Stingray was my 2nd pin I ever bought. Still have it, still enjoy it.

Current line up of STERNS:

Trident
Big Game
Stingray
Dracula
Meteor

& Sea Witch is joining them tomorrow after I pick her up @ York.

Would love to have a Star Gazer, but am not the type of person to drop that much $ on one. Hoping that someday I can find a reasonable priced basket case that I can restore.

Also I could be talked into a Flight 2000 or a Nine Ball pretty easy.

I looked hard at buying a STARS at Allentown, but just couldn't pull the trigger. Just didn't do it for me......

Eventually I'd like to have as many early Sterns as I have early Bally SS's to even out the collection.

I really like Big game..... of my Sterns.... I dunno, I like them all, with trident being at bottom of list as far as game play. Big Game would be right u p there with meteor... It's ridiculous how simple meteor is (very similar to Dracula) but man everyone who plays it really likes that game, myself included. Funny part is, my Meteor really needs a lot of work as well... & it's still fun. I'd say Big game & Meteor are both about the same for fun factor for me. Maybe slight edge to Big Game because there is just so much going on.

As far as overall collection, it's up there.... I like my Scorpion (when it is working) Paragon, Big Game, Meteor.... SilverBall, Nitro Ground Shaker..... maybe in that order? Although I can walk in the room & play Stingray any day of the week & be happy.

Of all my Solid States, Probably Mata Hari & Genie would be my 2 least favorite to play. If I didn't want to keep one wide body from each of the 4 major manufacturers I'd have probably gotten rid of Genie a while ago. I've learned that I'm just not a Gottlieb guy...

Of all the Sterns discussed in this post, one that I see not getting much talk about, that I would like to find a nice one to play is Magic.... I have never seen a nice one around to try. I really like the art on that game... rarely see them talked about or for sale. I could probably be talked into trading my Mata Hari or Genie for a decent Magic.

Dracula..... coming back to life as it were....

More pics in following days/weeks....

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Off top of my head I think it has 8 coats total, but keep in mind it was wet sanded in between every 2 coats, so total finished thickness?

It's hard to get good pics of clear PF's in my garage where I work on them, I have 26 very bright halogen ceiling light fixtures each with 4 bulbs in & they overpower the camera when taking pics, you end up just seeing bright white reflections of the lights.

Next step get all the rubbing/polishing compound out of all the edges & get holes all opened back up & get it ready for assembly.

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Making progress on Dracula....

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Next Victim after Dracula is done.....

Just started cleaning it up tonight with magic eraser to see what I have to work with......

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That's right, I had forgotten he had gotten this off of you. I think I traded him a Xenon PF for it, I don't remember exact details as I also got a Stingray PF from him as well. Maybe I traded my old Playboy PF for it. Who knows. It cleaned up pretty nice, & I think will be fairly easy touch up deal & then onto the high gloss treatment. LOL

Dracula needs one feature lamp socket replaced, otherwise it's good to go. Now on to making rest of machine look as nice as the PF.

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No that's just me being an idiot & cutting them out a hair small LOL. Font/size etc is same as factory. If I find time maybe I'll re-do them.

Stingray got a coin door/door trim & leg repaint. Loving the Rustoleum "hammered" finish paint.

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It's nothing special.... it's mostly the way I bought it a couple years ago.

All I've done to it was rebuild flippers, put Comet Retro LEDs in PF, SMD's in the backbox, & a new beehive & shooter rod, along with some flipper switches & buttons.

It had an Alltek MPU when I bought it & new PF glass. Cab is original, PF is original.

Oh & I put a BG Resto Backglass in it. Before end of Winter I plan on stripping the PF, touching it up & fixing some inserts & clearing. Some of the inserts are starting to get pretty bad. I will switch the posts out to red as I hate white posts, & get rid of the black rubbers in favor of whites, just little personal preferences that I like on games.

The plastics are all original & in nice condition including the often broke center clamshell.

