Shot pink tonight. Took me about 3 hours to tape/frisket everything off. I have to say, I’m not a fan of cutting out all those stars!

Tomorrow I will tape off and shoot the white and do the red touch ups. Currently I’m not planning on fully reshooting the red as it’s in pretty good shape. We’ll see.
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Finished the paint resto tonight. Taped and shot white and then decided to tape and shoot the red that is by the pop bumpers. I ended up a little too red in my match but I still think it looks ok. I then hand painted a few of the playfield white areas and hand painted in the black key lines and around the inserts. Overall I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm thinking of trying to shoot the first coat of clear on it this weekend, super nervous for that! I'm using SprayMax 2PAC in a can and have never used it before. I think I'll cry big man tears if that stuff reacts with the acrylic and wrinkles or something!

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It's waiting in the wings for it's playfield resto. I decided to get some experience on this cheaper guinea pig first before trying to tackle Black Hole.

I think the plan will be to get this one cleared and get all the playfield mechs back on it, then depopulate the Black Hole lower playfield and clean it. From there I need to decide if I think I can tackle the Black Hole paint work, send it out to have someone else do it, or buy new playfields from Mirco. The new playfield option is the easiest, but also most expensive and my lovely wife isn't in favor of spending $1100 on new playfields right now.

First coat of clear is on. This is one can of SprayMax 2K Autoclear.

First coat light mist coat. 20 minutes to flash off.
Second coat heavier. 20 mins flash.
Third coat heavy, 20 mins flash.

Rest of the can was sprayed into a plastic cup and a pipette was used to drop clear into the sunken inserts.

It leveled itself out pretty well. Plan to let it cure for 3 days before sanding back to level. Probably will wait for next weekend to spray can #2.
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The project is not dead! I ran into some issues with clearing the playfield and ended up having a local guy clear it for me. While he had the playfield I restored and repainted the cabinet. Once the playfield had cured for a week I started repopulating the back side. After that was done I repopulated the top side with new plastics, posts and rebuilt the pops.

I spent this weekend finishing it up and running down a few gremlins here and there but it’s done!

Now that I’ve proven to myself that I can repaint a playfield and I have a good source for clear coating I plan to start stripping the upper Black Hole playfield next week!

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Sure! Hopefully I’ll start the process this weekend. It will be slow, I am very meticulous about labeling everything to make absolutely sure it will go back together in the end. Means more time in the beginning but much easier at the end.

Well it’s a Black Hole/Jumping Jack thread now I guess.

A Jumping Hole?

At least they’re both Gottlieb’s!

I’ve really considered getting new playfields but honestly the price is holding me back a bit. If I buy new playfields I’m going to be into the machine for about as much as I think I could eventually sell it for. I’m just not sure how much of a premium someone would pay for a restored machine vs a nice players game. I’m not HEP!

I’m going to try to fix the original playfield and if it looks like crap I’ll buy new ones.

This playfield will be a challenge for sure! The graphics are very intricate and the paint loss on the playfield is involving a couple of the astronauts which will have to be reconstructed.

I’m actually thinking of doing a few custom touches on the paint since it won’t be original anyway. Small things like a color fade on the arrows from red to orange, maybe a custom look on a planet that is worn to the wood, that kind of stuff.

I’m going to do the top playfield first and leave the bottom one intact for now. That way if I do end up having to buy new playfields the bottom one isn’t also all in pieces.

Alright boys, get ready for the carnage! I got the Jumping Jack sale finalized and the buyer picked it up today. So, I spent a little time organizing the garage and sweeping things out to prepare for the odyssey!

