Hi all:

Time to take a swing at my TZ. It has been a great machine, but could use a shopping. Seeing as I have had more time than anything lately, I think I am going to bite the bullet and go after my TZ and do my best to mint this machine out. The good news is I am starting with a good machine overall. I do have a new playfield that I purchased several years back to swap. Beyond that though, I could use some help. Here are some of my initial thoughts/ideas/?'s (in no particular order). It has been years since I took a project like this on and any new/updated vendor info for what I need would be GREATLY appreciated.....Dave

LED's - Best place to source these? Anything to consider?
Side mirrors - Seems worth it. Still only one vendor out there? Best one?
3rd Magnet - I have the kit. Worth the work?
Clock - I have the stock clock. Would you do anything special with it?

I have the following mods...

Robot, piano, slot machine, rocket, Light for upper pf, gumballs/gumball lighting

Other than these, any ideas of mods that I should get?

I also would like to swap out the plastics. Any source for NOS plastics for a TZ?

Thanks in advance for any advice...

Dave

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Yes, full swap. I have only done one before (IJ). I know it is a lot of work, but I am ready for the challenge.

So when you say Warm white comet leds, you are saying use all white? When I did LED's on my CV, there were a number of different colors for certain lamps. Are people just going with all white?

Since I am doing the PF swap, I thought drilling would be fairly easy to do. Of course I am sure there are threads on the 3rd magnet project alone

Having a heck of a time sourcing plastics for my TZ rebuild. Everyone seems to be sold out. Any options here? Anyone know of anyone that has a set of TZ plastics?

Thanks so much! First place was sold out, but the second link had em! Appreciated!

Ordered both! Thanks for the advice!

Okay, I have a couple questions comments on your awesome post.

I have already updated my clock (blue housing), but it has original boards (I think). So I may wait on that a little bit. Already ordered the color DMD and the speaker light panel. Love the look of those!

Not sure about the magnet mod for the wire form? Never heard about this one. I there a link or a website you could point me to for this one?

Same with the scoop/target suggestion.

I have the piano and bumball dazzler mods, so we are good there.

I think I am going to go with the mini playfield switch mod. Seems like a very solid design.

Titans. So I go to the Titan website and there doesn't seem to be a place to choose a kit. Am I missing something there? Is the idea I custom pick each rubber on my own? Curious if anyone has a kit they put together as a starting point?

Your machine looked awesome. Curious on what LED lighting kit you went with? I like the idea of of different colors for different areas of the machine. I like that look.

I have owned certain titles off and on over the years. I have had an IJ twice. The last one was really special to me. I do regret selling it. There were some one of a kind mods I had personally done on that machine that were awesome. So I understand when you talk about missing a given title. Good news is you can always get one again!

Thanks again for your ideas/inputs!

Dave

Can I ask why? Is it because of how it would look or is it harder to see the ball or something?

Do you have a kit you like? Pix? I know it is personal preference, but starting with something to me is a good way to go. Don't want to reinvent the wheel.

Okay, after much debate, I think I like the Comet kit per below.

https://www.cometpinball.com/products/twilight-zone-led-kit?variant=12493659209772

With that said, I don't understand that OCD board and if I really need that or not. When I have done LED's on my other games, I never have needed one. Thoughts on this?

I did end up going with the Commet/OCD option for two reasons....1) I just like the fact that someone took the time to think through the options and has everything though out (value in that to me) and 2) I am seeing conflicting feedback on the value of the OCD. With all of this work I just want it to be right.

With that said, on to the flippers. Any opinions on best flipper rebuild kits? Any other things I should rebuild while having this whole thing torn apart? By the way, this is getting to be a fairly expensive project . Wonder if wife will be supportive?

okay, next question. Btw, THANKS TONS for answers/advice so far. Been a while since I have done one of these total playfield swaps. With that said, I have seen where people have done swaps by putting brackets that are like 10" long in various spots on the bottom of the playfield. I think this allows for the playfield to be pulled and set on a table so you can systematically move the contents from one playfield to the other. I have only see pix of these but of course can't find them right now. Bottom line is I am looking for the best system to do a playfield swap. I don't have a stand but I do have a ping pong table to lay out the work.

Thoughts on this??

I was thinking about building one of these.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-quick-and-dirty-rotisserie-guide

I don't see myself doing a lot of PF swaps at all. Like I said on my original post, I did one maybe 8 years ago. No rotisserie either

I literally took everything off the top, then everything that had a wire attached to it off the bottom and laid it into a heap on the bottom of the cabinet. Anything else I put aside on another table. Then had the PF cleared and worked on. Then put everything back in reverse order. I will admit, that heap of wires and stuff was hard to figure out, but piece by piece I put it back together. In the end, it all worked fairly good the first time I turned on the machine. Was a journey for sure!

