Have started a restoration project on a Stern Stars that I've had for a few months. This will be my first full blown restoration and I'm shooting for the higher end since I appreciate that kind of thing. The machine came to me in pretty good shape, some very light wear on the PF and cabinet. The previous owner had spray painted the coin door and legs white which I'm not a fan of. Came with an Ultimate MPU and some upgraded electronics. Backglass is original and in near flawless shape.

Plans:
-CPR Playfield (picked up the last unit from them a few weeks ago)
-New plastics from CPR
-Full cabinet repair and respray / stencil
-Clean and tumble/polish of all parts
-Alltek LED board with retro comets (keeping old bulbs if I don't like the LEDs)
-Clean and tidy wiring harness, repin connectors
-Coin door restoration, strip and paint w/ hammered silver (legs to match)
-Apron strip, repaint and decal
-Chime rebuild - might explore building a new body out of better wood or other methods to improve sound... fun side project.

Decisions to make:
-Replace lamp sockets or try to clean old ones
-Reuse white plastics posts or different color - considering clear star posts?
-Replace or reuse cabinet rails and lock bar. Some slight damage there might splurge on some new brushed+clear from hotrod

Gonna be a long process but will be sharing here frequently and asking lots of questions... thanks in advance for all your help!

I'm fortunate to work as a prototype engineer and have access to lots of fun toys and tools that will help this project...

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Some close ups of the PF. Really good shape with a few small wear areas and some swirls. I really didn't like how the white registration seem sot be off if which gives a weird sliver of white to all the inserts. It's also very noticeable in the right in/out lanes.

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CPR playfield arrived and looks pretty good. Holes and dimples seem to be off just a bit, which is particularly noticeable in the center post in the drain. I'll make a template from my original PF to make sure that all those are in the right spot. Got Kruzmans install kit and will be tip-toeing through all things related to the new PF...

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Some of the immediate questions that I have are...

-How do you paint metal parts that have some riveted on moving components? Mostly thinking the lock-down bar sliding mech and the coin mech brackets with the little latch. I feel like if I paint these as is these components will bind and gum up. I had similar worries about the coin door hinge but it seems that you can paint over the hinge and it will still operate.

-One of the slingshot mechs was broken and the other is heavily worn. I purchased this kit as it looks like I can mount it and should work similarly to the last one. The original stern kits seem difficult to find, has anyone used this one in the past?

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Thanks! That's what I was thinking... It's hard to tell though if the previous owner replaced most of them or not. They're pretty clean sans a bit of corrosion but all of the PF lamps have new looking solid ground wire routed and soldered... I'll probably just redo it all so that I can learn how to do it and know that they're all new. I like HEPs direction of adding little removeable ground washers, I'm not sure if he purchases those or made them himself. I have a laser at work and can cut my own if I need but I'll have to dig more into it...

Looking at the pics now I think I agree that I'll need to replace them... cheapest place is PBR?

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Why don't you replace the ground braid? This machine has solid exposed wire soldered to the sockets in place of braid. I was planning on using something similar but not trying to reuse what was on the machine...

very much appreciate the perspective. I agree with you on the white posts, I thought maybe clear ones would light up the PF a bit more but I don't see why white won't reflect a similar amount of light. I'll probably swap the old yellowed ones out with nice bright new ones to match the fresh white on the PF.

I think that my personal goal with this build and the ones to follow is to maintain the original aesthetic as much as possible but make it better than new and maximize long term reliability. I will likely keep this game in my very small collection but do keep resale value in mind since I'll have to move it at some point to make room for more projects.

Some before shots of the bottom of the PF... overall good shape but could use a nice cleaning. New lamp sockets have been ordered from PBR... or at least attempted order before I got their Easter break email. Will have to reorder next week but will probably forget...

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Depopulating the top side. Realizing now that this might not be the most exciting restoration since this thing already looks pretty good, but I think it will be a great first pin to take on without feeling too daunting.

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First stab at coin mech disassembly. Got them completely taken apart, cleaned, tumbled and reassembled. Not perfect but a big improvement.

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Flipper brackets cleaned up, straightened and rebuilt with new coils.

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Had lots of time to work on some random things over the past week... Got the wiring harness taken down and thrown in the dish washer while the GF was at work (she came home early and found it though, luckily I just got a strong eye rolling).

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I also played around with using hydrogen peroxide and UV light to brighten the yellowed posts. I definitely see an improvement but only left the min for a few hours since I was afraid they may get brittle. Also a word of warning to anyone trying this I used 12% hydrogen peroxide which is quite strong stuff and needs lots of eye and skin protection when using. I got some on my finger and it burned for a while and turned white, it can cause significant damage if it gets in your eyes too... I will be trying this on my cabinet buttons and faded plastic coin slot insert since I can't seem to find new ones.

