So I over paid on a TZ through eBay. Mainly because it was only about an hour from my house. It also had an original silkscreened cabinet that was nearly unfaded or banged up. The playfield looked like it was in excellent shape without any scoop wear or insert edging. Well reality reared its head after I got it home and was able to start digging into it.

The front cabinet panel was severly separated from the sides. So much so that both the left and right corner blocks were split in half. The only thing holding them in place was the leg brackets. Sadly, someone had attempted to shore it up by driving a drywall screw through the front of the cabinet to draw it in to the side panel. Thankfully whomever did it at least placed the screw high enough that when the lockdown bar is in place you can't see it. My perfect silkscreened artwork can be saved after all.

I was comptemplating having Bryan Kelly restore this after he finishes my AFM but since I need to shore the front up which entails pulling the playfield, I decided to do my homespun version of a restore.

Some pics to get started

I forgot to take pictures with the screw in and show how the front panel was seperated. Oh well. In this picture you can see the indentation in the top left corner where the screw is. The yellow dot is wood glue seeping out.

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Split corner blocking

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All braced up

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Did I mention she was a filthy f'ing pig. I don't think anything was cleaned, ever.

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Just started cleaned and sanding. Still need to take the cabinet vent screen off and lot more sanding but I'm tired and done for the night.

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Oh, I thought I would add a few Picts of the alien saucers I painted for my AFM that is going to be restored

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Moving slow. No rush. I was going to take the wimpy way out and leave the ground braid in place, paint the cabinet and then remove it so I could see where it was to install the new one. It was to hard to sand with it in place so I removed it. God I hope I get it put back in the right spots and get everything grounded properly. Ton more sanding to do. I also got the old stainless steel rails removed. The front panel repair was a success and seems to be as solid as a rock. Here's to hoping it stays that way when its back under full load. You can also see how nice the unfaded original cabinet is. Only issue is under the legs but it is hidden by the protectors.

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Hush it you. LOL.

This is nowhere even remotely on the level you do. It just kinda snowballed from fixing the cabinet front. I wanted to have you do this one too but it's a tweener and I paid too much for it to dump that much into it.

Yeah, no water on the fiberboard floor. It would swell like a sob. I'm not going to sand crazy, just get it looking fresh. It will look 99% better than before. No painting the bottom, though I am seriously condidering a sanding sealer to keep the dirt and carbon from absorbing again. This would allow me to be able to clean it with a damp cloth if need be. I will be painting the sides all the way down.

Thanks guys.

So, I was finishing up sanding and started sanding the bottom side when I noticed I overlooked that the front panel bottom lip was seperated as well as the back end bottom lip. So...out comes the wood glue and clamps. You can see the two beads of fresh glue. Fun on hold until the glue dries. I did buy the silkscreened though so I can rescreen the warning text and patents on the cabinet. That sucking sound is the vacuum removing more money from my account. LOL

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Another small update. I also noticed there were a couple bad areas where the plywood veneer had been damaged.

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So I pulled out the bondo.

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After curing and sanding there are still a few imperfections that didnt sand out (damnit) so I will need to do another coat tomorrow.

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The bottom cleaned up very nice. A small area of residual glue at the two seems but I'm probably done with sanding it.

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This weekend I will drag the cabinet to my outbuilding and paint her up and get to reassembling it. Then on to the head.

Thanks Jints.

So yesterday was somewhat productive. I got the game to my outbuilding and got it primed and filled. I also applied two coats of polyurethane to both the inside and outside of the cabinet bottom. That way dirt and carbon wipes of with a wet rag as apposed to having to be sanded out.

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Today I plan on sanding the filler coat, filling a few staple holes I missed and finally paint the cabinet black.

**edit: I don't know why pinside posted these in reverse order? I inserted them in order. Oh well. Sorry.

So everything has went swimmingly thus far....

Then I applied the black and one whole side had pitted grain bad. It felt smooth but the gloss and black accentuated it horribly. The other side is perfect. SIGH!
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Time to break out the filler.

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After sanding it was smooth as a babies butt.

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Then the stupids struck. I rushed to prime and top coat. I wanted to get the cabinet done today and I was impatient. I have been in the commercial paint industry over 20 years. I know better. What the pictures show is mud cracking. Grrr.. Dumb me.

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So while I am waiting to correct my cab screw up I was working in stripping the playfield and its dirtier than I first thought it was. So... I bit the bullet and bought one of these.

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I sure hope it works as well as everyone is saying it does.