Curious the methodology people use to use a swap when they have a rotisserie. Do they pull the playfield and move the bottom stuff over first? Followed by the top stuff once the new PF is back in the machine? Just curious.

Thought this was going to be easy, but it never is. I was going to sit down and order a new set of sleeves for my TZ restore. Since I know the list of solenoids in the game via page #2 of the manual, I thought I would cross reference that list to each assembly in the manual. BUT the manual names the assemblies different than that of the list on page #2.

Is there anyone out there that has a list of sleeves I would need for a TZ OR can someone verify that for each type of solenoid, there is one and only one sleeve part #?

Any ideas on this would be great...

Dave

On a different note, I am starting a Google Doc with info about this restore. If anyone were to undertake this crazy of a project, thought they may find it useful. It is obviously a work in progress and may or may not be useful to someone else down the road. Either way, here it is...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cpPt7E9-jpGFBFcxws7F77GraEo-IWlafqXq96BlAQw/edit?usp=sharing

Any ideas/feedback that you would like to see on this spreadsheet, feel free to comment or PM me.

Dave

I like the idea of folders when you bring the table up and down. I also thought about trying to take a small amount of the playfield down with a sander on both sides before working on it to give me some more clearance. Love the idea of black mirrors though. That could be a really nice touch....man though, one scratch and that could look rough though. Tempting for sure. I will check it out!

I am really leaning towards getting the black mirrors. I like the reflection in mirrors, but don't want it to be too much.

Well here is an update. I continue to update this spreadsheet with everything associated with this project. I am trying to document what I can to help make it easier for the next crazy nut that decides to do a PF swap on a TZ. There is an absolute insane amount of stuff on the top and bottom of this game!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cpPt7E9-jpGFBFcxws7F77GraEo-IWlafqXq96BlAQw/edit?usp=sharing

Procurement: I would say I am 90% done getting what I need for this job. Of course some of the mods still are growing, and this of course is leading to a wallet that is thinning out. I had to take a break on shipments as the wife is starting to catch on to my scheme here.

Progress:

1) Made Vid's rotisserie. I made a couple modifications to it that seemed to make the whole thing easier (but a little more expensive). I went with all allen screw joints. In hindsight, I probably would have done the threaded joints for the bottom centers though to add a little stability. But overall it went fairly well. I also kept with 3/4" piping throughout. The plus side of this is I put the whole thing together in about 20 minutes.

2) Started moving the light boards over one at a time. While doing so, I have started to put the Comet LED bulbs in place. I know one probably pays a bit more for these kits, but frankly I like the fact that someone bagged up and documented every damn bulb in the machine. To me there is some good value in that.

3) I have ordered about 30 different size molex connectors. This thread talks about that. At the end of the day, I want to install each coil separately and the molex connectors will make that possible. Plus this way, I can keep the wires in the machine and not have to pull them from the boards. I may even molex some of the snakes of the GI's (TBD). I get that this may add failure points, but frankly I haven't had a lot of issues with molex connectors over the 20 years in the hobby. I have though have had issues working on various components of my machines and have wished there were molex connectors to make it easier to service. So I went with door #2. I should also mention that cottonm4 suggested I order from Ed at Great Plaines electronics. Ed caught an error in my order and helped me sort it out. Would HIGHLY recommend using Ed if you need this kind of stuff. Good guy.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/molex-connectors-on-solenoids-#post-5664634

4) I have noticed the light boards don't perfectly align. In those cases I have had to drill my own pilot holes into the playfield.

5) I have had some issues getting my arms around the 3rd magnet part of this project. That spawned the following thread. This is a work in progress, but I am getting a better ideas of the scope of this "side project". It isn't as simple as screwing a 3rd magnet on!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tz-3rd-magnet-questions#post-5665570

6) I have also learned that have a 3rd year Purdue Mechanical Engineering student as my helper has been huge! Happens to be my son and with this Covid thing has given us something to focus on. We also have some ideas for some custom mods. More to come on that sooner than later. 3D printer is going to get some overtime!

Well that is the update for now. Slowly but surely....with the emphasis on slowly!

Dave

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Couple pix from tonight...

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Thanks for the suggestions. Ordered a full set of Cliffy's. Was on my radar, then fell off. Now it is back on!

I had already ordered a new slot machine scoop. So gtg there.

New question....

Need new flaps for the ramps. Where does one find these? Also, is there a specific rivet to use? Only did this one other time and it was like 15 years ago.

Dave