouting distance when I start putting down the hardtop.

Bottom line: do what you're comfortable with after spending $300+ on the hardtop product and not having to buy another if you muck it up.

its called a sander attached to a shop vac, case in point. theres no muck to get into the cabinet when using a da with a vacuum. also any "dirty" part can be shop vac'd out. also the amount of sanding dust that made its way to to any switches was EASILY vacuumed out from the topside. If your decent with your tack rag you'll get 90% of the dust before you even need to vacuum

your Staple issue can be fixed by tilt the play field up. ( I should have specified play field was Lifted out and rested from its normal position)

the clamps aren't need since your using the holes that have been tooled for the game, agreed its just as quick to clamp but why? why not use the holes in the hard top to hold your position? the error will decrease significantly as the 3 or 4 random holes will line up all your others and you don't have to worry about clamps sliding or tape sliping. and you've ensured that quadrant will be 100% and when done move the 3-4 the other direction.

with the ripping of the back, it happed to me 2-3 times. but was easily able to rectify to situation with my exact-o knife or exact-o finger. not trying to start an argument but seems some of the info on these is skewed like they're getting ready to put this play field into space. Its a pinball machine not a spaceship.

I second Meteor but since it's a Stern Pin and CPR makes repops I'm not holding my breath.

KISS, please.

Yep - I don't have that setup. And even if I did....still wouldn't do it. My pins are in my downstairs furnished home theater/rec room and my hidden workshop/storage area has space for my workbench where I do PCB repair....no space for a playfield. Sanding, painting, etc. etc....that's what I have a garage for.

No way I could've gotten those staples out with the playfield tilted vertically in the cabinet. Perhaps my staple-removal skillz aren't on par with everyone else.

Clamps - do most of the holes line up fine? Yes. But why chance it when it comes to insert alignment? Your focus on a hardtop install is to ensure your insert artwork lines up 100% everywhere first, then clamp down and worry about the hole alignment later. On the three installs I've done, at least a dozen holes have had to be widened for posts/etc to fit, and several holes were either misaligned so poorly (or missing altogether) that I had to put new holes in the hardtop. Dremel to the rescue.

Rock on....

F-14
Space Station

Flash.

https://classicplayfields.com/shop/pinball-playfields/stones-playfield/

Getaway did get a lot of votes. Now that I have picked up a project HS2, I am rooting for this next!

Flash and Meteor would be instant buys for me. I've done Blackout and Firepower thus far. I will probably pull the trigger on Frontier soon.