A while ago I put together a beautiful star trek next generation, that I poured lots of time, love, and money into to make it how I wanted it. It had Mike Chestnut black nickel chrome everything. (Gun, Rails, Lockdown, Legs, Wireforms), hand painted borg ship, upgraded and modded hallmark ships, etc. Someone came over to look at another game in my collection, and offered me (at the time) silly money for it, and I regrettably took it.
When one popped up on craigslist just a few miles from me that had been kept in a home for the past 15 years, I had to jump on it. My plan is to take this game to the fullest (and still tasteful) extent possible. Since this isn't really a restoration but more of a cleaning/upgrading I thought the modding thread would be a good place to document the progress, and talk with you guys along the way!
I've had a few people ask me what I usually do to a game, and it's really hard to remember/list everything so hopefully this will help with some of that also.
Here is the short-term plan: (all done now)
Clean inside of cabinet/lightly sand out water spots and dark stains
Remove wiring harnessess and hand clean with bleche wite
Re-pin burned connectors (GI)
There is one connector with two cut wires, need to inspect and repair as needed. update: appears to be a hack for the backbox GI the orig are burned out.
Replace all broken parts
Replace all posts and rubbers
Convert Red Top-lanes, and Pop bumper caps with purple
replace pop bumper rollover switches with purple
replace white pop bumper housing
replace all ramps with NOS ramps
upgraded ramp protectors
Metal Polish all large metal pieces (5 different grit's of scotch brite, mothers polish, and finally a polishing compound and buffing)
Remove subway and clean
Inspect boards for hacks/cold solder joints and repair as needed
clean cannon mechanisms (they are noisy as all heck currently because the motor strains to turn them, they are pretty gummed up)
flipper rebuild
new flipper bats
hand painted borg ship
hand painted launchers
Target Decal Set
Cointaker LED and Flasher Kit
Neutral Zone Cliffy
Metal Spacer Cabinet Protectors
Hand Painted (Accents and Battlewear) Hallmark Romulan Ship with (LED MOD)
Hand Painted (Battle Wear) Hallmark Klingon Bird of Prey + Zitt's Wing LED Mod
Hand Painted (Accents and Battlewear) Hallmark Next Generation U.S.S. Enterprise
Color DMD LCD
LED OCD
PinSound Board
Flipper Fidelity Speakers (2.1 w/ stereo adapter for pinsound)
Remove Playfield
Topside Teardown
Novus 3 in spots
Novus 2
Meguiar's M9 Mirror Glaze Swirl Remover
Meguiar's M7 Mirror Glaze Show Car Glaze
Novus 1
Carnuba Wax
remove all underside boards and scrub with simple green
clean all inserts underneath
Long-Term plan:
plastic protectors
lighted flipper buttons
Dome covers for launchers
chrome siderails
chrome lockdown bar
black nickel chrome habitrails
black nickel trough rails
rebuild launcher gun
black nickel launcher gun w/ chrome trigger
Ball Launcher Ultra Thin Cliffy
Great Lakes Modular DCS-TBS - Widebody Ball Trough Opto Board Set
Great Lakes Modular WPC-UFB - Universal WPC Flipper Boards
Aurich Alternate Translite
blue hard plastic borg ship windows
pinbits STTNG Extended Exit Lane Ball Guides- Stainless Steel
Widebody Invisiglass
anyPin NVRAM Battery Eliminator