Yes, I'm in the middle of replacing my bigfoot motor, so I had the whole bigfoot mechanism removed last night. Not only are the plastic parts sort of tacky, but the fur is pretty matted and grungy too. I wish there was an easy replacement for the fur - ideally with a fur that more closely matches the color of the mountains.

Remove Bigfoot body, then use water and shampoo.

Ha! Head and Shoulders?

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Or this. It's official.

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PERFECT!

The fur on mine is fine. Just the "skin" is tacky. I just fear that cleaning it would remove the paint.

I gave him the full treatment....nice and fresh look afterwards!

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Now maybe some highlights

He needs to brush his teeth...looks like he just ate a whole box of Oreos.

The campers he ate were not very clean.

Anyone ever dealt with the Bigfoot motor struggling to spin? I had the door to my pinball room closed, which ended up letting it get a bit colder than usual. Ever since my Bigfoot motor has been a lot noiser than before (It was never particularly quiet, but now it's crazy squeaky) and noticeably slower. It does seem to improve after spinning around a few times, but after cooling down it struggles again.

I'm thinking the lubricant in the motor might be gunking up, but not sure. Does anyone have any experience servicing the motor?

He is Big Foot - not time for teeth cleaning!

How much colder? are there potential condensation issues?

Nah, not that cold. I'm thinking this is an issue that was going to come up at some point given how noisy it was before, and I think the lower than usual temp may have just been the thing that finally did it in.

Is the motor running disconnected noisy?

I recently found the "missing" mountain here
https://www.pinballshop.nl/playfield-parts/toys-and-figures/white-water-waterfall-mountain/

Received it today and it doesn’t come with any mounting bracket or similar, just the plastic.

The base yellowish color is decently fitting but the darker spots are a bit off (but still within acceptable looks) compared to my original? backboard mountains. I might add some more dark spots with a paintbrush later on.
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It's closer in color to my repro bigfoot cave.
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By the way, click on the pictures to se the correct, brighter colors, somehow pinside darkens the preview pictures...

Anyone have any good ideas on how to fasten it to the playfield? I'd rather avoid drilling holes in it for screws/rivets if it can be avoided as I'm afraid it might crack in the process. Any suggestions?

I recently found the "missing" mountain here
https://www.pinballshop.nl/playfield-parts/toys-and-figures/white-water-waterfall-mountain/
Received it today and it doesn’t come with any mounting bracket or similar, just the plastic.
The base yellowish color is decently fitting but the darker spots are a bit off (but still within acceptable looks) compared to my original? backboard mountains.
[quoted image]
It's quite close in color to my repro bigfoot cave though.
[quoted image]
Anyone have any good ideas on how to fasten it to the playfield? I'd rather avoid drilling holes in it for screws/rivets if it can be avoided as I'm afraid it might crack in the process. Any suggestions?</blockquote
Use a furniture touch up marker to match the color. I attached mine with two sided Velcro tape in the back and one screw into the left plastic underneath that section so it can rest on it. Hasn't budged.

Use a furniture touch up marker to match the color. I attached mine with two sided Velcro tape in the back and one screw into the left plastic underneath that section so it can rest on it. Hasn't budged.

I'm not familiar with furniture touch up, is it some kind of pen? I'd rather not buy 10 pens to find the best color match. Which one did you get?

Mine didn't have those dark spots on it, but here is a pic of it halfway painted with furniture pen to match and a pic of it installed
My pens were a set of 5 in varying colors that we actually had for furniture, so I just picked the best match.
Screenshot_20220128-134851 (resized).pngScreenshot_20220128-134855 (resized).png

Your touchup in the last photo looks good. If you need to further hide the color difference, maybe you can add some scale model pine trees? I've thought about doing that on some of my boulders.

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I just replaced my bigfoot mechanism completely because the motor failed.

Assuming that you have the original mechanism, the motor can be detached from the gear box. Then, you can simply connect a 12 volt battery to the motor and see if it runs smoothly.

Unfortunately, the replacement mechanism from Marcos has the motor and gearbox as a single element.

If your motor will run correctly (and quietly) when removed from the gearbox, then your problem is probably in the gear box. Unfortunately, I don't know much about servicing the gear box itself.

I added a few pine trees to my game. I think they look quite good scale-wise and fit the theme. I bought them from eBay and when received them found that the green stuff on the trees can drop a bit on the playfield. I sprayed a little clear coat on them before I mounted them and all good.

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Hahaha!

I used Velcro from Walmart. It worked perfectly.

Wow! That’s a great idea!

Alien tape is how I mounted mine. Double stack them if you need to. If you can't find alien tape, there are plenty of alternatives that are similar (clear plastic mounting tape).

