I like "YOUR MOTHER DRIVES A DUMP TRUCK!" even better...

Just a very friendly tip: The inserts may start ghosting if you clearcoat it.

My CV had perfect C - I - R - Q - U - S inserts. It was touched up and clearcoated professionally lately. On the first ball the Inserts started ghosting, took 15 minutes of play and it looked worse than ever before. The problem is that the insert glue used in CV (and obviously only on CV!!!) is not compatible with clearcoat at all. The glue will dissolve slightly making cracks likely which let in air that leads to ghosting. The higher surface tension of the new clearcoat accellerates this process additionally.

This is the reason why the pro's hate to renovate CV PFs and IF they do it they never guarantee success.

Since this seems the right place to post CV info, some more well-meant advice on restoring CV:

1. When the PF is out of the pin check the back rim of the PF where the juggler magnet is, next to the metal clamp that slips onto the security latch in the cab. The PF is extremely weak there and the structure of the wood is often damaged. At some point the whole left back corner may break off the PF when shifting weight on it by pulling out the playfield. During my quest of finding this pin i had 2 CVs offered to me which had this area broken off and badly repaired. I took a Dremel and built an aluminum bracket which re-enforces this area as my PF also had stuctural damage in the wood which was not visible without removing the PF from the cab.
2. Polish all laneguides to mirror finish. I'm usually not a big fan of this kind of heavy modding, but for CV it looks great! Especially the Ringmaster collar and the Acrobats ramp entry laneguide become more or less invisible in the clown-vomit color madness of the playfield when polished.
3. I have had a Ringmaster Ball Cup Bracket custom maufactured in mirror-finish stainless steel. The original zinc bracket is ugly as hell and you can see it when the Ringmaster rises to the top position. The new bracket has a "hall-of-mirrors" effect that blends perfectly into the cirqus theme. I got 3 brackets for free as i allowed the guy who made them to market them, you can buy them at Ministry of Pinball since a few months.
4. If you replace the Ringmaster for a new one you will need to dremel out the back of the Ringmaster. Also it makes sense to have the lumpy part of the magnet coil sit in the FRONT of the Ringmaster, that's why his head is formed the way it is. Doing this will perfectly center his head whithout much hassle.
5. If by coincidence you find the plastic ringmaster protector kit - buy it (sold out since a year or so, was devoloped by Orbit Pinball and later licenced to Pinball decals Inc.)! It's not just a protector but a technical upgrade to correct all the drawbacks of the sub-optimal ringmaster top construction. They don't make it any more as it's crazy expesive to have it produced but sometimes single sets show up for sale.
6. Replace the 3 switches on the Highwire ramp with ones that have roll actuators rather than the original ones with wires.

If anyone's interested i can post detailed instructions and/or pictures of all these fixes and mods.

CV1.jpg

_{Post edited by someoneelse: added 6.}

You have to completely take the Ringmaster assy apart and even cut/resolder the cables as they run through a hole in the cup bracket.
It's not much of a big deal to remove the ringmaster from the playfield though, so it is managable.

The Jackpot decal wasn't installed on mine originally but it was included in the licenced decal set (2 WOW-decals, spinner decals, etc.) so i used it. Looks nice.

Supporting bracket for Juggler-Area.

Here you can see the problem - the wood is slowly craking up and "desintegrating" (it is hard to tell due to the picture quality, it's really very easy to see in real life). If this continues it's only a matter of time until the corner completely breaks off the playfield:

CV22.jpg
CV23.jpg

I took a 5mm thick aluminum angle and used a dremel to make the cutouts for the switch and the lamp. On the topside i cut away the whole left corner so the security-latch in the cab will still work and can grab the bracket/playfield:

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This is what it looks like when installed:

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"The Ringmaster Problem" ( )

First screw the Ringmaster together all the way and place the pole holding the metal plate for the magnet in the Ringmaster.

