**** Update: Finished!****

Jump to After Photos:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/year-4-taxi-full-restore-hardtop/page/2#post-7208034

Hard to believe I bought this game in 2017, spent a few weeks working on it, completely lost steam for restoration, and took a break from pinball in general. Back at it and highly motivated to breath life back into this absolute classic System 11 title. There are many great Taxi restore threads on Pinside involving some very talented artists. The Skypilot Tale of Two Taxi’s story is a personal favorite, and always love to drool over some HEP restores, including his blacked out Taxi.
Hopefully, you find something worthwhile here for you.

This Taxi is a mess. Hot glued ramps, hot glued topper, faded and rough cabinet with added support brackets, rust, and some creative hacks.

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The Before Photos

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Let’s finish this thing!

Here’s where things get interesting with this example...

Exhibit A: Glue or Ramp?

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Exhibit B: Can you guess the origin of the following Franken-Plastic?

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Exhibit B: Man vs Glue Vs Topper

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Oh yes, completely agree. Here’s some new stuff on deck. I’d show the cabinet decals, but those are currently getting flattened underneath the gray rug

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On the rotisserie. Lots of labeling and photos. Here’s my system for ID’ing harness locations:

A, B, C... for coils
F1, F2, F3... for flashers
L1, L2, L3... for lamps
S1, S2, S3... for switches

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The full view

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Dirt! Cleaning the filth is the most satisfying part of this for me.

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I know, right!?

More discoveries

off-white lane guide
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Spinout switch wired to nowhere
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Requisite bottom-of-cabinet junk
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Strange wiring hack on the flipper. Some kind of black box connected with speaker wire. What is this?
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Happy Saturday. As I am stripping the playfield, I get some insight into all the improvement opportunities. Wear spots, t-nut damage, inserts destroyed, grime worn into the shooter lane. We’ll work to amend as much of that as can when we prep for the hard top.

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Removing the mylar (heat gun & slow pull) reveals some new challenges. Several raised inserts on the triangles and arrows. We lost some art when we pulled the mylar around the green advance lit values. Since we are going hardtop with this one, I’m not concerned, but just showing how System 11 playfields can react to mylar removal (spoilers: not well!)
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Haha. I’ve either lost my mind or want everyone to feel included in the process. You be the judge!

After the great mylar pull, inserts are removed and leveled and the playfield gets sanded. Given the condition of this game, this part was particularly satisfying. I was also able to bondo some of the damage underneath the playfield.

I carefully used a heat gun on the underside of the Playfield for removal while tapping slightly from underneath. Some of them I was able to level without removing. When inserts are free, they were sanded with increasingly finer grit and Novus’d for a final shine. A hammer and a flat wood block gets them level again, and a touch of glue underneath the insert holds them in place.

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Back on the rotisserie for some additional shining followed by a few light layers of clear to seal the wood, and future proof the bare wood spots. A final sanding and good dust cleanup is my prep for the hardtop

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After this, I spent some quality time on the shooter lane (sanding, clearing, shaping).

Skipping ahead, the hardtop install was fairly smooth. The registration of the art and holes isn’t a perfect match, and I had to trim some of the lanes, pops, etc in order to line the artwork up as best as I could. The final result though is excellent. I was somewhat skeptical how I would like this vs a screen-printed repro playfield, but it looks very sharp and feels like a tank. Plus having fought with new, clear coated playfields a handful of times, I feel it reduces the chance for error during re-assembly as you have the safety net of the holes of the original playfield.

On the downside, it was at this point where I realized I made an error prior to the Hardtop assembly. It may take a true Taxi purist to spot it! I could call this a design choice, as I personally like the final result...

My process is ultra sonic cleaner for everything that doesn’t have artwork. Metals are tumbled and/or hand polished.

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Indeed, Your description sounds much more enticing.

Bouncing around on the timeline, uncovered some additional, relevant process photos

Initial reassembly of the less fun parts: T-Nuts, Pop bumper nails, and ground braid.

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Mechs!

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Before & After Drop Target assemblies. Brackets and metals cleaned then tumbled for 24-48 hours. Boards are checked for cold solder joints and reflowed if needed. Boards and drop plastics were sprayed with simple green and rinsed in warm water. Repeated this process until clean, then quickly dried. The harnesses receive the same treatment. The drop target decals are still in great shape for a game in this condition, so I left them as is. The coils get a strong dose of the ultrasonic cleaner then re-wrapped with new sleeves.

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Reassembly update. I found the stacked plastics to be a little tricky, but overall went smoothly. The post locations can be a little challenging on Taxi as well, but a ruler and lots of photos ahead of time made things easier.

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One hang up. I don’t recall where I got this repro ramp, I believe i purchased it 2nd hand from someone who didn’t end up needing it, but the bracket holes for the wire form were way too small. Of course I discovered that after assembling. I was able to drill it out with gradually increasing sizes of titanium screws bits. Drilled each hole out slowly, put a cloth underneath in case of a slip and to catch metal pieces, and had no issues.

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Both new ramps were a little on the cloudy side for my taste, so they received the Novus 1 & 2 treatment

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Much better than what I started with…

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Nice. It was a panic moment, but I learned a new skill, so silver lining! Ramp is actually great quality overall.

Definitely. The repro ramps, at least the ones I’ve worked with in the handful of restores I’ve done, are built like tanks. In this case, I had no choice as both ramps were completely blown out. Worth noting that the decals included on this ramp in particular are also excellent quality. Has a textured finished of some sort.

