Later on during more dis assembly I found that the middle ramp was cracked very badly:

I went searching and found out that Pinball Spare Parts Australia had the middle ramp plus a few other goodies I wanted.  It was expensive to ship via air from Australia so I went ahead and purchased a few more parts like some plastic pieces that I found were broken and another defender plastic since they break easily.  I wish I found the defender plastic here first since this was only $6 (the other one was $15!!).

I ended up doing some board work on the CPU board on this game.  I ended up replacing the battery holder, installing a few sockets and SIP strips for three ICs that were dead and the ICs themselves.

Here is where I am now at price wise:

Project Start:  $800

Parts to repair CPU board:
Battery Holder -  $4.95
Sockets – $.80
SIP Strip – $.35
ICs – $1.70

Parts Purchased from another hobbiest:
Defender Plastic – $15
Rebound Rubber Bracket – $18

Parts Purchased from Pinball Spare Parts Australia:
Defender Plastic – $6
Playfield Plastic – $4.05
Misc Clear Playfield Plastic – $3.95
Backbox Clear Plastics – $29.95
Center Ramp Assembly – $39.95

Total Project Cost as of this post:  $924.70

On another note I will be putting up a separate, detailed blog post detailing the actual work I did to this game at the end of the job.  For the time being feel free to peruse the pictures in my restoration gallery for this game here to get an idea of what is going on.

The positive side of buying a dead game is they are usually cheaper, at least at first appearance. Many times you will find there can be many hidden costs that can turn your low priced project into a high dollar money vacuum. I normally don’t speak publicly about what I pay for projects or what I pay to return them back to service but I think this would be an excellent topic for someone new to the hobby or for someone who has never rescued and resurrected a game before.  I have the perfect project to showcase what goes into a pinball machine rebuild, my recent acquisition, an NBA Fastbreak project.

I bought this project this past year and picked it up at the York pinball show in early October. A friend of mine in West Virginia bought it in a partially working state from someone who I assume was an operator.  This game stands as a great example of what the common operator would do with a machine that is no longer earning; parts needed for other games that are in operation and earning money are removed and used.  These games sit waiting patiently for more parts robberies to occur, or even a complete part out! My friend “rescued” this game and offered it up to me for sale. I have had NBA Fastbreak in the past and enjoyed the game enough to take on this project. In future posts I will be documenting the process I have gone through to restore this game and most importantly what I paid for the base game plus all needed restoration parts to provide a real world example of what it costs.

First I want to show you the initial pictures I was sent of the game.  I was given a good description;  the game was missing a few random parts and booted up to a ground fault row 1 error. I was offered it for $750.   Initial calculations showed that after some boardwork, replacing the missing parts and installing common rebuild parts I theoretically would be at a rough total cost of $950.  This seemed like a fair price since the boardset alone could sell for $500 to $600 if I were to part the game out.    I would have to pay another $50 to have it delivered to the York pinball show bringing the initial total cost to $800.   Since all of the major parts were there I took the gamble and bought the game.

In my next post I will start to outline what I have found since I got the game and what all of the individual parts needed will cost.  For purposes of accuracy I am going to omit any shipping costs for a couple of  reasons:  1.)   I bundle my purchases to save on shipping with parts I need for other games and 2.) shipping varies from location to location.   You will want to assume a little bit of overhead for shipping costs.  Also take into consideration that I am not going to put any monetary value on my time or experience, this is purely from a parts and game cost perspective.  I take a while to work on a game so it would be difficult to get an actual time calculation although I will do my best within these posts to document the time spent on repairing and restoring this game.

Total cost as of this post:  $800.

I bought this project with the sole intent of cleaning it up and selling it.  Joust is not a game that wanted as a long term keeper but this particular example turned out to be a great way for me to learn how to paint with an HVLP gun.

The cleanup was a chore and somewhere during the rebuild I decided to repaint the front of the cabinet.  It didn’t desperately need to be repainted but it did have a hole cut in the front of the game where the power switch was relocated and some wood issues at the bottom.