It's a fun game.... good spinners, & the chimes are cool for an Early SS. I really like the art... underwater themes are always some of my favorites. Stingray reminds me of the 1977 Nick Nolte/Jacqueline Bisset movie "the Deep" which is one of my all time favorite movies.

& No none the displays are not bad, it's just the way my iPhone takes pics of displays....They all work perfectly.

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Owing a bunch of both brands, my unscientific thoughts on how much each one bricks, I would agree with that. My Stern target assemblies with Stern targets definitely drop cleaner than my Bally's

Making progress....

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I know one thing for certain, I will never restore another purple pinball machine.... getting this color even close to where I wanted it has been a HUGE pain. Many attempts at tinting, several different paint shops scanning colors, mixing/tinting colors etc. It's not exactly what I wanted, but it's pretty good. Purple is a very difficult color to work with.... In the end, this is a custom Sherwin Williams Magenta/White semi gloss mix with a touch of blue added & clear coat added some depth & darkened it a hair. Purple is tricky because it looks so different in different lighting... & from all the pics of Draculas I looked at they vary wildly on original color. The original color under the rails on this machine was a bit more reddish plum than this purple, but when I sanded the purple on the backbox the color was more purple & less reddish.... I don't think this color is exactly the way the majority of Dracula's came out of Stern, but I think it's sharp & probably a better looking color than the original. I'm not a 100% stickler for originality, so this is what I went with due to personal preference.

Pinball Pimp Stencils, excellent quality as usual.

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Just have some minor touch ups to do on the Backglass, & then I think Drac is done.... I've been playing the heck out of it & loving it.

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Just finished cabinet job on Seawitch.... I bought this as a nasty pile of parts at the York show last fall..... now she's just waiting for me to finish the PF clear coat job.....

Also moved some Sterns into my back wall & broke up my Bally monopoly there in my game room....

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Wow & here I just wanted the two that have repainted cabs next to each other (Drac & SW) alongside my other re-pinated cab Ballys LOL. Never thought about trying to color coordinate my collection. Although on 3 of my Ballys, PB, Silverball & EK I have them all together because they all have Mirrored back glasses & they look good together, so maybe I do go for some semblance of order?

Guy who sold me this Seawitch PF said that "it's not nice enough to go in a game, just selling as a wall hanger or for art" LOL I think it will be plenty nice enough for my Seawitch. Of course it looks a "little" different now than when I bought it. Now need to clean out all the slots/holes etc & prep for re-assembly.

& a Pic of my next Stern "victim". Not mine, doing for a Friend, the cab is really bad.... will be a lot of work. If anyone has any extra Cheetah plastics, please PM me.

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Yep she's blue.... at least the one side is. The left side has been sanded to bare wood by someone in past.... going to have to have stencils made for it. I think the Blue looks sooooo much better than the black cabs. I assume this is a fairly early one, it actually has a leftover Seawitch Coin door wiring harness & as far as I can tell the machine is all original, so it's not something someone swapped in later. I think it was just left over harness that went into next game in production line which was Cheetah. Funny, as when I stripped my Seawitch cab down it turned out to be a factory leftover Ali Cabinet (game built before SW)

Got the cab stripped today to evaluate what I've got to work with. Yes the PF is pretty decent, inserts are all shrunk more than normal for a Stern... that will be a bit of a pain to do custom stencils/decals for top of new inserts. I'm probably going to end up replacing almost every insert. We got an NOS Backglass coming for it... need to find some plastics, most are decent, just couple missing & cracked.

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This is the plan... of course I need to call Jeff this week & confirm he is willing to do them & just confirm scanning details etc. If this works ok, I'm actually going to scan my Trident as well as Stingray & see if we can get Stencils made for those as well. So hopefully all goes well & maybe he can add 3 more classic Sterns to his stencil lineup.