I pulled the main Black Hole playfield tonight and got it on the rotisserie. Oh man, I had forgotten how dirty and jacked up this thing is! This machine obviously saw some significant moisture, there is a lot of rust especially at the lower end by the player. I can see new hardware in my future. I just got the initial pics taken and one side started to depopulate tonight. Here are some pics, beware those with weak stomachs!!!
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This little guy is pretty dirty but otherwise looks happy
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The Black Hole clearly got to this poor astronaut
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His buddy too!
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There is some good news though! I did a little test on an area to see what some Novus 2 and Magic Eraser would do. To my surprise almost all of the tobacco staining came up and the color match is actually not bad! Dare I hope that I won’t have to repaint all those damn streaks????

Tobacco staining anyone?
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Hey! Magic Eraser is...magic!
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Initial topside teardown is done. I like to leave the fasteners in the holes until the whole playfield is torn down just so I can make sure I know where everything goes back. I also take a TON of pictures. Some of the fasteners are wood screws and some are machine, some have washers, some don't, etc, etc, etc.

For the major mechs and hardware for the playfield I will often keep their fasteners taped to the hardware itself. When I start tumbling I will tumble all the playfield fasteners together but the mechs and their fasteners get tumbled separately and then re-taped together. It's tedious but I really want to do everything I can to avoid confusion or lost hardware during repopulation.

Here are my topside fastener reference photos if it will help anyone down the road:
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And here are my initial bottom side reference photos. The bottom side teardown will go a lot slower because I label every mechanism site on the playfield with a number and then write that same number on a piece of tape which goes onto the mech with the fasteners. That way I just have to match up numbers when I repopulate. Makes things easier for me. With a bottom side this complicated I'm guessing three days work off and on to get things done. I plan to leave the harness all connected and just move the entire assembly over to my workbench. The harness will get a cleaning with simple green and paper towels by hand. I'm not brave enough to de-solder everything and wash the harness!

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Well I wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped this week on Black Hole. Work was busy and I sold my STTNG so I had to get it downstairs and packed up to ship.

I did get half of the bottom done, I’m hoping the upper part will go a little faster since it has two large drop target mechs And a trough that takes up a decent amount of real estate. We’ll see.

I’ve already found a broken leaf switch and a flipper board that needs repair. Otherwise there are a few mangled leaf switches that I may have to replace if I can’t get them looking reasonable again. For cost concerns I am going to try and clean and reuse as much as possible.

Here a current status pic. You can see my labeling system, looks like a mess but once you start repopulating it goes pretty fast. The only bad news is I have to clean all my fasteners individually with a dremel and wire brush as I reinstall instead of just tumbling them all at once. Maybe one day I’ll be good enough to just throw all the fasteners in a bucket and go.
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It's not dead! After a long hiatus (kids, work, house repairs, finding/refurbishing and selling an Austin Powers, yadda yadda yadda) I am back to Black Hole.

So, I have the upper playfield paint work 99% completed. The process included basic cleaning, then Novus 2, then magic eraser. After that the mylar was removed with the freeze spray method and then the adhesive removed with the alcohol and flour method. Several wipe downs with alcohol and then naptha later it was ready for paint repair. I'll put some pictures of the paint repair in the next post.

Upper playfield paint repair:

Two of the astronauts were worn to the wood. So, I put down a primer coat over the bare wood to give the acrylics something to stick to. After that I found some images of the missing artwork and sized them to the correct dimensions in photoshop. Then they were printed out and the astronauts were cut out with scissors. I taped them in place and basically traced the artwork onto the primer from there. The paint was matched and the astronauts painted back in. A similar process was used for one of the planets and several of the asteroids. Lastly the target arrows were repainted with a little custom color fade to spice things up.

Playfield after cleaning:
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Primer applied to bare wood areas:
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Astronaut images taped in place:
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Art traced on with pencil:
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And painted:
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Here’s the upper playfield as it sits today with the arrows painted in:

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Lower playfield time!

