It's time for another restoration. After finishing up my BOP restoration I got the itch to do another game but I don't have the $$$ or space for another game. So, to make a long story short a friend of mine found a Xenon that needs some work the he picked up for which I offered up my assistance to help restore it. We are going to tag team this restoration which should help things progress quicker too. Plan is to do this like my BOP and make it as nice as we possibly can without going to crazy but this will be a factory restoration vs a restomod (down to keeping incandescent lights in it).

This game will be taken to pinball shows for everyone to enjoy so I hope you all come and check it out and play it once it's completed. No garage/gameroom queen here

We will use this thread to show progress and document the things we do to the game. So without further a due I'll start off with some head pics as this is the first item on the list to restore.

For the head - I will be stripping it down completely and smoothing out all the rough spots in the cab. It will then get repainted and re-assembled. All boards will be cleaned up and working 100% (btw75 will be doing the fixing on them), all harnesses cleaned, all hardware disassembled and cleaned/tumbled, etc...

Overall the game isn't in terrible shape. Just not real nice to look at and has some minor play-ability issues. btw75 and I will get that all resolved.

Here are some starter pics:
Head as it started -
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Boards in the game -
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Boards have been removed already -
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Light and display board -
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First tip - Don't do cabinet work. It really sucks I'm hopefully I can get the head smoothed out and primered by the end of next weekend. Going to give all the harnesses and boards a nice bath as well. All metal parts are in the tumbler as we speak too.

The one thing that seems to be the biggest PITA right now is all the staples that hold the lights in place. I swear there must have been over a 100 just on the backpanel light board alone. PF is going to be the same way so we might as well be prepared to spend some good quality time removing staples.

Got the backbox harness all nice and clean now and have the light panel smoothed out and re-painted. Will let it dry and then clear coat it next. Then the harness gets to go back on. Don't tell my daughter I'm using her bathroom as the drying rack

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The light and score panel is now completed and reassembled. Just need to get my replacement paper warning pieces printed out and installed.

Next is on to the head of the cab. Time to sand, prime, fill, sand, repeat, then paint

Before: Can be seen at the top of the post.

After:
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Ugh, those fun intentional damages to the cab. I think I've got the one they did to the head fixed up now. I'm on my 4th pass of filling, sanding, priming and sanding again. Think this may be the last pass before I can move on to paint.

Any ghosting issues with the inserts? We want this to look as nice as possible but we also don't want any issues with strobing or ghosting. I know about ghostbuster lights but those even have issues in some of the older games thus the question.

Took 5 passes but I think I have the head good enough for paint. Got the first coat on. Quite a bit of orange peel right now but that's easy enough to get rid of. Sucks not having a paint booth

This was the side with the serial number scratched out. Was about a 1/4 inch deep and about the size of a 4 inch by 4 inch square Pretty happy with how the edges came out as well. Not perfect but I'm honestly not going for perfect. I wanted to keep some of the history of the wood there without it looking bad so I left some of the very minor blems and fixed the big dents and chunks that were missing.

Hope the boss approves.

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That's the plan. With the new tournament formats I may not go now. Still debating but either myself or BTW75 (his game, a.k.a "the boss") will most likely have it there.

Second coat applied. Will let this cure fully and will add a 3rd. May be able to add some color this weekend or next week.

Camera phone pics. Hope they post correctly.
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Ugh..... looks like I get to start over. Same exact paint as the rest (new can) and I get blessed with a reaction.

The joys of painting.

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I'm using the paint that was recommended to me by the pinball stencil company. They advised it's best to use Rustoleum professional paint and gave the paint codes. I used automotive on my BOP restore.

I guess I did. Was about 36 hours after the second coat was applied. I'm so used to the rule of within 1 hour or after 24 hours I didn't notice this stuff does require 48 hours

Thanks for the advise and this is exactly what I did. I was doing my final base coat so I wet sanded it down to get things nice and smooth. I painted only a couple hours after wet sanding it down. Sounds like we use the same tech. Do two coats, wet sand and then do the final coat. My first coat is always a tack coat that is fairly light. I wait 15-20 mins then come back with more of a coverage coat that is thicker. Let things dry and wet sand to a smooth finish. Apply a third coat. Let dry and move to clear. I'll be sure to give it more time after wet sanding now.

Glad you like it We replaced the rug in our living room and my wife suggest we throw it away. I figured I'd spruce up the back porch a bit so put it there instead.

Some progress pics to post as I've finished the backglass portion. Still working on the rest of the head.