No this one is not that one..... it did sell on eBay, but very recently & for more $. It was listed as a "parts machine" What a joke.... all it was missing was the MPU, the displays & the BG. The PF is quite nice & is going to touch up & be beautiful when done.... yes cab has issues, but I don't want to meet the type of guys who are parting out a basically complete Cheetah. It would have been an absolute pinball sin to part this machine out. I will make it a creampuff, I'm going further with this machine than any other I have done, it will be "nice" when done. The owner wats to put all Stern electronics in it so I'm donating my old MPU-200 out of my Big Game for it to complete the board set & I happed to have an extra set of 7 digit displays that I bought by accident a while back not realizing they were not 6 digit (which is what I wanted at the time) So it is all working out...

Seawitch blue wave spinner decals?? Can't find these for sale anywhere.... one of last parts I need to finish a resto I'm doing. Anyone know of a source?

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Seawitch just about done.....

Stars just getting started.....

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What do we think the market cap would be for an over the top restored STARS?

This one may be avail at Allentown: A. If I decide to sell it & B. If I get it done in time....

CPR BG, Mint clear coated PF, all new Pinitech uno displays, Alltek Trifecta, new rectifier, all new everything (posts, plastics, pop bumper, targets etc) on the PF. Restored & stenciled cabinet, all new ground braid, lamp sockets, comet LED's, all mechs rebuilt, all new coils in the chimes etc etc. Every nut/bolt/screw polished etc. I'll have well over 200 hours in this thing when done... Just not sure it will be worth selling because STARS never bring big $ like the rarer STERNS, although I have never seen one taken to anywhere near this level before so.... hard to get feel for what it would be worth. Not my favorite game, but may just end up keeping it.

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You guys must have missed the part about it MIGHT be done by Pinfest (Early May) It's far from done right now.... cabinet is just about finished along with coin door. Backbox is stripped & in process of being repaired, PF is stripped & getting ready for clear. I was simply just wondering what people think a very high end STARS would be worth when done. It seems no one ever takes these non rare games to this kind of level.

I've done quite a few Bally & Stern Restos over the past few years, but am taking this one to "the next level" at least for me.... using everything I have learned restoring cabinets, touching up PF's, clearing PF's etc on those other games to take this one to new heights.

Couple pics of few of the jobs I have done in last couple years, these were all quite nice, but STARS will be on the next level. Just new territory for me as this is a game that most people think of as a $800-$1000 game. Probably out of my mind for going nuts with it, but what the heck. I'm also currently restoring another Playboy, a Seawitch that is almost done & a Cheetah... STARS just doesn't quite fit in with those other 3 in my shop right now lol.

I'll keep posting update pics as I go along.

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Thanks...If you want to see more of it, I had a dedicated thread on Trident here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-trident-poseidon-lives

Fun game.

Has anyone used anything more powerful than a J26-1200 for their pop bumpers? Finally finishing a Seawitch that I have been restoring for a year or so, & am unhappy with the power of the pops. Everything is rebuilt, polished the plunger, new coil stop, new coil sleeve, cleaned switches, polished rods, the usual deal etc. These coils just will not hit hard... voltages etc check out normal. I'm down to either removing some windings from these coils or trying a hotter coil. All 3 are hitting at about same level, but they are just not impressive at all, I've had many sterns with harder hitting pops. All 3 have original Stern J26-1200's. Driving me nuts, as I've got everything else playing great, all 4 flippers are hitting strong, both slings are wicked, targets dropping good etc. This was a complete PF swap & have worked through a bunch of small weird issues & this is last remaining hurdle. I'm ordering a cap kit for the sound board tomorrow & am thinking about adding some coils to my order.

I pulled 200 off of the stock J26-1200's last night & definitely helped...... I can live with where they are at now. I did notice that the total plunger travel on these Stern Pops is about 1/8"-3/16" less than the travel of a Bally pop assembly of the same era..... I may play around with increasing travel tonight just to see what it does.

Seawitch I am finishing finally after year & half. I picked this up as a basket case at the York show 2018. Greatwich BG, swapped in a better PF I found on ebay, I touched up & cleared. Alltek MPU/SD boards, rebuilt Stern LD board & rebuilt SB300, new rectifier. Repainted the cab, new rails, rebuilt all mechs, cpr plastics, new PF glass etc. etc.

