Finished up the cabinet wiring on Rob's FG. New power cord, wired in the speakers etc.
IMG_20220206_130308 (resized).jpgIMG_20220206_130314 (resized).jpgIMG_20220206_130321 (resized).jpgBackbox got installed..... Comet 2 SMD Warm's in the GI. New Aux LD installed (still need to wire it & the LD up for LED power)
I don't have the Flasher unit for this game, I think Rob still has it up in NY.
Trying to locate some Red LED 7 digit displays for it.
Will clean up the wire routing in the backbox once the PF is installed & see how best to route everything the cleanest.
Also have new switch setting instruction cards etc to install in backbox sometime.
But other than that, this one is about as far as I'm taking it. Tom is restoring the PF on this one, so when it is done we will marry the 2 together & finish it off.
Overall this machine is the nicest restoration I have done to date, & yet I still feel there are things I could do better in the future. I'll use tips/techniques I have learned on this one that I will apply to future machines to make them even better. Always a learning experience with every one you do.
IMG_20220206_131805 (resized).jpgIMG_20220206_131812 (resized).jpgIMG_20220206_131824 (resized).jpgIMG_20220206_131836 (resized).jpgIMG_20220206_132014 (resized).jpgIMG_20220206_132104 (resized).jpgIMG_20220206_132121 (resized).jpgQuoted from WeatherbyMAG:Backbox got installed..... Comet 2 SMD Warm's in the GI. New Aux LD installed (still need to wire it & the LD up for LED power)
I don't have the Flasher unit for this game, I think Rob still has it up in NY.
Trying to locate some Red LED 7 digit displays for it.
Will clean up the wire routing in the backbox once the PF is installed & see how best to route everything the cleanest.
Also have new switch setting instruction cards etc to install in backbox sometime.
But other than that, this one is about as far as I'm taking it. Tom is restoring the PF on this one, so when it is done we will marry the 2 together & finish it off.
Overall this machine is the nicest restoration I have done to date, & yet I still feel there are things I could do better in the future. I'll use tips/techniques I have learned on this one that I will apply to future machines to make them even better. Always a learning experience with every one you do.
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Dude….incredible work. It looks phenomenal. Yea Tom suggested I remove the flasher unit. I can’t tell you how excited I am to see it at this phase. Truly a work of art. HEP ain’t got nothing on ya ! (Sorry Chris) lol!! All kidding aside really gorgeous job man. Can’t wait to pick her up.
Starting on populating the EBD LE. I actually think I'm going to install lamp sockets & wire them in place of the original 3 piece lamp boards. Have not set my self of that 100% yet, but I think that's the route I'm going to go for a variety of reasons. Will make a final decision over the weekend I suppose. I'm already obviously changing out all the 555 style plastic junky lamp sockets for 44/47 bayonet styles on the rest of the PF. I did same thing on the owners Centaur 2 a while back.
Will try to get a lot of the mechs rebuilt this weekend. Not looking forward to the massive 7 bank drop target assy with memory & built in standup targets as well. That sucker is going to take a "few" hours to make nice.
IMG_20220210_203842 (resized).jpgMore EBD fun over the weekend. The original Bally "ground"/power braid routing around the right rollover switches was an absolute disaster requiring about 4 feet of braid to run up & over to power one GI socket.... so I eliminated that crap & routed a pair of color keyed wires to it. Made few other minor changes to the braid routing at top of PF as well just to simplify/clean up the look of the PF. These PF's are busy enough, they don't need added complexity that does not need to be there. Any time I can do things better than the factory did them, I'm going to do it. I'm not a 100% stickler for originality.
IMG_20220213_162620 (resized).jpgIMG_20220213_162632 (resized).jpgIMG_20220213_162638 (resized).jpgIMG_20220213_162704 (resized).jpgQuoted from WeatherbyMAG:Tom's FG display board finished.
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BEEP BEEP!
Quoted from WeatherbyMAG:On EBD Figured I'd start with the smallest target first & work my way up......
Oh so shiny.
Tore the Stars Back Box down to begin repairs on it. Found this build logo underneath the flashing behind the boards. I think I recall seeing a similar stamp on another one I did a while back, but still neat piece of history. Quick google search indicated the Company went under around 1985.
