Hello everyone...I'm about to join the club (finally). I think I've finally convinced my in-laws to relinquish their no kidding one owner HUO Firepower bought new in 1980 but left neglected and un-played for many years. It needs a good cleaning, work around the inserts and the coils need to be replaced but it has the potential to be fantastic. There is little to no fade on the cabinet (...like none...but I forgot to take pictures). A previous maintainer put a random stand-up target in the middle right bank but I plan to replace all of the targets anyway. I've posted pictures for your feedback and suggestions for the restoration.

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Thanks for the feedback and encouragement. I've been reading vid's tutorials and they don't seem too hard to implement. Hopefully I'll be able to start soon.

A quick question on updating flippers to "90's" style...From vid's tutorials I only see system 11 to "modern". Am I missing an important thread? My STTNG has optical switches and a different flipper controller board for the flippers. Is adding this type of system what is recommended? It seems a bit like overkill if this is the case.

A push in the right direction on this topic will be appreciated.

LEDs are one of the first things I'll tackle. I definitely see the value of the backglass and want to keep it that way .

Thanks for the input everyone. This helps a lot. I'm inclined to keep it as close to original as possible from a mechanics standpoint. Turns out there is an unused Williams flipper rebuild kit in the coin box. I'll double check the coil stops to make sure they aren't worn.

Thanks again!

By the way, warm white or cool white LEDs for GI/Backglass? Opinions?

Can't wait to see it.

That looks quite good. I may get ambitious and try that too .

Thanks to everyone for feedback and advice.

If I had the right kind of scanner, I'd scan mine so you could make your own overlays...perhaps someone else with a scanner would offer to do that for you?

So I've started cleaning the FP machine I inherited from my in-laws. I'm not having to do too much to it but there is some warping in the plastics. The graphics are fine but the slingshot plastics are bowed.

Does anyone know if this can be corrected without ruining the graphics? I've been thinking hair drier to heat and a big heavy book to flatten.

Any suggestions or ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks to everyone for the great advice on flattening warped plastics. None of the techniques seem to tough. I'll give it a try later this week.

Thanks again!

Sorry to be an info leech but I'm having trouble finding a part that shouldn't be that tough to get. I need to replace one of the transparent red lane guides for F-I-R-E. I ordered what I thought was the right one (correct color and size) but it had ridges on the underside of the plastic.

I'm looking for one without these ridges. Does anyone know where to find this specific type of lane guide that is smooth on the back side? I purchased the one with ridges from pinballlife.com and I contacted pbresource.com but theirs have ridges too.

Thanks in advance...again....

Bummer, I guess I'll just use red LEDs under them to get account for some of the weird problem I'm seeing with their color.

Thanks for the info.

I opted for the hair dryer on hot setting to flatten my warped plastics. It worked GREAT! Thanks for the tips!

I heated each plastic for 3-5 minutes on a granite counter top until I noticed it relax a bit. I then placed a large glass casserole dish on top of it until it cooled...voila...flat plastics .

Thanks again!

Here's a weird one for you guys...I've gotten my FP playable and looking pretty good. I left it on for a while just to see what happens. After about an hour just about every sound in the game started triggering and it ultimately popped the solenoid fuse (F2). I checked for obvious issues (other than the blown fuse) and everything looks fine. I replaced the fuse and everything works and plays fine. I'm gonna chalk this up to a fluke but if it happens again I may have to get some help.

This made me laugh out loud .

So I'm taking the leap and getting setup to try to produce cast inserts. Vacuum chamber and pump are on the way and sample materials have been ordered. I'm going to start with the blue crescent "POWER" insert that appears to have become unobtanium. May take a few weeks to get decent results. But I'll post back here if I succeed

Infrastructure for laser cutter is out of my price range but that is a good idea . It might be a little tough to do anything but flat inserts though.

You can get the red one from Mr. Pinball (mrpinball.com.au) in Australia. $5.00US each plus around $25US for shipping. I found Teal hot dog replacements for my STTNG there. The blue one is listed at Bay Area Amusements (www.bayareaamusements.com) but has been out of stock for a long time (hence my focus on the blue one).

hello again everyone...I found a somewhat mangled pop bumper switch stack on my FP and have a question. There is a capacitor connected in series with a resistor between the negative (black/green wire) side of the high voltage (25V) switch and the positive (red/orange) side of the switch. One of the leads of this cap is broken so I need to replace it. The problem is I can't tell what size (uF) cap to use. I can tell it's 25V but can't read the capacitance.

