Thruster? I just met her!!!: Xenon Restoration

Lucked out on getting a Xenon as my next project! This baby’s got some strong bones but has been routed pretty good. Hopefully something nice will pop out of the Exit Chamber by time I’m done. Get it???
As always let’s start with a ton of pictures of what I’m working with...

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Will be doing a hardtop. This one came with the game.

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Couple other new note worthy items for the playfield

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Before I tear into this hardtop install I want to make sure all posts are accounted for and screw holes that are stripped out get fixed.
First thing I noticed when I compared the game to other is this post by the ramp was added. Easy enough just unscrew it and replace. Nope!

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Original post was broke off in the wood and a second hole was added for the finned post. I drilled out the broken screw and doweled both holes.

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I traced the hardtop to figure out where the mini post hole would be and then marked it on the playfield. Then drilled a new hole for the original style mini post.

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The ball kept getting stuck at the top of the tube on weak ramp shots

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so I fixed the wire, now every shot passes through clean and unless the ball actually enters the tube the switch will stay with the ball and allow it to roll back down the ramp.

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The spacers, posts, screws and other pieces of hardware for the ramp, tube, tube light strip where a mess. Thanks to lovef2k and a few other fellas in the Xenon club I was able to get it straightened out.

Several extra holes have been drilled for additional posts which I assume was to make replacing rubbers easier.
A lot of wood screws were in the spaces with T-nuts and several machine threaded screws were screwed into bare wood. I drilled out all the proper holes and added t-nuts everywhere and got various threaded screws for the whole set up. Also got several sizes of spacers so I could just build my own based on the length needed.

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Within 10 minutes of owning this game I realized I hate something.

This section of the playfield.

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***Purists look away***

It doesn’t make any sense. Like they gave up on trying to make a plastic work under the tube.
So I took the original plastic and designed an extension.

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Played around in a photo editing program and designed this plastic.
I’m still working out a lighting option that doesn’t require me to drill out a hole in case the next owner wants to go back to the undercooked look.
I think it looks so much better.55FF3435-A9D6-4108-BF6A-E5A92ECF6127 (resized).jpegC1185DFF-AB64-4D5E-BDBE-43C00C17D7BC (resized).jpeg4E53BA9D-0B14-440B-AF66-C39E53CF3144 (resized).jpegD673C99C-6C08-4383-A666-DAF31A4C1D63 (resized).jpeg56747F6B-67A6-47E0-999F-1FB822167D0A (resized).jpeg34B5DBBC-12DF-4AEE-AF99-C6DA814F315F (resized).jpeg
This photo is from the side to show the post arrangement. The plastic here is actually my first style where I had 2 post holes but I didn’t like the acorn being so close to the light strip so I recreated it without the upper post hole. If you look through the tube you can see the acorn. I don’t like that so it’s gone.

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As I begin to tear down for the hardtop one of the first snags I run into is one of the wire guides is broke into the wood. And by the look of the scratch, seems to have happened a while ago. I took a hammer and placed the end back in the wood and drove the broken piece out the bottom.
Digging through some of my parts bin I found that I had this exact lane from my first restoration, a Bally Mata Hari
I’m back in business!

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Let’s strip this baby!
The next several pics are just reference pictures for me to use when I repopulate.
Also so I don’t need to keep 10,000 pics of dissected pinball machines on my phone

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Thanks!
Actually I’d love to make more for people but I don’t have the tools to cut plastic properly. The jigsaw sand paper approach sucks but it’s working at the moment. What you see there is just printed on photo paper and the static is what clings it to the plastic. I need to adjust it a little more to fit a little better at the bottom and then I’ll try reprinting on a waterslide.
Would love to ask CPR to help me but they’re probably too busy re-theme-ing some game like Fathom to be converted to a 1990’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit game.

It’s amazing how dirty these machines get. Even the arch was holding a pound of grime.

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I finished the playfield tear down and moved it to the rotisserie.
All the top side metal minus the guides are being tumbled overnight.
Crushing some Non Alcoholic beers to celebrate completing phase 1 of the playfield resto.

