Wow that's pretty cool, nice job!

Painted playfield glass.......

Don’t think I’ve ever seen that done before but really cool looking idea. Gotta give credit where it’s due, that’s a genuinely unique and new concept. Don’t see that too often.

Wondering if anyone has any ideas for a simple fix to loose popbumper light sockets. Pops work great but the lights always work themselves free after any amount of serious gameplay. Thought replacing with LEDs might snugg them up a little more because they have a slightly different profile but seems to make no difference.

Try squeezing the socket closed a bit more with a pair of needle nosed pliers. The next time you rebuild your pops, consider changing over to a wedge base socket.

Thanks, seems like a no-brainer, wasn't sure how much abuse those sockets could take and didn't want to create an additional problem. I'll give it a shot

Yea, I would have lost money too..lol

I've come across THREE Space Shuttles: one at the local pinball distributor...he's fixing it and gonna charge WWWAAAAYYYY more than I can muster (he said $3k). A Project for $1000 OBO with roached playfield and the guy has no idea what else is wrong with it--won't respond to questions--doesnt' know the answers to them and must feel like answers would diminish his "lotto score" and then a guy who has a project that he has been sitting on for at least five years and he plans to "get around to it someday."

I'm on the hunt for a Space Shuttle and can't seem to find one...I know System 9 boards are tough to replace so obviously need one with clean boards--ok if they need to be rebuilt, just want minimal/no acid damage. I know the playfields are always in horrible shape...what are other common probs/things to look out for?

Any advice?

The ramp is a biggy imo. You will want to make sure the ramp is in decent shape. Often broken at the shitty ramp entry plate but you can make a new proper flap and rivet it on. Starship may reproduce them one day but hopefully Freeplay40 will do one of his kickass blue ramps for it. I think that would look sweet!

I picked up a project a year ago and i finally wheeled it into the shop yesterday. I did find a rebuilt original System 9 MPU but it wasn’t cheap. Should have this up and running again soon. I rebuilt the PS and am getting good voltages so off to a good start.

Do you think mirror blades would do anything for this pin? Seems like it's pretty dark...might be kinda cool with mirrors...

The ramp is an issue. Boards are an issue. Anything else?

Not local to you but I'll be leaving the club in about a month probably asking somewhere in the 2k neighborhood. I just finished touching up my playfield and finishing it with 2pac. My boards are rock solid and it has a new ramp and shuttle toy. My shuttle was my first pin four years ago and the ONLY one (out of 10) that has never given me one single problem.

Ramps and boards are hard to come by for these. CPR made a playfield and will theoretically make them again if/when they get set up for one offs but, as usual, they missed it with their blues. You can get CPR plastics but again, the blue is an issue if you care about such details.

Don't worry about the playfield. A Hardtop is available is really not bad to install. Also gives you a chance to give the game a full tear down and shop cleanup while you are installing it.
Boards and ramps are probably the big issues.
Hopefully someone repos the ramps.

3k is stupid and 1k for a roached machine might be even more stupid. truly roached 300 tops if the glass is nice. average game 1500, restored shouldn't be over 2k (people are asking way more but while its a great game its just not a money game. based on play.)

That's some weird alternate reality pricing. Here's the deal with "restored": it takes time and money. Lots of it. The people asking north of 2k likely have more than 3k into it if the game is truly restored. Sub 3k on a restoration = you are losing money or don't place any value at all on your time or both. Don't want to pay for a restoration? Hey, everyone has their priorities. Go buy a typical example of the game in the low to mid 1Ks knowing that it may soon be a roach because the clearcoat was toasted years ago.

its easy to put more into something that what its worth. putting 2K of parts/time does not increase the value by 2K. doing a 15K kitchen renovation does not increase your house value my 15 K either. Funny, I have a restored one with a new PF that has under 1K total into it. I wouldn't sell it. You can do a restore and still make money if you buy the right game. but even with what's been done to mine SS isn't a 3K game. Someone will be stupid enough to pay that, you can always find an idiot if you look enough.

You're right. In many parts of the country, a 15k kitchen remodel increases the value of your home by more than 15k.