I ended up filling the hole with a wood dowel and sanded the entire front of the cabinet to wood:

I had a few issues with spraying oil base paint through the HVLP gun the most significant being fish eyes.  I ended up sanding the front of the cabinet down 4 times before I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, I was applying too much paint.  There is a paint flow adjustment at the back of the HVLP gun that was set too high and once I adjusted that properly the front of the game came out like this:

I didn’t want to spray the paint too thick so you can see some of the wood grain in the picture above.  It came out very smooth  Iwanted it to come out smoother but the paint I used said to only thin 5% so I didn’t thin the paint.  Next time I will experiment a bit more.

In the end I did the following to this game:

1. Moved the power switch back to the top rear of the cabinet
2. Filled the hole in the front of the cabinet and repainted
3. Recapped the monitor
4. Replaced all capacitors on the circuit boards and replaced the battery holder
5. Installed new joystick (sticks only)
6. Cleaned the game
7. Installed a new ballast, starter and light bulb for the marquee light
8. Touched up the sides of the cabinet

Here are pictures of the completed game:

http://gallery.metahugh.com/main.php?g2_itemId=28909

I just received the rollers, bearings and the new ball Tuesday which I promptly installed.  Now the game plays perfectly!  Check out the difference between the new and old ball:

In the game:

I really like this game!  The only problem is I am left handed and this game was setup for a right handed player.  I will see how long I can stand playing with my right hand.

Fast forward months later and what we requested was implemented!  I received a request for final payment for my prototype style mini playfield.  Payment was sent and about a month later I had my new mini playfield.  I was excited until my eye spied something wrong.  Its missing something…  its missing the bevels!  At the two ball exits (there is one at the top and bottom of the mini playfield) there is supposed to be a bevel.  This bevel serves one purpose; it allows a slow moving ball to exit the playfield at the top.    I think a reproduction should be just that, a reproduction.  This means it stays true to original so missing the bevels was not keeping in line with the original.

This was the only real issue worth fixing with this playfield and luckily I was able to get a friend of mine to fix the bevel and clearcoat my mini playfield, and here she is side by side with my original mini:

Here are a few shots of the added bevels:

CPR Mini - The added bevel on the lower exit

Original Mini Playfield - Lower exit

CPR Mini - The added bevel on the upper exit

Original Mini Playfield - Upper exit

More pictures here:

http://gallery.metahugh.com/main.php?g2_itemId=25217

I did post this on RGP back when I first received the playfield and even though I wasn’t trying to create a stir I do think its important to call these issues out when the occur.  Its not to bash the manufacturer but to help them with creating a better, more accurate product.  I had emailed Kevin @ CPR and explained about the missing bevels and I was told they were not added so that the edge of the playfield would wear better, although I feel like he took it as me being overly critical.  That might be the case but in my opinion this is ultimately about creating a reproduction that is like the originals. Also I think the bevels make the edges look better.

The text is warning you to lower the head when transporting the game in several languages.  I paid a cool guy named Jeff Rothe (http://www.rotheblog.com) to vectorize the artwork so I could get a screen made back in August of 2009.  My idea was to sell this as a kit to the pinball community.   Through my research it was hard to find a screen printer that was willing to make a screen that you could keep since many screen printers like to hold onto their screens or like to reuse the screens for new projects.  I wanted something that any hobbyist could buy and keep for their own restorations.

Jeff introduced me to Rich from This Old Game while in the process of vectoring the art.  Rich does art reproductions for arcade video games and Rich had proven in the past that he was always able to deliver the goods.  He agreed with my idea to sell it as a kit with the ink, screen and squeegee needed to do your own backbox restoration and he actually seemed excited explaining that he could put together a demonstration video showing how to screen the cabinet head.  After Jeff finished up the artwork I sent the file to Rich to get a test done at the end of September 2009.  I also forwarded on lots of information on sizing so he would know how big the screen needed to be.  Realizing Rich is a busy guy I waited patiently for an update, up until June of 2010.  I had been sending an email a month inquiring about the status of the screen and would always get a response to the tune of “I’m doing a test this week”.  Unfortunately that never happened.   This is a good lesson to anyone trying to make anything; don’t stick with one company no matter how good their reputation seems to be and never give up.  I simply waited too long based on promises not kept.

