Thanks for that! Not sure about a book, but if I complete enough games perhaps a calendar.

Short of minor tweaking on a Waterworld I owned I don't have much experience with Gottlieb, but I do like how they've gone about the workings of this game at least. It does seem to be much more service friendly and I really like how the underside of the playfield has all the mechs, switches, etc. labeled. The pop bumpers and drop target mechs have been easy to access and rebuild. One thing I don't like so much are the acorn speed nuts that secure most plastics to stud posts. Instead of simply removing the nut the entire post tends to come out with it.

I was not telling a fib. . . the workbench has filled back up.

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Several shop out pictures of the playfield less most pieces. I've removed enough to create access for cleaning, rubber/post changes, bulb changes, etc.

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I had visions of putting everything back together and flipping a few games later today but when I pulled the flipper mechs for a rebuild I found the coils had swollen to the point of not allowing removal of the sleeves. I usually replace the coils but thought I could get away with just the rebuild kit this time. Time to start searching PBR's site for anything else I might need.

Thanks Quint !

I know I could have done more with the cabinet (and I still may ) but I too am very happy with how it turned out. I always thought my Whirlwind looked respectable before, but now that I have this Earthshaker to compare it to I cannot help but think it looks a bit tatty. I need to finish up a couple other games before I start WW's transformation though.

Waiting for a couple of flipper coils from PBR before officially starting the next project. . . . . . I wonder Witch one it will be? You'll just have to wait and Sea!

I don't know where/how it falls in the Pinside rating but I'd agree Stargate is an enjoyable pin.

I've always been fascinated with Ancient Egypt so it is a good theme for me. I'll even admit to finding the movie and watching it (again) and I'm currently starting to catch an episode of the television series -- SG1 -- now and again as a follow up.

Happily the new coils arrived and I've been able to get the new parts installed. I like how the switches in the PBR kit come pre-soldered to the capacitors.

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A close up view of the original fiber link suggests a rebuild is a good idea.

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The only issue I experienced was probably due to reusing my old flipper shafts/shanks. When I would tighten the allen head screws they would "find" the old recess worn into the shaft previously. You can see the circular depression from the screw.

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The flippers moved freely when the screws were hand tightened but when followed up with the wrench the flipper would snug up to the playfield and had resistance to movement. I'm thinking the new arm cranks are a bit thicker than the original parts and the screw opening differed in height from the originals.

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To try and fix this I marked on the shaft the position I wanted the flipper to sit, then I took a square file and created a wider flat area for the set screw to firm up against. It seems I took this picture before using the file to make the flat spot.

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That made a big difference and I was able to get all three flipper mechs rebuilt, installed, and moving freely. A picture of the lower set from under the playfield.

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I was able to get a few games in this evening. Still a few adjustments to make after having most of the parts off the playfield, but it should not be long before the glass goes back on!

Stargate Shop Job Accomplished!

My original golden pyramid had lost some of its luster so before reinstalling it I gave it a new golden metallic coating. It was also a bit beaten up at the bottom due to a broken hinge mount and then hitting the post screws above the plastic. I flattened things out as best I could.

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I also had some new decals/lettering made (so we know what game we are playing ) and added them. I was happy to remove the "clear" rectangle that is part of the original decal as I felt it looked cheap. A hindsight note is that it probably would have been easier to do this with the pyramid out of the game, but I still think we achieved a desirable result.

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A stand back view after reassembly. My wireforms have lost some of their golden hue as well but I think the game still looks nice with the Comet LEDs and Titan translucent rubbers. Look real close and you can see I've also replaced the Horus/Anubis targets with some translucent blue versions. I'll work on taking a few more detail photos later to truly finish this project off.

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As promised -- some final pictures to close out the Stargate mini-chapter.

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I'll be starting a new project soon (or perhaps I've already started ) so look for a fresh title and some new imagery going forward!

You want me to give up my secrets, eh?

No, I'm not a fast enough picture taker to catch the ball in the position I want as its rolling. I have a lot of respect for anyone that can pull that off.