Which means that the game cost you less than a $300 and you did practically nothing else to it (which means it's not restored) and/or the playfield is a bronze or silver grade and you did nothing to correct the defects. All of the lamp sockets and their braided wiring got replaced during the playfield swap? Cabinet stripped, repainted and ideally clearcoated? Ramp replaced or showing zero wear? Flippers fully rebuilt? Pops fully rebuilt? Standup targets got new stickers and got their contacts polished? Rollovers and their switches all polished? Boards are in perfect condition and recapped? Displays are all in perfect working order? Of course you replaced or polished your side rails and lock bar while you were painting the cabinet. Ditto for that coin door you disassembled and polished?

Oh right, you didn't do all of those things or you did but decided that your time has no value. If the latter is true, I am sorry.

Without having gone through the aforementioned items, most collectors would not consider your game to be "restored". It would be more accurately described as partially refurbished.

As for price/value it is crucial to understand that for some people 3K is like a nickel. Why? Not because they are idiots. Quite to the contrary. They were either born to wealth or have earned a great deal of money for themselves and therefore simultaneously understand the value of time and have a different idea of "expensive" than the average Joe.

I can see your argument about putting too much into a game being valid at a higher price point (the 10K Gilligan, for example - which is debatebly worth somewhere near that figure but has a very small potential buyer's audience and could therefore reasonably be described as a risky investment of time and money, if we were to assume that the original intent was to sell and that the dollar amount invested created financial hardship or strain or (assuming no financial strain) that the time and money invested was not offset by the psychological satisfaction of engaging with and completing the project).

I once took a couple of old EMs I had restored to a show. I was literally giving them away for 2K apiece. People that I know as casual pinball acquaintances who suffer somewhat from poverty mentality told me my work was excellent (one of my games ended up winning "best restoration") but that my prices were insanely high. I listed them online (with significantly higher prices) after the show and sold them both within days.

3k might strike you as a crazy price for a restored Space Shuttle, but anyone with financial means looking for an excellent copy of the game who has experience collecting high quality examples knows that $2500-3K is very good value and therefore a very reasonable price that places little to no value on the time of the seller.

nope

base was less than even you mentioned, cab looks good, no need to repaint. People do repaints that are not needed all the time. Clearing a cab is stupid doing so is not a restore, they weren't cleared originally. have a new ramp, but the repros suck so its not installed, wrong transistion and way too thick to fit correctly. flippers are perfect, unbroken original shuttle, plus a repro in hand, uninstalled as its not needed. polishing switches and contacts, are you stupid? No I don't have standup target stickers. it never had any. those bulleyes weren't stickers. They do have new faces though. drop stickers were replaced. pops are perfect from the swap. Bare wire was all replaced under the PF. coin door and armor are all original and fantastic and clean.
"giving away" EMs at 2k, that's a laugh, you were gouging people. you may have still lost money because you put too much into them. But outside a very few titles, 2k is insane on EM's. people paying 3K for a SS are stupid regardless of their financial means. ts not a game worth that. That does not mean people willing to part with too much money to get something *now* rather than getting a good deal don't exist. but they also don't set the market. Just as what I paid for the base game didn't set the market. Those prices are outliers, not typical.

I'm speaking from direct experience. Undeniably true.

Still looking for some NOS Space Shuttle Ramps.

Anyone have a decent set. Mine are brittle and scary. I want to rework my Ramp flaps but terrified of riveting mine as
they will probably die a horrible death.

No, I am not stupid. I will prove it now by being done trying to talk sensibly to someone who will not or cannot reciprocate or understand.

Remodelers project that a kitchen upgrade will cost an average of $35,000, while only adding an average value increase of $20,000 to your home.

again outliers exist. Chances are if you got 100%+ then what you really did was get 75% and the rest was the fact you were under esitmating on the rest of the house.

I think that $3k is a stretch for any 35 year old pin. Not saying that there aren't pristine examples out there"worth that much to a person with means" but it doesn't mean that it is a wise way to spend hobby money. There's one born every minute. My aim is not and never will be to have the absolute most pristine example. I also shudder to think of pinball machines as "investments"--they aren't, they're amusements.

I prefer projects so I can afford to get a solidly playable, cosmetically attractive, reliable pinball machine in the end.

"Bulletproofed" and "shopped" and any other term out there including "restored" can vary widely in meaning from person to person.

