"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man."

I've always loved the Twilight Zone television show, and the movie. I don't really remember playing TZ in the arcade much, but I enjoyed playing it in college. So when the opportunity came to pick one up for an outstanding deal, I jumped at the chance.

It was fully working (no credit dot, clocked seemed to work), but heavily routed. I can't complain, as the price was great, but it looked like it had not been cleaned out in about 25 years.

There are lots of imperfections in the playfield, really glaring issues that just bug me. So, I decided that I'd take it apart and restore the playfield. I may or may not restore the cabinet, as while the decals are faded, it's really not in terrible shape. I may change my mind once the playfield is restored, who knows?

Anyway, here's where I currently sit.
- stripped playfield
- cut all major mechs and coils from harness (fully labelled, isn't that time consuming?), to be replaced with molex connectors

Next up, send the playfield off for restoration and start the harness cleaning!

I included some pics of the playfield to show the wear, as well as the thing up on the rotisserie. Man! It's dirty!

ProTip: Wear thin latex cleaning gloves so you don't get all that black coil dust in your fingernails.

Time spent: 6+ hours. I know I watched Snatch, Back to the Future, and listened to a couple albums while doing this over the space of about 2 weeks. I might be forgetting some time, but I try to time box my work via known quantities (movies, albums) so I can guestimate with some accuracy how long it took.

Parts already acquired:
- LSOG clear repro ramp
- LSOG new plastics

Yet To Buy:
- giant marco/pinball life order

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I keep having this thought.... sigh.

Well, the whole covid-19 thing kind of out a damper on this restore.

That being said, a few things have happened.

- sent playfields off to get restored
- giant marco / pinball life order
- found a blue clock housing
- bought decals

About the decals. I splurged on the phoenix arcade silkscreened decals. I plan on starting the cabinet restore next month while I'm waiting on the playfield.

I'm also going to be tumbling metal parts and installing molex where I clipped the harness. Should be fun.

Here's moar pics.

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Well, the playfield has finally had it's base clear coat, and it's now at my friend's house.

He has done several restorations already (many documented here on pinside!), and instead of starting a new thread he's just gonna comment on this one.

Please welcome @mneubey!!

Well, it's been a while since this thread was updated, but a lot has happened in the intervening time.

First off, while the playfield was getting restored, we also focused on the cabinet.
I've included some pics of the empty cabinet initially, to give you an idea of what we were starting with!

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Thankfully, due to the excellent skills of Mneubey and the decals from Phoenix Arcade, this thing turned out beautifully.
We stripped the cabinet bare, sanded, bondo'd, sanded, painted, and applied decals.

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I've been slowly but surely putting the cabinet back together.
New lockdown receiver, and the best powder coating from @robertstone0407.
Larger speakers for when it's all put back together.
Clear coin door inserts.
I changed the button colors up to something a little different, which I think works (at least for me).
White LED flipper buttons.

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I just need to clean the boards and reinstall them into the backbox, and clean the wiring harness (ya for dishwashers!), and I can start on the playfield re-population next.

And speaking of playfield.... wow.

Another Mneubey special. We ended up re-painting almost the entire thing. And with the help of another local we had the clearcoat applied and leveled.
Simply amazing.
Cannot wait to start working on this thing.

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Yeah, like with many things, COVID kinda screwed this up a little bit, timing wise.
Endgame is in sight now.

It’s been almost a year since I last posted, but I’m almost done at this point.

Tubular rivets are the worst when you don’t have the proper tools. I’m waiting for a hand 1/8” roller so I can hammer new ramp flaps in since they don’t fit into a press.

Otherwise, it’s pretty complete. Been a hard long road to get here, with lots of learning along the way.

This was my first playfield swap, and first pinball restoration. Dang. All other games will be much simpler now.

More as I finish the last little bits, but here’s some pics.

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So finally got it working!

Had a weird switch issue where I had shorted the column 2 and 1 ground together in the trough. Kept getting double activations on any switch in those two columns.

Anyway, it’s awesome. Put in voodoo glass. Gonna throw in the color dmd and led ocd tomorrow.

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