Got a question about the rules: the first time I make the 1-2-3-4-5-6 targets, two of the ball locks get lit, and it's always random which two. Next time I make the targets, the third ball lock gets lit. Any time after the initial multiball is enabled, making the 1-2-3-4-5-6 targets only lights one ball lock. So it's only the very first time you spot those targets that two locks are enabled, and it's always a random two?

To loosen insert glue, use a hair dryer instead of a heat gun and use it on the bottom of the playfield instead. I removed all the arrow inserts on my FP (with all wiring attached) in this manner with no problems at all: stand the playfield up vertically, lean the top against the back box but make sure it's at enough of an angle that it's not going to fall back down. Working on one insert at a time, keep your fingers of one hand on the topside of the insert while blowdrying the bottom side. As your fingers feel the insert get warm, stop the blowdrying and GENTLY but firmly press against the bottom of the insert with dull object, I used a 1/4" socket driver (without a socket on the end of course). Work from one end to the other but DON'T force it, if it's not loosening then you need to warm it again with the hair dryer. Eventually when pressing against it, you'll feel the glue give way and the insert can be worked out easily.

If a blow dryer were hot enough to melt solder, Farrah Fawcett's head would have looked like a blackened mass of charred flesh. No, don't worry about that at all.

On the subject of favorite shots....it's not actually a shot but I love when this happens: ball shield is on, the left flipper is raised, and the ball drains between the flippers angling to the left, catches the left side of the apron, has enough inertia that it rolls up the apron onto the ball shield switch, and is then kicked back into play. Happened to me twice in the last month and never fails to elicit a smile.

How strong are everyone's kickback solenoids? Most of the time my ball is kicked into the three-bank of standups, occasionally it'll go a little farther up, but never strong enough to send it all the way up to the F-I-R-E lanes. Sometimes it's sent directly into the right outlane, which always sucks.

Here's how I flattened mine once I had them out of the playfield. You'll need a heat gun this time, the same 1/4" socket driver, and a small cup of very cold water. Lay the insert face down on a clean, flat, heat-proof surface like a granite countertop. Keeping the heat gun 8" or so away, you want to heat the insert as if you were spray painting it. In other words, don't just hold the gun on it in a stationary position, because you'll surely deform or even melt it. Move the gun and make "passes" over the insert, just like it was a model car and you were spray painting the body.

You want the plastic heated to the point where it's warmed/softened enough that the pressure you're going to apply with the socket driver will force it down/flat, but not so warm that the vertical sides, usually the thinnest part of the insert, deform. That's why you want to go carefully with the heat until you develop your rhythm for how to heat the insert. After several passes, take your socket driver and gently but firmly press down in the center of the insert. When it's sufficiently heated, you'll see it flatten down from the pressure you apply with the socket driver. Move the driver around in the insert to flatten as much of the area as you can. Then position it in the middle and holding it firmly down, pour enough cold water on the insert to fill it and to create a small puddle around it. Keep pressing gently for a minute or so while the water cools and hardens the insert, then remove the driver and let the insert sit in the puddle for a couple minutes, then dry and move on to the next one.

This method worked very well for me, and it was the first time I'd ever tried it. I need to stress again though, make passes with the heat gun instead of holding it in one spot! While it doesn't make the inserts perfectly flat (only sanding would do that) it eliminates all/most of the banana shape. And if you do then sand them, you'll need to remove less material to flatten them entirely.

I just bought my first LEDs at Allentown on Friday and experimented with them in a few places in my FP. For whatever reason, they refused to work in the pop bumpers, though other bulbs light there just fine. Any idea what the problem is here?

Does that mean they won't work in ANY controlled lamps (like inserts) and are only good for GI, or is it just a quirk with the pop bumpers? (at the moment I can't slide the glass out and check myself)

Does anyone have, or can someone make, a scan of their stand-up target decal? Looking for something super-high-resolution like 1200 dpi, so I can see every little detail and run it thru a tracing program. TIA.

Thanks guys. I have indeed downloaded that one, I'm just super-picky about accuracy and I'd prefer to recreate it myself, since I'm working on a few other decals too. If you look at the numerals on those drop targets you can see that some shortcuts were made in recreating the artwork, so I'm only using that FP site if I can't otherwise get a good scan.

That's a fantastic find for that price, looks like it should clean up really nice.

You could solder a short length of wire with a 9V battery connector to your board, and then another 9V connector to your remote. Then you can detach it if you need to, and you only have a short wire left attached to your board.

Nope, FP free play setting is maximum # credits = 0. No awarding or purchase of credits above 0 means no knocker.

It's been a fun two years but I'm putting my FP up for sale to make room for something new, asking 700. PM me for pix & complete description. Also have a CPR pf for 700. Can bring to Allentown if paid in advance.

That's what you score when you light both the FIRE and POWER hotdog inserts; in other words, when you get all four F-I-R-E lanes and all three standup targets on the right.

Finally rolled mine, all-time (3-ball) high score of 1,008,200! Spent the whole game chasing multiball (finally got it on the third ball) and the extra ball (lit it on the third ball but didn't hit the target). Well, whatever works!

Realized recently that Firepower II has the same original standup target "explosion" decals as Sorcerer. I'm going to be running off Sorcerer decals once I have the artwork finished, so if you're interested in a set of the standups for your FP2, send me a PM and I'll keep you in the loop when they're ready.

That's exactly what it is. Add the foam pieces to the targets and that will stop it.

That's what's supposed to happen. Does that on System 9 and 11 games too, newer than that I don't know.

I always found it interesting how all/most original Firepower pop caps have the same flaw on the left side stripes, like there was some dirt or a defect in the hot stamping. Every picture I've seen shows the same smudges.

Yeah, I knew someone would chime in and say exactly that.....thus the "most".

I longer no have my FP but was just checking out photos of its backglass. Just to confuse things even further, my old glass had both the gray areas to the left of the eclipse and explosion that are in your older glass, and the deeper blues in the ships and more yellow in the explosions of your newer NOS glass. I'm guessing that with 17k units made, they must have printed several different runs of the backglass, revising the artwork slightly each time. I've seen similar changes with Sorcerer; the tan satchel that he's carrying has at least three different versions.

FP_BG_(resized).jpg

As sohchx said, Evaporust is great, but whatever you do, DON'T use CLR or naval jelly as a substitute, they will remove rust but ruin the finish of your parts.

I got the results below on a yucky Bally door with just Mother's California Gold liquid metal polish and some elbow grease. Highly recommended.

https://images.pinside.com/f/67/4a/f674a06e0e8a8ef9eabae732d1c83ae98614b7d3.jpg

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?

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?

100_6328 (resized).JPG

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.

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.

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.

I don't have my Firepower any more but I'll still buy a glass when they come out, if they're the darker red version. The dark red looks awesome when lit from behind, the color becomes a rich bright ruby red that looks stunning.

That's part # 23-6420 / 38-6420

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3587
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/38-6420