The Shadow Club

Right? I have met so many good people in this hobby. Both virtually and physically.

Hey Shadow owners - How many of us are playing with a stress cracked one of these (the Shadow mini playfield kicker guide)? Mine is broken on the thin side but the games still plays flawlessly. I have a spare that I paid a premium for but haven’t installed it since I’m not having issues. The part is very unobtainable now. Anybody have a fix for this?

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What part is this?

sonic: Wanted to say thanks for the MRS Shadow switch... it's great. Works 100% of the time, and improves the flow of the habitrail without the switch there slowing down the ball a bit. A great update.

The kicker guide under the mini playfield. It takes a beating from the kicker firing and the side to side motion of the motor. I have never seen one not broken on a Shadow that I’ve serviced.

Thanks man!! Love the feedback!!

Maybe something Mantis might do...

In case anyone was on the fence on buying a sonic MRS switch. Do it.

I just installed mine and makes the game so much better... More than it has any right to. I didn't have problems with the ball getting stuck (as I previously had an extended switch), however getting a successful shot to register was such a crap shoot. When you have flow, are accurate and the ball was flying, it would often not trigger the switch due to speed.

Now with this MWS switch, it works flawlessly. It's so much better to hit a shot and everything works... Much better than having to check if it registered, and feeling relief if it did. No idea how long these will be available, but if you can get one, I strongly recommend.

Thanks Jeff!!

they are ready and look amazing. This is the black nickel, but the brass look amazing as well. Everyone will need to get with Chris on placing orders.

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A-M-A-Z-I-N-G as you said!!! Lol, and this thing will not break, like, ever! Beautiful black nickel, Chris already has me on his list.
Shadow deserves this part!!

Unobtainium-be-gone!!!

who has the decals?

Chris does, go check this out:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinballplatingcom-chrome-brass-black-nickel-powder-coating/page/26#post-5882998

Replaced my stress cracked kicker guide today. Not very hard but the part is very obsolete. Do yourself a favor and don't look under your mini playfield if you can't stand knowing something is broken on your machine. It played fine with the with the cracked one but drove me crazy nevertheless.

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Does anyone know where you can find backbox decals? My backbox is beyond saving, have a Scared Stiff backbox I will convert.

Retro refurbs sells them

https://www.retrorefurbs.com/shop/wpc-backbox-warning-decal/

Looking for the game art, not the warning silkscreen.

https://pinballdecals.eu/shop/the-shadow-pinball-cabinet-decals-set/

https://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts-by-game/the-shadow/9489/cabinet-decal-set-for-the-shadow

..and how to guide to installing decals, cool thing is that it was for Shadow - whoever Robert W. is, we thank him!

http://www.robertwinter.com/pinball/restorations/shadow/index2.html

Working on my Right diverter assembly. The right diverted kinda bang on the ramp making the whole ramp shake when diverting to the right. I tried to realign the diverter, but it does't seem to be it. The diverter kinda wiggle. Is this part(see image) supposed to be able to move or should be be stiff? the pipe that goes up to the playfield diverter have a bit of slack it can move, it seem that this should be more stiff.

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Those will loosen over time but I don’t think that is your problem. The diverter, when set up perfectly, does make contact with the sides of the ramp. That being said, if your ramp is shaking you likely have a bunch of broken welds on the ramp. Sound to me like you need a new set of ramps. The Mantis replacements are a huge improvement over the originals.

I doubt it's the ramp (They are nearly brand new ramp, this Shadow had a heavy restauration, new playfield and new ramps not sure if they are Mantis or NOS), probably more misadjustement on the diverter it was banging pretty hard on the right leaving small mark on the ramp and diverter. Those are very hard to adjust, any good tips on adjusting it? It's hard to be both under the playfield and on top of the playfield at same time. I guess I'll wait for a second pair of hands...

If it is just the diverter alinement tighten the set screws where they will hold position but slip if you apply force. Get them where you think they should be and lower the playfield. Force them to the perfect alinement and then lift the playfield and snug them down. You should be able to check the diverter travel by manually moving the diverter left and right. They should just make contact with both sides of the ramp.

I just rebuilt mine completely. I did it playfield up because up/down over and over is annoying. I used my finger to feel for a small gap between the diverter/phurba tip and the ramp side. I then tightened one bolt, and slowly, SLOWLY moved the mech from under and from above with both hands. When it got to the other side, I felt with my finger again. If the gap was close to equal, tighten both bolts. Move it back over to the other side one more time and check for the gap. If good, move it back and forth a couple times. I put my springs on too and made sure that didnt mess with the gap.

I did this once on my right and twice on my left. The left was harder to get perfect, so I tried a second time to get it perfect.

I let my kid play uninhibited for a few hours after I had rebuilt my diverters. No issues. Always a gap. Feels real good now. Mine were sloppy as hell.