Almost there with the playfield, just a few more things to solder, couple final pieces to install, and one last visual inspection to confirm accuracy.
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Back to the cabinet. My plan is to restore the original cabinet to brand new status. Faded, gauges, huge bolt for the coin door that appears to have received the loctite treatment. Should be fun!
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And getting some much needed help on the coin door.
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Backbox Day! Lightboard & speaker panel were removed and scrubbed, harnesses and small hardware in the ultrasonic cleaner, PCBs were sprayed with Simple Green, rinsed, and quickly dried. After everything was stripped, several rounds of vacuuming and wiping down the wood with Simple Green cleaned things up nicely. The inside and back of the backbox look great after cleaning, but everywhere else is rough: gauges, planking.

Frankenstein-Topper: cracks, hot glue, and extra holes
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The lock had a key inside, unfortunately it was just for show as it didn’t actually open the lock
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Starting to look much better!
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Casualty to report. Dead motor on my beloved Lyman Pro Magnum tumbler. Bummer, dude.

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Decals. I believe I picked them up from Bay City. Good quality, used the same type on my Funhouse restore.

It’s a Taxi weekend! Tumbler is back on line, lovingly shining some cabinet and coin door parts. Removed and hand buffed the side rails. Spent most of yesterday sanding and have the soreness to prove it , but took a break to sell a game and pick up another (Avengers!).

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My fade wins…

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Reinforcing some separation and extra holes

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Dowels to the rescue!
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On tap for today: lots of prep work and sealing the cabinet before painting.

Good news, only 11 extra holes to fill for the dome topper.

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Okay, back to the normal amount of holes!

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Making the most of drying time to spray some bolts

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I’m not a professional or in the same league as someone like HEP, I do this because I like Taxi, and enjoy working on System 11 games especially. Regardless, my goal is to make this game better than factory when I can. To that end, I’m covering up some factory work. Divots left from staples in this case.

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I had a question PM’d about removing the side rails, so thought I would share here. There’s a very strong adhesive strip between the cabinet and the side rails. I use the heat plus a scraper to very slowly separate the side rail. This one was seriously stuck, so it took a lot of heat to dissolve the adhesive. The good thing is, you can’t really hurt the side rails if you over heat it like you can with other applications.

Once it’s off, I was able to get the goo off the side cabinet by hand. For the side rails, I use WD-40, a scraper, and a lot of effort. Always easier to buy new ones from someone like Pinball Life.

Be aware, you may pull some wood with it if you rush or start applying a lot of force. It’s going to take a couple of layers of bondo and sanding to fix.

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Cheese Puff & Beer break. Apparently, I was supposed to serve the beer in a snifter glass. Live & learn. Whoa! It’s also 9.7% alc. by volume, but highly drinkable. Should make for an interesting afternoon Bondo session.

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High level Multi-tasking today, using my break to learn how to play my Avengers. Lots of research in order to have fun. A nerd’s dream!

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After bondo & sanding and a lot of rinse/repeat, moving on to sealing the cab. I had some doubts about this cabinet, but things are starting to shape up nicely. Light coats of polycrylic with sanding in between. Tedious, but helps create a smooth, consistent surface that makes painting & decal application much smoother.

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I should add that I’m using the method I’m comfortable with, am fairly good at, and have had success with when it comes to cabinet restoration. If you are looking for a how-to guide for cabinet restoration, definitely check out Vid’s guide.

Morning - I’m in pretty good shape overall, but I did have to drill out both locks, so if anyone can point me to the correct replacement for the backbox and coin door locks, that would be helpful!

Also could use an unhacked/unburnt cabinet harness as I’ll have to rebuild connectors at some point in the near future.

Meanwhile, some random thoughts as my next coat dries…

Why, oh why did I wait to upgrade my Soldering setup? Game changer.

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I’m really glad someone stuck a big ugly sticker over the apron. The Williams logo is perfectly intact. Should clean up nice.

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Yes, thank you! I was planning on WD40, but forgot all about the paper towel trick. That should save some scrubbing time.

Winter has slowed things down, not to mention other distractions like refurbing a Donkey Kong I just picked up. It’s my 2nd, and after kicking myself for selling my 1st, I had to grab it. Just like reuniting with an old friend. The cabinet is a lot nicer than my first, so this one will never leave.

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The Taxi is all prepped for decals, and pretty happy with how it turned out. After lots of sanding, bondo, & clear, I spent a beautiful sunny fall weekend on yellow: many light layers spray and sanding, followed by a couple more light coats of clear to seal. Unfortunately, an entire weekend hunched over and sanding absolutely wrecked my back. All better now!

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Good news/bad news time.

Bad News: pulled the cabinet decals out to apply them & they were damaged. It appears some tumbler media got wedged between the decal and the hard surface I was using to flatten them. Created lots of little pits in the decal. The decals were also old enough that I was starting to get concerned about the age of the adhesive.

Good news: the decal disaster gave me a push to order Rad Cals instead. Looking forward to their arrival!

Thank you! Not the most sophisticated, quickest, or best method, but I used rattle cans of this 2x Rustoleum Ultra Cover (Marigold is a very close match). It’s good paint as far as rattle cans are concerned but honestly, pretty tedious to do it this way. Many light coats at just the right distance from the cab, sanding in between, pausing for wind gusts, redoing spots that drip, etc. Took about 4 cans to get a nice, even blended surface, which is actually less than I expected.

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Good question. I have a sickness. It's the only explanation... Seriously though, this cabinet was very rough. Wanted to get it as flat and even as possible and paint was the best way I know how. With only corner spray, I'd think it would get thicker on the corners and you'd be able to see a paint transition under a glossy decal? Perhaps not if you feathered the ends well, but I haven't really done it any other way.

Update: admittedly, I have not kept up well with this thread, but happy to say Taxi is complete and I’m thrilled with the results!

After Part I:

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After II:

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After III:

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