I recently picked up a non-working Police Force as a project to challenge my skills a bit. The game was in half decent, but dirty shape on arrival. There was some mild battery damage to the MPU. The displays were not functioning and the game wouldn't fully boot.

So first thing I did was get the horribly leaking batteries off the board, temporarily install a remote battery pack, and rebuild the power supply board.

Boom, we have a working game. Well, mostly. The ball eject is not functioning, I have a lamp column out, the spinner doesn't register, and a slingshot is stuck on. Clipped a wire from the slingshot coil for now so it doesn't burn up. So I go ahead and do what any person would logically do at this point... Install LED's and clean the plastics!
20180811_164013 (resized).jpg

Over the next couple weeks, I pull my hair out a bit and work on getting the game 100% functional. The ball shooter wound up being a transistor. The lamp column problem I believe was from a bad predriver. I wound up neutralizing and stripping a section of the System 11 MPU and mechanically cleaning the traces, then tinned them. I replaced components, and it finally fixed the lamp column problem. I had previously replaced everything on that line except the predriver, but it tested okay on the meter... So who knows. The slingshot is still stuck on when you start a game, so I have a logic issue there. But due to a run of weather and a clear schedule, I decided at this point to get a run on stripping and restoring the playfield. It won't be long before it is too cold to shoot clear.

20180912_154316 (resized).jpg

On to the playfield. You can't take enough pictures when you disassemble the playfield. I always seem to take about 100 pictures, and still miss some obscure screw when I put the playfield back together.

This playfield is super grungy, but it actually isn't too worn under all that dirt. The mylar glue on this one would prove to be a bigger pain than any other playfield I removed mylar from in the past.

20180912_175642 (resized).jpg

20180912_185025 (resized).jpg

20180912_185028 (resized).jpg

One of these things doesn't belong here... And the whole assembly is messed up. I usually order all new pop bumper plastics anyway.

20180912_172352 (resized).jpg

Should be able to salvage that rubber, eh?

20180912_172751 (resized).jpg

Next I made a dozen or more scans of the various parts of the playfield.

Screenshot_20180918-070357_Remote Desktop (resized).jpg

I'm a huge fan of the Silhouette Cameo... This thing has made life so much easier.

There are still times where masking by hand and cutting with a blade manually are faster... Choose your battles!

I took the scanned images and use the trace tool in the Silhouette software to make cutting paths. The auto trace function is more trouble than it is worth most of the time.

Once I get a few pieces ready, I cut and paste the various sets of geometry into a new project, and run the pieces straight off the roll of Oramask.

Screenshot_20180918-070504_Remote Desktop (resized).jpg

I use an airbrush and Createx paint for the touchups. I just got the whole opaque color set off Amazon ($42) and mix my own colors through trial and error, as per Vid's guide. I still use a few small brushes to tune up keylines where needed.

20180917_162701 (resized).jpg

Also note, I seal the playfield before doing ANY paint work. I learned this the hard way on another machine... Never again!

I have been using Dupont Chroma Clear lately, with good success. It's a bit spendy, but it's available locally on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning when I need it on a whim. Or when my can of activator goes bad!

This may be shocking to some, but I've been able to spray with a 6 gallon Bostich pancake compressor and a Harbor Freight Purple handle sprayer. You need to be smart about your air consumption, but it can be done. I'll replace it one of these days.

I resprayed the white sections even though they are under plastics, because they will reflect the GI lighting better... And just look cleaner. I also wound up redoing just about all of the blue section... And I'm glad I did.

20180917_200607 (resized).jpg

The apron was pretty well toast. A vendor had a big silver sticker over the Williams logo. When I pulled it off, that is what I saw underneath. Yuck! I made a scan of it, and then removed the old paint with lacquer thinner. The thinner did not harm the black enamel underneath. I made a mask with the Cameo software from the scan and then resprayed the logo.

20180916_153100 (resized).jpg

New playfield parts showed up. I bit the bullet and bought the ramp set, since you can't buy the center ramp separately. I may try to fix this problem at a later date. My ramp was blown out in the same place as all the other original Police Force games out there. Also, since there are playfield lights under the center ramp, the ramp wear looks even worse.

20180917_180318 (resized).jpg

The cabinet isn't in too bad of shape. One side has some more fade than the other side, and only a couple minor bruises. I think I'll leave it be.

20180917_193759 (resized).jpg

20180918_064855 (resized).jpg

I bought the set through Marco for $230 with the rest of my order. I am assuming this is a Starship set that they were reselling,I would like to one day just reproduce the center ramp, as its a bit of a crock they make you buy both, or buy just the center for nearly the price of both.

More progress... Got the final coat of clear on and sanded/buffed out. I apparently burned through 2 letters of repaired text off one insert during wet sanding, and I didn't catch it until I started putting the PF back together. That's a bummer, but not much I am going to do now.... Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it.
20180918_173438 (resized).jpg20180918_173601 (resized).jpg

Hardware fresh out of the tumbler- corn cob media and Flitz are my method of choice
20180918_174837 (resized).jpg

My phone is getting old, and sometimes when I take a picture, the picture does not save. So I have a few disassembly photos missing. Time to do a little research on where some of the remaining hardware pieces go.
20180918_211313 (resized).jpg

Some Flitz metal polish and a Scotch Brite pad do a nice job on regraning and smoothing wear on the ball guides.

20180919_105525 (resized).jpg

20180919_105924 (resized).jpg

I'm on board with the cult of Evaporust club!

Legs came out looking great... Then I did the lock bar after scraping the old beer seal off.

New beer seal is some 1" wide by 1/4" thick weatherstripping from Lowe's. MD products item 03100. Should be enough material in here to do about 5 machines.

20180918_154444 (resized).jpg

20180918_154723 (resized).jpg

20180919_183355 (resized).jpg

Keeping it for now, but nothing last forever!

I wasn't going to buy plastics, but now I think I need to source some to finish the playfield off.

I have a bunch of small things to finish off now... Some missing hardware needs to be sourced, and some more mechanical things need to be taken care off. But she's good enough to test play this evening.

20180920_192711 (resized).jpg

To dress up the lock bar receiver, I glass beaded the finish down to an even gradient, then used a scotch Brite pad to give it some grain. After that, I sealed it with some matte clear spray. I ordered some sticker paper and printed premade PDF files for the "insert 2 balls" and "inspected by" text onto it. The files can be found at www.inkochnito.nl

20180920_054217 (resized).jpg

20180920_095912 (resized).jpg

20180921_053929 (resized).jpg

20180921_144144 (resized).jpg