IMG_20220227_155334 (resized).jpgIMG_20220227_162832 (resized).jpgMaking headway on EBD LE.
The 3 main feature lamp holders or as I call them "cards" were all over the place alignment wise, I drilled new holes & moved them to center the bulbs up with the inserts much better than they were from factory. The one was off by as much as 1/2"
Pay no attention to the main flipper units, as they are just there for fitment/alignment of the cards. They still need to be polished & rebuilt.
IMG_20220227_181420 (resized).jpgIMG_20220227_181533 (resized).jpgIMG_20220227_181537 (resized).jpgQuoted from WeatherbyMAG:Got Rob's FG PF supports cleared & installed.
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Looks amazing! Now all we need is a playfield! @tomdrum!!
Quoted from Flash71:Looks amazing! Now all we need is a playfield! tomdrum!!
Just got my display board back and my cabinet is almost done!
Started installing the harness on EBD LE, shortening wires, cleaning up the routing etc. Added some wire looms around the pop bumpers especially where Bally had none. Risking the loom rubbing into the pop rings.
IMG_20220306_171729 (resized).jpgIMG_20220306_171739 (resized).jpgIMG_20220306_171749 (resized).jpgBeen working on Stars & EBD Cabinets & Back Boxes lately, doing all the body work/repairs, very time consuming.
Speaking of time consuming........ almost have the 7 target drop assy for EBD LE done. All new diodes, caps, targets, wiring on the backside. I wired it a little different than Bally did due to the new standup targets having different lug placement for the switch wiring compared to the factory standup targets. Now onto the memory coil assy.
IMG_20220320_150957 (resized).jpgIMG_20220320_151005 (resized).jpgIMG_20220320_151020 (resized).jpgFantastic job. I wish I had thought of doing mine like this. I took apart brand new switches and reassembled them so the lugs matched the originals. It was not worth the effort. I haven’t even put them in yet because I’m dreading doing it.
EK Backbox in final primer..... light sanding withy 220 & it will be ready for paint.
A LOT of work in this piece.... it was in really bad condition. Lot's of fiberglass resin, & tiger hair. Lots of bondo filling in woodgrain imperfections.
Had to make 5 new pieces of wood for the inside of it as well.
IMG_20220417_132247 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_132252 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_132301 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_132310 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_132319 (resized).jpgEBD LE is getting closer to ready for color.
This one did'nt look too bad when it came in, but after sanding off all the God awful gold (Thanks Bally), the entire front was heavily planked. So that took a fair amount of resin work to try to lock that wood planking up as best I can to prevent it from moving too much in future with humidity changes.
Paint on this one took 3X as long as normal to sand off, Gold & black love to clog sandpaper & this one had plenty of both. The gold would clog 80 grit without hesitation. So this one got hit with 80, 120, 220.
Had/has a lot of grain in the wood. Can only get so much out by sanding, rest has to be filled in with primer or filler, or usually a combo of both.
The MDF on the back was in very poor condition, took a lot of resin to seal everything to keep it from moving. Now just need to final smooth out the MDF & get it ready for color.
We are switching up the color scheme on this game from original, so It's going to have a base coat of black instead of gold, so the cab has to be in pretty nice shape with a black base.
IMG_20220417_130303 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_130319 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_130327 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_133652 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_133703 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_133726 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_133731 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_133742 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_133756 (resized).jpgYou could really see the wood grain issues in the last 2 pics, here is a closeup of it.
This will get sanded down & skim coat of filler covering all exposed wood grain. Will do the same thing to fill in the misc "pin holes" in the MDF on the rear.... after that, one more coat of primer & should be about ready for color.
IMG_20220417_130342 (resized).jpgStars..... softest cabinet wood material I have ever worked with. Very comparable to balsa wood..... This cabinet with no bottom weighs next to nothing & standing it on end, just under it's own weight, twice I had indentations left in the rear panel from debris that was in my towel I had on my dolly. After the second time this happened I finally figured out where these new depression marks were coming from.
I usually don't post pics of them "naked" like this, but you can see multiple different types of filler etc on this one as well.
I put what I hope to be the final coat of primer on it last night. give that a few days to setup. This is'nt a car made out of steel where I would sand within hours. I like the wood to have time to adapt/breathe with the new fresh primer before I do final sand.