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Go around the back half of the metal plate with a pen, so you have the form and size you need to cut out.

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Use a dremel with rotary cutter (i used the one meant for aluminum and it worked great) and carefully cut out the area along the line you marked before (shape of the metal plate). You need to use a cutter/drill that also cuts on the topside to be able to lower it into the plastic. Slowly cut out the shape deeper, stop approx. 1mm above the hole for the screw on the back. I took off tiny layers in many runs and re-checked with the plate if it's deep enough. Do not grind down to close to the screw hole!

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I used a rasp to smoothen out the edges and give it a less rough look...not really necessary.

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In then end it should look something like this:

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The next "trick" is to use the original screw & nut for the lower hole, but you need a philips head or slotted screw to be able to fasten the upper screw as with the metal plate now in way there is no tool you could use to fasten a hex head screw. The head of the screw should ideally fit exactly between the metal plate and the plastic surrounding it.
Go crazy trying to screw it firmly together, this can be quite a task as you need to somehow also hold the nut on the other side, i used pointy tweezers in the end...

And here's the finished product!

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Funny thing is i wanted to do the same, but standing in the garage with the dremel i decided it's even easier to just cut out the bracket corner....just to lazy to remove the latch...

But yeah, it's the most stupid construction being placed exactly where it stresses the most delicate part of the PF.

Well, someone put 3 layers of Mylar in front of the Ringmaster and the Marvel inserts looked really bad, so i had to get it done anyway, it wasn't really a choice. The PF was a mess - except for the CIRQUS inserts.
So now the PF looks great and plays great but has some ghosting on the CIRQUS inserts, but it is still 100% improvement to the original state. I can live with that.
When Mirco finally comes through with his Repro-CV-PFs i'll switch to one of those anyway. Until then i'm good.

It was professionally done by Henrik (PBD). As far as i know he uses car clearcoat customized and optimized over years for pinball PFs. I checked with all the well known pros beforehand and most of them would not do it because they all claimed it will most likely ghost again and ruin their hard work. Henrik also warned me many times...but it wasn't really a choice, it had to be done.

HSA also states why they don't do CVs here: http://www.hsapinball.com/HSA_PINBALL/Playfield_Restoration.html

Gene made some Repro CV PFs, but the colors are to washed out and they have serious insert issues (not ghosting, but irregularities in the surface), it just doesn't pop like the original.

Yes, that works, I've seen CV PFs restored that way. But it's a lot of work and the inserts will become clear and lose the original haze because you will have to repaint them. You could mix small amounts of white into the clear to imitate the hazed look, but again it's a lot of work to get that effect right.

Especially with CV this is a pain because there is so much highly detailed artwork and different fonts on the inserts and you need more different colors than on any other pin.

I could have done that, but it would have cost up to 2.000USD plus all the inserts would have been clear then. Knowing that Mirco is working on perfect repros and has a clearcoating robot since producing for JJP makes it hard to justify that investment.

On BK2K it is manageable due to the limited colors and the fact that it doesn't matter to much when inserts lose the haze. Check this out, this BK2K PF was also restored by Henrik (PBD), took more than a year to do: http://www.flippermarkt.de/community/forum/showthread.php?t=127652

I think Pinbits invented that one.
Don't see the point either, the Juggler works perfect without that on my CV. It's an aftermarket mod anyway, so just take it out?

The kit includes:
- Monstrous metal part that attaches to the DMD-holder and is supposed to guide the mini-pf when pulling out the PF.
- A post and washer that goes on the left side of the RM behind the yellow target.
- A little white plastic thing that goes on to the post that holds the middle part of the high wire ramp, it makes it steeper so the balls don't get stuck in the lock.
- Large metal bracket that guards the right spinner switch and the switch unter the neon ramp

Some other stuff i forgot.

The only ones you need are the highwire plastic ring, the post for the RM and the switch guard.

Is anyone playing with the R/M HIT MODE TIMER turned on? How long have you set the timer?