What you cannot see behind the scenes in my pictures is that I usually have the playfield pulled out from the cabinet some and have some array of materials under the front edge (between the playfield and cabinet) to more or less make it level. There is a lot of trial/error and shimming, but eventually I'll get a position where the ball stays put. To make it more fun I usually have to readjust each time I want to move the ball to a new location as all areas never seem to be universally level. Even when I have things just right I more often than not will bump the cabinet and send the ball rolling away from where I want it. . . it is a process that takes a lot of patience!

When I say the game has been living in my garage I don't mean that it has been folded up in some sort of storage mode. It was the sort of game I felt comfortable leaving out there due to the condition that it was in. There was no backglass so flaking of paint was not a worry. There was significant playfield wear (as you will see) so I was not worried about temperature variation.

Despite its roughness the game did boot up and play -- so it would be my go to entertainment when it came time to be in the garage or more often than not when I would fire up the grill. My cooking routine usually followed the path of light the charcoal, put a few games on Seawitch, throw the burgers on, play another game or two, flip the burgers, play another game or two. . . you get the idea. It was perfect setup for awhile.

Here are a couple pictures of how this Seawitch lived for the better part of a year.

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Several months down the road I found a crackled backglass at the Cleveland (I think) show and enhanced the cosmetics a bit.

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Late last year I made some garage renovations of sorts and Seawitch was moved back into an environmentally stable environment. It is also now living next to several games that have had their own makeovers. . . so now is a great time to give the Witch some love and make her a bit less ugly.

I hope not to disappoint. I'm going for respectable player vs. high end on this one.

Here is Seawitch in the new room. Just a bit less clutter surrounding it.

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(I pulled the plastics to obtain an accurate post count for ordering purposes.)

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Taking a closer look we can see mostly original boards in the upper cabinet. I say mostly because that Solenoid Driver is actually a Bally.

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The original battery was still on the MPU when I bought the game so it was promptly removed early on. Can't really tell you what my high score has been at this point.

Some playfield pictures. No need to say more than some wear is present.

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That upper right flipper has a Williams Logo on it!

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Awhile back I picked up one of greatwichjohn 's repro playfields as I think this one is beyond my restoration abilities. It was a less than perfect playfield by his standards (I think it has white vs. yellow triangle inserts), but it was a good price and will obviously be better than what I have.

Not sure what is up with the red drop targets -- I think those were destined for a Dragonfist. I'll be putting those in my stash of rare pinball parts for potential future projects.

Time for some cabinet pictures.

Removal of the lock down bar reveals something I've not encountered before. . . a game originally destined for a foreign land.

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Probably the original distributor plate. . . Montreal, eh?

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If you look under the dust and you can just make out that there are two transformers in there. The isolation transformer emits a nice hum when the game is plugged in but not turned on. I think this was something Canada required as a way of preventing a lethal shock. . .

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Original rectifier board. I'll probably be installing an upgrade from Weebly.

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After all the years this operator (registration?) card is still floating around inside. In addition to some spare parts.

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Speaking of spare parts, the interior cabinet corners hold all sorts of valuable extras. I'm half tempted to take the shop vac to it all but ultimately I know I'll sort thru everything to keep the useful bits.

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The coin door looks respectable and complete. I plan to give it the disassembly/cleaning/painting treatment. Hopefully I can find a Pinside guide to restoring it.

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That was my Grandpa's toolbox. He was generous enough to pass me on a number of his tools as well.

Oh don't worry. In addition to a new playfield there will be new drop targets, star standup targets, plastics, flipper bats, etc., . . . and all new blue posts. I hope it will be noticeable but at the same time very acceptable.

Some images of the playfield underside.

First the big picture.

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Hmmm, it seems more Bally pieces have found their way into this game (Hint: pop bumper).

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It looks like some repairs/updates have been attempted in the past. The quality flipper coils suggest it anyway.

