It's finally time to start on my latest restoration project. After seeing Dick Hammil's awesome work with the Bally Stern OS project and new rule set for Meteor, I decided to pick one up for myself. I was lucky enough that Marshall over at Little Shop of Games had 2 of them. I got it home a few weeks ago and set to putting together the Arduino Controller to bring some new lighting and sound to this great shooter. Now that it is playing like a completely new machine, it's time to make it look and operate like new again.

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First off we have the usual suspects. Broken and burn plastics. Par for the course of a game that is just older than I am. Luckily Steve Young sells hot stamped replacements for the drop targets and pop bumper caps. The funny thing is that the drop targets in the game are clustered as "1 1 1", "2 2 2" and "3 3 3", but the replacements come in bags of "1 2 3"

Maybe that's why all my targets are mismatched

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Incase anyone hasn't seen the Bally Stern OS code project for this game, check it out here, it's awesome.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/meteor-2021-new-code-for-stern-meteor-1979

One of the first things I did on this was to wire up my own arduino controller and wave trigger to get this going. Here is a video showing how mine boots up to the original rom, and with the flick of a switch to the new code. The switch both toggles a jumper pin on the new controller board, but also toggles the speaker connection to the in cabinet speaker now being driven by a small 2.1 channel amplifier that also powers 2 small speakers in the head.

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While I was waiting for parts, I disassembled the coin door. I gave the smaller parts a tumble in crushed walnut shells and flitz. The door skin I did my best trying to get it back to some semblance of straight and flat, and put a coat of rustoleum hammered on it. The coin door had a credit button on it that some previous home owner must had added at some point. I don't mind it, so I'm leaving it for now. I may come back to it when the new coin slot shows up to replace the center one that looks like it took a screw driver to it. It's been a tough life for this old Meteor. I'm also waiting on some new decals for the door.

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I spent my day Saturday on breaking this down. I have to say I'm really impressed that there aren't more hacks on this machine. Other than a couple of odd sized screws jammed in, I haven't found any abuse yet other than the usual neglect.

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I think half of my posts were smashed. I still gave them a good once over with the ultrasonic cleaner just to see if any were salvageable. For other Meteor owners, I had 37 of the tall faceted posts, and a mix of 22 shorter faceted and star posts. Sounds like from other threads these proportions were all over the place depending on who was making the playfield that day.

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I tried my luck at sanding out a deep gouge in my lockdown bar. You can still see it, but it's definitely not as noticeable as it was before. I may go back with some finer grit and spend some more time on it, but for now it's good enough.

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Swapped the plasmas for pinscores. Let me know if any one needs the plasmas. They all still work.

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I used Jeff PinballPimp trick of using acetone for stripping down the cabinet. Works like a champ and you don't create all the dust you would sanding. Then I spent some time filling all the nicks and holes and getting it sanded and read for paint.

https://www.facebook.com/pinballpimp/videos/1872389246177571/

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So I tried respraying my chewed up apron, and the trim for the back glass that had gotten some surface rust on it. Unfortunately the paint isn't adhering well, so I'm reaching out to a local powder coating place to get them powder coated.

The other trouble I was having was trying to source decals to restore the apron. Pinball Rescue no longer has any in stock, and has shut down their operations. I was very lucky that semicolin had an extra set he is sending me.

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Shiny bucket of parts from the top of the playfield, fresh out of the tumbler

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If you click the link in the post, Jeff has a time lapse video of how he does it

I got some presents from CPR!

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My old backglass wasn’t terrible so I gave it a quick hit of triple clear to save it from any more paint loss. Maybe I’ll hang it on a wall someday.

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A bunch of you have reached out about the 6 digit plasma displays. I don’t know what a fair price is for those. Once I get an idea of what they are worth I’ll get back to you or just post them on market. Stay tuned…

I think I remember seeing those. You 3D printed them right?

I was happy to see they added the text. Like I said, the playfield is great except for those small issues. As for the back, I need to check again but I feel like it may have been clear.

Shared in the other post too, but finally got a chance to snap a pic. Natural finish on the under side of mine.

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First primer coat. The wood sucked it right up. I’ll wait till it dries to find all the nicks and cracks to fill.

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Doesn’t bother me. I think it helps prevent getting gray paint in the inserts, so that’s a plus

After the primer, I rubbed the cabinet down with some fine steel wool and I tried aqua coat for the first time. If you haven’t used it, it’s a grain filler that goes on almost like butchers wax. You apply with a squeegee and then wipe off the excess. It dries clear and hard, so be sure to wipe up any excess to save from having to block sand excessively between coats. After that was dry, I applied 2 more quick coats of black. I’ll probably try to get on at least 2 more tomorrow before stencils on Saturday or Sunday.

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Today my lock down bar receiver from Mantis Amusements came in and it’s perfect. I’ve never used them before, but the quality is top notch. I also got in the decals for my coin door, so that’s looking the part now.

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Started the day off wet sanding and putting another coat on the cabinet. Started painting the speaker ring too.

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Next up was making a new set of rails for the playfield to replace the ratty old vinyl covered ones.

Did you know when using a miter saw that keeping a small piece of wood behind your work piece helps prevent tear out (splinters)?

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My new rectifier board arrived today so it was time to retire the original. While I was at it, I cut a new piece of plywood to mount the transformer on and started to paint it.

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Wanted to see what it would look like with a pop of color by painting a sample of the rails purple. I think I like the original black better ‍

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Rustoleum Hammered finish silver. Saw a few other pinsiders use it to great effect on their coin doors. It worked great on my old Williams EM too when I redid that one.

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That topper is awesome. Really creative stuff. Do you have it tied into any feature lights?

Mounted the transformer and rectifier to the new board. All ready to go back in when the cabinet is done. The old board is ready for the garbage.

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I made a little mod for my cabinet. My old playfield was gouged by the playfield support brackets, and I want to avoid that in the future. I added some nylon runners to help stop that in the future.

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Spent some time with the buffing wheel. The shiny stuff wasn’t so shiny any more.

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Disassembled the insert so I could repaint it to make it white again. I also took the display brackets and tossed them in the ultrasonic cleaner to get the crap off them and then threw a coat of clear on to keep them from oxidizing again along with the hinge and rest of the hardware.

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