Documenting my JP playfield swap

stangbat

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I'm swapping a NOS playfield into my Jurassic Park machine. I figured I'd document the process here in case anyone is interested. I'm making no guarantees on how long this will take, this is the first time I've done this.

I'm keeping track of what I've done, when, and how much time it is taking. I figured it would be nice to know at the end how long this took.

What I plan on doing:
-Playfield swap and cleaning of all items above and under the playfield.
-Interior cabinet cleaning, including all wires and components. The exterior is in nice shape and doesn't need work other than maybe a few small touch ups.
-Patch and repaint the inside cabinet area above the playfield. It is scratched from lifting the playfield.
-Remove, clean, and repaint the coin door
-Cleaning inside the backbox, but no removal of PCBs or other components

Time for pics.

The old:

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The new:

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Inside the cabinet:

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What I've done so far:

You can pretty much see what I've done from the pics, but most of the upper playfield items have been removed. The main things left are the posts and rubber, and a few electrical connections for some lighting. There are a couple of coils that need to be unsoldered and removed.

Of course the playfield has been removed from the cabinet.

I also cleaned the wiring that goes up and into the backbox. Talk about filthy. This took an hour and I probably still have more work to do. And I haven't cleaned any of the wiring under the playfield.

Some thoughts:

One thing I didn't realize is that there isn't a simple way to disconnect the playfield wiring and remove it. I had to unplug the connectors from the boards in the backbox and snake everything out. I guess now that I think about it, that makes sense. Putting in extra connectors is an added expense, more labor, and another thing that can go wrong.

It is also amazing how dirty the inside of a cabinet can get. All the wiring, everywhere, is also filthy, so I'm cleaning it because it stinks to have your hands get black every time you need to move something. Then you have to go clean up your hands before you work on something else.

The underside of the playfield is intimidating. I imagine that after I get in the midst of it I'll not have any problems. But there sure is a lot of stuff to unhook and move.

Any tips or words of encouragement are appreciated!

Total time to date: 4 hours
 
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I have to ask: why are you even doing this? 90's era DE playfields don't really wear. Your original playfield looks minty. Why not just strip it/clean it?

Maybe the picture is misleading. I have a JP that has had a full life and the playfield is still almost perfect.

It just seems a NOS swap would be better applied to a game that has a really worn playfield.
 
I have to ask: why are you even doing this? 90's era DE playfields don't really wear. Your original playfield looks minty. Why not just strip it/clean it?

Maybe the picture is misleading. I have a JP that has had a full life and the playfield is still almost perfect.

It just seems a NOS swap would be better applied to a game that has a really worn playfield.

You can't really tell from the pictures. The cellar holes are really worn. One insert is damaged. There's holes drilled in it from the op doing hack repairs in the field. There is a worn spot to wood near the upper flipper. The ball shooter lane is worn through the clear and tracked. And despite me polishing the heck out of it, the lower playfield is still pretty dull. When you get the new playfield next to it, you really realize the difference.

That being said, it isn't terrible. It could probably be stripped and repaired just fine. I'll let someone else do that, I'm going to put this one up for sale on eBay after I'm done.
 
If you ever get to that "where does this thing go" moment, I have a JP that I can take pictures of if you need help with the placement of things.
 
I have to ask: why are you even doing this? 90's era DE playfields don't really wear. Your original playfield looks minty. Why not just strip it/clean it?

Maybe the picture is misleading. I have a JP that has had a full life and the playfield is still almost perfect.

It just seems a NOS swap would be better applied to a game that has a really worn playfield.

Actually Shar they do....Case in point is a 91' Batman.... From what I read on Rgp Data East used what is called their "stealth" coating....what it comes down to, it's junk!
 
Actually Shar they do....Case in point is a 91' Batman.... From what I read on Rgp Data East used what is called their "stealth" coating....what it comes down to, it's junk!