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That about takes care of the "before" picture gallery. . . now its time to get to work on making things new again!

Well Thank You!

The first task I chose to tackle is looking over the circuit boards. I pulled everything from the upper cabinet and gave them a good cleaning. Rather than show you the details of every board here is a quick before/after of the sound board with new capacitors installed. Luckily I have a number of Big Daddy rebuild kits in my parts box so I did not have to wait on shipping.

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The toothbrush is used for cleaning flux off the board with alcohol after soldering. . . just in case you were worried I was brushing while working on boards.

The original MPU received a remote battery holder and the lamp driver was just given a good clean at this point. I did not reuse the Bally solenoid driver, but I did dig out an extra Stern SD from the stash. It was missing a few pieces but I had what I needed to make it useful again.

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Here everything is all lined up on the workbench.

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You may have noticed the high voltage capacitor is missing from the solenoid driver. Your eyes do not deceive you -- I left it off because I plan on using something else I had bought months (year(s))? ago. A set of LED displays from Pinitech ( acebathound ). This was an older set that was being discounted when he/they were making more modern revisions. . . but they should still work the trick for me. The nice thing about them is they run on 5V so I can pull the fuse for the high voltage on the rectifier (230V) and have one less area to trouble shoot.

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I'll also be upgrading the rectifier -- I may have to place another order with barakandl / nvram-weebly for that.

Before starting the teardown I put the SD back in place for a voltage check -- once that was found to be in proper order I replaced the MPU and saw my seven blinks. I swapped in a couple test displays just to make sure everything looked happy. I was even able to credit up and play a game. . . sort of. I ran thru all the solenoids/switches by hand to make sure everything was still working.

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Once content that I had the boards running properly I began the playfield topside tear down. Its been awhile since I've done this on an early 80s game. . . it did not take long at all!

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The playfield should be coming out soon. . . but I did bring a new-to-me game home yesterday so I'll have to pull myself away from it to keep the progress going.

I'll confirm that I appreciate your interest and will do my best to keep updates coming.

Speaking of which, nothing ground breaking over the last few days. I have been in disassembly mode and just about have the cabinet emptied of the internals.

(Mostly) Empty Cabinet:

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Parts on Bench:

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At this stage I think I have decided how far I want to go with this game. The colors are still bright on the cabinet. There are scuffs, scrapes, and wear present, but not enough so that I cannot appreciate the originality. The structure is still sound and sturdy. I think I've decided to make this a "sleeper" game -- similar to a car that has a rough exterior but a tweaked out interior/engine bay. I'll try to clean up the inside of the cabinet as best I can, sand down the internals, then probably rattle can some new interior paint before cleaning/reinstalling all of the parts you see piled up on the bench.

Due to space and my desire to own a future game of a different title (or two. . . or three) I'm thinking Seawitch may move to a new home eventually, but its difficult to say when until its back together and I can play it as new. So far that plan of attack has not worked so well for Judge Dredd, Earthshaker, or Paragon (they are all still here) but someday something is going to have to give. I did sell my Meteor, Taxi, as well as a couple other games so I know it is possible.

The plan will be to fix Seawitch up to a respectable level but hope to break even when sell day comes. If someone will want to re-stencil the cabinet in the future they should be able to do so with minimal extra work. . . I know if I try to do it I will go overboard and completely blow the budget. I hope to have the cabinet out and in a more workable location by the end of this weekend. Wish me luck!

Canadian Tips Noted. On the plus side the original line cord is in great shape and still has its original ground prong.

Today I was successful in moving the Seawitch Cabinet back to the workshop.

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If you've read thru this thread you know that I can state my plans/intentions for a project and then change them in the very next post. I think that may be what has to happen with what I plan to do with the cabinet.

While I'd love a simple interior freshening up, closer inspection is telling me I really need to put more effort into the cabinet exterior. A few pictures of what I am seeing.

More planking/paint flaking than I like:

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A looser than expected front corner:

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Finally, most significant -- the bottom of the back of the cabinet. More pieces missing than I remember.

