And that is why I brought it up... I was looking for a good source of a quality reproduction of cabinet decals, was asked for photos, and we went from there. the brass plating order is already out with Woody (he's had the stuff for a couple of weeks now). So now I need to look into the best way to remove the current cabinet art. The biggest problem that I have is that I don't have a good way to get this machine out of my basement (to work on it in the garage) and then back into the basement (which is fully finished)...

Then you had better invest in some Festools

If you are redoing the cab decals chances are you will or should be pulling your playfield out of the cab anyways. Then you will probably want to detach and remove your head so this should make moving the cab up/down your basement stairs much easier. I would read more threads on cabinet restorations and see exactly how much prep is involved in getting a superior result. It isn't as simple as removing or sanding off the old decals and apply. I haven't re-done cab decals personally but I know a few who have and it involves a lot of bondo, sanding, bondo, sanding till you have a 100% smooth surface. If not all your cabinet imperfections will show through and can look just as bad as your existing cab. You can see Bryan Kelly removing a client's old IJ cab decals which looked good from far but far from good up close.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ij-restoration-started#post-1075201

Here another fantastic restore done by Bryan Kelly on a Creen and you can see step by step what he had to do in order to prep the cab before he even gets to the point where he can start applying new decals.

http://www.damonator.com/pinball/creature/creature.html

Ha. Let me run right out and drop $500+ on the new sander.

Looks amazing though....

Yeah, I figured playfield and backbox removal was a must just to be able to move things around and not get everything clogged up with dust or get damaged. I also knew that there would be sanding, filling, priming, painting all before new decals being added. I built a really large subwoofer for my home theater about 2 years ago and went through the massive job of making the cabinet for that smooth enough for a piano gloss finish. This will need to use a lot of that previous experience.

I am starting to wonder if it would actually be manageable once all of that extra weight is removed (will have to rely on my wife to help is all).

Thanks for the links. I will start going through those.

Looking to trade my loaded black trim MMRLE for a nice ToM plus cash if any of you guys are interested please let me know.

So I looked closer at my ToM cabinet art and while I expected the main cabinet body to be decal, I thought that the sides of the backbox would be screenprinted like a lot of others, but it too seems like it is a decal of some sort. Not sure if that is good or bad, but just an unexpected observation.

I think that I will order a set of decals in the next couple of days and get them coming. I mean my ToM is out of commission right now anyway waiting for all of the brass bits and pieces, and I am going to be removing the ramps to put on the pinduino upgrade (still sitting in the box from lyonsden). I am heading out in the early morning to Dallas and hope to have time to work on the machine on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe I will convince my wife to help me remove the playfield (I already had it out a month or so ago to put on inside cabinet art decals, so it isn't so bad) and then really be able to go to town on the machine for the next few months (I still have other responsibilities to do before snow flies here in Iowa), plus I want to do it all right. I think that I might actually have to work on the cabinet itself first so that I can work in the garage without it getting below freezing... Wow do I hate to even think about that in mid-September already.

The red plastic magic post goes up and down between the tips of the flippers on prototype games only. The bulb lights when the post is up.

Thanks, I figured it out a bit after posting at least that was my conclusion as to why there was no light. I added the saw, but I'm not drilling through the playfield. LOL

Does anyone know how to only reset or get rid of the "Buy in high scores"? I just want the freeplay high scores

Thanks!

Back in the club!! I sold my last ToM a few years ago knowing I would pick up another one someday we'll that day arrived this weekend!! Super stoked!!

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Welcome back to the club!

I'm looking to purchase 2 of the auto eddy sensor boards for the outlanes on TOM. Pinbits only have one in stock.

Are there other retailers that sell this board? Thanks.

Send them an email directly and ask if they have more than one. I had to do that when I got mine a few months back.

I'm having a bit of an issue with the right orbit on my ToM. It almost never makes it all the way around the orbit. It seems for what ever reason to bounce off of the red star post attached to the vanish gate and either bouncing back to the pops or landing in vanish. Could this be a leveling issue? From what I can tell it seems to be bouncing off of the guide rail and into the red star post. I know there is enough clearance between the star post and the guide to move freely just not sure what's causing it to ricochet in that direction. Is this a common issue? Any ideas on what to adjust?

You might have to remove the ramps and plastic bits above that area to get a good view of what is going on. A small imperfection, piece of "crap" on the playfield, bent piece of metal or bent post, etc. The problem is that you can almost never get a really good view of everything that it happening in that area due to all of the piece mounted above it.

