Hey, is that you in the picture? I was the guy who was playing the machine to the right of it when you and two other guys opened it for what I think was a fuse change on Friday! Talk about a small world!

Cool, a steel coindoor version of FP2. You must have found a very early game, before the switch over to black Coinco doors. What's the serial number?

That f2 was in great shape. . I have one in my collection.. congrats on your purchase .

I did wind up playing it after you guys had repaired it. It did play real nicely, I'd say that's a good find there. Do you mind my asking how much you got it for? Someone had an original FP there with bad lighting, scuffed up PF, and flippers that would lock up partway through a game...all for the tune of $1300! I'm pretty sure no one bought that, at least I'd hope not. Do you have any big plans for it?

I'd love to see it set up at your place!

Quick question for anyone: anyone have a good source of new rollover switches, such as those under the FIRE roll overs?

I think he is talking about the switch. Like this one but they are out of stock at marco. There is the part number though.

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/SW-1A-124

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Looks like pinball wizard has them.

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Yes thank you, that is what I am looking for.

McSquibb: congratulations on the marriage! FPII makes a good gift!

By the way: any of you guys have experience with the game High Speed? I have a chance to look at one st a house estate sale andcwanted to know if the game itself is any good.

High Speed put me out of business. With its advanced software, it made it possibly
for people with money but no technical skills get back into coin operation.

It sucks. Where you live again?

The main MPU is not available aftermarket. Be sure that if it needs repaired, it can be repaired.

Many thanks for all of the advice. What sort of issues would one see if that is damaged, short of the game simply not functioning?

Just look over the MPU for batteries leaking, or just other signs of obvious damage. Shouldn't be too hard to tell. If it looks clean, you're probably okay.

Ok so similar issues that a FP might have...thanks!

I am lucky enough to have joined the club tonight. Picked up a very good example game with a very very good backglass. The game needs a serious shopping and cleaning.

The previous owner said it wouldn't start a game any more.

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Yeah, not without good batteries it won't!

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I am sure to need some opinions on this. It has a lower playfield mylar and the upper playfield has a few minor wear spots. I'm curious if I should attempt to repair those upper un-mylared spots, yet leave the lower mylar on. As you can see the scoreboards are missing some legs, but I have yet to reseat any connectors, so we'll see about that. There is some light bubbling on top of a couple inserts under the mylar along with some minor cupping as well, but neither appear to affect game play too badly. I'll seriously ask for opinions after I settle down after the first cleaning and rebuild. Maybe this is the first game I seriously re-condition, maybe this is a game I should just leave well enough alone and enjoy. In any case... I own Firepower, now.

That looks like it's in pretty decent shape all around! Congrats and welcome to the club!

Looks nice! Let's get some play field close ups to see what you are taking about.

Thanks for the offer - let's see what I can show.

First, here's a shot of where the mylar ends compared to the rest of the playfield so you can see the difference.

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The first shots will show some mylar shots - first notice how the sling mylars were removed and it lifted the paint, and they went ahead and slapped a mylar overtop of it without repair.

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Next, notice again the mylar edge along with lifting of the mylar around the green arrow - not terrible under gameplay but noticeable when nosing on the playfield.

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Here's some shots of the black and red playfield under the mylar without paint repair along with some lifting around the inserts:

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Aaaand here is a mylar shot where there was some dirt on the playfield so there's a nice bubble - very near the 3rd blue insert.

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Here are some shots of the unmylared area between the bottom two pops where the paint has started to come up.

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Same with the right lock:

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I rollover could use some help:

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Top lock has a bit of paint missing - seems easy enough to fix.

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Here's a shot of the backglass - not bad!

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And here's an interesting note on the back of the backbox lightboard.

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Aaaanyway. Mechanically I think I can handle any problem on this game, but artistically I am not sure. I'd like to try but I also don't know my limitations and and I would be afraid of making it worse, or as Vid has pointed out - the enemy of good is better. Do I repair the obvious spots on the upper playfield that are not mylared and then cut some pieces to protect them further? Do I risk peeling off the lower mylar when there are obvious signs of paint coming off already? That lower mylar has some problem areas but are they worth pursuing? I don't want to dump a *lot* of money into this but at the same time I'd like for it to look good. It will never be perfect, I understand that.

Ultimately the decision is mine, but I would really use some practical advice.

First, you are very lucky to have scored that back glass...do all you can to preserve that!