What does this cap and resistor do and can anyone tell me what its capacitance should be?

Thanks a million!

Excellent info. Thanks for responding. I incorrectly assumed the switch was directly activating the solenoid. But now that I think about it what you said makes perfect sense.

Thanks again

The power off is concerning. Are the Flashers LEDs? I ran into a problem with mine in that the "warming" circuit for the flashers was causing the LED flashers I put in to stay on all the time. I cut the black ground wire to the little board with the warming circuit resistors and it solved the problem. I haven't heard anything about this circuit being powered with the switch off so this is just a guess.

So it really doesn't sound like its your warming board for the flashers. I had some random coil problems similar to what you are describing for lights and flashers. I ended up going through the system 6 bullet proofing steps in this thread https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-bulletproofing-williams-system-6 . The step that fixed my problems was replacing the 40 pin inter-board connector. The guide does a good job of explaining things (its by Vid after all). The 40 pin can be a bear to de-solder and remove but Vids guide has some suggestions on how to more easily accomplish it. He even tells you where to get the parts.

Since all the lights and coils are connected via the driver board (2J7 Lamp Row drive, 2J6 Lamp Ground and 2J5 Lamp column drive) it seems to me it could be a 40 pin connector issue. Of course if you've already replaced the connector this is obviously not the problem.

Short of that I could only suggest "ringing" out the wires to the troublesome lamps to ensure no opens or shorts or bad solder joints.

I'm not an expert by any means but I'll try to continue to help. Good luck!

Just looked at the lamp matrix form the manual. The lamps you are having issues with are all on Row one of the lamp matrix (Red-Brown wire). This could narrow the problem (if its not the 40 pin connector) to 2J7 on the bottom of the driver board. Pin 1 of this connector is Row 1 (right most pin when looking at the connector with Red-Brown wire).

I would start "ringing" out with a meter at this pin and work through each lamp to ensure there isn't a loose connection.

Hope this helps.

Just looked at the lamp matrix form the manual. The lamps you are having issues with are all on Row one of the lamp matrix (Red-Brown wire). This could narrow the problem (if its not the 40 pin connector) to 2J7 on the bottom of the driver board. Pin 1 of this connector is Row 1 (right most pin when looking at the connector with Red-Brown wire).

I would start "ringing" out with a meter at this pin and work through each lamp to ensure there isn't a loose connection.

Hope this helps.

oops the 9 lamp on the center playfield is on row 6 (Red-Blue) but shares column 3 (yellow-orange) with the 4 lamp.

so if it was me, I'd start at the connection for 4 lamp (Red-Brown) and check continuity back to pin 1 on the 2J7 connector.

No worries. I'm happy to try to help. Best of luck!

Travish, is that a reproduction playfield or one you restored?...either way it's looking great!

Ah I see now it looks like it could be a CPR. (starburst inserts, ball trough and slots behind the 1-6 targets for the drop target mod).

Keep posting your progress. I love to see these things come together

So I've finally worked out the process to avoid bubbles in the final parts. So far I only have one mold. I have been able to successfully cast blue crescent/hot dog inserts. Since the blue ones seem to be unobtainium, that's what I started out trying to make.

I used Innovative Polymers OC7086 crystal clear polyurethane resin with Eager Polymers Royal Blue dye cast in a mold made of Quantum Silicone QM 262A.

This was NOT an easy thing to figure out. I spent a month of trial and error and talking with the resin supplier to try to figure how to keep bubbles from forming as the stuff cures.

Turns out adding a few drops of Bismuth Neodicanoate in 4% solution with acetone to ~15g resin as a catalist helps things (but shortens working time). Degassing in vacuum chamber followed by slow mold pour (to avoid air entrapment) followed by cure in pressure pot at 60psi does the trick.

The resin (once cured) feels just like the injection molded stuff and can be sanded like the real thing. If anyone wants more information on this just PM me. I can save you a lot of time on the learning curve .

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Should mention the rough looking edges are just flash that can be sanded away very easily.

Since I don't have a license (and I assume I would need one to sell them) I don't think I can legally charge $$ for them. But, I can give them away . I just don't have the capacity to make tons of them. and I can't guarantee they wont have a few tiny bubbles.

If you are in need of one, PM me and I'll drop one in the mail to you. Bear in mind they may need some sanding to get rid of flash and any unevenness in on the surface. But for free, who's to complain about that, right?

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.

I've got a decent set of graphics (playfield and plastics) that I put together for my virtual version of FP2. They are based on a stitched playfield scan. I re-drew them in Illustrator so they are currently vector format but I can convert them if you want to take a look.