I have a set of under ramp decals available for sale TOM. Extra's from restore. 3 piece set, NOS unpeeled, never touched.
Thought I'd offer them here first before Market add later today. $21 Shipped. Paypal only
PM with any questions. Just one set. First Come, First served.
Thanks Eric

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Someone just posted up their NextGen TOM cab decals for sale here for $200usd shipped within continental US.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/theatre-of-magic-cabinet-decals

Bummer. I already ordered a fresh set from Mr Pinball in Australia... Paid about $265 after factoring in the exchange rate.

Thanks for thinking of me though.

EDIT: Actually, looking at some of that sellers posts, it sounds like he sold his ToM about 2 years ago, so who knows what condition the decal set is in. Could have been sitting in the cardboard tube in his garage for 2 Pennsylvania winters and summers... Or even longer since he wouldn't have bought the decals right before selling the machine.

OK. I was tearing into my ToM tonight for 2 reasons, 1) to get the ramps out so that I can clean and polish them and add the Pinduino kit to them, 2) to start getting everything out of the cabinet so that I can get ready to remove the cabinet decals.

Anyway, I was taking a lot of photos and some videos, and forgot to check something.

There is a plastic piece that had been broken forever on my ToM, and now that the ramps are out, I can more easily replace it.

Anyway, I just noticed that the yellow "dome" on the old broken plastic sticks down underneath the plastic, and on the new replacement piece it sticks out of the top of the plastic (see picture below). Which one is right? Dome up above or down below this plastic? I am thinking that this new part is wrong and I will need to drill out the rivets and re-rivet it as, if my memory is correct, the left ramp sits pretty much right on top of this plastic, thus the dome, like shown below, would be in the way.

So dome up, or dome down?

Thanks.

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Dome down or the ramp that goes over it will not sit correctly!

That is what I thought. This piece just didn't look right. I will drill out the rivets tonight and put new ones on. At least it isn't a hard fix. Just want to get some of this cleanup work done before taking the playfield out of the cabinet, so that when I am ready to reassemble it goes back together a lot quicker and easier.

Thanks for checking.

Tried to search everywhere about the Highscores. Can´t get rid of the "Buy in highscores". I just want the display to show the freeplay magicians highscores. Does anybody know? Factory reset does not help. Its always shows Master, magicians and the buy-in scores...

Thanks

Well, after taking the plastic ramps out last night to clean and polish and then to install the Pinduino (which won't happen for a little while), I once again removed the playfield. ALL ramps and wireforms are out (some getting fresh brass plating, and the plastic ones for the above mentioned work) so it is a bit barren. Nice thing about having the ramps out is that I can also more easily replace the dirty and falling apart rubber bits, and give the playfield a nice cleaning.

I also removed the backbox and the main hardware off of the cabinet. I need to remove some more bolts and the legs, but I am hoping to start removing the current damaged decals tomorrow. I want to get that process moving along so that it is ready for when they finally ship and get here from Australia. Hopefully I didn't jump the gun too much by starting this now as I won't be wanting to reassemble everything until the new decals are on. I know that I've got a good amount of work ahead of me getting the cabinet outside clean, repaired, and prepped for the new decals, but I still think that I will easily be done before the decals arrive.

Needless to say, my wife is NOT happy about this being torn apart.

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Wow is it a good amount of work to strip off the old decals. Took about 15-20 minutes to get the feel for it with the first side on the backbox. Then 15 for the 2nd side. The front of the cabinet really did not want to let loose, mainly where the legs, coin door, plunger were (basically everything that applied additional pressure to the decal). That took a solid 20 minutes. The first side rail came off next. About 10 minutes for the first one, and then literally less than 5 minutes for the second. Then I started on one of the sides. Took a solid 40 minutes if not a little longer.

I am using a cheap-o heat gun from Harbor Freight and a new putty knife, and it is working pretty well. The low setting is what I used until I got to the side of the cabinet, where I tried it on the high setting. It definately allowed for faster removal when done right, but would melt the decal really fast if not careful. Lesson learned that melting the decal is not good either. I am not sure if I could get good enough at doing it with the heat gun on high to make it any faster than using it on low. Low and slow vs. high and fast...until it melts...and then it is slow.

I still have the other side of the cabinet to do yet and then need to get as much of the remaining adhesive off. So far the cabinet is in a lot better shape than I thought it would be. I don't think that there will be any massive repairs needed to the cabinet.

Hopefully you aren't all getting bored by this, but at least it is some activity....

