Can someone please list the fonts that are used for the text on the Quicksilver playfield? I know the yellow insert font is "Quicksilver" ( or Neon Lights). Looks like at least 3 more fonts were used but I can't get the "What the Font" website to properly identify them. Thanks everyone!

Thanks very much! I had it very close (Castle Font, circa 1975) but there were a few small differences.
I will check out Optima when I get home.

Hi, does anyone have a pic of this section of the playfield (before all the wear and tear?) Thanks in advance!

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Thanks very much!

I am interested. I just noticed a crack in the same plastic that has been discussed above. I wonder if these plastics sets could include two of those! (since they are so tiny and vulnerable).

I have started replacing some inserts on my Quicksilver playfield. So far I have replaced the two triangular inserts as they were very badly damaged. I could not source "plain" triangular inserts so I had to purchase "reinforced" inserts (with the ribs). Ok, so here is where my dilemma begins. I really, really like the idea and the look of reinforced inserts!
I just might get kicked in the ass for asking this but: Has anyone completely removed all the inserts and replaced with the reinforced starburst inserts? I am very tempted to replace the remaining inserts with this style.
I am aware that collectors will want the playfield to look as original as possible. If this is just a horrible idea, please say so! I won't take offence

FYI, for the remaining inserts, I already have a full set for each style (starburst vs. plain) I just need to know which set to proceed with. As of this moment I am still on the fence.
Thanks everyone!

Ok, thanks for the immediate response!

I forget to mention, I received defective green, blue and orange 3/4" inserts from Marco that will need to be polished on the inside surface. This is going to take some time. But this also led me to wonder why anyone would pick the old-style non-reinforced inserts (when even new they are crappy). I don't want to install defective inserts just because they look original.

So I've been out in the garage polishing the insides of those Marco 3/4" blue, green and orange see-thru inserts... Looks like they will be fine. Like I said, it just takes more time. Patience is a virtue! I should be thankful (defects aside) that these are even available at all.

FYI, for anyone else that is having this issue, just use a Dremel cylindrical polishing tip with some Enkay blue compound. Takes a bit of time but if you rotate through all your 3/4" inserts you can avoid overheating them.

I will proceed with these old style inserts for now but if I see any other QA/QC issues, I am switching to the starburst inserts.

Edit: Shout out to Pinballife! All the inserts I got from Pinballife (clear, opaque and starburst) have no defects. The only inserts they didn't carry are the ones I am having trouble with (with the nasty swirl marks).

Thanks everyone!

Could you take a pic? Might be easy to fix via Drano's technique (earlier in the thread). Especially if the wear is only in the green areas.

They finally have. One game: Total Nuclear Annihilation. Been described by some as "Quicksilver on Steroids."

Oh God, I hope I didn't trigger those thoughts with all my recent talk of installing starburst inserts!

Incidentally, I finished replacing every insert on my playfield. All the inserts are original style and are dead flat. A very good start for clearcoating.

So...here's what a "Naked" Quicksilver looks like (before clearing, filling holes, or touch ups). The only work done so far is some cleaning, installing inserts and sanding. Got the shooter lane sanded but there is a stupid knot in the lane (looks like a straight dark line drawn across the lane) Still need to "de-gloss" a few low spots but almost ready. Really looking forward to getting that first layer of clear on so I can start filling and touching up!

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I got almost all inserts from Pinballife but the 3/4" transparent inserts came from Marco. Those had to be polished on the insides cause they had some really nasty swirl marks.

Nothing like real oak. Still has to be painted black and clearcoated. Hopefully the grain of the wood will still show through.

FYI, these are to replace the plastic laminate-coated finger-jointed pine rails that came with the machine. The plastic was peeling off of mine.

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Essential Resources:

Upper Right: Drano's Adobe Illustrator Template for Quicksilver's small text. Many thanks @Drano, you are a lifesaver!!

Lower Right: Adobe Illustrator Template I recently threw together for the black insert text and keylines.

Assorted Color Swatches (with slices cut out) - Just to assist me with getting a close match (mostly so I can take the swatches with me when I am shopping for airbrush colors)

I think I may have ended up in a "thinking too much, and getting nothing done" phase of this project.

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I emailed them a few weeks ago regarding considering a Quicksilver run. No response (yet). It's an excellent choice, nearly every playfield out there is seriously blown out.

Ok, so I made some gradual progress in my Quicksilver adventure. I'm still in the middle of clearcoating / sanding the top of playfield - so not much to see there (yet). I am almost ready for painting / touchups but need to wait for the clear to "dieback." In the meantime I wanted to show what one coat of paint can do for the underside of a Quicksilver playfield. Before painting I locked down all the "exploded wood" around the inserts with some 30 min. Epoxy. I also had to line the bottom of the lift bar "hole" with epoxy. It was just a matter of time before that sharp-tipped metal bar punched a hole into the shooter lane! Stripped screw holes (flipper mechanisms) were filled with epoxy - covered bamboo barbeque skewers.