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Now this is either the best hack in pop bumper history, or the stupidest thing I’ve posted on pinside.....

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This has been my secret weapon for metal lately.
It’s like Novus 2 for metal

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So I just quickly took a piece to show how good it works.
You can see what it does with only using a microfiber by hand.

Started with a piece I cleaned by wet sanding with 3000 grit for a minute or so

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Pulled this ring from the tumbler and just since the last post (couple minutes) polished it up a little.
Anyway you guys get the point. Stuffs pretty good I’m still open to trying other products tho.

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Yeah the sanding was just me being ocd. Just wanted to be transparent about sanding before I laid down the tape. Was trying to get an even base.

Thankful for my tumbler today!
Top side metal tumbled and cleaned up.

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I wanted to add the missing GI in the top right arch. Looking underneath after drilling the pilot holes you can see it is a tight squeeze.

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Moved some things around and made it work.
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I’m liking that!
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Spent a good amount of time cleaning the wire harness with a toothbrush and a ton of mean green. I juggled the idea of removing the harness and tossing it in the dishwasher but I just didn’t want to desolder 50 some lights and other things so I just snipped zip ties and went at it.

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I found a few lighting hacks in this process by discovering severed wires buried in the harness. I reverted the lighting back to original. Someone changed some feature lamps into GI. I reverted them back because I have other plans for lighting.

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Pulled all the mechs and have them lined up for the tumbler.
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Lacquered the side rails

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This damn thing had full Mylar over some rough paint touch ups.
Lot of flour and alcohol.
I can hear the arthritis creeping up on my fingers from all the rubbing.

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She’s ready for the palm sander

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Sanded only what I needed. Still need to spend some time on the shooter lane, but I’ll do that by hand.

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I wanted to see how the hardtop lined up and it is dead on! Every insert is center when the left edge and top edge of the hardtop is flush with the edge of the playfield.
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Before I called it quits for the night I wanted to take a stab at polishing up an insert.
I went 600-1000-1500-2000-3000-Novus 2
Would look pretty amazing if it weren’t for the cracks on the underside.
Oh well, close enough for pinball.

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Got some original caps from jj44114 in today’s mail.
I really prefer the original dark blue over the updated blue from Marco.
The originals compliment the new posts from PBR really well.
With that being said I’ll be selling this Marco set if anyone is interested. They’re a nice set of caps but personally I like the darker blue.

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Hell yeah!

Haha I know man!
I think I need to at this point. I’m polishing these things and they’re all looking pretty rough. I was looking forward to laying down the hardtop this weekend but now I don’t know. Unless the “marbled look” is a desired thing I’m not aware of

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Well I popped all my inserts out. They all sucked and were cracked like crazy. Only find that the 3/4” Transparent blue is pretty much unobtainium. I don’t know why but mentally I’m kind of pissed about having to install all new inserts and sand them all down and polish them all.
Also thrilled about having to order inserts from like 4 different places to get all the ones I need.
The arrows might just have to do. The only yellow ones I can find are $12 for 2 on eBay.

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Lol damn it!

I wouldnt mind switching all the inserts to starburst inserts but even blue starburst arent available. Im really leaning towards using teal for the 5 blue inserts.

Thats pretty genius... I was also thinking about getting clear starbursts and just using blue LEDs under them. Even the teal with blue LEDs would probably have good results.

Honestly is an insert even needed with a hardtop. Couldn’t transparent film be used in the clear window to get the desired color?

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While i figure out the insert situation off screen I might as well continue on with things. All metal is ready for the playfield.

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Put my printer to work and printed new coil wrappers on yellow paper to replace the crumbling mess on the coils currently.

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I really need to invest in a paper cutter. My thumb and index finger are shot after all that scissor work.

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I use these double sided adhesive sheets for a lot of things and coil wrappers are one of them

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Going to look ok!
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I also printed on card stock, all the back box and cabinet labels I could find.

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