Here are some photos from tonight after using the heat gun and putty knife to remove all of the decals. I did notice that one of the cabinet seams is just starting to split a little, but nothing some preventative wood glue and clamping can't resolve.

Anyway, just some pics.
Ramps removed the other night, waiting for a good clean and polish.
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Notice the remaining adhesive residue on the side of the cabinet. It is all like this, but it was expected.
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There is also a plastic grocery bag with all of the decal bits that came off the cab.
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And lastly an image of the naked cabinet and backbox.
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Cabinet looks nice! Good thing is you can't go back now
Looks like a lot of work, have been doing a lot of playfield restorations but i'm dreading a decal exchange.
Keep up the good work, good luck!
Cheers

The decals are the easy part.

Best pop bumper LEDs? I'm restoring a ToM now, I'm thinking orange afterburners. Any recommendations?

So I was playing today with the kids and during my turn the game just turned off and reset. We then played another game without issues. Since getting the thing out of storage, its probably been played 50 times without incident. Should I worry about this or is it just a freak occurance? Using 1.4h home rom.

A lot of resets are from low power or power fluctuations from the wall outlet.

This also tends to happen when there is a fluctuation in the 5v side of the power feeding the MPU board. This is caused by a number of factors, including components getting old on the power driver board. There is a band-aid fix if it continues to happen where you can place a small board in line to make the 5v stable. Here is a link:

http://www.kahr.us/daughterboard.html

The reason I say band-aid is because ultimately you want a stable 5v source, and you should repair the cause at some point. I'd only do any of this if it continues to increase in frequency.

Just FYI for anyone that ever decides to do a re-decal....
Heat gun + putty knife for getting the old decal off
This leaves what looks like a pretty clean wood surface with a little bit of decal adhesive left.... LIES LIES LIES!!!
There is a LOT more adhesive left than you would imagine.

I tried a razor blade and some mineral spirits... Meh... Lots of scraping, and never quite clean.
I tried Goof Off Gel... More Meh... It didn't seem to do anything really.
Bought a big metal container of professional strength Goof Off from Home Depot (about $15) and WOW... The adhesive comes off quickly with this stuff and a plastic putty/scraper. It took off adhesive where the mineral spirits/razor blade left it behind. Comes off quickly too.

I removed the adhesive from the backbox and one side of the cabinet, plus sanded all of those. I put some bondo and glazing putty on to those just to get the bigger "dings" a layer while I went back to actually working.

About to go do the other side and the front of the cabinet. Hope to have everything down to the first sanding and at least 1 layer of Bondo before I move on to other things tonight.

Just went through this on another installation. My experience was similar, in that there was so much adhesive impregnated into the top layer of the wood, I'd either have to sand or use a large amount of toxic glue remover. I ended up opting for a lot of sanding. It took forever and honestly, in retrospect, I probably would have benefitted from using the toxic glue remover. What's a little carcinogenic exposure when it means getting things done so much faster?

Yeah, a nice day outside, garage door open, and a large box fan helped a lot. I actually feel more impacted by the Bondo and primer fumes than I did with the Goof Off. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been very nice (too cold) to really air things out without attracting bugs and slowing down the drying/curing processes... I've opted to wear my respirator that handles the tiny particles from paint and fumes nicely...

I know, here I go spamming everyone with photos...

Anyway, after I got the adhesive off of the cabinet, I sanded the sucker down. I found only a few items that needed a touch of filler. One was a bit bigger on the back of the cabinet where the plywood on the left side, right at the edge with the back, was loose and flimsy. I got rid of the loose part, filled it with Bondo, sanded, filled again, sanded again, etc. Looking back, I probably could have just put some wood glue in there, and taped the flimsy part down to hold it in, but oh well. It is smooth now.

So I've got pictures after the adhesive was removed and some of the holes filled. I also have photos of the primer stage. The primer was still drying, so it looks blotchy, but it wasn't.... At least not until I did a wet sand over it and primed it again.

Last night I put a coat of gloss on the cabinet and backbox, and tonight I did another coat. I wet sanded between the two coats, and may do a super fine wet sand after the current coat of gloss hardens... Not sure about a 3rd coat or not. Probably overkill.

One thing that I am really looking forward to, oddly enough, is on the backbox. The forward facing "edge" around the translite, DMD, and speakers was never smooth. It was a straight cut from the factory, but you could see the "layers" of the plywood. Looked tacky in my opinion... Not any more. Nice and smooth.

