Long time lurker first time poster...

I have recently bought a Scared Stiff which was cheap but not necessarily great value but bought it as a challenge as it was in fairly rough shape.

I have spend plenty of hours getting the game mechanically & electronically sound to the point that the game functions well but now need to decide how far I take the restoration.

Let me start by saying I am looking to get this game to a good player's quality machine and not a smick collectors quality machine... I love playing with and not looking at my pinball machines.

Virtually every decals on the inserts are completely shot (see pictures at the bottom) and there is some very minor damage which I think can be touched up on the playfield but the actual playfield is in fair condition. Apart from the decals on the inserts having cracked or worn off the inserts some of the inserts are very uneven.

When I first bought the machine I thought I would do a full playfield swap (would be my first one) using a Micro Playfield (https://mircoplayfields.com/en/p/scared-stiff-mirco-playfield) but know toying with the idea of repairing rather than replacing the playfield using a new decal set like the ones from Ministry of Pinball (http://www.ministryofpinball.com/en/game-specific-items/bally/scared-stiff/scared-stiff-insert-decals.html).

The advice I am asking for is:

Would you do the playfield swap or the repair?

If you do the repair and replace the decals...
1) where is the best place to buy good quality decals?
2) do I need to remove & sand flat all the inserts before replacing the decals or do I buy new inserts and start fresh?
3) I presume I re-glue the inserts back into the playfield before sticking the decals back on the inserts and if so how do you get the insert to be the right height so with the decal stuck on it the decal is flush to the playfield?
4) once the decals are replaced is there anything I can do I need to do to "finish" the job short of having the whole playfield clear coated?

Whatever I end up doing I plan to document it with the intention of helping others in the same predicament.

Thanks in advance for anyone who takes the time to give me advice....

Jason

The Pinball Evangelist
Spreading the Gospel of Pinball One Ball at a Time

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I did, vid1900 guide is awesome but a little over whelmed by all the information in it so thought....

I thought would ask a handful of specific questions which I have not yet found in the 127 page guide (yet).... do you reckon I should just repost this in that thread?

Jason

I don't know the history of the machine apart from the fact that it was operated for several years and had several hack fixes which I have slowly remedied...

I have never done a playfield swap and thought this might be a fairly simple game to 'learn' on but then I am looking @ $1000+shipping for the playfield vs $50 for the decals.... I know at the end of the day the new playfield will look 10X better but thought I would ask others options because if it is a 2-3 hour job to change decals to get me to 85% of the result and end up with a good playing game for a fraction of the cost... but from what it sounds its not that simple.

I also know if I put the new playfield in I will then suddenly look at the cabinet and all the ramps ect ect and think I need to do a much higher end restore.

Based on all the advice here it was between 5 options

1) repair the inserts with new decals and get a playfield protector $45+$115 = $160 : Cost = Low : Effort = Medium : Result =5/10
2) buy second hand playfield $200-300 : Cost = Medium : Effort = High : Result =6/10
3) sell the game as is and wait for another one to buy $2000 : Cost = High : Effort = Low : Result = 7/10
4) repair the inserts with new decals and get a playfield clear coated $750 : Cost = Medium to High : Effort = High : Result =9/10
5) buy new mirco playfield $1000 : Cost = High : Effort = High : Result =10/10

So I could not help myself and going to go with 5...

Thanks for all the advice and those who messaged me.

Jason

It took me more than 6 months but I ended up taking the plunge and just ordered the new playfield from Mirco.... will post some pictures once I get round to doing the playfield swap (which I am a little intimidated by as it will be my first!)

A couple of weeks ago I decided to start the Scared Stiff playfield swap on the Mirco playfield I bought. This is my first playfield swap and has taken me about 60 hours so far to strip everything off the old playfield and to be about 90% done reassembling the bottom of the playfield and not yet started on the top...

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I was quite worried about doing my first swap but really has not been too bad so far (given I have not tested anything yet this might be a massive case of a false sense of security)

I have been very impressed with the Mirco playfield. Thus far I have only had to drill one pilot hole and there have been 2 cases where there are 2 pilot holes where there is only a single screw.... so all in all very happy.

I have been documenting key parts of the swap and will post it on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/c/PinballEvangelist) in the coming weeks once I have completed the swap and have had a chance to clean/edit the videos.

Here is a link to the YouTube Playlist for anyone interested....
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5HBKFQjUz8-h02Zi0jxhFSw7Qlc0e8_o

Thanks for all of those who encouraged me to go for the new playfield and the full swap, hopefully the videos will show you that almost anyone can do a playfield swap.

Jason