Lower playfield was removed and depopulated last weekend. Overall it went MUCH easier than the upper playfield, way fewer mechs and such going on. Lower playfield was in better shape from a paint perspective but was very dirty and yellowed from decades of tobacco smoke. Again, deep cleaning and magic eraser to the rescue. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the cleaned but unpainted playfield but you can get the idea from the photos below:
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Today I taped off and painted in the areas that were supposed to be an off white color but had been badly yellowed from age and cigarette smoke. Still to do on this playfield is a few little touch ups in the pop areas where the black has worn to the wood and a couple of small areas in the black hole graphics. Otherwise it should be ok to go.
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Clearing is next! Hopefully will have it back from the clear coat guy in 3-4 weeks. Meanwhile I get to start slogging through mechs...fun times!

Here’s a good before and after of the upper playfield. First shot is before any cleaning.
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Now you may ask "Hey, wouldn't it be easier to just get new playfields from Mirco?"

Yes, yes it would. LOL.

Thanks! I appreciate that very much!

Astronauts were hand painted.

The arrows were airbrushed.

The clear on the playfields is done! Great job by my clear coat guy, overall I think it looks pretty great. I'm going to let it cure for a couple more days before I start repopulating. You can see that the touched up areas darkened a little with the clear, I was a little disappointed in that as I did check things with naptha wipes before clearing but I don't think it will be noticeable once the playfield is populated and lit.

Exciting times to be able to actually put things TOGETHER again vs taking everything APART!
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Thanks for the words of encouragement! It is a long process for sure.

Confession time. I made a rookie mistake. I spent time disassembling and cleaning the coin door, lockdown receiver and other cabinet parts when I did the cab restore months ago. When I came back to the machine after the playfield work all the parts I had cleaned so carefully were rusted. I mean REALLY rusted. Turns out if you take rust off of metal you end up exposing more metal and wearing off a bit of whatever plating is left. So, unless you seal it you make the problem worse. Doh!

So, I spent the last few days cleaning off the rust (AGAIN) and I sprayed metallic silver rustoleum over the cleaned metal this time. Lesson learned.

I’ve also had my tumbler running 24/7 the last week. Cleaning up mechs and playfield parts. There’s something really satisfying about putting nasty parts in and getting shiny parts out. It never gets old, almost like a little Christmas present every afternoon when I get home from work.

Rusty lockdown receiver, whoops.
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Cleaned up and painted:
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Shiny parts out of the tumbler!
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Lower ball guides are in. Fun tip I learned, ball guides are usually set to about 1/2” off the playfield surface. A handy gauge is to use a rebound puck from an EM, it’s exactly 1/2” thick.

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Progress is being made! I got the topside populated and got the harness on the backside. I have started installing lights and resoldering them into the ground. It’s taking a while because I’m cleaning things as I go and checking for continuity to ground as I solder. Hopefully this will mean less gremlins to chase later, we’ll see.

I’ll post a reference image of the topside once I get the bottom all screwed in and soldered.

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More progress today. Got the playfield backside almost done, have to rebuild the flipper mechs and screw in a few odds and ends. It’s coming together nicely I think.

I also fabricated a new return tube today. I bought a length of acrylic tubing which was the correct internal and external diameter from Amazon a few weeks ago. I taped it to my original tube and marked where the cut should be with a sharpie. I used a hacksaw to cut through the tube (wanted to keep as straight a line as possible). Then I finish sanded it down to the correct length with a hand random orbit sander. I marked the slot with a sharpie and cut it with my dremel tool. A little finishing sanding on the edges and I think it should be good to go. Fingers crossed!

Old, nasty, burnt up tube:
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Same diameter!
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New, shiny, awesome tube:
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Lower playfield flipper mech rebuild is done.

I have to say, these are my LEAST favorite flipper mech design!

Whoever decided THIS was a good way to put together components that are supposed to be replaced from time to time…man.
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Here's the method I'm using to rebuild these:

First clamp the actuator arm in a vise with some cardboard to protect it.
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Then use a flat punch to hammer the pin flush with the side. You want enough pin to get some vise grips on. Here it's not quite there but close, more hammering!
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Once you get the vice grips on you can compress the pin and wiggle it out. Just pull it far enough to get the old plunger out and the new one in. It's probably not that hard to get the friction pin started back in the hole but I wasn't going to risk it!