I might post a picture of the gloss finish after it cures, but for now, here are the adhesive free, patched, sanded, and primed photos...

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Oh, and the decals still aren't here from Australia, and no update since last week on my brass pieces yet. They made it to Woody on August 29, and he assures me that they are in the works. Obviously I've got some work ahead of me before I have to have them, but it would be nice to be able to at least put the new legs on when I do finally get the decals. LOL Honestly though, I just want things right, and not rushed.

I did get a gold shooter rod from Pinball Center, and it was a mess. The rod itself was fine, but the gold knob (black plastic ball with gold paint on it) had 2 small specs where the black showed through, and worse was a large pain run on about 1/5 of the entire ball (actually quite large).

Their best offer to me was to send me a replacement with my next order... Considering that I ordered everything that I needed to from them when I ordered the shooter rod, I won't be getting anything from them as a replacement... I guess I will have to sand it down, but some gold paint, paint and clear-coat it myself. Cheaper than ordering some random part and paying shipping from Germany just to get it replaced.

I'm enjoying your pictures so keep them coming. Yes three coats is definitely overkill but who cares if you are enjoying it.
Not surprised the decals have not arrived. It takes ages shipping from Australia to the USA.

Am I seeing this right that you left your electronics in the backbox while you painted it? That's bold... though probably fine if you protected them properly.

Yes, they were protected with plastic and tape during the painting process. Holes were covered on the inside during the original decal adhesive removal to prevent it running in. Actually worked pretty well with just good painters tape (bot blocking the holes and for taping plastic over the electronics.

All painting was done yesterday. I still have a big box fan and heater in the area to "bake" the paint.... Ok, maybe not bake it, but with our overnights as cool as they have been, I wanted plenty of airflow and solid temps above 75F in the area. The cabinet and backbox will be making their way back into the basement. No decals from Australia yet, so re-assembly is coming to a complete halt.

I am traveling to New York for work on Monday, so maybe the decals will show up while I am gone, then I can get those applied on Friday when I get home. Once they are on, I can finish cleaning the playfield. I decided that since the ramps are out (still not cleaned yet) and the wireforms are hitting week 5+ of being out getting re-brassed, that I might as well take out all of the plastics, and REALLY clean the playfield, and put new rubber on everything.

That would be a full day project (for me) on Friday if the decals make it. Then I can get the ramps cleaned up, and flame polished, and when my wife gets home from work, she could help me put the playfield back in. Saturday will be shot with 2 out of town marching band competitions for my daughter. I would then probably reconnect the backbox and all of the wiring. If the brass pieces aren't here yet, then I would just lightly attach the original black backbox hinges just to give me some level of stability while I continue to wait for the brass to come.

So yeah, that all is going to depend on if the decals make it first and foremost, and then need the brass pieces to make it shortly after that.

I can't wait to see everything done, but wow has this all been a long process already, and now I just continue to wait....

While you're out in New York for work feel free to swing by NJ and help me re-decal my ToM J/K.
I've been following your updates and progress and I'm very impressed with all the info you've been sharing. Thanks!
My ToM cab and decals are decent with some scuffs and head chunks that could use a dash of bondo. One day I may get around to it but it plays so amazingly fast and well that I don't even think about the little flaws it has.
-Ran

So it looks like the decals were last seen in Chicago... That was on 09/28 (5 days ago) and considering that Chicago is a 4 hour drive from my house, I would have thought that it would have been here by now. Then again, it is in the hands of the US Postal Service, so who knows. I am in White Plains, NY until late Thursday night, so as long as they are delivered by the time I get home, I will be good.

USPS can be rough. I have had stuff from PA shipped to me 2-3 day express...it then gets "delayed"...makes its way to Indiana (yup the other side)...then shows up on day 8. Gotta love it. It always shows up though

Yeah, I think that the holdup is that Chicago is where it entered the US, so we are also dealing with Customs most likely... FedEx and UPS would show the whole Customs interaction, but USPS makes no mention of it (again, since their "tracking" isn't the best)...

I had a package recently get stuck in Atlanta for five days, call customer service and start an investigation. When I did that for my stuck package it was on my doorstep the next morning, kind of funny how that happens LOL

Well if you miss playing your TOM I am about 30 min from where you are and you can come by and play mine to get your fix. Mine is also in beautiful condition so if there is anything you have to look at let me know.

I used to live in Pawling, now I'm in Mill Valley, California. Too bad, I'd have finally found someone I could challenge to a ToM tournament.