Thats an awesome looking Whitewater!

The trees look really good! I might have to try that. Let me know if the tree still shed after some games despite the clear coating. Did you remove the playfield to install the art blades?

The trees don't shed unless I rub my hands over them or something like that so they are all good after the clear coat. Prior to that, they would shed if you bumped them. I've had them on my game for over a year now I'd say.

I don't remove the playfield to install art blades. I kind of do it like this:

1. Have playfield in upright position.
2. Hold art blade in position and then use masking tape to keep it in place.
3. Start at the coin door end and peel off maybe 12 inches of backing and then cut that off and fix that end of the decal in place.
4. With the playfield in the upright position, make sure it is slid back as far as you can.
5. Make sure the decal is still lined up all the way and start peeling the backing off starting at the section you cut and then head towards the back of the game.
6. When you get to the position of the upright playfield, carefully slide the upright playfield to its most forward position (past the point that you had stuck the decal).
7. Apply the rest of the decal to the back.

My directions above really suck but it's actually very easy. It would be better to explain with photos or a vid. I hope it helps anyway.

Installing side art is much easier with two people. If you install side art on your games, I suggest you purchase an Interior Cabinet Game Blade Protector Set for when you are working on a game in the future. WW is a particularly tight fit. Pinball Life sells them https://www.pinballlife.com/interior-cabinet-protector-blade-set.html?Category_Code=

The trees look like they are wrapped around a screw head. Is that how they are installed? I’m going to buy some tomorrow.

The base of the trees was like wire so I bent the end section of it at 90 degrees and then just tightened the screw heads down on it. They are quite secure unless you loosen the screws. They've been on my game for a while and never come loose.

Please post some photos if you get some in your game. I'd love to check it out.

Thanks for the compliment. I've had the game for maybe 15 years and done various "restores" on it over the years. Right now, pretty much everything on it has been replaced with new parts at some point over the years. The playfields are the originals but had them restored and clear coated. The only flaw with the main playfield is that there was a little bit of planking that you can still see if you look from side on with light reflecting but you can't see it from a player's position. The surface is beautiful and like glass.

Normally I think people add way too much mods (like plastic animals) to their games, especially when there are eagles, bears , rafts and half a toy store on the playfield, but these trees are actually really fitting the theme. Something about that green lush color amongst all the brown. Will consider doing something similar.

I've had my Whitewater for around 7 years. The playfield is in pretty good shape for an original except for a section with some planking. I put a playfield protector on it and it looks pretty good. Now I'm on the fence about a playfield swap. I think I'm just bored!

It's true for "missing plastic" too
(Why it's missing? Is the upper part not heavily crowded as default?)

I think you mean missing mountain. The missing plastic goes over the metal ball guide under the left ramp.
To me, the get looks naked without a missing mountain. It just feels like it should have been there.

The trees look great. How tall are they? Thanks

I absolutely love the pinduino on WH20. Did mine as well.

Ok thanks for the info on the trees. Someone asked how tall they are. I would also like to know that. Maybe 3-4 inches it appears?

Great. Thanks for the info on the art blades. I have only done my GB pro and did it with the playfield in and by myself but they were very thick and slipped in there nicely. I think the Brian Allen blades for wh20 might be thinner and trickier to work with. So you went on dry then with no soapy water it sounds like?

That is a good idea thanks. I have even trimmed back my new boulders with a utility knife (on the left side) to make more space for blades (which are on order) as they were rubbing on the side.

These are my thoughts exactly. Some mods are a little much and tacky. I was skeptical when I read trees till I seen the pics and they really do suit the game well! I have been back and forth on the missing mountain too but once it is painted to match well it is growing on me!

Can you send the link from Ebay of your pine trees? I would like to try them on my game as well 20210320_213506 (resized).jpg

An adhesive spray might do even better to prevent shedding.
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His trees look like these:
ebay.com link: itm

Good call. That thought crossed my mind at one point as well!

Ok here's the question of the day.... to LED or not to LED the topper. Sounds like you could lose the waterfall effect with LED's. What has your experience been?

I hate LEDs in the topper. But then again white water is the only game I've had that I actually removed the LEDs from the GI and put in incandescents.

I’m saying…. Not to do. Keep it incandescent. It just won’t be the same

Does LEDOCD let you keep the topper effect with LED lamps? Or is it something else about the LEDs that doesn't work well?

Another important question as I have an order deadline pending lol. Are you guys using any of the special reinforced Target switch brackets for the green targets up the middle? I'm pretty sure pinball life sells them and Marco.

I have the Mantis protectors coming. If I have those does that eliminate the need for reinforced Target brackets?

Maybe this... https://www.pinballlife.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BK3

Or maybe this... https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-18530-6R