Pittsburgh, PA
I've seen this restoration project in person and the work is superb!
(Topic ID: 47609)
Linked Games
Diner
Williams, 1990
Topic Gallery
Didn't get much time to work on Diner this weekend, but managed to pretty much finish up the cabinet. Installed new flipper leaf switches and resoldered all connections to the coin door and cabinet switches. Installed all the boards and wires I could and turned her back on. No fires or blown fuses ! Great success ! This week Ill polish up the playfield and begin installing the solenoids and play field wiring harness. Should be finished sometime next week.
Soldered all the solenoids back to the harness and ran a test last night. All are working fine and no magic smoke ! I've decided to attach each harness at a time then test. This makes is easier to detect and diagnose problems as(if) they arise. Tonight I'll reattach the lamps and switches.
Almost forgot. Before I began to repopulate the playfield, I did a test fit in the cabinet to see what it looks like (see below). Can't wait to be finished ! Also, I will be picking up a better camera from here on out. My cell phone pics are garbage 
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The playfield has landed. Back insert has a new decal, new cup, new flasher dome, and a repainted jukebox with new deals. Couldn't resist so I played a few games sans ramps. Very interesting 
. Just waiting on LEDS and a few other parts and I can wrap this thing up. Bottom display is degassed but I think I'll just deal with it for now. Almost there !
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More work today in preparation of the final parts shipment and LEDs. Couldn't find them in stock anywhere so I decided to make my own PETG plastic protectors. I made them for all high traffic areas not just the center target and slings like most places sell. Also polished up the apron and printed new score cards. I ditched the blue card in favor of the same free play card I have on my Fish Tales. I like consistency
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Cliffy had similar thoughts: 
http://cliffysprotectors.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=5&zenid=5pqjmatujuhglf0vikqa6o53v5
Looking forward to seeing your cash register restore. I had always thought a mod that showed the bonuses with a 'ye-olde' pop-up cash register with Extra Ball! as the drawer opening would be fun.
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Anyway, your restore [still] looks great! Nice work!
Had to make some new blue steel flaps since mine were rusted. You can see the ramp protector installed in the second picture. Last thing to do is refinish the cash register. Going to tackle that throughout the week. Connected everything up tonight and running into some problems. I keep blowing a fuse on the left hand GI every time to top out holes fire. Also getting some phantom flashes from a few spots when I hit the flipper buttons. Gotta iron those out.
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DSC02280.JPGAll finished. Here are some pictures with the glass off. I used pink and purple LEDs in the G.I. and color matched the inserts. Still on the fence whether or not to keep the warm bulbs or switch to cool white for the Guests, food, and DINER inserts. Can't believe after 2 years its finally done. It came out great and plays even better . Thanks for following my thread !
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Quoted from ArcadiusMaximus:All finished. Here are some pictures with the glass off. I used pink and purple LEDs in the G.I. and color matched the inserts. Still on the fence whether or not to keep the warm bulbs or switch to cool white for the Guests, food, and DINER inserts. Can't believe after 2 years its finally done. It came out great and plays even better
Off-the-charts-sexy.
-mof
Quoted from ArcadiusMaximus:Had to make some new blue steel flaps since mine were rusted. You can see the ramp protector installed in the second picture.
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Where did you get this? I am needing to redo a couple.
Quoted from futurepinhead:Where did you get this? I am needing to redo a couple.
I bought a sheet from Marco ( http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/66-FSS006) . Very reasonable as far as cost goes. Wasn't too happy with all the scratches on the surfaces though. I had to position the flaps in a way that the scratches wouldn't be on my new flaps and that the grain went the right way. Ultimately there is a large section of steel that's is unusable since its scratched on both sides. Just make sure you protect the metal if you use a dremel. Heat may damage the blue finish.
Your machine turned out great.
Absolutely beautiful.
I might have to do some of the purple and pink LEDs on my Diner.
Thanks for the kind words. Yes the purple and pink G.I. lights work really well in this title. The pink makes a real nice color pop without being overly powerful like red or too dull like orange. The purple activates some of the neon orange accents and really makes them glow nicely.
Stunning - honestly like everything with the hard work you did; except for the GI LED color choice. Sorry, just a personal preference, but looks like there was some bad food at the diner, and Pepto was sprayed everywhere But it's your game and you enjoy it so congrats on the 2 year rebuild being complete. I will save these pics should I ever find one; thanks for so many detailed shots!
Quoted from Pac-Fan:Stunning - honestly like everything with the hard work you did; except for the GI LED color choice. Sorry, just a personal preference, but looks like there was some bad food at the diner, and Pepto was sprayed everywhere But it's your game and you enjoy it so congrats on the 2 year rebuild being complete. I will save these pics should I ever find one; thanks for so many detailed shots!
Haha that's fine. Its strange using my camera it came out more blue/ purple than it is IRL. My phone camera makes it look warmer. In person the colors are very subtle. I would equate the pink leds to warm leds in the same sense that they produce a softer glow. How ever unlike the warm leds which produce a yellowish light, the pink produces a softer light and seems to evenly distribute over the plastics. It's almost a perfect median between warm and blue white leds. Honestly I was mad at first how subtle the pink light was, but it has grown on me.
Quoted from pgregg:This is amazing. Would you mind sharing the LEDs and colors you selected? I'm shopping for LEDs and I could use a true artists perspective.