So the sad part about all of this is that my TOM is going to look SOOOO nice, except one thing... One glaring thing... I've brought it up here in the past, but am really stuck.

So the big positives:
Cabinet holes and damage repaired and new decals.
"Gold-ed" a lot
Color DMD
LEDs (and not the "fruity pebbles" look)
Upgraded speakers/cabinet woofer
Pinduino
Inside cabinet decals
Plus a lot of behind the scenes goodies like auto-eddy sensors, Leon's fix opto board, cleaned trunk gearbox, etc, etc, etc.

Sounds great, right? But I am STILL stuck with that annoying raised (and chipped up) "A" in M-A-G-I-C right in the middle of the playfield.

I was SOOOOO close to getting a usable high quality scan of the M-A-G-I-C area of the playfield. Everything seemed to be looking good for working up some replica decals to just fix the 'A' and have it match the original M, G, I, and C... I got the scans, and the file was huge, but the because the letters can't be lit up while scanning, the image was almost like the difference between a photo of anything on a nice bright sunny day vs. taking a picture as it is starting to get dark... The image just wasn't crisp.

Sending the playfield out to get repaired really starts to get expensive. Heck, WITHOUT damage like this, it seems like general playfield work runs around the $1000 range. Plus that would mean another 3 months or longer without the machine (and ALL of the massive work it takes to strip the top/bottom and more importantly, be able to put it all back together when done).

There is no reproduction playfield (despite rumors of one earlier this year), which would still be pricey, but at least the downtime would be minimal, and you could set up a system where you just transfer things from one playfield to the other (less chance of screwing things up or forgetting where things go).

Thus I was thinking that if I had a nice, clean, crisp, and correctly sized scan of the "A", I could set up a page of decals that others use for restorations where the colors of the A are all slightly different shades of blue, red, yellow, so that I get something that matches and just cut out that one single "A" from the whole sheet. I have to level the insert anyway, so I would take it out, sand off the existing remnants of the "A" then polish it, put on the decal, spray some protective clear on it, and put it back in the machine. It would look a lot better, and play better too (it has been chipped off enough that it doesn't really impact the play at all).

But, alas, I don't know anyone who is able to do a good scan. I've had people try sending photos, and those were good quality, but they weren't generally straight up from the "A" (maybe hand-held camera at a slight angle) so the images turn out a bit oblong.

I toyed with buying another set of playfield insert decals for like $55 or whatever off of eBay, but then the only way to get it to match would be to replace all 5 letters in M-A-G-I-C. I bought a set way back in early 2000ish, but one of the other letters is missing the red part on it. Seriously, how do they make a set of decals, and the one that I would need is missing one of 4 colors (the other colors being blue, yellow, and black).

So I have no idea what I want to do. I really can't afford to put any serious money into this machine after the recent items, but it almost seems like the more I improve things, the more that the "A" stands out.

Here is an old picture from a few years back in 2012. It is slightly worse than this now... I also attached the image from back then showing the missing red on the I on the decal sheet as well.

Just not sure how to cost (and time) effectively make this better....

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Well if you ever get back this way give me a holler.

For me, I have a portion missing on the "Spirit Ring" insert below the Haunted Basement. While it sucks because it is the only major damage on the game, I'm fine living with it.

I have a friend who is a contractor and while he was doing some work on my house, I mentioned something that was bugging me with the way a room was finished by a previous contractor. His take was that if it was something that would bother me every day I saw it, I should fix it. If it didn't, I'd learn to live with it as no one else would notice. For that, I had to get it fixed just so I wouldn't feel annoyed every time I walked into that room.

If this has been bothering you for 10ish years, you need to fix the right way. Strip and send out the playfield, or buy one already refurbished. If you think about the $1000 over 10 years, it comes out to $8.33 a month for 10 years. Pretty low price to not feel annoyed every time you look at your favorite game.

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I think don't worry about it. Get your machine back together and start playing.

So I reached out to the USPS via their website "inquiry" form asking for a status on my decals from Australia. They basically gave me a lame, although probably true, response of "we can't control the customs process. It can take up to 6 weeks for them to release it to the postal service for delivery."

Yeah, I know that the customs people do what they want to do and when they want to do it, but I was hoping for something new.

Sounds like Friday won't be the day to apply the decals. I will spend the time cleaning and polishing the ramps and get the Pinduino installs on to the ramps. All needs to be done, but I was hoping for something significant towards getting the machine back together, like the cabinet decals.

Oh well.

Is there a scanner one of us can borrow that would produce the scan that would work for you?