Hello All! New to the pinball scene.....how new you ask? 2 weeks ago i bought a Bally BLACKJACK machine and I like playing it so much I thought I would jump right in a find a project table to work on. Got a Stern Lectronamo unit in good-ish shape. Thought I would do a little log of whats going on so you guys can watch as I either crash and burn or possibly end up with a good final product.

When purchased the machine was getting power and only a few of the back box unit lights were illuminating, nothing would boot after that. The plan is to fully strip everything, clean, rebuild and recondition it all. Not sure what I want to do with the circuit boards and such just yet. After getting it home today I took out the playfield and got ready to start cleaning.

IMG_9472 (resized).JPGIMG_9474 (resized).JPGIMG_9479 (resized).JPGIMG_9484 (resized).JPGIMG_9485 (resized).JPG

First pass of the cabinet cleaning. Will do another pass tomorrow putting extra effort into it.

IMG_9489 (resized).JPG

IMG_9491 (resized).JPG

IMG_9493 (resized).JPG

IMG_9494 (resized).JPG

IMG_9495 (resized).JPG

IMG_9497 (resized).JPG

IMG_9499 (resized).JPG

IMG_9500 (resized).JPG

Did a second cleaning and sanding to the interior.

IMG_9550 (resized).JPGIMG_9551 (resized).JPG

Took the time to apply glue to better secure some items, years of use and climate changes during storage has made some of the secured items a bit loose.

IMG_9557 (resized).JPGIMG_9558 (resized).JPGIMG_9559 (resized).JPG

Applied the first coat of primer to the interior. Used a brush to get into the corners really well for the first coat then finished the open areas with a fine sponge roller so it stays as smooth as possible. Today I will spray apply the second coat so to finish it up nice. Granted the white was not from factory but I wanted to make it nice and brighter on the inside of the cabinet so when the play field is up its not a black hole.

IMG_9571 (resized).JPG

IMG_9572 (resized).JPG

IMG_9574 (resized).JPG

Yes i will paint them red again. Those showings areas will get sanded again prior to the red base and black splatter layer. When painting the red I think I will not mask the interior it so it has that red over spray look to the inside of the cabinet like it has in the first pictures I posted.

Tackled the cabinet harness on a rainy day.

IMG_9581 (resized).JPGIMG_9584 (resized).JPG

Cut off all the exiting zip ties and gave it a good cleaning. Dipped the connector ends into the sonic cleaner for a few min and they all came out looking new.

IMG_9582 (resized).JPG

reinstalled all new zip ties but forgot to take a final picture.

Got the final prime done on the interior with the spray gun this time.
IMG_9613 (resized).JPG
flipped it booger side up and saw another challenge. Some the the plywood De-laminated and was missing.
IMG_9614 (resized).JPG
IMG_9616 (resized).JPG
I had some plywood strips around from my rc plane building days so I fenced in some of the areas and filled with epoxy.
IMG_9624 (resized).JPGIMG_9627 (resized).JPG
Preliminary sand prior to minor bondo filled areas.
IMG_9677 (resized).JPGIMG_9683 (resized).JPGIMG_9686 (resized).JPG
I forgot to take pics of the cabinet with all the patch work done and then I primed it and put the first layer of red down.

Also started the coin door cleanup. Took it all apart and put it in the sonic cleaner bit by bit

IMG_9587 (resized).JPG

IMG_9590 (resized).JPG

IMG_9596 (resized).JPG

IMG_9605 (resized).JPG

IMG_9607 (resized).JPG

First coat of red was done a few days ago. I applied the second coat yesterday evening. Also started the repair on the scoreboard base. After the paint was dry i flipped it and painted the first coat on the inside in the areas adjacent to the playfield.

IMG_9696 (resized).JPG

IMG_9699 (resized).JPG

IMG_9700 (resized).JPG

As i mentioned in one of my earlier posts i liked the over spray look as it was originally done that way.....i bet some of you are yelling at your computer screen right now about it. The red on the bottom is just dry fall and cleans right up. This is just the first coat to the inside playfield faces.

IMG_9727 (resized).JPGIMG_9728 (resized).JPG

I will be cutting my own on our laser table at work. I have so much scrap 1/16 ABS material im going to use that. It will be nice and firm and will not flutter when I spray on it. I was going to us sticker material on out vinyl cutter but was not too happy with possibly having removal issue after when peeling off the stencil.

I need some advice please guys. I want to order some stuff online so i don't fall behind. I'm looking at grabbing some playfield rebuild stuff and my question is about posts. I have 2 sizes on my deck. Short 1" and one that falls just over 1 1/8" but its not exactly 1 3/16". Would i be ok with just getting the 1 1/8" posts?

Cut up some templets for the cabinet art from abs. Going to just lay and spray easy as pie.

8FD36B92-2D64-47C3-BDAC-6896C6349906 (resized).jpeg

I did not know anything about this unit when I get it. I was interested because if the glass art and I liked the play field colours. Looking into it I find that very few were made. Does that make it desirable or just junk ?

