Wow. Four nights work to get the main playfield populated. All pops rebuilt, all flipper mechs rebuilt. Every solenoid mech was tumbled or cleaned. Both drop target mechs were disassembled, cleaned and new drop targets and springs installed. All new sleeves everywhere. Insert LEDs were placed as the sockets were being mounted. New screws were used wherever possible. What a beast of a pinball machine!

There’s a few odds and ends left to do, pop driver boards need to be mounted and there’s a couple handles and such. I’ll finish that off tomorrow. I did find one broken leaf on a sling switch so I’ll have to replace that. At least it’s back together though!

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Worked on it for a few hours tonight. Got the rest of the backside pretty much done. There’s a few last things to screw into the edges but it has to come off the rotisserie for that.

Flipped it over and did all the GI lighting. Placed all the rubbers as well. Adjusted the flippers to close to where I think they will end up pending play testing. Threw the plastics on there for fun at the end, they still have the protective film on them so they’re a little dull in these shots.

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Haven't decided what to do with the scoring displays just yet. Plan is to finish off the playfields and get them in the game and connected. Assuming it will power up I will see what the displays look like. There is a DIY kit for system 80 displays available online. I built one of their displays before for a Silverball Mania and it was really a great kit. I'm thinking these original displays will look like crap so if I can get things mostly working I will likely replace them all.

I’m going on vacation for a week tomorrow so I decided to just do a small project tonight. The original window was pretty scratched up. Let’s see if we can do something about that.
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I had a headlight restoration kit left over from my son’s used car. It comes with 1000 and 3000 grit sandpaper, Plast-X polishing compound and some buffing pads.
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Here’s after the 1000 and 3000 grit sandpaper on both sides. The scratches have been mostly removed.
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And here it is after initial polishing with Plast-X. There’s a few streaks and halos left.
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Here it is after polishing with the fine pad. I’m very happy with the results. Saves me $50 plus shipping for a new one from Marco.

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Quick update. Got back from vacation and finished main assembly on the upper playfield. Installed into the cab and applied power with mixed results.

Basically I had GI lighting but not much else. After some troubleshooting I was able to get the game to boot into attract mode but it would not coin up, start a game or even enter test mode. Also my solenoids were blowing the F4 fuse repeatedly.

More troubleshooting. Figured out that the wires to the middle coin switch had been cut in the past. I recall there was a hole drilled in the center coin return face as well so I think someone put a button there for free play and it was removed at some time. The cut wires had been zip tied into the harness so the issue wasn’t apparent until I really started looking closely at the coin door harness. After fixing that wiring issue the game now boots into attract mode and I can enter test mode but other things are still very dodgy. I looked at all my edge connectors and they are all pretty questionable. Significant corrosion noted, one edge connector has a VERY loose fit so I’m not sure it’s even making contact.

I’ve ordered all new connectors and pins from Docent electronics and will rebuild them all when that arrives. Until then I think my next step is to pull all the old boards out and give them a good once over, reheat all the solder, etc.

She’s on life support but is alive!

Personally I had issues with significant off gassing and reactions between the 2pac and the inserts on a Jumping Jack I restored. The guy that cleared Black Hole for me did use an automotive clear coat which seemed to work pretty well.

Great job on your Black Hole!

Currently I am in the process of rebuilding the edge connectors on my machine. It took a while to get the parts from Docent Electronics but I did get them and have rebuilt all but 3 of the edge connectors. I did power on the game and it seems to start a game but I don't have upper playfield GI or playfield solenoids. It did at least boot up and start a game after rebuilding my edge connectors and the interconnect harness so there is some progress!