Thanks,
Preston
I used pink and purple LEDs in the G.I. More pink than purple though. I only used purple in the flippers G.I. and the E-A-T red plastic lamps. All inserts are color matched. White inserts, food drop target bulbs, DINER, and the customers are all warm LEDs. If I had to do it again I think I would purchase some cool white LEDs for those inserts instead. Not really digging the yellow appearance. Also everything is non-ghosting LEDS.
As for new speakers I kept the stock ones. I don't really see the need to invest in new speakers for a system 11 title since the original one were working fine.
1 month later
Quoted from ArcadiusMaximus:Now I may loose some of you on this, but hear me out. I know the standard is to make a cabinet super smooth and glossy before applying decals, but since these had a large area of solid black I thought it looked a bit too fake and 'plastic-y' for my liking. So before applying the decals I roughed up all surfaces with a fine sanding sponge going with the natural grain of the wood. Since the decals are rather thin, they pick up the false grain nicely. It's just the right amount of texture and I think turned out pretty nice. It's hard to see in pictures, but here is what the cabinet surface looks like before applying decals.
I just looked at your thread. Beautiful work and attention to detail.
Sorry if this question refers to a older post, but do you have a close up view that shows how the artificial texture you created on the cabinet prior to installing the decals looks with the decals on top? The reason I am asking is that I am prepping a TZ cabinet. I have never done this before so I am a bit paranoiac when it comes to the cabinet preparation. I first tried enamel applied on a roller, but it ended up creating some heavy orange peel that actually magnified all imperfection. I sanded and bondo'd as needed and tried some oil base gloss clear, but it left and even worse texture. I sanded again, and I am now wondering what is the best way to prep the cabinet. I am thinking about some gloss enamel in spray can, but applied a bit further out so it is not really glossy but has an very even egg shell/semi-gloss texture to it.
Thanks.
Quoted from ArcadiusMaximus:Had to make some new blue steel flaps since mine were rusted. You can see the ramp protector installed in the second picture. Last thing to do is refinish the cash register. Going to tackle that throughout the week. Connected everything up tonight and running into some problems. I keep blowing a fuse on the left hand GI every time to top out holes fire. Also getting some phantom flashes from a few spots when I hit the flipper buttons. Gotta iron those out.
I cut some flaps out of blue steel for my Monopoly a while back, but they ended up rusting real quick, probably from moisture on my fingers. I should have put something on for protection. I only use stainless now.
7 months later
Quoted from ArcadiusMaximus:I didn't get as far as I wanted to this weekend but I started placing the decals on the field. Still a long ways to go but its coming together nicely. I also included a few shots of the cutting system I'm using. That tool has been invaluable as far as accuracy of the cut and time saved. I definitely recommend one for those who make their own playfield decals.
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Looks great!
I might be blind, but what cutting system are you using?
Quoted from tezting:Looks great!
I might be blind, but what cutting system are you using?
I could be wrong, but that looks like an older Silhouette Cameo... The current models look a bit different.
1 month later
I know it's been a while, but could go go into a bit more detail about how you used the Cameo to cut your decals? It looks like you printed them up and then fed them into a Cameo afterward. Is that a thing? Am I missing something?
10 months later
Quoted from UvulaBob:I know it's been a while, but could go go into a bit more detail about how you used the Cameo to cut your decals? It looks like you printed them up and then fed them into a Cameo afterward. Is that a thing? Am I missing something?
Hello,
Sorry its been so long but to answer your question There is a plugin available for adobe illustrator that works in conjunction with the cameo cutter. It cost like $20 or so but it is TOTALLY worth it youll be glad you bought it. Cameos built in path tools and border detection are not accurate enough to produce nice results. In Illustrator there is a cameo tab that allows you to add registration marks to your art work. What I did was made the outer boarder of all my decals 2x larger than it should be. Then I made a vector cut path in the center of the outer boarder. That way when you cut the decal, you don't get any white edges.
Put all your cut paths on a separate layer. Then print your artwork out using a color printer. Make sure print registration marks is on. Once its done you load the paper into the Cameo. When you export to the cameo, you choose to export on the cut path layer only and align registration marks. The cameo with can the paper and align the cutting head and feed to the marks. Then hit go and watch the magic. Its super easy !
1 month later
I know this is an old thread, but I am wondering how the KBS clear coat you used is holding up. I have been thinking about giving it a try. Do you still like it, and would you do it again on another restore?
2 years later
ArcadiusMaximus Yes I am curious how the clear held up and the large waterslides. Notice any lifting or issues with such large waterslides?
Quoted from Langless28:ArcadiusMaximus Yes I am curious how the clear held up and the large waterslides. Notice any lifting or issues with such large waterslides?
Hey there. Nope. All clear at water slide decals is fine. I do have some ghosting at ball drops (assuming impact), but other than that its held up pretty well. The one thing I did was I think I cut and polished a little too early. The field is pretty shiny, but there is a slight haze to it. Maybe I put too many layers on. Not really sure. Had I done it again I would have waited a month or 2 before reassembly.
Quoted from ArcadiusMaximus:Hey there. Nope. All clear at water slide decals is fine. I do have some ghosting at ball drops (assuming impact), but other than that its held up pretty well. The one thing I did was I think I cut and polished a little too early. The field is pretty shiny, but there is a slight haze to it. Maybe I put too many layers on. Not really sure. Had I done it again I would have waited a month or 2 before reassembly.
Ghosting between inserts and clear on ball drops or not over inserts at balldrop spots?
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