The money I spent getting that screen made doesn’t have to be a complete waste though.  It was a good lesson learned about who you can trust and how long to wait before going a different direction with a project.  As a token gesture I have uploaded the Illustration .AI file to my webhost so if someone comes by my blog and wants to get a screen made they will have the art necessary to get one made.  I am also going to share the name of the font used to make the art, Sublime.  I cannot post that to my site because it is a copyrighted font but here is a link for purchase:

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/coniglio/sublime/

Once this is done I will install the harness and move onto rebuilding the lamp harness.  I still need to start on regraining the metal ball guides and I need to drill two of them for the third magnet mod.   I still have a bunch of parts to buy and now that the weather is starting to get warmer I can start on the cabinet.

Twilight Zone Restoration Gallery

I’ve been in the process of cleaning parts in the tumbler.  Some of the parts on this game were super dirty and corroded so some things are taking a few days in the tumbler to get clean.  At this point I have installed all of the metal brackets underneath the playfield that hold the wiring harness and I have gotten all of the metal posts installed on the top of the playfield.  What is interesting with the posts is with this playfield being clearcoated I have had to drill out those holes and remove the excess clear so that the posts will fit.  I finished that last night and tonight I will start on preparing the swtich wiring harness, replacing all of the microswitches and getting it installed onto the playfield.

I have also been buying some parts for the game a little bit at a time.  My favorite acquisition was this NOS (New Old Stock) three slot coin door:

This is my favorite style coin door

This particular coin door is usually only installed on exported machines but I fell in love with the styling back when I had my re-imported Theatre of Magic.  I like the fact that the door is symmetrical.

The weather is still a bit cold so I can’t start on the cabinet yet but I still have plenty of cleaning and other work I can do until then.  Here are some progress pictures:

The wiring harness brackets are installed.

I love new pop bumpers. Some posts are missing; they had to be ordered.

I love that reflection, the playfield is like glass.

So after installing the wood rails on my playfield I decided to start installing the pop bumpers on the playfield.  Turned out I didn’t have any red skirts so scratch that idea!  I decided to work more on my cab.  I bought a product called WoodEpox that I was hoping would be a better filler than Bondo.  The problem with Bondo is its made with plastic so it doesn’t expand and contract like wood does.  WoodEpox is made for repairing wood.  Long story short I’m not too happy with the product.  It cost a lot ($44 for 32 ozs).  I applied some and it was very tacky and didn’t want to stick to the cabinet, plus is takes 5-10 days to completely harden!  I waited the 5 days and sanded part of it down.  It did sand nicely but I am not convinced its better than normal Bondo.

So today I applied the first application of Bondo to the cabinet.   This is going to be a long process but I want it to be as perfect as I can get it.

I am experimenting with a product I have not used before called Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty.  On the top of the cab there are a lot of little lines in the wood and I am applying this product there to see how well it does.  You can apply Bondo but it will require more sanding.

Another thing I need to fix is the wood pieces under the top back of the cabinet that the glass channel screws into. Every cabinet I have worked on has had this piece broken. Its made of MDF and I decided to use real wood for this piece.  Here is what I am replacing:

Woodworking isn’t my specialty but I have fun doing it.  I first had to figure out the angle that is cut into the MDF.  I don’t have an angle finder so I just used my table saw and pivoted the blade until I got the right angle.  It turned out to be 10 degrees.  I had to make the cuts with my table saw which is my least favorite power tool.  This piece is so tiny at only 1″ wide so I had to be extra careful cutting it.  I settled with a 1/2x2x2 piece of Poplar. I installed the fence on my table saw and got to cutting.  First I cut the 10 degree angle on the end which came out perfect.  Next I had to cut the  width of the piece down to 1″ to match the original piece.

The burn mark you see above is from the tablesaw.  I wasn’t pushing the piece fast enough through since I was being extra careful not to cut my fingers off!  It sanded right out.  The piece came out great.  I will cut it to size on my Miter saw (My favorite wood cutting tool!)

The old rails were falling apart:

This past weekend I got a lot of work accomplished.  The cabinet’s exterior has had the initial sanding done and the majority of the interior and bottom of the cabinet are sanded down.  The front, top left corner was separating so I have used screws to make it solid again.  I used a Forstner bit to recess the screw head so I can Bondo over top of it and hide the repair.

I love sharing pictures like this, sanding the bottom of a cabinet really makes it look like new:

Before Sanding

After Sanding