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Sooooo, I'm thinking of taking on the task of solidifying/prepping the cabinet for a new set of stencils. I needed to make sure Pinball Pimp offered Seawitch as an option (he does) before I started sanding down the exterior -- in the meantime I started sanding the inside and used my ancient nail puller to assist with pulling the side rails. Don't worry, I'm up to date on my tetanus shot.

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I'll probably start sanding the rest of the cabinet later this week.

Be forewarned -- this will be more of a rattle can job vs. using the auto paints as I had done on Fathom. I do really need to maintain some kind of budget!!

Glad I could be part of your day! I appreciate you following along.

You'll just have to check back and see on that one.

Before sanding down too much of the cabinet color I've been trying to match some paint samples.

In the meantime my DIY Rectifier Board arrived from NVRAM-Weebly and I spent some time last night putting it together.

A before and after:

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Probably not as nice a job as it would have been if barakandl had done it himself. . . but that is ok as long as it works. I will mention to make sure to space the fuse clips far enough apart -- a couple of mine were a tad close and I had to make some adjustments. Also, the black diodes (1N4007?) were not obviously marked as far as which end was banded but I used the multi-meter and was able to figure out proper orientation.

PS -- just in case you did not read prior posts, the high voltage fuse was left out on purpose.

The process of strengthening the corners has begun.

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While I wait for glue to dry I have been working on another side project -- if you remember reading awhile back I pulled the engine out of dad's '53 Ford Pickup. The engine is all back together after a rebuild, but before it goes back in I cannot help but clean up the engine bay a bit. I took things one step further after I noticed a seepy rear seal on the transmission. . . and this happened this afternoon.

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(That is the transmission on the jack in front of the truck for those that don't know. Its removal is "what happened." )

After the glue had a night or two to dry I started some prep work on the cabinet back panel to fill in those massive missing chunks. I may follow vid1900 's recommendation to use fiberglass resin on this one as I think (ok, I know) this area is too large for my filler.

Time to go re-read the "rebuilding cabinets" thread -- starting here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cabinet-restoration-vids-guide#post-2546324

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The tricky bit will be preventing the resin from flowing down into the leg bolt hole(s), but I have a couple ideas on how to avoid that.

Not a bad idea. . . and Cherry is one of my favorite woods. I may save those for next time though as I had some fiberglass fibers handy to throw into the mix.

I made efforts to prep the cabinet before pouring the resin. First, I secured a number of screws in the area that is to be filled.

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This picture is meant to show the screw heads sit below the desired level of fill for our resin. The resin will flow under/around the screw heads and will then be better held to the cabinet should a future scuff, bump, or ding take place.

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I started with the smaller area that needed repair. I used a scrap piece of thin sheet metal as a barrier (waxed on the surface that will contact resin) and secured it to the cabinet with clamps and staples. Then I poured in my resin mix.

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After it had some time to cure I pulled the restraints and was left with a respectable repair. Some sanding and smoothing will be necessary of course, but this should present nicely once it is painted.

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Next I'll attempt to fill in the big hole. I'll post details as it happens!

Today I decided to have a go at filling in the large missing chunk on the back of the cabinet.

To assist with this I brought some bits from work home with me.

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Don't worry -- I did not give myself a shot of anything for "assistance." I used the plastic syringe cases as plugs for the leg bolt holes.

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I tapped them in for a snug fit then cut them so as to be flush with the side of the cabinet. This would allow the metal barrier for the resin to lay flat against the cabinet. (Sorry for the poor pic.)

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The metal barrier has been clamped and stapled into place.

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Added in some fiberglass mat/shavings for strength.

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Then poured in the resin mixed with activator. I did have a couple seeps from under the barrier and also inside the cabinet corner, but I was able to plug the opening with a small piece of paper towel quickly. I checked periodically to make sure I stopped the leaks as the resin cured.

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Tomorrow we will see how our repair turns out. . . or if it all leaked out thru another gap/hole after I left!

