Some of you remember last June when I was a brand new newbie who had just gotten my first pin. You all warned me that they multiplied, and also that the fever was contagious. Well, you were right!!! My mom caught the fever, and between the two families we are now up to EIGHT! (Technically the Twin Win is the red headed stepchild that gets locked in my parents basement, and they have had it for years, but we've procurred SEVEN in less than a year.)

This past weekend was the open house for the local pin shop, Chattanooga Pinball. They had a Christmas Day fire and just got their new showroom ready to go. So of course the entire family (me, husband, mom, dad) had to go check it out. We played the games on the floor, we checked out Hercules, we argued over which pin was the best. We got the full tour of the place, and while in the back we saw some of the fire victims sitting all sad and blackened. They are being restored as time allows (a nice STTNG was bought that day and is getting its makeover now) and some are already restored on the floor looking great. Husband spotted a toasty Spiderman in the corner, and the owner Dale hooked me up with a super duper deal on it. I wasn't really looking for a Spiderman, but I couldn't turn it down. We were wanting a TOM for our anniversary, but SM will do just fine, and now we get to love on it and bring it back to life. So now, after 11 months of learning about pinball machines, we're going to tackle our very first restoration and tear-down! I'm both excited and nervous, but think it will at least be a journey. Hopefully a fun one.

Dale has kindly offered up his ionizer room and helped me get the very few parts I need to make it pretty, and when we're done it will be gorgeous except for one little "beauty mark" where it got flame kissed. And since I (for now) have no intentions of swapping/selling it, I don't care about the cabinet looking perfect.

The good: it boots right up, it has the full LED kit already installed, it is 100% complete, and it's a freaking Spiderman.

The bad: the left side of the cabinet is scorched (and no decals available as of right now,) the speaker panel got scorched but I have another to swap it out, the trim around the head got a little melty but Dale is getting replacement trim for me (possbily a pretty red,) the glass/rails/lockbar have scratches from the ceiling collapsing but can be repaired or replaced, and the tournament things on top of the backbox are very well done, but I'm just going to take them off anyway.

My dad handled procurement today since I have to work during their business hours, and he's already set up a "redneck ionizer" for the time being until we can get it to my house on Saturday and start the cleaning process. Now I've got to figure out how to put 4 pins in a '3 pin' room. What an awful predicament.

Pics:

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I just spotted Twin Win behind Spidey in one pic. Now they can chat with each other.

Also, dad bought a pin lift table hauler thingy because apparently we're so pin crazy we needed one. Any excuse for another tool I guess. image.jpg

I have been assured by a few people that I got a very very good deal. If I can get it up and operational with my extra parts and current cleaning supplies (and husband won't start buying mods just yet) we'll have less in it that I have in my JP. Score!

Dad loves his $500 pickup truck. It lived at a nuclear powerplant for most of its life, the doors don't match the rest of the truck, and it maxes out at about 65 MPH. I'm suprised that it doesn't glow in the dark. We haul everything in it, including lots of pins lately.

Now he also loves his pinball mover cart. It's also a "redneck ionizer" (fan) holder for now. Multipurpose.

I hope I love Spidey. I've never even played one. But it is #7 on the list and for some reason Spiderman was yesterday's flavor of the day on thread topics, so I learned quite a lot. Apparently it has flow and lots of available mods.

More pics after I got my hands on it today. Bringing it home on Sat to clean up. It has NO smoke smell, so we wont even need the ozone room. Woo hoo!

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More pics.

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Also found out it is a 2007 model with metal apron.

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More pics.

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And some love for Twin Win, since she is neglected in the basement but represented in my avatar pic.

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Thanks for the info. I may have to check that out. I've never called Stern before, might as well start now.

Thanks Dale, I really appreciate it! I think we're going to fix it up and play it for awhile before even worrying about the cabinet, but I'll try to contact them this weekend to see what they say. I have no clue how to do a cabinet swap anyway.

My parents are trying to convince me that I should take Twin Win home and leave Spiderman there for them, after I clean it up and get it playable of course. Silly parents. Mom was all "Ooh, I like the music. It kinda rocks out. And it's pretty...."