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The serial # of my cabinet is 10618. The front of this machine says 41 /50 (115V). The playfield (before I just painted over it) said 47. I would assume there were more than 50 Quicksilvers in Canada but this was definitely part of a 50 unit Canadian run. Edit: excuse the dirt, haven't cleaned out the cabinet yet...

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Agreed, I definitely wouldn't call a jiffy marker scribble an official numbering system. Most likely just someone on the factory floor ensuring that this particular batch of 50 units have the transformers wired for 115 Volts instead of 120 Volts.

Edit: I am only one good cleaning away from completely obliterating that number (I doubt it would stand up to a good scrubbing) so maybe soon you can add me to the list of folks with no numbers on the lockdown bar assembly.

Wow, it's official. That machine has travelled more than I did this year! I had a chance to see it in Edmonton at Yegpin earlier this year, which was the first time I had ever played a Quicksilver. Thanks for sharing this machine with so many folks, it's great to see these classics out...in the wild

Hey I was looking at the Quicksilver Apron color thread and noticed that your Quicksilver has the same jiffy marker writing in the lockdown bar area as mine!

https://images.pinside.com/6/b2/6b296a0cc08a78f97be06b45621c3dc5f40b9872/resized/large/6b296a0cc08a78f97be06b45621c3dc5f40b9872.jpeg

Thanks, I was amazed how little paint there was under that playfield. I was also amazed to see so much damage from whatever they used to drill the holes. Some of the holes look like they were made with a rifle!

Wow, good job fixing that up!

Quicksilver back in quarantine...

Edit: Learned a valuable lesson from my last attempt at a spray booth: Don't put the doorway on the opposite side of the booth as the exhaust fan! The door should be near the exhaust fan so dirt and dust will "short circuit" towards the fan without circulating near the playfield. Still need the old "door frame" to reinforce the furnace filter

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Red apron here as well...

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For anyone who wants to quickly build a collapsible spray booth, Lee Valley has some really nice connectors. I built a 7'x7' booth using their connectors and used 3/4" Schedule 40 Electrical conduit. Super easy, everything is friction fit. Cleanup is a breeze, throw the connectors in a box, bundle the PVC together, and throw out the plastic.

Edit: I thought Lee Valley was only in Canada but it's in the USA as well - updated.

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Looks great, looking forward to seeing more pics!

If you are planning on repainting an entire Quicksilver playfield, highly recommend getting a circle cutter for cutting Frisket circles. Saves a lot of time covering up all the inserts and even those round soccer ball things! Also great for cutting your own pop bumper rings from stock mylar. Here is a pic of the bonus arrow area all masked and ready to spray. The circle cutter shown is an Olfa CMP-01.

Edit: Don't cut the circles on the playfield, just cut a bunch out of a bulk sheet of Frisket and apply the Frisket "stickers" to the inserts.

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The photo doesn't show all the bare wood and planking, but yeah, if I knew my touchup colors would be a perfect match "forever", it would have been my first choice. Problem is, after all the hassle of clearcoating, I don't want to see any hint of "flaming" inserts. As for tiger striping, the background could use something to break up that solid green!

Sorry for all the extra posts today but I finally got a look at what a Starburst Insert would look like on a Quicksilver. I took one of my extra rub-on transfers and put it onto a transparent yellow starburst insert. In this photo I placed it beside the original insert I pulled from the machine. I am happy I went "original" but it might not have been a total disaster if I hadn't. The writing is definitely opaque - but looks a little less so when photographed with the original insert.

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Finally got a chance to test fit the new oak rails. Might have to re-drill a couple holes but looks good so far. Really looking forward to throwing out the original black plastic-coated finger-jointed pine!

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Going to be changing the apron colors. I already knew the redish orange Meteor apron was not for me. But I also had an incident with evaporust removing a lot more than just some rust! So I just sanded the apron...Hopefully I will be proud enough of my re-paint to post the results!

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Good to know, this has actually turned out for the best. There was just enough rust on this apron that I was already on the fence about repainting it anyway. When the rust remover bath started lifting the paint I quickly scanned the pertinent artwork and broke out the 40 grit sandpaper.

Just checked. The diagram that Marco is using for the targets is directly from page 17 of the Stern Parts Catalogue. So I would assume it's the same part. Looks like it comes with the bracket too.

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Here is the diagram for what Stern refers to as an "action kicker switch"

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I think it's just what Stern was calling slingshots back in the day.

