He was very willing to work on it. I suspect it takes him so little time, he makes out very well doing it in a weekend. $165 + $20 shipping (+ 3% if PayPal)

What kind of clear did you go with?

The art was different in the 2 pf's also. The fonts were different and some pf's, like my original, had the 6 rounds instead of hot dogs and the overall art is about 1/4" longer then other games.

If it takes 4 hours, which would be low IMO for a board that badly corroded, that's only 41.25/hour. I mean...I'm pretty sure he's probably makes more than 85k/year at NASA... at least I would hope he does.....but our govt and science these days....ugh.

His website shows that he has the original board checker equipment for various systems. He's also written PCBs and software to hook up to check boards by just turning them on (from what I can tell of his EE lingo.) The custom hardware, I'm sure, saves him time. Even at $40/hr, that's pretty decent if he does a few a month. With the history he has written about (and probably some he can't talk about), the money he's spent on the testing beds, the time he spent rewriting his custom gear, I'm sure he's set. I hope he's just doing this out of the goodness of his heart, providing a service at a fair price to keep the hobby alive.

Cost me less than an original would, and now it has been thoroughly checked over and fixed (unlike the original that would cost me $300 and probably fail during shipment.)

That was my point exactly...there's no other way he'd waste his time at 40 bucks an hour to do it, other than for love of the hobby and/or just generally liking doing that kind of work. I'd repin a board for 30 bucks and cost of materials if someone asked me too, assuming that it didn't have any excessively crap prior work done to it. I just like repinning boards.

i used waterbased gloss Varathane.

If you haven't upgraded your Space Shuttle to LEDs then maybe this video will change your mind. It really makes my machine pop!

just ordered leds for my resto.

Space Shuttle is fun!

My left outlane is EVIL though. I swear the ball rolls up outta the inlane and finds it way down. Is that normal?

That guy is a genius.

would someone tell me which leg I should cut in order the get the led's working properly for the hot dog insert, is it the round one or the square one? thanks for your help

shuttle pic.jpg

95% sure it is the square resistor that's providing the constant drain to ground.

thanks!

Just checked the schematics. Should be the 330 ohm resistor. Looks like the square one in your picture, but you can verify.

flashlampled.jpg

that's the one, I just de-soldered the ground leg, the led's work great now, can I just remove that resistor all together?

Tape off the spare lead and just zip tie the resistor in place.

You want to be able to go back to stock for you or the next owner.

done! thank you vid and frax for your help

Which leg is the ground leg? I guess this is why my LEDs don't work...so basically desoldering both legs of each white resistor and the LEDs will work?

the problem that I had was that the 89 led bulbs I put in would stay lit because of the warming resistor, i de-soldered the leg where there is a black wire attached to it and jumps over to the next one, i can post a pic if that will help

that would be great. I installed 89 LEDs and the right side resistor got really hot and one of the legs actually came off inside the resistor. I bought replacement 330ohm resistors thinking I just needed to install new ones. I'm not familiar with the mod required for the flasher bulbs on this machine. Any issue with the 89's in the backbox?

just scroll up to that pic and you will see the black wire between the two boards is where I removed the leg of the resistor on both sides , you will have to do the same thing to the back box

It doesn't matter, either one. As long as it's clear where to hook it back if someone wants to.

Oh, and you can probably buzz out continuity with ground strap to either side of the legs if you really want to determine which side is going right to ground...

Thanks to Ed Cheung, the board powered up today and the machine works! I have no coin door mechanisms and the diagnostic switches are broken so the next step is to get them fixed so I can do some switch and solenoid testing. Until then, enjoy my attract mode!

Looks good but I see your missing some insert lights. A little more work to do.

Put in some lights where the dead ones are, adjusted the flippers, attached the spinner and began testing things. Here's what I found I have left to work on before it's usable:

- Players 2, 3 and 4 segment displays are dead. They refuse to display anything. Hooking up Player 1's segment display to these outputs works fine. Don't know if they can be fixed or not yet.

- Sound is extremely low. Extremely, to the point where it is nearly inaudible. Stick your head in the backbox and you can hear the testing noises. This is my next project to fix. Didn't expect this. Any thoughts?

- No coin door mechanisms. I have the testing diagnostic buttons, but they're cracked and need to be replaced. Otherwise, there are some sliced wires, no switches to coin-up, nothing. As a result, haven't figured out how to start a game yet.