Got a lot done today! Corrected the side; though still not as good as I wanted but I'm not doing it again. Ground braid in. Vent screens cleaned, painted and installed. Also got a few of the shop out stickers installed.

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Mine was simply being impatient. With it being cool (50degrees) and I coated on top of the previous coat too soo. Like I said, stupid me.

Thank you. Nope on the rails. Everything in black powder coat.

Tiny update.

LOL

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Transformer cleaned and painted. The slight flashing is the varnish that didn't want to sand out very well. image-579.jpg

Thanks!

So a big toy arrived.

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ALMOST fits a lockdown reciever
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Moving slooow

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On to the head.

Sanded as smooth as fiberboard can get.

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But there is always little divots because of the nature of the fibers being pressed into a sheet.
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Out comes the filler.

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Once sanded, the only filler left will be in the divots leaving a smooth surface.

Oh, and more corner separation. Grrr. Now I'm at a stand still until the glue cures.

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Thanks man. Yes it would fit without the basket. It is a 27L 900watt version.

So while I'm waiting on the glue to dry. I cleaned and buffed and painted hardware. Some of the brackets were pitted and I almost painted them. In then end I buffed them.
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I found a really great brushed nickle in a rattle can. Looks very close to stainless/galvanized surfaces. Cleaned up the vent screen and pcb mounting board.
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**i don't know why pinside rearranges the pictures out of order of what I upload them as?**

Moving along. Head is painted. I'm a perfectionist and if I wanted to be ocd, there were a couple areas that weren't perfect once the glossy black accentuated them in my eye; but it is still gorgeous. image-668.jpgimage-304.jpg

Hopefully it will be dry enough tomorrow to start reassembling it.

Next up, **gulp**, ultrasonic cleaning the cabinet harness. Starting to get out of my comfort zone.

Silkscreened done. Easier than I thought it would be. Big shout out to Brian Kelly and his instructional video.

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So a little progress. I got all the powder coating back and most of the cabinet reassembled. Waiting on a new extra ball button and the harness connections to completely dry before I plug them back in. I also have to move the ground braid in a spot.

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And a few shots of my messy quasi workshop/basement.

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Sorry I missed this. No I don't see any need to. It's a oil based silkscreen ink so it should be durable.

Thank you for saying so. I appreciate it very much. Powder is very durable. You can also get it powder coated with a clear top coat (which these are not).

Now that the cab is most done, my attention now shifts to the playfield tear down. I know that TZ was the most complex pin ever for the era but holy hell. There are a million pieces and I swear 100 optos. LOL. I have previously done 4 playfield swaps and this is the most daunting. Plus she is a filthy pig. Everything is filthy! The dirtiest pin I have ever owned.

Some progress shots.

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So TZ has taken a back burner to my flash restore. Time to kick it in the ass. Old playfield stripped, new one up to bat.

I bought a new rotisserie and I love it compared to my old pipe one. Also got a cool multi-directional iPad mini mount so I can scroll through pictures without holding it. Pretty nice little work area.

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Also, if you're thinking about new wood rails I highly suggest getting them from TaylorVA. They are beautiful. I'll take a few pics later. Headed out to lunch with the kids.

Thank you for saying so. It's always nice to hear others appreciate what you're doing.

Screw polishing/buffing. 5 hours in and I still have a handful of parts. Looks so pretty when done though.

1/4 polished, the balance not polisheD.

Thank you!

Does anyone have any tips drilling ball guides for the third magnet when the third hole is factory from mirco. The Pinbits instructions work off the premise there isn't a third hole and you reference of the playfield third hole pilot. That and the tape edge line up thing is slightly confusing to me for some reason. At the end of the day, the optos need to be aligned with each other over the center of the magnet pole, yes?

So I got the ball guides drilled fror the third magnet optos. The bit through the bodies was to line them up for mounting the housings. Now to can get back to installing top side stuff.

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Productive weekend. Not a ton put on the playfield but a ton of cleaning and buffing.

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And my messy work area.

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As a parting gift, I present my poor man's buffing stand.

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I didn't want to move my bench buffer from my out building so I picked this up at Sears. Problem was they didn't have a stand. I threw this together until Amazon delivers one on Tuesday. It is surprisingly stable and held up over during 5 hours of buffing.

Thank you

As for polishing, I put all metal parts in the ultrasonic cleaner and then buff the stainless steel stuff and then lightly apply some mothers. I don't tumble zinc coated stuff like hardware. Well, I buff hex posts but not screws. The ultrasonic cleaner gets the screws looking brand new without removing the zinc plating. This game wouldn't be half as clean without the ultrasonic cleaner.

More polishing....

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