Hey I just noticed:. Part# 180-5054-00 is a lot less expensive through Pinball Life (only 4.75 vs 7.99).
But doesn't look to be exactly the same as what is on the Stern Quicksilver.

Hi Drano, I'm interested in the cleaning method you are using for the cabinet paint. Are there any risks or warnings before using a tire cleaner for cleaning cabinet paint?
Thanks!

Some fun with Apron Art while I wait for some paint to dry... Probably should vent the fumes out of the garage soon...

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I am trying to make my own. It's taking forever cause I tried to start with an oil-based enamel. Seems like it takes a week for this stuff to dry. Not looking too great right now. Especially since the oil-based paint seems to wick under the masking materials.

Edit:. Still working on the fonts in Corel Draw. If you look at the word "FOR" you can see that the O is still too wide and the leg of the R is just plain wrong.
Edit: Added photo, still needs work, lime green looks more yellow than green but I guess I will take it. Better than previous red-orange scheme.

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Ah Arial, the poor coupon-cutting spinster of the Sans Serif family

Finally got a chance to sand and polish the playfield. This might be the very last warm day here for some time so got some outdoor pictures. First a picture with a reflection of my poor apple tree. Then a picture of the morning sunlight through the inserts...

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Oh Dear God...I totally forgot about this part...

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I think its a bit of an illusion. What you are probably seeing is the effect of wet sanding at the very end - This caused the edges of every single hole to swell slightly. Prior to wet sanding that playfield was dead flat. Now it looks a bit wavy, like those "glazed donut" playfields. Makes me a bit sad
Edit: Three coats (with very aggressive 400 grit sanding between each coat) just to level the playfield. Another two coats (required to completely bury the new rub-on transfers). Then one last coat. I stuck with 400 grit between coats because my last project (using 800 grit) had issues with adhesion (clear separating / ghosting around playfield posts). Unfortunately the low grit scratched the transfers in a few spots but I don't expect to see the clear separating this time.

Just finished repopulating (and re-soldering) the entire bottom of the playfield. Wow, so many broken light socket wires - just from moving the harness into a tray and then back again! The light sockets also feel "loose" so I imagine I will be back resoldering these soon.

I am hoping that I will be playing Quicksilver by next weekend but I won't count my chickens quite yet.

I should send it to you first for review! Your set was 100% perfect. Mine...not so much. It was the best I could do with a 1 week trial of Adobe Illustrator! I will see if I can post it tonight- it's still on my PC at home.

OK, here is a PDF of the set of rub-on transfers that I put together during my one week trial with adobe illustrator. It will import into CorelDraw or Illustrator as "curves" not as text.
I can send anybody the ai file if they want to improve on this set. For example, if someone wants to add the Joos signature, reduce the width of the keylines etc...

Please keep in mind that it's not 100% perfect. I didn't have a scanner at the time so I wasn't able to use the original playfield as a layer nor was able to scan and replicate the signature. It does work fine if you are replacing all your inserts.

Thanks!

Black Text for Inserts - Final Outlines.pdf

Holy Smokes! I mean, acrid, copious amounts of smoke! Who knew that a tiny little SCR could make that big of a stink!

SCR # Q52 on the Lamp Driver board burned up when I started the machine last night.
Am I correct in suspecting that a short in one of the lamp sockets has caused this?

According to the schematic, Q52 is connected to two plugs:
J2 pin 5 (connected to the light under the K insert)
J3 pin 13 - but the schematic doesn't say where this wire goes. I will try and trace it out today.

In the meantime, are there any other reasons why this tiny little SCR would blow?

EDIT: OK, I traced the wired and it goes back to the rectifier board (J3 pin 3). This is labelled as a LDA board return. It's connected to pins 1&2 (GI return) and pin 4 (another LDA board return). So this remains a mystery...
I guess I will just replace the SCR and just give each socket a thorough check before I power on again. I hope 5064's are the same as 5060's cause I don't seem to have any 5060's...

Just glad it was still in the garage when it blew, there was a steady stream of nasty-smelling smoke streaming out of the top of the machine. My wife would have freaked! I still can't believe that tiny component could cause so much smoke!

I replaced the SCR and seems OK now. Unfortunately I didn't figure out what was wrong. For now, just happy to have it back in a "steady state" so I can start soldering those playfield sockets. I swear, 80% of the sockets are loose and flaky as heck! Going to take a lot of work to get this machine where I want it to be.

So far every socket that I soldered is working great.
But brand new sockets would definitely look a whole lot better than these oxidized turds.

