Well, I started my Fire restoration a few days ago. Going to be a little more involved than I thought but here we go. I didn't document the teardown as it probably resembles most machines out there. It has the normal cracked or broken building plastics. I will document the repairs as I do them.

The Cab is a 10 footer. It looks good from 10 feet. When you get closer it has some issues. On of the things is a previous owner touched it up. The paint actually matches but the shine is different. You don't even see it until the camera flashes and then it really shows up.
There is some planking but the graphics part has good color.
cab front.jpgcab left.jpgcab right.jpgbackbox left.jpgbackbox right.jpgcab inside.jpg

The playfield has mylar and some insert wear.
playfield lower.jpgplayfield mid.jpgplayfield upper.jpg

Insert wear. yuk
insert left.jpginsert right.jpg

This is the shooter skill shot lane.
shooter wear.jpg

Next up is to clean the playfield and scan it into the computer

This is the area with the most wear and will be the most challenging to repair. upper wear.jpg

Kinda interesting. In my research, I have seen at least 3 different versions of the playfield. I have not been able to find any documentation on the different versions or what order they were produced.

Anybody have any info on this?

Well, I got done tearing it all apart. While the playfield can be restored, I have a line on a NOS playfield and if that works out then I will do a swap and restore the original one at another time.
empty cab.jpg

Boards Boards
boards.jpg

The side art is not too bad but there is some planking and wood issues with the cabinet. Since I plan on doing a playfield swap I don't want the playfield to look new and the cabinet look average. I have decided to restore the whole cabinet. I plan on repairing and repainting the entire cabinet and I will create my own decals for the cabinet. I also plan a killer topper that I am not going to disclose at this time.

Scanning the cabinet for the decals.
scan.jpg

This was the best side and was scanned for the decals.
ide art.jpg

I also plan on doing some custom repair work to the plastics that I think will make them look as good as new.

Yes, I am talking about the building plastics. It will be a little while before I get to that point but I will do some experimenting and I will post the results and the "how to" (If it works) in this thread. I will also be adding the new normal playfield plastics set.

Thanks. If I run into a problem with a part, I will keep you in mind.

I just don't see the buildings being reproduced. The cost of the molds and then they have to be painted and then stickers put on. People probably couldn't afford them.

If the pictures don't work, let me know and I will scan that for you. I always scan every playfield I work on for future reference. Are you trying to touch it up with paint or wanting to make a decal?

Is this the area you are talking about. I have finished all the graphics except inserts. I did this work before I found a NOS playfield. I will restore this playfield when inrun out of things to do n
image-70.jpg

Here is a question for you guys that have a fire. In the picture above you can see the dark brown area in the center. There is also a lot if it in the lower playfield. There is also a lot of black areas. Are all games like that or are the brown areas black on some playfields? In several playfields that I have seen pictures of on the Internet, both areas seem to look black. It may be such a small color difference that it doesn't really show up in photos.

I am summing that getting correct placement of screw and posts would be difficult with nor that is not drilled.

Wow. That would be a challenge. I will have to ponder that. If I come up with something I will let you know.

Well, based on some information that you guys provided, I examined pictures of the NOS playfield that I found and it appears to be one of the seconds that is not drilled. I have pulled the plug on it and I guess I will do a restore on mine.

I am a little OCD so when I start something I like to finish it before moving on. Since I started working on the Cab graphics before I decided not to get that playfield I wanted to finish what I was working on before getting back to the playfield. The backbox graphics are finished. This picture is shrunk 7x so some of the lines look a little jagged but that is due to the zoom out.
image-116.jpg

It's interesting to me that most machines I have seen that "appear" to have symmetrical graphics don't. For example the black lines on one side may be wider than the ones on the other side etc. since this is for my machine I decided to make it truly symmetrical. I did the graphics on one side and then mirrored them to the other. Makes for a great finished product. The purist may no like that but it's my machine.

The joy of life on the road. At least I have something to do to pass the time in the hotel when the weather is not that great.
fire edit.jpeg

I have the backbox and front cabinet art done and ready to cut. I hope to have the main cabinet side art done tomorrow.

I dropped the backbox off today for paint matching and should be able to pick it up when I get off this trip. I plan on cutting the graphics and make sure all the colors match etc. before I start the cabinet wood work. Once I start that, there is no turning back to I want to make sure the art is good before I destroy the original stuff.

Well, back to the computer.

Well, this project is officially on hold. The cabinet art work is done but I took the Mylar off tonight and let's just say the playfield is not repairable. I have taken Mylar of several playfields (even other system 11 games) in the past and have never had an issue. Well tonight all that changed. Maybe this playfield had a hard life and many temp changes and the artwork was weak.

With all that being said I have no desire to work on the cabinet until I find a playfield so this one is going back in storage for now. I might go ahead and work out the mechanics of the topper but that's about all I will do until I get a playfield. I know the CPR list is closed but maybe they will have some extras. And I just ordered new plastics today. Grrrr

Oh well, I have plenty of projects to keep me busy
Apollo 13
Jurassic Park
Strange Science
Gilligan's Island
Waterworld
Super Flite
Funhouse

When I pick this project back up I will continue this thread.

That looks great. Did you find the fire rollers for the backbox?

Now that I am done pouting I might try and restore the playfield.

Every one I have seen on eBay was a reject with Mylar that wasn't dimpled or drilled. In my book with CPR playfields coming out they are only good for wall art.

I have been working on mine. We'll see how it goes

Sounds awesome. And jus to make sure there was no confusion. The rejects are the wall art. Lol

Stu maybe you can shed some light on this. I have seen 3 different versions of the shooter lane. Looks like you guys are going with the two long switch cut outs. Can you explain what the story is for the different versions and why you guys went with the one you did.

Thanks.