I made it over to the shop this afternoon to inspect the results of yesterday's efforts.

A few drips did sneak out here and there, but enough resin remained for a successful repair (to my eye anyway).

A couple of pics after removing the barriers and giving the area a quick sanding.

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I'd call it a successful repair. Next up will be sanding the rest of the paint from the cabinet and then bodywork for the remaining dings, dents, and divots.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback.

I had some time to work on sanding the bottom cabinet this afternoon. A couple of saw horses put the cabinet at a height that helped my back hurt less as I write this.

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After an unknown amount of time most of the bare wood is exposed. Check out all that dust on the floor (yes, I'm wearing a respirator!).

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For fun I sprayed a quick coat of primer over the back panel. Look close at the bottom left corner and you can still see the outline of the resin repair, but I hope I can smooth that in more as I move along. Outline or not, it looks much better than a having a large chunk missing.

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In one of my first acts of esthetic refurbishment I applied a couple coats of polyurethane to the bottom panel after cleaning it up/sanding it down. I will keep the panel brown but plan on painting the inside walls and cross bars in the cabinet the base light blue color.

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Speaking of the base light blue, here is a sample of the color I have decided to go with as compared with the back of the upper cabinet.

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This is a Sherwin Williams Latex Enamel. It is much thicker than my automotive paints. I do not plan on using a brush/roller to apply, instead I'm hoping I can reduce the paint down enough to a thin enough consistency to spray. I'm sure I'll figure it out. . . learning how to accomplish something is half the fun, right?

Quick cabinet update.

The major defects have been smoothed over, rough sanded, and a first coat of primer has been applied to the outside of the lower cabinet.

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I'll give it another sanding down, try to address any obvious defects, then give another coat of primer. Once I have the lower cabinet in finish primer I'll start the needed repairs/sanding on the upper cabinet.

Another quick cabinet update.

Bottom half is just about in finish primer (probably one more coat then good) and the upper cabinet has the rough sanding done with some filler work started.

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Getting Closer!

I've had enough priming and sanding -- while not perfect I'm comfortable with how the cabinet should present.

Today I made a test run with the new (to me) paint. I sprayed the bottom of the upper cabinet to see how compatible it would be with my equipment, the cabinet, gravity ( ), etc. To be honest the reviews for this particular paint on the Sherwin Williams website were not all that great. Poor coverage, runs/paint going on too thin, tackiness days later, and many other comments were left by folks who had tried it. I have a couple connections at SW and can get the paint for a reasonable price so I was willing to try it. . . and so far I am pleasantly surprised at how things turned out.

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A close up of the color with just one coat -- don't judge me on the roughness of the wood in this area!

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I did thin the paint with Flood Floetrol and while it was still a good bit thicker than my automotive primers my Harbor Freight primer gun did a good job of spraying an even coat. Here is a quick look at my chaotic work table.

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It took a little longer to clean the paint from the gun, but it was nice not having to worry about isocyanates.

The next step is to spray blue on the entire cabinet(s) -- I just need to find an open window of time!

I managed to be efficient at work today and was able to spray the basecoat blue on the cabinet this afternoon.

Initially I was frustrated as I was not able to achieve the smooth application that resulted during the test spray. The paint was applied in a spattery pattern in what could be described as a super orange peel effect. After unsuccessful adjustments with the gun and Floetrol mix with the paint I committed to giving everything a good basecoat. Once dry I thought I'd have to sand the lumps out followed by a second topcoat.

To my surprise as the paint dried everything smoothed out to an acceptable look. Not perfect, but actually very nice. Bad reviews aside, so far this first color has good coverage and is drying to a nice finish. I took these pics as the paint was still drying -- look close and you can see the lighter colored areas where the paint is still wet.

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I was able to touch up difficult to reach areas on the inside with a foam "brush." Nice!

Now that I'm more comfortable with the paint I suppose it is time to officially order some stencils. Hey Pimp -- order incoming!