1978 Bally Playboy restoration

cysnake

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Donor 2018
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Picked this up for a good price, but it needed alot of work. MPU board was toast due to acid damage, harness was cut and spliced at certain connectors with wire nuts, rectifier board was fried and had the wrong mount for the transformer, playfield was roached, every insert was concave, mylar was peeling and bubbling and brittle, some sort of white "fuzz" under the playfield (not sure if it was mold or not), and thats just the start. So far i have removed the backbox panel and stripped it, tumbled all the lamp sockets for 24 hours, repainted the board, reinstalled all the lamp wires, repinned every connector in the entire harness due to corrosion (almost 400 wires), rewired the backbox to support the new 7 digit displays that will be put in, purchased a new CPR playfield, backglass, and plastics set. Im in the process of swapping and cleaning and rebuilding each part. The ball return ramp was a complete mess, but after alot of sanding, cleaning and polishing i think it turned out well. Flippers were rebuild because they were rusted solid (had to break them to get them apart) ball launcher was also rusted solid, moves like butter now. before and after pics:
 

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some after pics. Ive got about 100 hours in it so far, more pics as things progress.
 

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I always enjoyed that game. The wolf whistle when you drop a coin or start a game (I don't remember which) and the music when the game starts was interesting, as was the eye-candy on the playfield and backglass.

Looks like a CPR playfield - those are nice. I have one for my Bally Xenon I need to get working on.
 
I played this one ALOT as a kid. They had one at the campground we went to all summer. I got so good at it i could play all day on one quarter, and walk away from it with 10 credits left. The fun part was tilting the machine before the score rolled over to see how close i could get it to 999,999 so it would keep my score. I think its awesome that you can now mod it for 7 digit displays, I dont think ill be rolling those, lol! The CPR playfields are really sharp, im impressed with the quality and their marking for components has been spot on so far.
 
little more progress. Each piece has been taken apart and cleaned or replaced when necessary. All lamp sockets were put in the tumbler for 24 hours. as soon as my gi wire comes in i can swap the harness.
 

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Playfield is now done, (need to get some pics) finished the coin door rebuild / reskin, lockbar mech has been refinished, (looks almost like glass, pic doesnt do it justice). Working on the cab, once thats done i can start assembling


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started the cab
 

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getting ready for paint, new x-pin displays, coinbox has been de-rusted, tilt mech has been cleaned, and a quick GI test confirms my playfield wiring is good
 

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6 coats of primer, 6 coats of semigloss white for the base, and 5 coats of magenta. Next saturday we go for black, let it dry for a week and semigloss clear. should be able to start putting her back together in a little over 2 weeks. :)
 

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All thats left is clearcoat and i can start putting her back together
 

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unbelievable transformation ... it's gonna look better than when it left the factory ... from swamp donkey to super model
Thanks! Its been a ton of work, but im pretty happy with it. This one will be bolted to the floor when its done, lol!
 
Wow. That looks like it's turning out minty fresh.

I really don't like pink paint. It tends to fade too quickly. Make sure you keep it away from UV.
 
For sure! I havent seen an unfaded playboy yet. I see alot of guys that have redone them using a lighter pink then what they were. Fortunately i was able to see the actual unfaded color under the side rails. I went with rustoleum painters touch magenta. Its a really close match. It wont get much sunlight at the end of my row of pins. Not sure how newer paints react to UV.
 
translucent rubbers and cpr plastics, one more week till i can put it all back together
 

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All put together. I have a couple minor gremlins to kill and some switch adjustments / replacements, but she's up and runnin:cool:
 

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