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The back of my CPR playfield had a pretty rough uncoated finish so I sanded it down with 320 and hit it with a few lights coats of satin gray Krylon. Very light sanding with 500 after it dried for a few days to smooth it out. Very happy with how it turned out. Wend to Ace HW to find something to fill in the holes and inserts before painting and ended up with large size 'Backer Rod' which worked well. Not a perfect solution for the larger inserts but I made it work.

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Got all of the top side parts that needed to be hammered or pressed in installed first. Picked up Kruzmans dremel kit which has been very helpful. All of this took place while Pinside was down so I didn't have any restoration guides to reference, just took my time and went slow. Made sure to have a bit of a gap between the metal posts and the clear and then started prepping all of the holes that get a plastic post by removing a larger area of clear around the hole (after double checking the location with the plastics, one dimple was off by a few mm's).

All wire guides were tumbled and then hit with the polishing wheel to shine them up

This is my first restoration attempt so please don't hesitate give any tips or jump in and correct me when I do something wrong!

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Started on the chimes but still a little bit of work there. Waiting on new rubber bushings from PBR and plan on lightly staining the wood resonator.

Chimes were cleaned and wet sanded with 400, 600 and 1000 to get them nice and shiny. Coil bracket was cleaned in CLR, sanded and hit with flat gray rattle can enamel.

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I'm hoping to try to mount the new slings tonight or tomorrow and see what it looks like. Will post here and let you know, fingers crossed.

My chimes also hit near the edge, especially with the smaller one. I don't see any other way around it since they screws are already on the edge of the wood...

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Always amazed by the magic of hydrogen peroxide and UV. Worked wonders with the cabinet buttons, looks like new. Left them in for about 5 hrs with 12%.

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I assume this is the center post? Mine seems to be dimpled OK relative to the flipper positions, but because it's in the center of that star it highlights any skew in the artwork which is kind of a bummer... I guess I'd prefer they not dimple it so that you can chose to add it or not, or locate it based on looks or ideal performance

Continuing the populate the PF very cautiously. Rails had plenty of time to dry after their spray painting (gloss enamel). I mounted the top plastic corner panels to the rails to make sure they went on right, and then made sure they were all aligned to the edges of the PF. Marked new rail holes from the bottom through the pre-drilled PF holes and fixed with countersunk 1-1/4" wood screws.

Located the ball trough / kick out bits as best as I could (some dimples were off for the mech and the clearance holes for the rivet/screws were off). Biased the last piece of rail off the ball trough bracket (top side) and made sure it was parallel before securing to the PF w/ countersunk screws. Ball trough parts were cleaned, sanded and hit with satin gray enamel paint (will place some clear mylar strategically on some of the wear areas).

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Interesting I would have assumed it was dead center. I will be sure to make a template from my old PF to locate it based on the flipper holes...

Gonna get nerdy here... because this kirk post is gonna stress me out (more than it already does with the dimple not being centered on the artwork). Pulled out the HP 3760 scanner and scanned the original PF... Based on my expert analysis in illustrator (artwork scalled 1 : 1) it looks like the kirk post is about 0.072" to the right of the flipper hole centerline. I don't claim to know if this is intentional or for some manufacturing/tolerance reason. The kirk post does appear to be centered between the smaller wire guide holes which makes me wonder if maybe the drilling / routing operations were just off by this amount...

My gut is that it was intended to be centered but isn't because of various process tolerances...

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My dimple is pretty close to the location on my original PF relative to the flipper holes. I'll probably just use it as it is, or maybe just a tad bit to the right of the existing dimple to make it a bit more in the center of the star. The orange lines were copy+pasted at scale from the original PF drawing and then lined up with the flipper holes.

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Got the new sockets in from PBR and started populating the back side. Waiting on the little solder tabs from Marco to run the bus wire HEP style.

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Hit the coin door, trim and bolts with hammered silver. Not completely happy with it but I’ll take it for my first attempt...

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I rejiggered the bus wire because the solder tabs (HEP style) made it look better that way, I assume as long as they’re connected to the same wire it doesn’t matter the order. Just needing a gut check...

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Got the bus wire down for the sockets. Used HEPs method with the #6 solder tabs from Marco (they came bent but I flattened them). Generous running with solder to each tab and them use a fat soldering tip to press the wire into the solder until it forms around it. Added flux to both the tabs and the wire where it would be soldered.

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Traced the old pattern on the PF before taking off and used that as a reference, will have to see if I missed something when the harness goes down...

Getting the coin door back together - at least for now. Focusing on getting this game assembled again and in playing condition despite there being a little bit more to clean up. Do have plans for the cabinet and back box but have some family coming for a few weeks and we’re going into summer camping season so my weekends will be spent playing Fish Tales and catching trout...

Still lots to do on this though!
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Hmm - can you post a pic here? I've had to sort through so much mixed up hardware that I've probably touched every nut and bolt 5 times... need to be better about my organization as things go in and out of the tumbler.