A special shout out of thanks to the techs who helped me get the balls rolling again. My shuttle had been neglected for 15 years and stored in some very unideal locations over that time butt with a little help it's now performing flawlessly. Locally, thanks Jim,the flipper rebuild is rock-solid, also Edward Cheung, words cannot express how good I feel about the work he did on my board, I was told more than once,"there's nothing we can do", "it's too far gone"or my personal favorite,"strip it down and make jewelry out of the components you can sell them on Pinterest". What was once a very temperamental machine is now a tamed wild beast. Also he helped with a special mod for the machine but I will get into another time. And lastly thanks to the pinsiders, this forum has been fantastic for tips and tricks and simple fixes.What a wonderful forum for people like us, that just want to keep playing with their balls.

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OK, I gotta know what the astronaut toy is...

I picked that guy up at a Toy Show a few years back, thought he would be a nice addition if I ever got my machine up and running again. Not sure who the manufacturer is but I'll snap a picture of the card when I'm in the shop later today.

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This is not the final resting place for this astronaut I've got other ideas of where he's going to go on the machine, however it was such an easy mount ,original Hardware screwed right into the left hand of the astronaut. Literally a two-minute install. Love it when a plan comes together. I haven't had to look for these but I'm sure eBay is a good start. Oh yeah, and so not to disappoint but the mysterious Space Rock mentioned on the card, is actually plastic.

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This piece looks totally at home anywhere on this table. I like what you did with the pose, looks natural, and shows off the figure well

My shuttle has left the building! Thanks for the ride!

Sorry to see you go.

So here is a mod that's fun and different, 20 years ago I installed a battery operated laser pointer on my shuttle machine. Added a few mirrors and got the laser bouncing across across the Playfield, creates a really subtle strobe effect on the Playfield as the ball crosses its path, big fun but a pain in the butt because it was battery operated. I recently got my shuttle machine up and running again with the help of Edward Cheung and while he had my board he converted my laser from DC to AC so I could wire it directly to the GI circuit on the shuttle. The following photos show the placement of the mirrors as well as the laser. The effect is almost unnoticeable during fast gameplay but when you have a slow lob or Arch across the middle of the Playfield it's showtime. I'll try to include a short video of a test and actual gameplay. Would like to get feedback from other shuttle heads

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Laser mod test, with gameplay

Neat subtle idea, cool addition of sci-fi to an already great pin!

Right, this would look right at home in a" Stellar Wars" or" space station"or "Firepower" Etc. I'll be adding one to Mars God of War this fall.

Cool idea. I wanted to comment on your blue USA & Multiplier lights, I do really like that. I might be stealing this idea, matches the art/plastics/machine more overall!

Thanks, I always thought the Green seemed out of place, the only green on the machine.

Hi guys! Just joined the club this month - love the game so far. So my game has randomly been locking a ball - and then not kicking out another ball and it acts like the ball was drained and gives out the bonus and then goes to the next ball. Sometimes a ball drains and it sits as if the ball didn’t drain, and it occasionally won’t add a credit and start the game with the left button. Anyone have any ideas why and how to remedy? Thanks!

One of the vendors at Golden State Pinball Festival last month was selling a new ramp for $179. I don't think it sold. I'm not sure who the vendor was, but if you reach out to the show organizers they will probably know.

I feel inclined to chime in here. Intelligent and strategic remodeling can increase value above and beyond the cost. Professionals such as myself guide people on how to do it all the time. I have gotten my clients up to a 6x ROI on remodeling.

Also, I'm buying a restored Space Shuttle tomorrow for an amount you would ridicule, but the joke's on you. Older pins in top condition are often worth double or more.

I'm afraid what you know isn't so.

Throwing Walmart toys on a pin is not strategic remodeling. remodeling generally does not give 100+% returns on houses, are there be exceptions sure.

Restoring and glueing on plastic toys are two very different things. Agree the latter adds little-to-no value.

I think you know how I feel about this subject, just trying to come up with the right real estate analogy so that others in this thread could comprehend as well

For what it's worth mirror blades will go a long way for brightening up this machine especially if you're dropping in LED lights also, just be mindful of the thickness there's not a lot of wiggle room between the cabinet and the Playfield

I'm back in the club!

Sold my old one about 2 yrs ago because I could not find a new playfield and new ramp anywhere at the time. Was sad to let it go.

New one I just acquired has new pf and new ramp already installed!

I love happy endings!