You may have to play with some scaling of the decal so they will align with your playfield correctly.

The sample .png I attached is at 72 dpi. I can provide a 300dpi version that will work better for decals.

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Actually yes. My mistake on which machine. I'm sending this from a mobile device. When I get back to my computer I'll upload it for you to take a look at.

Here you go. I have a much higher resolution file but it is to big to upload here. Adjustments will obviously have to be made to contrast and brightness (among others) to make any generated decals look right on your machines.

If you want the hi-rez file PM me with how best to deliver it.

Best Regards!

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The scan I pulled this from had some problems in the area around the right green lock insert so I had to "fix" it in photo shop.

For those that asked for copies of my Firepower scan, I am in the process of sending it now. My internet connection is really bad so it will take a while to upload. You should have it later this evening if things don't crash on me.

That went much faster than expected. It should be in the inboxes you provided shortly.

There was so much interest in my scans I thought I'd post a good resource for other table scans. It is ...

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showcat=18

This is a virtual pinball forum but has a pretty good collection of imagery that could be used for the real thing if used properly.

Hopefully this will help someone.

One more vote for Dark Red.

what is the timeline for the repro back glasses to be on the market?

Very cool. any idea when they might be available for the rest of us .

Just ordered my protectors. Thanks for posting that Cliffy had them.

I have a set and they are fantastic. Highly recommend this if you need plastics!

If you want to make your own, I have a very high resolution version of the playfield you can have. you can see a 72 dpi preview of it here

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-firepower-club/page/30#post-3891623

PM me if you want it.

Just ordered mine...never thought I'd be able to get this.

I ordered my plastics set last week and have had zero communication from CPR. Is that normal? I followed their ordering procedure for Paypal to the letter and received a transfer confirmation from Paypal. Do I just expect the package to show up "eventually"? Anyone have experience with this? I know its coming from Canada but I would expect something saying "we got your order".

Ok, thanks guys. No email from UPS yet. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Yep, as luck would have it, I got a UPS tracking number via email yesterday. Thanks again.

Just ordered mine. Original is going in a frame on the wall.

When I was having weird issues like that, replacing the 40 pin inter-board connector cured all ills. check the system 3-7 bullet proofing steps in this thread (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-bulletproofing-williams-system-6). Ialso replaced all of the cheap chip sockets with SIPs as recommended by Vid's thread. If you've already done this, I'm sorry I can't help .

Will do

I rushed out and ordered the repro backglass but forgot I will probably need a trim kit to install it. Can someone recommend what size lift trim I should use? (I suppose I can wait until it comes in and measure it...or even better measure the original I have installed now).

Thanks!

I'd like to know too.

I can confirm this. Mine had several original switches that were causing problems. Re-building them has made things work much better.

If you use an incandescent flasher you will need to keep the warming circuit. If you put in an LED flasher it will stay lit (dimly) if you don't disable the warming circuit. It has no effect on the other lighting.

Make sure the batteries aren't dead too.

Definitely sounds like batteries. Are all the displays out or do you see an 04 in the player or current ball display?

I had weird stuff like that when I first got mine. Replacing the inter-board connector (40-pin) solved LOTs of problem. I think that's the first thing Vid recommends in the bulletproofing guide. I'd start with that.

Good luck!

I've got vector artwork I made for this very visual pinball machine . You could make your own as a last resort. looks like someone modded it to make the lighting better .

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Not so stock . I created that machine for VPX (Visual Pinball) a few years ago. That's why I have the graphics . I have the play-field too if you need it for decals however the colors will not likely match.

31-521-11 is what I see on IPDB. I made a copy and paste mistake in my graphics...sorry

Since I don't actually own the game (FP2), it never occurred to me to make them available for manufacture. My main concern with doing so is that they are not "exact" reproductions of the graphics. (i.e. raster effects instead of halftone transitions, rough outlines of ships rather than precise tracing, color selections aren't exact, etc.). Are they good enough? maybe but also maybe not knowing how some are about their restorations. Generally speaking if someone wants copies I'm happy to share but with the caveats above. Remember they were made for visual pinball not a real machine .

Now, if someone had high resolution scans of their plastics to send me. I would certainly be willing to work on and contribute the artwork for having them produced. Even if they are broken or yellowed I can correct flaws. Just sayin'

I'll work up the "real" graphics if you are willing to send me scans. I'll PM you.

Looking a photos on ipdb.org...it looks like it may have come with one originally. Might be worth a look to make sure I'm not seeing things.