Prologue: Just A Few Words From Our Host...

This Attack From Mars came to me by way of four Pinsiders: One in Ohio, who sold it to a guy in Utah, who sold it to another guy in Utah, who sold it to a Pinsider in West Texas, who sold it to me. (You can find the ads if you care enough.) This was a perfect restoration candidate as it played nearly 100% and already had a Color DMD installed. It also came with some of the stuff that I'd need to get it going.

Much to the chagrin of some purists, I'm going to be doing some modding to this one to get it just the way I like it. It'll be tasteful (IMO), but not outrageous. All armor will be done in black, and will be modeled on this machine from HEP...

http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album563?page=1

...as well as this one that Skypilot did:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/my-black-attack-from-mars-finished-product

I'll also be using Skypilot's excellent restoration thread as a resource, as well as what I consider to be the best restoration documentation ever done on this site--the IJ done by Bryan Kelly. The links can be found here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/attack-from-mars-restoration-the-beginning
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ij-restoration-started

Total time to complete the restoration should take 3-4 months (it takes time to do it right...and I've got some vacations planned!).

Unlike my Funhouse restoration last year, I'm structuring this one a little differently for those who want to follow along. Many people ask how long it takes to do a complete restoration properly. My answer after the Funhouse was, "F**king long." I'd like to be a little more specific this time.

Each update will be labelled with a day number, and each "day" will mean that I put appoximately 8 hours of work into the machine. It might not happen all in one calendar day, but as soon as I've gotten to eight hours, I will consider that one day's worth of work. At the end, it'll be easy to multiply the days by eight to come to a close approximation of the time it takes to do a restoration from start to finish. (At least for me...please remember that I sanded, Bondo'ed, and painted the Funhouse backbox 3 times because I wasn't happy with it the first two times. So I have some issues.)

So let's get started! Here are a bunch of before pictures...

IMG_1475_(resized).JPG
IMG_1477_(resized).JPG
IMG_1480_(resized).JPG
IMG_1483_(resized).JPG
IMG_1497_(resized).JPG
IMG_1502_(resized).JPG
IMG_1507_(resized).JPG
IMG_1549_(resized).JPG

Day One: The Teardown (8 hours)

The first thing I did was remove the habitrails from the playfield. Along with all salvagable cabinet parts (hinges, bolts, legs, etc.), they'll be sent to Matt Reisterer for black powder coating while I'm working on the cabinet. The rivets holding the UFO flasher sockets had to be drilled out in order to be removed.

IMG_1561_(resized).JPG
IMG_1566_(resized).JPG

I also took the time to lightly sand the back of the new playfield and seal it with satin clear coat, being careful not to allow anything to drip into the inserts. I also waxed the hell out of the topside because...well...why the hell not?

IMG_1465_(resized).JPG
IMG_1466_(resized).JPG

The cabinet and backbox were completely depopulated and stripped of all non-wood parts. Every connector was labelled (except for the ones I already recognize...confidence is a wonderful time-saver!), and all hardware and parts were put in categorized piles. The cabinets are now ready for sanding and finishing.

IMG_1608_(resized).JPG
IMG_1623_(resized).JPG

I'd also like to add that anybody considering doing a restoration should invest in a pair of Vampliers. They're usually designed for getting stripped screws out, but worked wonderfully for getting those staples out of the cabinet. The guys at B/W stapled the shit out of stuff down there, and some of the staples were BELOW the surface of the wood. Regular staple removers won't work, and needle nosed pliers won't grab them either.

Mirco playfield. The old playfield was beat to snot. (You can see it in the playfield photo...the stroke of luck hole was chewed up to a hole the size of a lemon, and there's a big trail of wood shooting out from that hole. Bad stuff.)

No way, brother. I'm building a f**king spray tent to do this game, for God's sake! I won't consider it done until it's as perfect as I can make it, and I'll give it to one of my kids before I sell it. (Who loves ya, Tax?)

