Picked up a Taxi from a local friend , needed a winter project . I'm going repaint and clear the worn playfield , figure it will keep me busy for a while . I know why these games are so worn out, it's a fun game and I can see me keeping this one.
Thanks to those who have gone before me, I have read for many hours in your restoration threads , and have a good idea of how I'm going about mine . So today it went into the cradle , pulled topside , by tonight it will be in the rotisserie remove enough bottom to paint , and I'll start matching colors . Last year same time I did my earth shaker , however the grey roads to repainted will challenge me more . Looking forward to getting this game back up and playing like new .

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This is it for day one , 12 hours to tear down topside and bag parts and take pictures . A few loctite issues , to be expected for this era game . Luckily I had parts and t nuts from my earth shaker loctite nightmare
Back is killing me, ibuprofen and bed time for this old man .
JP

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Mylar off , now the glue . 3 hours in and half way done . It's a bitch over the inserts.
Luckily , only one penny size lift , easily fixed , I bought a decal set to correct any bad areas .
JP

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Day 3.
All the Mylar glue off , and sanding crusty inserts to apply decal after first clearcoat.
Colors all matched and mixed in automotive basecoat.
Decided not to use large blue decal in center of lower playfield because it's actually lavender , and doesn't match well . They look pretty good anyways , so I'm leaving it alone .

My plans are to remove crappy insert art, and do an initial clear .
Lock down the old artwork and apply insert decals after 3 days of solvent purge .
Then spray the colors on all needed artwork recreation , then the insert decals, then clear again . Sand one final time to level the decals out and reclear.
Oh, and it's about time to remove pop bumpers , they are getting in the way

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Spent the weekend on the Taxi. I touched up lots of the missing paint around the santa, gorbi and drac inserts with a brush. I then painted in the light blue Marilyn drop target area. I fished sanding the degraded inserts to get ready for decals. I scuff the whole pf with a grey scotch brite pad and cleaned it about 4 times with foam glass cleaner. Didn't want to use a solvent cleaner because of the brushed basecoat, so non ammonia glass cleaner did the trick.
Yesterday I first applied one coat of Lesonal SB Blending additive to minimize surface contamination ( fish eye) and color bleed out, just a light coat for insurance. After 5 minutes dry I applied 2 coats of Akzo Nobel Pro Air Clear ( automotive clear) and let dry for 4 hours, then applied 2 more coats. Allow to dry over night.
Today I sanded with 600 grit on a DA sander and flattened all the inserts and dimples out. pf was totally smooth , and then I mask off for the white. I sprayed almost all of the white on the pf, and recleared with 2 coats.
Next will be apply decals, and paint the grey . I finally have a match on the grey, and I'll share the formula for anyone else. Just find a automotive paint store that sells Akzo Nobel's Lesonal brand and have it mixed in basecoat.
Akzo Nobel color map code 493A2 was the white I used, did it in Lesonal base coat.
The Grey was a bitch to match close enough to satisfy me, but I got it finally and and have the formula written down on one of the pictures below. Its the formula written on a sprayout card in purple marker, once again in Akzo Nobel's Lesonal base coat. ( I matched automotive paint for a living from 1986-2012 as a Akzo Nobel manufacturer tech rep, so I'm pretty picky and I'm happy with this match)
Meanwhile, while paint is drying, I'm hand polishing all the metal pf pieces with a die grinder / cotton wheel.
About 40 hours into pf restore now, maybe 1/2 way done
JP

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Thanks Brad, stay tuned and follow it along. I love these old Sys11 games, they restore nicely.

JP

Plafield restore done . Time to rebuild all assemblies. Pops done, slings almost done, coin door done ( found $5.11 in the jammed up coin mechs , and a ritz cracker with the peanut butter still on it )
In rotisserie now, life is much easier .

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Thank You Captive_Ball and Pinball-DOOD!
It is a deserving game to put this much time into , and I love the system 11 era games, over half my line up is system 11. I am most comfortable taking apart system 11 also, and keep parts for them, so that's a bonus. Believe it or not, my least favorite system 11 in my collection is Whirlwind , go figure

A little more completed. Stripped all of the old paint off legs and repainted them with automotive paint. Gloss Black, along with the bolts.
Installed all LED's bottom and top side. Replaced a pop bumper bracket and link that just didn't sound right... too much thud and not enough tink.
JP

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Another 8 hours into the population of the pf. Having to use xacto knife to trim the screw / bolt holes bigger . The 6 coats of clear has filled them in , so cutting and sometimes redrilling is necessary. No big deal , just move a little slower .
Not too far from the end now . I have a hole in the bottom of the cabinet to repair once I get the pf built and ready to install .