Hawt dog!

33DFFA56-7B4C-406E-81E7-55189581EEF1 (resized).jpeg

CB42741F-B119-4504-8741-F2EB4583221E (resized).jpeg

D32CA95B-6E90-4487-BE59-7BD35375F897 (resized).jpeg

E7A303A2-F34A-479E-B3A4-C02199839CB9 (resized).jpeg

Right side is done. Got some perfect ghosting / overspray in some areas that make it look just like it was back in the day.

08347EF5-75F5-4270-A4DA-62031E032537 (resized).jpeg

AB682192-1B19-458F-994C-1AA22FC0A24C (resized).jpeg

E2F46EB5-A82B-4B0B-A782-2E20A2233FCB (resized).jpeg

In my great haste yesterday to get the sides done i forgot to add the black spatter first. When I am finished with the other side and front i will use the actual stencil cutouts that i kept i will place them on top of the painted areas and see if i can splatter on some black. You can see the old splatter in the before pics.

IMG_9685 (resized).JPG

Bounce bounce bounce! Working on everything! Got the other side finished. 10BE9A1C-032D-4E3C-9A72-F78D48579AD9 (resized).jpeg
Took apart the play field yesterday
E8738E51-7CCF-4F3F-A6D6-BB6961711635 (resized).jpeg
Sanded it today. Took one of my 24” bar sanders for making rc planes and went over it all. You can see the high spots. 43C88FA3-2F39-43AB-9F1F-A7AC97675DAD (resized).jpegDE8EA5A3-0CA0-4B3A-9C32-BFEEE22293E5 (resized).jpeg

As you can see the natural unpainted wood areas are damaged and discoloured. You diehard pinball heads can prepare yourself and take out your quills and start drafting up a letter to congress because I’m going to do something you will not like. The colour areas of the play field will be air brushed again to match factory however the natural wood areas I’m going to try to do a onyx black that will show the grain. I hope it kinda hides the water damaged areas. I have yet still to pick up the particular transparent colour.

08D07ED2-40D7-4A8A-800B-C1DDC41960DB (resized).jpeg

Here is my onyx idea. What you think?

Lectronamo Black (resized).jpg

Darker i think looks better.

Lectronamo Black 2 (resized).jpg

Not worried about mixing so much but if i can find a transparent that will hide the damage right out of the bottle I'm game!

It was so badly blistered and raised in areas. You can see with the sanding all the high spots hit. Right from the start I wanted to hit the palyfield with a new finish as a thought it would fit the rebuild nicely and it something i wanted to try to see how well I can handle it. Also many of the posts holes were stripped out or so badly sunken into the deck so a fair amt of filling / floating with epoxy work is required under them.

That where I got the paints yesterday. The nice lady there pointed me in the right direction, she was telling me about someone who comes in to buy paint for their pinball restore work...maybe it was you she was talking about?

That’s the one she recommended but was out of the gloss finish one. I need to revisit the store later when it’s back in stock.

I should redo the photoshop. Most of the black is actually covered by items at the top and bottom.

Front done.

7EAF0DCF-B124-4A4B-9D4E-A41DFC61B5F8 (resized).jpeg

Perfect. What number is yours ? I wonder how the number system works some are 6000 series other 7 and others 8

Almost got the play field harness cleaned and redone. Took a few hours to get this far.

9D8C2646-0584-4380-B371-8D51BD47AFCA (resized).jpeg

A4D37AC9-C2EA-428A-9994-DE13256D2380 (resized).jpeg

BD9F7A31-A0A6-40FA-9E6A-5E03B9341679 (resized).jpeg

Also fixed some indicator lenses that were falling down. EAC885EC-2479-41CB-B687-3163A9DB0847 (resized).jpeg
Filled a few really damaged areas that were missing material. Looks like some posts were loose and took a hard beating thus causing the holes and deck to break apart. 877C2917-C08A-4FD0-9426-1B19C3690503 (resized).jpeg
Resprayed the underside of the play field. E4CC830F-9BEC-4D5E-8544-4B0A33D5A356 (resized).jpeg763031F0-65A9-4FD7-9A3F-E19F157FE4D2 (resized).jpeg

When I got mine it would not boot. Just a few scoreboard lights would go no. I’m about 2 days from finishing the cabinet so I can start on the scoreboard. Mine is looking like it might need some major repair.

I made sure it was kept. Bottom left.

img_9900 (resized).jpg

It’s not full with with paint either.

Well that’s one side 100% done. Added splatter and did a final coat clear satin finish.

07BA12E5-51B6-4A1F-B496-9990C38B8AB3 (resized).jpeg

B2FB447C-70EB-4149-BFF7-DC8407F9E55C (resized).jpeg

Play field porcupine! All cleaned up and ready to clip ! God my fingers hurt.

20AAC96A-583A-4D62-9435-1FB6C23965BD (resized).jpeg