This was really kind of you to say. You know, I put all this stuff on Pinside thinking it'll just get glossed over and won't ever help anybody. Nice to see somebody got some benefit from it.

Well, don't look to my thread for any help. Ever since I put the game back together, Rudy is cross-eyed and speaks German.

Mr. R:

I ordered it from Mirco and it was shipped from Germany. I did tell him that I was a picky S.O.B. in terms of clearcoat and registration in the print. I used a Mirco FH playfield, and that, too, has not only looked wonderful, but held up very well with no extra clear put on it. Highly recommended.

I know why...so you can tell me I'm an asshole when I do something wrong.

You missed a spot.

Wish granted.

No, asshole. What's the pattern?

Update: Put another three hours in today. Update when I hit 8 hours of work, which may come tomorrow or after TPF.

Day Two, Part One: Roughing Out the Cabinet (6 Hours)

This restoration is going to be a mixture of high tech and white trash, and nowhere will this be more evident than in the cabinet restoration. To wit: Since I plan to do multiple restorations a year, and perhaps even start doing them for other people, I decided to stock up on some great equipment. (I was also told by McCune and Skypilot that it would be a great idea.) So I stocked up on a Festool setup: 3 different sanders plus the sanding block set, and the HEPA dust extractor.

IMG_1685_(resized).JPG

Problem is, once you spend all that money on the high tech, it only leaves you enough money to go white trash on the drop cloth:

IMG_1624_(resized).JPG

But while my last restoration took me a whole day to remove the decals and sand (using a Wagner heat gun, a scraper, and a pair of very sore arms), I stripped the cabinet clean in under an hour. Yes...the Festool saved me pretty much an entire day of work. I did everything with 80 grit sandpaper (9 boxes of Festool sandpaper: $400! F**k my life...).

IMG_1639_(resized).JPG

After sanding, I noticed that somebody's already been here before...

IMG_1629_(resized).JPG

I circled all the areas that were of concern, and a few corners had to be rebuilt with automotive fiber repair paste. So I cleaned out all the dead and loose wood and drilled holes to help the paste "grab" the wood, built up the corners, and filled the lock bar holes, then used the lightweight body filler on a good portion of the cabinet to flatten out any imperfections. The filler(s) of choice this time is U-Pol Fantastic and Fibral, and I must say it was a huge step up from Bondo: much easier to use, dispense, etc. Thanks to Jim McCune for the tip!

IMG_1641_(resized).JPG
IMG_1633_(resized).JPG

I also had to nail and glue some loose joints on the backbox.

IMG_1626_(resized).JPG

While all that smelly stuff was curing (and so I would stop sniffing it!), I did a little work on stripping down the playfield. Removed the main saucer and rear power box, as well as all three ramps. I've got the playfield down to the first level of stuff. I'm doing both playfield and cabinet concurrently so that I can have it all done at the same time.

IMG_1672_(resized).JPG

Did a little more sanding with 120-grit sandpaper, and you can see how the previously demolished corner is now solid fiberglass, is almost back to its original shape, and stronger, really, than it ever was before.

IMG_1684_(resized).JPG

Ran out of gas--and ran out of daylight--six hours in. Two hours left in Day Two, which I'll continue on the other side of TPF.

Off to Texas, yo'!

Me not too good at math: It was actually 9 boxes of sandpaper. 3 different sander sizes, 3 grits each: 80, 120, 220. Thanks for bringing that to my attention...it's been corrected! And no...that'll probably last me through several machines and my wife's dining room table (at the very least, but probably much more!)

This sounds like the beginning of a Penthouse Forum story. Anyway, the entire setup sits at around 2k. Do you need all that? Probably not. You could probably get by with an RO90, which has a smaller sanding disk and converts to a delta sander. You could also get the smaller HEPA dust collector and get both for well under 1k. But I've found that every time I try to skimp on something, that's the one tool I need. So I always get it, and if I don't need it, I can always sell it.

Feel free to PM me for any details.

Says the guy who wears matching teal shirts with Shlockdoc. What your wives don't know won't hurt them.