(Topic ID: 124004)

Williams Swinger Restoration and (Eventual) Retheme

By RyanClaytor

8 years ago


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#134 8 years ago
Quoted from RyanClaytor:

As you can see above, there's still a lot of dirt ground down in those cracks. Not a big deal for me, as I'll be sanding down the PF eventually, but I'd be curious to hear if anyone has alternate methods to get a deeper clean on a PF like this.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, aka MCME, aka melamine foam. It's a microporous abrasive that works like very fine sandpaper. Moisten it with 91% (or higher) rubbing alcohol. Great at removing ground-in dirt from those hairline cracks. Works a little too well, in fact, so be careful you're not removing more paint than dirt. Check the white eraser often, and stop when you see more paint than dirt. Or maybe stop when you see any paint. It's a fine line.

The MCME will wither away as you use it, leaving behind a white residue that's easily removed with alcohol on a rag. It leaves the cleaned surface a bit matte, which you can polish back to a shine with Novus 2. And if this was a playfield you're keeping original, I'd carnauba wax it after that since the MCME leaves the playing surface a bit vulnerable to future wear. But not in this case.

You're in the perfect position to learn good MCME cleaning technique. If you go too far and remove paint, you're sanding it down anyway.

#145 8 years ago

Wow, that's one of the better magic eraser results I've seen. Can't believe how much those day-glo colors pop after all these years. And all you lost was some easily fixed black keyline. Well done.

Now get out the belt sander!

1 week later
#221 8 years ago
Quoted from RyanClaytor:

Picked my son up from school and we took a trip to the auto parts store for some carnuba wax, this one to be precise:

I've never used that particular product, but my hunch is the "cleaner" portion of that Cleaner Wax might be what's preventing it from hazing over and easily buffing to a shine. The last photo still looks a bit more greasy than shiny to me. Could just be the photo. You'll probably never go through that whole can, but if you do, I'd recommend something like Mothers "Pure Brazilian Carnauba Wax" next time. Very similar packaging, but the wax is honey colored instead of pink.

#248 8 years ago

Lookin' good! Metal refinishing is one of the more satisfying steps of pin restoration. Especially lockdown bar receivers, which usually look like the inside bottom of a dumpster. I know you can't see 'em when you play, but they bug me all the same.

2 weeks later
#353 8 years ago
Quoted from Pecos:

I like to have my contacts close together, but not so close that it won't activate when another pop bumper is activated. Lightly pounding on the playfield with my fist next to the pop bumper is another test I use to tell if the switch is set too tight. Getting this set right makes a huge difference in how well the game plays.

This is good advice, even for solid state games. Tangent: I set my modern Stern slingshots evil tight, and do the fist pound to make sure they won't fire from vibration.

But yeah, bumper responsiveness is super important on older games where they're often the main attraction.

2 months later
#526 8 years ago
Quoted from RyanClaytor:

http://www.yellowpages.com/lansing-mi/welding-shops
Looks like a lot of them specialize in trailers. Sounds like BIG stuff. I wonder if they do small stuff, too. Any tips on what to look for before I start cold calling?

A couple years ago the flimsy welds broke on the top section of my Tron trough. I looked up welding / metal shops in the yellow pages, and just walked in the nearest place with my trough. The owner had one of his guys fix it for $10, took about a minute. I'm sure he was happy to pocket ten bucks for basically no extra labor cost. Now I have much beefier welds that will probably never break as long as I own the game.

Coincidentally, the owner told me he used to fabricate ball troughs, until DE/Sega/Stern went with someone cheaper. Which is probably why mine broke in just a couple years of home use. You get what you pay for.

It's neat how many people & companies with pinball connections you stumble across in the Chicagoland area.

2 weeks later
#570 8 years ago

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When you order multiples, they come in a handy block like this:
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