I had a few minutes so I did the swap to change the white pop bumper base, body and skirt to clear. I hadn't changed parts like this out before so some notes for others in the same boat:
The existing flat art/dome saucer comes off with the obvious two top screws. When the factory saucer is removed, you'll see the parts you're going to replace:
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There's a small RGB LED board in the bottom of the body, it's held in place with sticky tape. It can be removed by gently pulling up on the board with a pick or a small flat screwdriver. The four wires from the RGB board fish down through the playfield through holes in the pop bumper body/base. You can refer to the owner's manual / parts list for a visual on how this works.
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Under the playfield, there's a junction strip where the supply wires meet with the four wires from the Pop Bumper RGB board:
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I unscrewed this board and moved it over to the outer screw to make it easier to fiddle with the wires when de-soldering/re-soldering. Once you de-solder the four RGB wires, you can remove the three white parts and the RGB board from the playfield.
It's been mentioned earlier in the thread but the tip of the skirt has a tip that is approx. 2mm longer than the factory piece. You'll need to trim this back and soften the edges for it to work properly. You can get close and then adjust the gap at the leaf switch when you're done.
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With the three clear pieces (and trimmed skirt post) in position it looks like this, much cleaner than the white parts:
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From there, it's basically reversing the process. Fish the RGB LED wires back through the tiny holes and through the playfield and re-solder them to the posts. Someone earlier on suggested notes and photos - I AGREE! Pics of things as you go can make your life much easier when you are on the way back togther. Secure the RGB LED into the new clear body, I ended up adding another layer of double-stick tape as the screw heads holding the body to the playfield were not flush like they sit in the factory pop bumper body.
Another note: If you look back up at the OEM white pop bumper body, you can see some notches in the top edge. Those provide a gap for the OEM saucer body as it has a "dogbone" with rivets that hold the dome to the flat printed plastic on the underside. You can file down the clear pop bumper body to make clearance or add a washer under each side to make a gap for the dogbone.
When it's done, the look is much cleaner, even with the factory saucer. Now I have to use my best patience for a
Sleal16 saucer next time he makes a batch! If anyone has a Sleal they didn't end up using, please let me know!
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With the clear parts it looks great lit up, and has a nice glow to it, contributing to the visual that the saucer is "floating" on the playfield. Great mod, thanks to
Zitt for guidance and the parts and others for sharing their info earlier in the thread!
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Added 97 days ago:
For folks looking for the parts to do this mod, you can find the details from
Zitt here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-godzilla-official-owners-club/page/259#post-7048865