EDIT:. Here is an example, albeit a bit sloppy example, of what I'm doing. Oxidation on "teet"and "housing" is removed where solder will be applied. Then just soldered as per "normal". I am using little pigtails / jumpers this time so there is more flexibility with wire positioning after a bulb is inserted. I will definitely consider replacing these sockets in the Spring but I am in a bit of a hurry to get the machine out of the garage and into the house. It's -13 celsius outside and I told my wife she will have her parking spot back by the end of the weekend! I also have to change to winter tires and the tire rack is directly above Quicksilver! Hopefully Quicksilver will be indoors by the end of the day!

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Does anybody know what flipper coils and slingshot coils should be in Quicksilver? The old Stern parts manual has different coils listed than the coils that were actually inside my machine. I am thinking that an operator just changed to some " close enough" coils but wanted to check. Just wondering if the manual is correct or not.

That looks so nice! Awesome job! The inserts (and everything else) look perfect, did you use waterslides or rub on transfers? Did you redo the playfield text as well? How did you deal with the chasms left by the old triangular inserts? That, to me, was my biggest PIA. You should be very proud.

Finally got my machine out of the cold garage and into the house. Got it setup (mostly). Still lots to do like repin all connectors, rebuild rectifier board, finish apron, possibly repaint cabinet next year, etc... but nice to have it playable again.

Just a quick shout out to the previous owner (Mark B.) here in Edmonton. He gave me this copy of Heavy Metal magazine along with the machine. Thinking of framing it (or a scan of it) and putting it on the wall beside the machine.

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The 0.047uF are fine for replacing the 0.05uF capacitors. 15 cents each. I've got to order some too, several broken or missing on my machine.

https://www.greatplainselectronics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=CCD-0.047uF-50V&cat=27

Question. Can someone tell me how high the following metal guides should be from the playfield:
Metal guides behind the center drop target. Right now I have them so the top of guide is directly in line with rubber ring.
Guides between inlane and slingshots. Right now I have the tops of these guides slightly below the hieght of the rubber ring so as to not obstruct the ring. I'm sure I messed this up, if someone could tell me how high these should be I would appreciate it. Thanks!

I'm thinking of taking the center plastic off for awhile. Game is scary fast, ball keeps smacking the glass all over the playfield!
Heck even the outhole kicker seems way too amped up! SMACK!

Just curious, my QS outhole kicker is way too strong and fires the ball out so fast it sometimes bounces back onto the rail under the apron. Does anyone else have this issue? The coil is the same # as specified in the manual but I am very concerned about the gun-like nature of this outhole kicker. Are there any tricks to slow it down? Could I add a resistor to this circuit? Or is there a less powerful coil someone would recommend? This thing is bonkers!

Looks great Drano, I see you've got some green displays on your machine!
Coincidentally, my project for today is building some colored displays. I am just soldering these UNO displays together right now! I'm really happy with the design of these boards, they are really well thought out. I am also very happy that I ordered the green filters!

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UNO displays are now assembled and installed! Didn't take too long to put 5 displays together (and I suck at soldering so someone else could do it a lot faster). I really like the green!

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I am using red but only temporarily. I will be switching over to yellow very soon.

Hi @tdiddy, What are you using for new plastics?

A Quicksilver appeared on Saskatchewan Kijiji today but it disappeared all too quickly. Anybody know who sold it? Did it stay in Canada?

I'm not bringing mine yet but it's been freshly clear coated so I'm a bit scared it might get chipped. I hope you can bring yours, Quicksilver is such a great game!

Good, thanks for the update!

Just ordered a set

Quicksilver plastics arrived yesterday. It didn't take very long to ship to Canada. I am very happy with these plastics. It's nice to finally have a center plastic that isn't cracked. Also cool to have the little Quicksilver key fob too!

Thanks Lee!!!!

Congrats! Such a great game!

Hey, your machine was made with the same base material as mine! Our machines must have only been really close on the assembly line!!! My serial number is 10618.

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Very cool to realize that these survivors could have been built on the same day in the same room!
And just think of all that these machines have been through since! Spilled beers, knife scratches, cigarette smoke, moisture from damp basements...and even cats...

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I was watching the Deadpool stream and found a nice surprise. In the background (when the screen pans over to wolverine) you can clearly see a Quicksilver in the background. Also, when the camera pans to the left you can see that Colossus is playing a Quicksilver (though its a lot harder to spot). So, when given the choice of Seawitch, Berzerk, Frenzy and Flight 2000, Colossus plays Quicksilver!!!!

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The "starburst" version of this triangular insert (from Pinball Life) works out fine. That is to say, it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb like one might think it would. Probably because the starburst lines are running parallel with the insert. It's the same size as the original and is less likely to warp over time like the originals had. Here are two pics for comparison (original is on left in both pics).

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Great summary of the Quicksilver sounds! Embarrassed to say I still haven't gotten the "siren" sound yet!

I would like a set as well!