Thank you nmeun!!! I had no clue where to even start looking besides the main Stern #.

Oh I'm sure she was checking it out. She likes the ones that rock out. Her favorite thing about Frankenstein is that she can select the Edgar Winter's music on it.

This is dad's "new and improved redneck ionizer." It didn't smell at all last night after a day of the fan being on it, but had a very faint smell this morning. So he's got a little help from Scentsy today. image.jpg

Thanks DCFan, I appreciate it. I can't tell if the backboard decal was burnt in the fire or if it was burnt from previous use with the original bulbs, because it's very uniform around each individual bulb and nothing in the backbox area looks singed otherwise. They had replaced the original bulbs with a new LED kit and all the lights work just fine, so I assume that a new decal will make it good as new back there.

Does the protector set just go over the existing plastics? I looked it over last night and everything looks fine except that Sandman clear piece you mentioned, so I'd like to keep it that way.

Thanks again DCFAN!

Pinballgeek- I certainly hope that I can. It's actually not nearly as bad as it could have been. Some of the other pins in the fire were totally destroyed, and a few had their glass bust and the playfields are solid black from soot and/or covered in collapsed ceiling tiles. Spidey got lucky just being flame-kissed up the side. The playfield wiped clean with just Windex on a paper towel, so when we start the teardown this Saturday I'll be able to clean more with my pin maintenance kit and some Novus.

Thanks for letting me know that was normal metahugh. I chalked it up to fire damage, then got to thinking it was awfully specific around the bulbs and the new bulbs weren't touched, so good to know that area should be fine with a new decal.

DC- I'm not discouraged. I'm actually super excited now that I've got my hands on it at my parents house and saw that the machine itself is basically fine. The computer tests out with no issues, the sound is great, the smoke smell isn't going to even be an issue soon, and everything else is just cosmetic and cleaning. I probably could have played it except that I'm afraid of all the dirt and soot down in the moving parts and don't want to damage those. Plus we didn't buy it to resell, so if it's not perfect we'll still love it.

Dale gave us a plastic piece that goes over the DMD from another game, but I may go ahead and get the red one and give him that one back since I know he can use it. I've got to figure out the best way to clean up the panel itself, and I think I saw spider decals to put over the speakers that may hide some of the damage if I can't get them totally clean.

The middle playfield wiped right off with Windex and paper towels that dad had in the garage, and I've got Novus 1,2,3 at home that should do the trick. The only thing I'm concerned about are the metal guards on the ramps, but I'll see what those do when we get it home and I can work on it. I'll definitely let you know about the cleaner and the odor though, and really appreciate your help.

Pinballgeek- It was in a warehouse fire.

Sammiesguys- Thanks for letting me know. We've got JP with one, and nothing else has it, and it always feels like something is missing. We're looking at all the mods and protection things for Spidey, but trying to just get it running properly for now without spending a ton on other things. Shaker motor is on the "things we want to buy for it" list though.

Update after day 1 of cleaning. We are waiting on decals, plastics, cab protectors, plastic protectors, etc from 3 different companies, so working on the outside for now. Cabinet was scraped and cleaned, legs washed and painted, melted tournament brackets removed. Speaker panel was disassembled, scraped, painted, reassembled. Translite cleaned, still needs a little work but ok for just our use. Back box cleaned out with air compressor, coin door cleaned up. Still a ways to go but progress has been made.

Pictures. (Notice our helper dogs in the background.)

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More pics, before and after.

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Woo hoo! About 8 hours of work, some spray paint, a new decal, and lots of elbow grease, it is done. We officially played our first games tonight, and I have no clue what I am doing but it is fun. Just have to get the trim for the backbox and it will be together, then waiting on the plastic protectors and Back Alley sling plastics to make it complete.
Money-wise all we've bought for it were cabinet protectors, back decal, plastic protectors, prettier sling plastics, new balls, new rubbers, and a can of spray paint. It already had the Cointaker LED kit inatalled. There are a few scuffs on the right side of the cabinet, and of course the flame path on the left side, but it gives it character.