got my first pin at the start of COVID to have something to do that wasn't sitting on the computer. F-14 Tomcat in April 2020. Paid $1400 for what was probably an $1100 machine, and then fixed it up over the next few months, sold it in 2021 for mayyyyybe a $250 total profit.

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It was a valuable learning experience, but I never want to work that hard on a machine again. Here's everything I did:

rebuilding all 4 flippers
replacing the switch on the Yakov kicker
replacing the left center pocket coil bracket
replacing the left center pocket retaining gate wire
replacing all the incandescent bulbs with LEDs
sending the boards to Missouri for a $300 repair/bulletproofing including installing NVRAM
replacing all the plastics and star posts with NOS
replacing all the rubbers
replacing the Yagov, light lock and spinner stickers
fixing a damaged piece of playfield wood on the right outlane
replacing the rollthrough sensor on the left side lock habitrail
soldering a standup target and an LED back in to place
repairing the pulley system that drives the gumballs on the topper
generally unfucking lots of "field repairs" including stripped screw holes that'd been patched with toothpicks
tightening/locking down all the posts on what had been a very hard routed machine
dipping the legs in CLR and scrubbing them to new
stripping the paint from the left side and front of the cab, sanding, primering, painting stenciling

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it did give me (and the CFO) enough confidence to get my first NIB, which is good because it turned out to be a stranger things and man, did the TK lock and demo need a lot of tuning.