My Goal is to have the EBD LE Cab, This Stars Cab & the EK Backbox all ready to paint this weekend. I will then clean the paintbooth before painting all 3. It needs cleaned badly, & I wanted to wait until these 3 are ready.
IMG_20220417_125849 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_125901 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_130144 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_130150 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_130156 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_130217 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_130225 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_130235 (resized).jpgIMG_20220417_130252 (resized).jpgEK Backbox painted....
I made new wood "triangles" for the inside as well as new upper piece where the operator instruction cards usually go. This BB was in really bad shape, lot of work to get to this point. Now I can begin stenciling this week.
IMG_20220501_152814 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152836 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152843 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152849 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152855 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152903 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152947 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152956 (resized).jpgStars looks like a giant blueberry finally.
I got the Stars backbox in primer as well over the weekend. I had to fiberglass resin the entire backside of the BB as the wood was in such bad shape from moisture expose in the past. But it's coming along. Another week or so & it should be blue as well.
This one is getting a cleared maple bottom as well as a new maple tilt board.
EBD LE Cab just about ready to paint black. hopefully this upcoming weekend if not before Pinfest. We'll see how much I can get done this week. It's just down to very minor woodgrain work.
Evel Knievel Cab is next to Stars.... I've been putting off Stenciling it for too long. Hopefully soon.
IMG_20220501_152634 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152643 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152655 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152706 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152726 (resized).jpgIMG_20220501_152739 (resized).jpgAnd EBD LE is in final primer. Black paint has been purchased & will be in color this week finally.
I think Pinfest was the rejuvenation that I needed to get back at this stuff full time. Bought some great wall art for my main assembly room & some spare parts, can never have too many extra parts when restoring these games.
IMG_20220508_172902 (resized).jpgIMG_20220508_172915 (resized).jpgIMG_20220508_172925 (resized).jpgIMG_20220508_172933 (resized).jpgIMG_20220508_172940 (resized).jpgIMG_20220508_173026 (resized).jpgIMG_20220508_173033 (resized).jpgAbout 2/3 of Cheetah Coin door parts, cleaned/polished/painted etc.
I went through my stash of 15 or so chrome Stern coin entry plates & found the nicest condition triple entry plate I had for it. Most Sterns were double entry, so I don't have a ton of triples.
Bally Coin doors typically take me 8-10 hours to do from start to finish, I suspect this Stern will be similar by time all is said & done.
IMG_20220510_204831 (resized).jpgthat looks amazing!!!
Quoted from WeatherbyMAG:Stars in White. The Orange on these is what really makes this game pop, so couple more days & we'll be there.
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EBD LE Backbox was not in great shape....... although after sanding the hell out of it, it's coming along. The rear of these is not actually flush from the factory, but the edges that stuck out were in such bad condition I just made it all flush, I think that looks 10X better than factory anyhow. I prefer flush backboxes.
This one needs some minor repair on the inside, & some minor structural repair to solidify it, but overall I'm way happier with this thing than I was before I sanded it.
IMG_20220514_154046 (resized).jpgIMG_20220514_154054 (resized).jpgIMG_20220514_154104 (resized).jpgIMG_20220514_154115 (resized).jpgIMG_20220514_154152 (resized).jpgThe part the backbox is going to sit on got painted finally. We are not doing the factory Gold base on this EBD LE as that is hideous looking. Mixing up the color scheme a bit for better appearance.
Now onto coming up with proper Maroon color to match the backglass art.
IMG_20220515_163134 (resized).jpgIMG_20220515_163151 (resized).jpgIMG_20220515_163211 (resized).jpgIMG_20220515_163222 (resized).jpgIMG_20220515_163251 (resized).jpgIMG_20220515_163307 (resized).jpgGorgeous. I keep peeping on that Trident back glass that you have in the background. Looks nicer than the one I’ve got on mine.
Quoted from bigguybbr:Gorgeous. I keep peeping on that Trident back glass that you have in the background. Looks nicer than the one I’ve got on mine.
It's the only NOS one I've come across. I used to have 2 Tridents & I searched forever to find best Backglass I could for my good one. Paid a lot for it on ebay & it was nicest one I had seen before I found this NOS one. It's not perfect, but by far best I have come across in 5+ years of looking. Now I just need to find a machine for it LOL.
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