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Cabinet had hole where someone stole the cash . The op put a metal plate underneath to secure the coin box.
I removed the metal, cut a neat square and replaced with new wood. Then filled the gaps and painted black .
Best I could do with what time I wanted to put in in. Didn't really want to replace the bottom of the cab. Not that big a deal to have it flat black .

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Another 12 hour day into it, pf is now populated and ready to put into cabinet. Want to touch up cabinet first , just a little black around the front edge. That's about it though , won't be long now

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Man I hope so ! I did the same kind of full refurb on my Earthshaker last year and it played so good I beat my all time high score after having the game for 15 years .
Should have it powered up by end of the week. It is always real scary to hit the power button and press start , not sure what might be out of adjustment and smoke something .... No matter how careful I am .

An hour and a half cabinet repair , fixed broken off corner on head .
Bondo, prime, paint , done !
Damage pics:

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Repair :

( still gonna paint black around front of head tomorrow , gotta let the yellow dry before masking )

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Never thought about how fast this game plays with rusty balls and dull-ass Mylar . Bet it is gonna be like Jimmy Johns Sub Shop ... And be "Freaky Fast" !

Gonna plug back in harness in the morning , run it through a test and hopefully play the first game on its newly refurbed pf.

JP

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Well.... Not bad news , but not great either .
Good news: no smoke or fire , and most everything is working ... except -

Bad news; right flipper will not fire.
Coil getting 50vDC, all wires are attached , cabinet switch seems good with DMM. So after an hour with my meter I can't find the problem . Going to spend more time after lunch , today was taken as a vacation day , so I have time to either figure it out , or you will see a post for help later tonight .
Looks pretty though , no doubt .

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Found the problem, i think. The EOS switch is likely the issue. I OHM'd out the small wire winding and getting 160 ohms with the EOS closed, and also with the EOS switch open, and that ain't good. Adjusted the EOS switch to make better contact and it OHM'd out at 6.3 something closed, so I'm about to fire it up. Just needed a pinside break and give my back some relief. Stay tuned.
Joey
edited my final ohm reading, 6.3... not 40 doh!

Here is the power up , always very nervous when I hit the switch , never know what might flame up .

Check out this video on YouTube:

Appears to be working well , only time will tell if it's solid . I guess I'll have to have a few craft beers and some pinball in my weekend .

Gotta move some stuff around , can't even get the glass out of a couple pins , it's so jammed up in my game room .
Thanks to those who followed me , it took 4 weeks and about 100 hours to do it . Spent probably $400 on parts , and all the paint and clearcoat was free .
Pop bumpers don't scare me anymore , no big deal to replace them , and I learned a bit more about Flipper trouble shooting with a DMM. All in all was a fun project , and a good investment of time .
As you can see, no mods or crazy LED colors, back to original as possible . Used comet sunlight in all GI, coin taker warm white where white was needed. And color matched LED's at the inserts . All premium and no ghosting issues.

Final pics :
Joey

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Thanks,
Yes, I personally never pull bottom side off. I have done clearcoats and restorations for other people, some bring them totally stripped, some bring them top side stripped. The job looks the same either way, so I just put tape wads in the GI lamp sockets, and start my clearcoating.
Ended up clearing it 4 times, 7 coats total. I would spray a few colors,and clear it, sand flat, more colors, clear it , sand flat etc.
7 is pushing it a little, dont really want that much build up. 2 coats each time , with a one coat initial to hold down the original artwork prior to starting. Have to drill the screw holes, or xacto the hole openings so fasteners will go back in though.
JP

Thank You. High Speed is a good one, I love system 11 games. Only pain in the butt is the loctite they used on the T Nuts during that era. Be sure to post pics along the way, and feel free to share a link on my thread so we can all follow that one too. Any questions about using automotive paint or equipment, feel free to reach out to me, its what I do for a living... sort of.
Joey

Thanks for the complement Metalmanmiles !

Dookski, If you plan on having it clearcoated with automotive clear let me know, maybe I can find someone up there that will do it on the side. I have not had any problems with any acrylic hobby paints, or the such. Only sharpee markers, that's a big problem.
Usually a two coat clear application over a well scuffed and touched up pf , sand with 800 grit on a DA sander to level it a bit , and reclear will do the trick. Last a lifetime then. Look kick ass too . Probably find a painter to do it on the side for a couple hundred bucks if its just what i suggested and no more. I built a cradle out of 1x8 pine to house it in for painting and clearing, make it easier to carry around too.
Good luck .
Joey

Thanks guys !
JP

Sorry for the delay, took a pinball break for a minute .
Thanks ! It's the part of pinball I like the most .
JP