Did you disassemble any of the coin door mechs? Sometimes those can have tiny parts like that...

Continuing to put things back together to get the game playable again. Feeling good to see the pile of random parts and hardware start to dwindle...

I added a connector and cleaned up the wiring for the chimes, i find myself messing with these often to get them sounding right so it will be nice to easily pull out the unit when I need to.

Seems like the chimes are super sensitive to the screw tightness, any tips or tricks to get them sounding good and staying put? The screw holes in the wood seems pretty loose, might try to put a bit of wood glue in there and allowing it to dry and adding the screws again for some added bite...

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Just installed the new beehive for the plunger and pretty disappointed in the amount of slop compared to the original. Does anyone have a fix for this or is it a common issue? The plunger wiggles a lot in there which makes the tip possible vary significantly...

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Maybe I'll take it to work and drill out the inside enough to press in a brass bushing or something... seems like a pretty dumb thing to mess up given it's the one thing this part needs to do

Anyone know which stern sticker is true to stars?

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For what it’s worth I’ve taken off every screw and nail on mine and have not seen any nail like that... I can’t imagine where it would go so you’re prob ok to set it aside and not worry about it.

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00B8865ZW

Visiting family has left and I’m back at it. Holding off on tear down and cleaning of the drop banks for the sale of getting the game out back together before I start to misplace things.

I’m adding connectors to the assemblies so that I can easily remove them for the cleaning and rebuild. Time consuming but makes my OCD happy.

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Slowly rebuilding the bottom side of the PF. No issues so far, just taking my time and making sure each connection is solid and cleaning up the wiring as best as I can. It’s so easy to spend way too much time in this when you’re as OCD as I am, but I do find it quite satisfying work.

Goal is to get the PF back in the cab this weekend and get the game playable again. Them take a break for a bit and strip the cabinet for stencils later this summer.

Have a NOS fishtales PF coming from Kruzman that will be on the rotisserie soonish. That’ll be fun...

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Bottom side is pretty much done at this point. Tested all the GI wiring but need to slide it into the machine to test everything else... added connectors to all the mechs for easy removal and adjustment. They were the cheap Chinese connectors that I had on hand but let’s see how they hold up.

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Does anyone know if the beehive shooter housing from Pinball Wizard is the same as the one from Pinball Life? Very disappointed with the one from PBL as the hole is not the correct size and the rod has a ton of slop. Basically not usable. I see PB Wizard has one but I don't want to just buy the same one again from a different supplier... any thoughts or fixes here?

I ordered it so we shall see... my old one looks like crap so not many other options. I may just have to take it to work and machine a brass sleeve to insert in there...

Nearly done completing the top side now... with this being my first PF swap I think I completely underestimated how much time this takes. My ignorant assumption that the CPR PF would come in and all the dimples and holes were a guide just to execute on has really come to light. Every screw and part that goes into the PF now comes with at minimum 5 minutes of analysis and head scratching to make sure it's where it needs to go. Measure 5 times drill once.

It kind of makes me never want to do a reproduction PF swap again, or at least approach it very differently from the beginning and attempt to transfer every hole from the old PF to the new one. I think the challenge just becomes what you use as your reference... some things reference from the PF edge while other need to reference from their larger cut feature (drop target slots, slingshot holes etc)...

Fortunately I don't have any major F-ups that can't be tweaked with a few filled holes and screw hole shifting, but that came at a cost of tip toeing through the entire thing...

I'm confident though that after a few months of being done with it I'll forget about the experience and sign up for another one (I have a Genie waiting for me...)

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Some notable top side issues:
-top gate dimples were wayyy off, like 5mm

-width between the left and right outlanes are not consistent, it seems that the rail on the left side of the shooter lane needs to shift over to the right to correct that a bit (I used the gap between shooter lane rails on the old PF to place that. will fill the holes on the bottom of the shooter land and redrill a few mm over

-adjustable outlane bumper holes are frustrating. I drilled out the lowermost hole because this game is hard AF even in the easiest setting, only to find that in the lowest hole the ball doesn't fit through the outlane rubbers. Drilled out the 2nd lowest holes but can barely see where I removed the clear from the lower hole at the edge of the post. Hoping I'll never need to use the holes above that.

-Leaving the kirk post out now since figuring out where to locate that thing stresses me out.

-Drop targets aren't centered in the drop target slot. I drilled the mounting holes with a template made referencing the old drop target slot, maybe it was off on the old game and I never noticed. going to play it a bit and adjust if it needed down the line. good thing I added connectors.

She lives! Got the PF mostly complete and hooked up. So cool to see this looking better than new! Everything seems to work except a few of the coils (flippers, pop and drop reset). I’m sure it’s an easy fix just had to go out of town for the weekend.

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