Hammering the pin back in is pretty straightforward. One tip I heard is use a flat punch instead of a rounded one, the rounded ones can mushroom out the ends of the pins and then you are not happy.
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There, two nicely rebuilt flipper mechs. Whew! Make sure to check your EOS switches! I've made that mistake a time or two...
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Completed lower playfield backside reference photo:

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Topside awaiting clear Titan rubbers, hopefully tomorrow!

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Rubbers are in! Here’s the lower PF reference photo with the rubbers installed. I went off the original manual for this so these should be correct.

You also can see an area of touch up where there was a pretty deep circle of paint missing. There’s a divot in the clear but hopefully it won’t be noticeable once the upper playfield is on and the game is playing.

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Pray for me!

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Got the correct plastics retainers in and installed them. Lower playfield is done pending power up and in the machine. I’m hoping to have the upper playfield done by the end of the week.

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Busy day today! Got the upper playfield front side main items done. As you can see the wooden side rails were stripped and painted black. Originally these had a wood grain vinyl adhesive veneer which had degraded pretty badly over the years. I’ll have to be careful with the wax to avoid too much white residue against that black but overall I’m happy with it.

All new posts installed and new rollover guides as well. Most of the gates were tumbled and reused except for the gate in front of the re-entry tube which was badly rusted and was replaced.

Playfield was flipped over at that point and the harness and mechs were moved onto it. I’ve spent the afternoon sorting out the rat’s nest of wires and getting things placed on the playfield. I’ll post some pics of the back as I go.

Topside reference photos, from everything I have looked at these post locations and sizes are correct:
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One thing to point out, there are 4 tall posts (1 3/16") used on the upper playfield, two at the upper gate and two on the rollover guide on the lower right side. There are also three tall posts used on the lower playfield, again two on the upper gate area and one behind the kicker target on the lower right.
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Ok, let's talk pop bumper rebuilds. Vid's guide is fantastic but I don't think he talks about Gottlieb pops in particular and so maybe this will be helpful to someone, who knows.

Here' the old pop assembly, ready for rebuild.
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New parts for the rebuild:
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Don't lose this little spring!
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New playfield side pop assembled:
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Now, if you take a few more steps you can make your soldering life easier. I learned this one on this project. Trying to solder around the main pop solenoid mech is a royal pain. So, remove the mounting plate that screws to the playfield and use that to mount your plastic pop body to. Then you can thread your new lamp socket through and solder it with everything out of the way.

Remove these three screws.
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Screw down your mounting plate.
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Thread your completed pop assembly though and secure to the plate with the two mounting bolts.

A little planning will help at this step. Make sure to mount your socket with the polarity correct. Try to see which side the hot wires come in and which side the ground comes in from the wiring loom. Most of the pops I have seen have the hot wires coming in through one of the openings in the mounting legs for the solenoid mech. Note that the leg on the socket with the bend in it is ground.
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Soldered together, I like to replace the plastic solder joint covers. They are often pretty crusty.
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While you're in there, take apart and clean the solenoid plunger, spring, etc. Replace the coil sleeve.
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Nice and shiny! You can buy new collars and springs but these are ok for now. If I had to do it again I'd probably buy the additional new parts but oh well.
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The wrapper on this pop disintegrated in my hands so I printed a new one. Yes, I know it's supposed to be off white. 5 demerits.
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Make sure your lighting wires are running as freely as possible and away from the main mech to avoid vibration as much as you can. Then mount your spoon switches and make sure they work correctly. I also take the time to clean the contacts and gap all the contacts while I have the playfield on the rotisserie. Hopefully that will make my life easier later.

Got two of the four pops rebuilt tonight and completed the rebuild on the 5 target drop bank. Tomorrow the plan is to tackle the third upper pop and get the upper area of the main playfield completed.

Not looking forward to rebuilding 4 flippers!!!