As for the Mylar, it depends on what you want to do with the game. I suspect the insert problem is due to the inserts cupping and becoming proud of the field, resulting in the effect you are seeing. If you wanted to keep the Mylar, you could glue the inserts with epoxy and clamp ala Vid, and use heat to get the resulting Mylar ripples to shrink back. Most of the paint areas, like the black, I think could easily be wiped in with createx and little fuss. As for the divots in the rollover lanes, I'm actually repairing those now on the play field I'm restoring with epoxy putty, then sanding and filing. I'll have photos up in my restore thread in a day or two.

Removing the Mylar entirely as always could be dicy if it appears the paint may come up with it. On the flip side, I took my pop bumper and slingshot Mylar off with heat with zero issue. As you said...it's up to you.

Very good info - Vid has an insert guide? Of course he does. I will seek it out.

I'm going to kinda step back and meditate on what I want from this game I think. I sure would love to do a top to bottom restore but that bottom mylar might stop me. Wiping in some Createx (I'm not clear on this - not airbrushing?) might just do the trick and I can lay down some mylar for protection. I am *very much* looking forward to your restore thread.

Thank you!

Wouldn't be at the sale in ct is it?

In fact, that was the very one indeed. I was there today.

I no longer own this game, but.... take a look at the left side red stripes on each of these pop caps, and you'll see the same flaw in the printing on each, as if the heat-stamp die was damaged at some point. As a counterpoint, alexmogil's nice caps in the photos above were obviously stamped before the die was damaged. I've always wondered at what point during the run of FP's the perfectly stamped caps ran out and those with the blemish had to be used. My machine was SN# 430249, which was pretty far along in the run. Anyone want to post and see who's got earliest serial number with flawed caps, or the latest with perfect caps?

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It is an odd thing. My machine has the flaw, but the caps on my replacement play field did not have the flaw, and the play field itself is stamped "Sept 1979", early in the run I would assume. Where does one find the serial number of their particular machine?

It's stamped into the wood just below the coindoor on the front of the cab, on the top of the backbox, and there are numbered labels on the boards but those may have been replaced at some point. It is of course possible that any playfield may not have its original caps, I was just aiming for a general idea of when the good caps ran out.

My serial number on the cabinet is 407343.

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There's a serial on a tag that is stapled inside the cabinet that says 407292.

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My serials on all my components is 17097.

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Who knows!

My serial number is 415555

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Wow, 407343 is a very early production game. The lowest SN# I've seen recorded is 407202.

Found some photos of a stunning huo FP that's # 421693, with the flawed caps. So far it looks like the bad caps were used somewhere between 415555 and 421693. That's pretty early on, the FP run goes all the way up to 468XXX.

Mine's 429136, and has the marred caps.

425270 has good pop bumper caps

Was there more than one die? I think I remember seeing that some went out with the big "w" being upside down?

Edit, no that was the early reproductions that had the "O" upside down.

They likely used two dies, one for the red and one for the black. I've noticed a little flaw in the black stamping on later caps also, part of the circle has a little chunk missing.

Looks like I'm a new member ^-^ Got a Firepower for free a few days ago (came bundled with another machine) it was on craigslist as a "Project machine" and man, it looks like it needs some serious TLC. BUT! The price was right. (came free when my dad purchased The Sopranos) It also came with a free Megatouch like bar top CRT touch game and tons of tokens! It was a great seller ^-^

Currently the firepower is super dirty, chipping, playfield missing paint, and powers on with no smoke (always a good thing) I gave it a look over, everything seems okay. It's missing the right flipper hardware (just the flipper bat and the coil are there, but no hardware, so the coil is just dangling by the wires) The machine just lights the GI but that's it, wont start. I've only had a few minutes to look at it, I'll dive deeper soon. The backboard shows the rom version, and the CPU LEDs turn on, go off. and I don't recall if they blink randomly or stay off. More to come ^-^ I'll have to post some Before and after pictures as I progress

Pictures! Sounds like quite a project.

Change the batteries and see if the game starts.

Yep batteries first. If the LEDs stay off the MPC is booting ok. Make sure three balls are in trough too. game won't start without them.

Yup so far 3 new AA's have been installed as well as 3 balls. but ill check the switches, maybe it cant feel the balls

Wish I saved the photos from the Craigslist post, but i'll take some next time I'm with it. But I did attach a photo of the machine the seller sent me before loading it

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Any chance someone knows the replacement switch number for FirePower II kick out hole for multi-ball. I'm unable to locate it and don't have a manual that is goes into depth.