- Lots of aesthetic stuff that'll come last.

ebay.com link: Awesome Space Shuttle pinball playfield CPR reproduction playfield Wow

$1200... TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

Space Shuttle restoration DVD? Only one man I know that's worked on enough space shuttles to make THAT video and have it be worth a damn..

Nuts aint it.

The sad thing is this is probably the only one for available for sale at the moment. I hope CPR does another run of PFs someday...

Does anyone know the scale of the shuttle toy? I'm curious if there are more detailed model kits of around the same size that could be modified to fit in place of the stock shuttle.

if that is the last space shuttle playfield left on the planet it is still not worth double the price , you can buy the whole machine for that price with a decent playfield and probably enjoy the game for the next 20 years, it reminds me when the hurricane rolls in and people try and sell generators for 4 times the price, as far as I am concerned those people are scumbags, if you have a brand new playfield and cant use it, then you should try and sell it for what you paid and be happy it will find a good home, I guess that is just the way I am, I would rather have a good night sleep than try and take advantage of people to make money, maybe I am in the minority here

Even if I had the last CPR Shuttle playfield in the world, I'd still sell it for value (500-600) to the person who needed it. I couldn't gouge someone for extra. I just wouldn't feel right doing it.

I'm in need of a playfield but if they're going to be $1200, I'll play with the beat up one I have until it dies. Then, if I had to, I'd print a big sticker and rebuild the playfield myself before paying that much.

I would rather send the old playfield to John for $600.00 and get it restored.

http://www.greatpinball.com/services.html

I sent a Shuttle playfield to John a few weeks ago, and can't wait to see how his process comes out!

Let us know how it turns out, and share pics if you can.

You know I will take a ton of pics and post a full review.

Can somone take a photo of the sticker on the backbox GI? Mine is so sunfaded I can't even make out what it says anymore:
space_shuttle_backbox_sticker.jpg

FIVE DISPLAYS CONNECTED AS SHOWN.

20140913_091302.jpg

3 fit on a sheet, so I have 2 spare stickers. If you want one mailed to you, PM me an address.

The length of my space shuttle toy is just under 10" long from nose to tail. So about 1:145 or so if I did my math right?

So I decided to attempt to see the status of the rest of the game mechanics while I figure out my audio issues. Turns out that it's really close to being playable! I have a few issues still to work out.

• The drop targets don't retract all the way. I suspect worn springs. When I was putting them back together, I noticed a distinct lack of tug on them. They go about half way down then slowly fall the rest of the way. Pop back up with some effort though so the coil is good.
• The bell rings for what seems a looong time when I spell SHUTTLE. Is this normal? It will ring for close to a full second before stopping. I expected shorter dings, but I could be wrong.
• I think my airlock gate needs some adjustment. I didn't pay much attention to it, but I don't recall it moving back and forth.
• Players 2,3,4 displays are dead. Swapping in Player 1's display works on all other positions so I believe it's the displays themselves and not the board.

By the way, for any future readers, you cannot start a game without all three pinballs in the table. It just won't start! No indication that it won't. Just stays in attract mode forever.

All switches work perfectly, as do all kickers and pop bumpers (even though one doesn't have the upper ring). All lights are working just fine. Flippers are good. I'd say the game is probably playable if it wasn't for the audio trouble and the score displays!

Could be cable too.

Put display 2 into display 1's cable and driver position.

What LED's did people use under the white grid inserts and any other white inserts? Since my white inserts have yellowed a bit, they are showing up more of a whitish/green and look terrible. I believe I have Comet frosted WW single LED's in there right now.

Thanks!

Swapped the cables with no luck. Moved the displays around, no luck. Same symptoms. I suspect they're kaput.

Yep, it sure sounds like that.

Since used displays are $45 each, I'd just get the LED replacements, and sell your single good display to help offset the cost.

I made my grid insert collums (from left to right) red, white and blue.

Not affiliated, nor have I tried them, but I noticed the X-PIN displays are on sale: http://xpinpinball.com/shop/catalog/xpin-wms-system-6a-7-9-displays

I don't know if I would want anything other than orange in mine. I think orange goes well with the lettering in the backglass and they'll probably look closest to the stock plasmas. Red would probably look good, but blue LEDs do something weird to my eyes and end up looking blurry.

thats great, I did the same thing