I increased plunger travel .150" on the pops as well after trimming 200 windings from each coil, thing is playing awesome, what an addictive game. Waiting on cap kit for the sound board which should be here tomorrow & need to repair the #3&4 score displays & she's pretty much done. I was originally restoring this to keep it...... then I decided I'd sell it, & now after getting it done & how fun it is the play, I'm going to have hard time letting it go if I decide to. By far the most fun game I've restored.

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Stars restoration coming along slowly.........Display board done. New sockets/braid cleaned wiring & re-pinned, sanded board down with 320, cleaned up/repaired socket holes, chemically dipped & clear coated display holders.

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Been hammering away at this Cheetah restore.... got about 30 hours in repairing the back box, was worst condition BB & Cab I have ever worked on. This machine had seen a tremendous amount of moisture in the past, all the MDF parts were frayed heavily etc. Large chunks of wood also just missing from the back box on the top & sides....

I ended up making a new rear panel for it out of 1/4" Maple ply. Hand reproduced the slots etc. Just shot it in blue over the weekend, now have to talk to owner to see if he wants to do the black trim on the front like factory. I think it looks so much better in blue....but that's his call. I'm not a huge stickler for originality, but this machine probably should go with the black trim due to the value.

Will start shooting yellow & black here in a few days, & probably going to do a semi gloss clear when all is said & done to seal it.

The Cab has about 40 hours of repair & I just shot the bottom of it in blue last night & will shoot the rest later this week. It's in the background hiding behind an Evel Knievel I am doing as well as a Stars.

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This Cheetah display board was horrible. Every staple had rusted to dust. One of the corners was rotted off on the front from water damage etc.

Repaired, leveled & primed/shot semi gloss white & starting to run new braid & all new sockets.

Display trays before & after pic, bead blast & clear coat lightly to avoid future surface rust.

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Good score....... I was couple hours too late on that one. I went out to that place in Bloomsburg & bought couple other Stern playfields & some other misc Stern parts on Saturday afternoon. Real nice looking Magic PF.

Even funnier.... I had been looking for a junk Meteor to do a SG build..... buddy of mine was out at that guys place 2 weeks ago & texts me that he has a nasty Meteor with no backbox.... PF was complete, cab was rough. I bought it sight unseen for $400. I've been working on restoring the cab in my non existent free time. It was ROUGH. I'm going to do a SG build/restoration post eventually. I'll probably wait till I get the Cab done first.

I saw that Magic PF pop up for sale & missed out on it, but guy says he has bunch of PF's including some Sterns, so I went out there Sat & bought the best of what he had left. Then come to realize it's same guy who my buddy bought the Meteor off of....

On bunch of the Stern PF's he had, someone had destroyed the drop target mechs on, tearing them apart without tools. He had a Flight 2000, but Drop target mechs gone of course. The PF's themselves were heavily worn. I just bought these for parts, couple good aprons etc.

If anyone has one of these Stern shooter rod plates, please PM me. Also looking for Stern Knocker bracket or knocker assy, as well as a couple original coin door carriage bolts. Cheetah I am restoring came in pieces as a parts machine & apparently those items were not with it.

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He does, but they are for a Bally, which used smaller heads than the Sterns. Every one I've found from hardware store etc is slightly different in the size of the head. I may just end up replacing the entire set to have a new matching set. I'm only missing 2.

I was a Machinist for 16 years, so I can make a shooter plate, but I think owner would prefer original Stern part if we can locate one. Waiting on CPR PF, so we have time to locate stuff.

Classic arcades makes the old school Stern ones in blue & red & black & red for like a Dracula. I heavily modify them & make them work with a lot of effort to clean them up. Biggest problem is he does not make a Stern shooter gauge decal to match.....

Stern Apron decals is definitely a market someone needs to get into here in the States.

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It is white.... & I agree other than the lettering snafu on the Pinball Rescue ones, they are better than Classic arcades, but when you said no one in the States makes Stern Apron decals I just wanted to make sure people knew that the Classic Arcades ones are avail as an absolute last resort. Again, you have to do a lot of trimming etc to make them look decent.