Everybody already saw this, right? What a fantastic looking part. Go check if your battlefield shroud is intact, and imagine how good looking this replacement part is! Metal!

Least we forget that this part in plastic is unobtainium, you change it for metal and you're all set. Can't wait to see how light reflects off!

I went for the black nickel btw, and the original decal. I like to keep things as close as possible to original!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinballplatingcom-chrome-brass-black-nickel-powder-coating/page/26#post-5890281

Mine arrives Friday.

Just in case I'm missing anyone, I've done my best to hit up those I had actual information for, name, address, phone, on the battlefield shrouds (which I asked for when I took over the project). If I missed anyone, it's not on purpose, just reach out to me on EMAIL (not messaging here), please ---- chris@hotrodarcade.com
I have opened it up to the public now to buy them, and wanted to take care of all who signed on early on.
What I have left on the shelf for the moment: 4 Chrome, 8 Brass, 2 Black Nickel. We will have more eventually, but again, trying to cover my bases here.
Thanks for the orders!
Thanks!
Chris
www.pinballplating.com

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Can't wait to get mine and install it. What an epic upgrade!

What finish did you go with? I bought brass.

That brass is fantastic, can you imagine if you had the habitrails done the same finish? Wow, wow, wow..! You can call your game a Shadow Premium, because it's the kind of treatment that a Premium game gets! Lol

I've gone black nickel, but the brass does look great - you'll need to post some pics of it installed ... probably make us all jealous

Curious if anyone can spot an obvious deformity with my Mini-Playfield Wire Ramp. I had the mini playfield out to do some servicing, but as I was testing it after reinstalling it, the ball was hitting the edge of the center right target on its way to the battlefield. The wireform mounting screws are tight, and I do see one weld has let loose, but it does not seem to be enough to cause the top to be that far off. I will be looking at that a bit more closely.

The mini playfield seems to be where it should be. The hinge screws are tight, and it is resting on the posts in the recesses correctly, and the hold down screw is in tight.

Seems like the ramp exit should be toward the rear about 1/2" or so. I have looked for photos of this area from other machines to compare with, but none are clear enough to see what is different, although I can see that the ramp exit should be centered in the opening intended for it!
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A couple things, you say the Battlefield is where it should be but are you absolutely sure the wires & connector for the 4 drops are tucked down past the playfield, may be easiest to lift playfield all the way up and look in back left, that board, wires and connector should clear the playfield underneath. I know I had to carefully tuck all that when closing the Battfield.

Secondly, if you loosen those two 5/16 nuts holding on the vuk wire form can you carefully turn the wire form clockwise at all? If not take that wire form off and see if you can carefully twist the top part of the wire form, without screwing up the weld points obviously.

My wire form does not center on that entrance but it didn’t hit that target.

I think it’s pretty standard that the ball clips that target on the way in. Every shadow I’ve seen looks like that

In your first pic, is the Battlefield shroud sitting on the blue plastic?

Here are some pics of where my battlefield sits

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I went with Black Nickel and the original sticker. The brass and chrome shrouds look great too - I'm just more of a purist when it comes to upgrading my games.

My original is perfect so I went chrome to match the wire forms that were also chromed . Fits perfect !

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Wow, look at those reflections, great looking! That one is definitely not going anywhere, that's a keeper!

I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the finishes, but the brass looks sick with brass wireforms.

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Only have had my Shadow for a few weeks so haven’t been following the thread for long. Where can I see the price on these?

Black nickel looks great - I have a black nickel one from the previous run, so decided to get brass to switch things up.

Don't believe they are up on Chris's website http://www.pinballplating.com yet - think they're $230 with the decal. PM sc93cobra (Chris) to confirm & see if he has any spare in the finish that you want

black nickel cover came in today... not as fast as you guys on the install! I have to get moving.

Great work Chris! Fits perfect and looks great!

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what is the best method for installing the cover? I swapped one out years ago, but had the playfield out of the game.

I did check these things - no wiring in the way, and there is almost no rotation available with those two mounting locations. I tried to gently twist it, but afraid to break a weld. But it does look like I could add washers on the post toward the front of the machine, which tilts the assembly towards the rear. I may try that and if it does not interfere with the ball getting up there each time, that may work.

Mine may have been doing that all along, and I just did not notice.

Thanks for those pictures! It appears that yours twists a bit in the CW direction (from the top) so it looks like it is aimed to not hit the target.

My plastic guard sits over that blue vertical plastic in the back, but it is not touching it, so no interference.

I may try adding some extra washers under one of the ramp mounting ears, to tilt it to the rear a bit, which makes the exit closer to the center of the battlefield entrance.

Thanks!

Matt

The only tricky one is the left rear. I lifted the mini playfield and used a small wrench and fingers to pull it out. Same on install with a shop rag below when you drop it putting in by hand. It’s tight.

Installed my brass battlefield shroud today... Art Deco world of brass, under glass!

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