Just noticed that setting and find the extra-challenge pretty nice. Especially cranking up the timer with the collar spinner is fun!

Beautiful CV!

Are you 100% sure that the switches are always working correctly? I've had the same problem in the past. The reason was the ball rolling a little bit further in real play than in testing and just being off the switch by 0,0000000001" ( ).
When resorting i installed switches with roll actuators rather than the wire ones, works perfect even without any adjustments and adds a lot of reliability.

Buy extra ball like with STTNG or TZ? No.

You're supposed to hit the target labeled "Skill Shot"...

The auto-pluge sends the ball round the ringmaster quite often on my game.

As far as I can remember from my restore CV uses the green shooter springs. Mine is just about the same as yours: Full force plunge hits right above the skillshot target...if you da a "sloppy" full force plunge it usually hits the skillshot.

Because I have a green spare neon lying around and a blue on in the machine i want to change them some day - so i just used zipties through the holes. If you use them so that the bulky part is on the lower side of the ramp you hardly notice them. Wanted to rivet the ramps when the green one is in there, but I'll probably use zip ties again.

CV1_3-1.jpg

Which corner? Really don't get what you're trying to protect, never noticed anything special (or going "clang" ) on my CV.

Same here. The PF will go out and in without hitting the DMD cover if you don't act like a total klutz.

I did install the switch protector bracket that goes under the neon ramp.

There was a guy in the UK that had a whole box of these kits, selling them off for 15$/kit.

Due to the damned hook on the left side lowering it from top position is also an adventure. Forget to press down the latch and your in massive danger of the delicate PF corner cracking off...

No idea about the first ball being registered as ball 2 locked.

Apart from that i suspect you are using 2.0H rom? If so, go into feature adjustments and turn the physical high wire lock (PHYS. H/W LOCKS) on. This will stop the machine from dropping single balls immediately after they are locked.

My h/w lock has never failed since i installed the roller switches. You might want to check if you have the nylon spacer installed (fix No. 2 from the service bulletin below), it makes the last part of the ramp much steeper.

Regarding the BB, are the rollover switches all registering?

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You've heard wrong. The metal thing is complete BS, does not hold up at all.

The plastic protector set is one of the greatest, most functional and cleanest ("original looking") mods ever. It completely corrects the heavily flawed original design. Also the magnet "fling" is stronger due to the plastic "lid" and it also fits the Ringmasters top much nicer than the original metal disc.

It's made for original production PFs. If you cleared the inside of the hole or are using a repro-PF it will likely not fit correctly. If it would be lose (unlikely, mine fits 110%) it wouldn't damage anything, it's made from a rather soft, flexible plastic. And it's ultra thin on the top, you can hardly feel the rim on the PF at all. I think that's why it's so incredibly expensive to make.

IMG_2411 (resized).JPG

Not sure if a 3D printer is up to the job. It's a very sturdy but kind of flexible soft plastic. And it's extremely thin at the edges. It's not rocket science, but it is a special sort of plastic.
It sits in the hole like a car rim...if you get what i mean?

Maybe this picture helps.

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Orbit Pinball: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/are-orbit-pinball-still-around
In the thread it says they are made from nylon. Makes lots of sense. PDI probably just sold all the remaining Orbit stock, not sure if they ever produced them by themselves. But you can ask Joey, maybe he knows more?

The top plate is made from standard hard plastic. It is much smaller than the original metal plate as is needs to sink into the ring, no edges on the PF any more. It's a complete re-design of that area, not just a simple add-on-cover-up mod. In the lowered position the ball rolls smoothly over it, no ball distraction at all.

It's hard to take a representative picture of it without taking the glass off...

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1. The big decal goes on the bottom of the Ringmaster assy. The cutout part of the sticker is for the screw that adjusts the Ringmasters hight.

2. It's a standard factory bracket. For more info on this area see my post 73 in this thread.

3. No idea.

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