Before:
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After:
Without mirror panel installed. All the cab edges cleaned up where pieces were missing or damage was present.
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With mirror panel installed
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Backglass before:
some browning and discoloration. Not to mention more of that glue that was spilled on the head of the cab.
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Backglass after:
Brightened up and all glue residue removed. Shiny hardware too.
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Time to start over..... Nothing like wasting 3 weeks worth of time and $100 in paint but I'm done trying to make this stuff work. I've now tried this 3 times with Rustoleum Paint. All 3 times I've had the same results of wrinkling in the finish. All 3 times I've sanded down, primer (let dry the recommended 48 hours) and painted. This last time I waited a week to paint it instead of the recommended 48 hours. This paint is CRAP!!!! Going back to my tried and true paint. I only tried this paint as it is what was recommend to use with the stencil kit.

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Finally got the black to lay down right using a different paint. Let it cure a week and applied the blue. Will let this cure several days and will lay down the red.

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Red has now been applied. New found respect for those that paint via stencils a lot. I thought it would be easier than what it actually is. I know now that I prefer decals while painting does look better. Should be able to start buttoning up the head now once this dries fully. Fingers crossed all goes well and I can start working on the cab next.

Here's a couple of pics. I'm pleased with the registration of the two colors. Was tough getting it right but a little patience went a long way there. I have a couple of small bleed spots that I'll take care of too. Overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome of my first stencil painting job.

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New metal ground plates and braid installed as well as new instruction/warning labels made and installed. Just waiting for the hinges for the light panel and brackets for the boards to finish tumbling for the head to be completed.
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Been a while since I updated this. Still working on the cab right now. Weather hasn't been cooperating very much as this winter has been pretty rainy. I don't have a booth so I have to do all my work outside.

The lower cab had a lot of dings and dents in it so I've spent most of my time filling things. I got it painted and wasn't happy with the amount of grain still showing up (pic below) so I sanded the sides and front down again and added some more filler.

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Waiting for it to fully cure (pic below) and will prime and paint again. Most of the filler will sand away. I just like coating the whole side for this part and then sanding smooth. Reduces the chances of missing something and having to do it again.

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Sanding completed and the cab has been re-primed. Will let it dry and then will sand it smooth before putting down the black. Came out smooth like a baby's butt.

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Now is time for some more fun. Now that the cab is getting close it's time to start the PF swap and restoration of the everything that goes on it.

Got the harness removed and all the coils laid out. Disassembly time so that I can start dropping parts in the tumbler.

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Slings and pops are done (minus one light socket). A bit of a change between the before (above) and after (below). On to the next parts now. My tumbler is pretty small so I have to do things in batches.

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Cab is done now. Not perfect but I'm pretty happy with how it came out being my first stencil job. Much harder than I thought it would be.
couple of things I want to touch up but I'm going to wait until everything is done and the game is back on it's legs before doing that.

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That pic makes it look like the blue is on the lower edge. Not sure why (maybe light reflection) but it's not like that in real life.

Met up with BTW75 on Sat. Got the finished cab back to his house (he's the owner of the game) and 17 hours later we finished the PF swap (new CPR PF) and got the game back together. Booted up perfectly so all the corrections we made seemed to have be the correct ones. We have one insert acting up that we'll address but it's just about done. Cleaning up the coin door now and refinishing the legs and it will be 100% done and ready for TPF. Forgot to get pics to share with everyone but should get some next time I'm over there with the coin door and legs.

My arms are tired....

Before pic of the back of the coin door. Overall not to bad but not good enough for what we are doing. Second pic is of the shoots and bracket that I finished last night. Not going crazy with things but cleaning things up and trying to polish them up. Not going for a mirror polish but want it looking nice and new.

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Yes. Going to TPF and will be for sale. I'm sure BTW75 would ship it if a non local buyer was interested.

They actually split apart once removed. After that it was just elbow grease. Didn't go crazy and go mirrored polish so I stopped at 1000 grit sand paper and hit it with some polish

Guess I'll share my brain fart moment.

Just about finished putting the door back together. Now where is that lock bracket. Oh yeah its right there. Ah crap, it screws in from the back side which requires disassembly to get to the other side of the door skin

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Brain fart fixed. Not perfect but I'm still happy with how it came out.

I guess it's the nature of a flash but in person you don't see the swirl marks on the front door.

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Legs have been refinished now too. Added in a dashing of metallic metal flake to.

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Xenon has officially made it safely to TPF. Come give it a whirl.

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Xenon has sold already. New owner is keeping it on free play though

Will be in the escalara booth, go check them out and play a game.