Some questions for the club.

I've found a seller for a Stars that is several hours drive away. I'm interested because I've heard lots of good things about the game and do have some interest in a project pin. This would be the oldest pin I've worked on however.

Looking through these posts I have some general idea of what to look for:
1. Playfield (obvious, that's every pin)
2. Cabinet (see 1)
3. drop target function
4. board function, especially battery leakage
5. Backglass and backglass frame

The Stars I'm looking at only has pics of the cabinet and some non-useful pics of the coin door internal components. The cabinet is definitely rough, I think it had a lockbar across the coin door to prevent theft (giant holes there). Lots of paint scrapes. There aren't any pics of the playfield shown, this makes me nervous about the playfield for sure and I've asked for pics. The back glass looks good and likely usable but I realize that may be unreliable on just a pic.

My questions are:
Are there any big issues specific to Stars I should look for? (particular areas of the playfield that wear, notorious electronic faults etc)

The seller is asking quite a bit for this machine but from the looks of the outside aone it looks like its going to need some work. I was thinking $500 but even that may be high. For those of you who have put a lot of restoration into these (full boards, LEDs, painting, playfields) what's a price that becomes untenable? I realize that's a tough question but maybe some of you have a price you paid that you feel was worth buying it and then doing the work.

Thanks everyone

Fasten you’re space pilot belts cause I’m ready for take off!!

Sorry, 11 hours of driving and pickup have me loopy

I’m going to need some help so glad there are several of you active on this post

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Thanks for the reply TheLaw it was very helpful when I picked up the machine. It's overall in good shape but going to need a lot of help.

Last night I evicted the remnants of a small creatures home in the cabinet. I was able to find some useful stuff in the floor of the cabinet: extra rule cards, the actual manual for the game (a couple chew marks), and what looks like the keychain that came with the game.

The cabinet on my machine isn't too bad for a 42 year old machine. several scrapes but acceptable. I'm realizing that if I ever do want to repaint the cabinet I don't have to worry about it looking professional because I think I could do a better job than the pros. They must have really cranked these through the factory because centering and overspray of their stencils doesn't appear to have been a concern.

The mpu was not working, one week led blink followed by a weaker single chime. I've thought about tinkering with it but have decided to go with the Alltek as the boards will definitely be my weakest skillset trying to revive this game. I bought a repining kit with the PBL sale at the same time but the connectors actually all look pretty good, no burns, no breaks.

The playfield does have some issues. It doesn't have a lot of wear except for the middle between the lights. The biggest issue is the outlanes and center drain have paint that is still there but its chipped badly and even the slightest cleaning is going to remove it. I haven't cleaned it yet as I'm pouring over Vins restoration post but the playfield pretty much appears to have no clearcoat remaining. It really looks like bare paint.

Is the general consensus among restorers to maintain the defects (Smithsonian style I heard someone say) or to touch up the missing chips?

I lean to touch up because the center post star is going to fall apart as soon as I clean it up and I'd hate to have that missing. If that all fails I may go the China_Grove route and find a replacement field.

Besides sorting out what I'm going to do with the playfield the biggest issue I now have is finding a lockdown bar for the machine. I didn't realize how difficult those can be to find and how pricey they are. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the part number for it but haven't quite figured it out yet. Does anyone have a link to the correct part? Or can someone post a pic of what the dimensions of their bar is and what the posts on the bottom look like so I can have a better idea what to look for?

Thanks everyone, the wealth of knowledge here is amazing.

One of the cooler things I found on the bottom of my machine. Made a good pillow for the mouse in there.

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Breaking down the play field and have a couple early questions.

The plastic spacers under the upper arch. Gray or white? I have one of each

Also there’s some random bare wire(?) posts. One at the R out lane corner. One looks like it should be at the L outline corner. And 2 at the L sling, near the leaf switches. Any idea if these are supposed to be there or what there purpose is?

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2 at each sling? My R one has a single nail at the lower part of the sling and I don’t see a hole for it.

And anyone know the proper name for them so I can start a search for them? They appear to be the same gauge as the inlane guides.

Edit: found wire gauge on Marco, just gotta figure out the gauge and cut it to size I suppose

For those of you that have changed your drop targets with the hooded version do you find the hood affects gameplay or function much? I love Swinks version but right now my funding for true reproduction drop targets definitely needs to go to other areas of the restoration.

Thanks for the info. I decided to skip replacing all 6 and just do the one broken one and one hooded on my machine, then replace as necessary

So much work to do but just watched PAPAs demo of the game and can't wait to get it up and running, shooting for xmas but hoping for Tgiving to have it done.

Coming along. Playfield touch up complete.

Putting out another call for anyone who knows a clear coater in Portland

Next is electrical after a couple cabinet leg mods

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BTW. Anybody ever figure out the font for the center points column? I need to make a 1000 decal

Clip the battery off, then most people recommend 50/50 vinegar water solution to rinse off the areas of leakage that are still likely causing corrosion. Rinse that with alcohol to dry. Lots of videos on saving boards out there so there is quite a bit of variability of techniques.

Mine had significantly more battery damage than yours but it still looks like you have a couple areas that may need replaced. I used GerberDesigns corrosion kit because he had some really nice videos on Youtube (under bally corrosion). Great Plains also has a kit but they were out of stock.

Because of my level of corrosion I went ahead and bought a Alltek board during PBLs sale. I still tried to salvage the old board though because once mine is up and running I really want to try to build the Stars 2020 code mod and its still unclear to me if that can be done with a Alltek.

Was wondering this myself.

Has anyone considered trying to populate that alternative Beehive playfield piece by piece, essentially keeping your standard playfield and populating the other to trade out? Other than the hassle of wiring does that sound insane?

Swinks pinball page on Shapeways has perfect reproductions of the old drop targets

https://www.shapeways.com/product/7DWXN34SZ/stern-tombstone-drop-target-13a-11-no-rib?optionId=65605234&li=shops

Anyone have a old crusty playfield they're willing to part with? Have a idea for a homebrew based on Stars playfield... it might take me 20 years but I gotta start somewhere

This might be the right timing. I have lots of other things to learn before that stage anyway. Keep me in mind.

That's real purty. I have the playfield cover from Beehive and have gone back and forth many times on getting that playfield.

Also check out Beehive Pinball. They were somehow making original playfields in the past as well, not sure if they still can make an original but if you look at their description of their custom playfield it says originals available "on a limited basis". If you contact them and they only can do a specific production run let me know, I'm getting more and more inclined to put my money in updating the pins I have as prices go up on new pins. I'd be interested in joining you in a order.

https://www.beehivepinball.com/product/stars-custom-playfield

I just DMed him as well. Let's see if we get a run going.

From what I remember that's a little half dome shaped rubber with a nail/tack mounting it in the back rail. I'm trying to find an example on marco but failing a bit. I'll keep looking.