With as much play as this game has seen, the clear coat is holding up pretty good. They may have had things dialed in by '93. '91, I can understand there being problems as that is probably the first year DE started clear coating playfields if I'm not mistaken.
 
With as much play as this game has seen, the clear coat is holding up pretty good. They may have had things dialed in by '93. '91, I can understand there being problems as that is probably the first year DE started clear coating playfields if I'm not mistaken.

I thought they were some BTTF's that had it? Which would be 1990... I could be wrong....
 
I thought they were some BTTF's that had it? Which would be 1990... I could be wrong....

I don't doubt that. I meant that I thought '91 was probably the first production year where clear coating was standard fare. Either way, '91 was pretty early in the whole process and it wouldn't surprise me if there were bugs.
 
Update 9/17

Time for an update. I'm about ready to flip the playfield over so I can start on the underside. I've left the black side rails in place because they provide strength against the playfield flexing when supported on both ends. I'll leave them in place until I get a lot of the weight off the underside of the old playfield, then transfer them to the new playfield before I start adding weight to it.

Total time to date: 6.25 hours. I made the comment to another member that if you looked at what I've done so far, you'd think I was crazy if I told you it has taken 6.25 hours. But the simple fact is it takes a lot of time to do this. I'm not a speed demon, but I'm also not dragging my feet.

I worked on polishing the ramp last night and I'm really starting to think flame polishing is the way to go. It will take forever to get it buffed out using Novus 3 and Novus 2. I'm thinking I will practice flame polishing the ramp underneath the playfield first. If successful there, I'll try the ramp on the upper playfield. The only thing that has me questioning it is the rivets that hold the metal in place on the ramp. I have a pop rivet gun, but that is no good in this situation. Flame polishing means I'll need to buy the correct rivet gun and rivets. Decisions, decisions.

Time for pictures. Parts!

dsc6134large.jpg


More parts!

dsc6133large.jpg
 
It's not the playfield, but the coin door is done. I used Rustoleum Satin. I'm happy with how it turned out.

dsc6140large.jpg


Everything is removed from the top of the playfield, it is flipped over and ready for the "real" work to begin.

dsc6139large.jpg


Playfield: 6.25 hours
Cabinet (including coin door): 4.25 hours
Backbox: 0.25 hours
Total: 11 hours
 
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Another update

I'm slowly making progress on the underside. Most of the mechanical parts on the lower part of the playfield have been removed. Hopefully it looks like I've made some progress. Wow is stuff ever dirty. It is amazing how much grime accumulates on stuff after about 18 years.

dsc6151large.jpg


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Playfield: 8.5 hours
Cabinet (including coin door): 4.25 hours
Backbox: 0.25 hours
Total: 13 hours
 
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You don't need to remove the ramp flaps to flame polish. And yes it works well, but they have to be super clean and novus 2 and 1 polished first. Then the flame is the last step. It works well, but the worse the condition of the ramp the less the effect is successful.

If you are going through the trouble of a playfield swap I think you should just take the entire underside mechs and harness, and give it a serious bath in a tube with lots of soap, or bleche-wite.

Wade
 
You don't need to remove the ramp flaps to flame polish. And yes it works well, but they have to be super clean and novus 2 and 1 polished first. Then the flame is the last step. It works well, but the worse the condition of the ramp the less the effect is successful.

If you are going through the trouble of a playfield swap I think you should just take the entire underside mechs and harness, and give it a serious bath in a tube with lots of soap, or bleche-wite.

Wade

Thanks for the flame polishing info. I was actually shown the flame polishing section on This Old Pinball and I noticed that they didn't remove the parts from the ramps. I should have mentioned that I now realize I don't need to do that. It will make things much easier. I've already polished with Novus, I just need to make sure it is extra clean before attempting it.

I plan on giving everything underneath a very good cleaning. If I'm going to the trouble to take all this off, it isn't going to go back on dirty. But I'm not in cleaning mode quite yet, I'm still trying to get everything taken off at this point.
 
Moving Day

Time to move everything off the playfield. Here it is ready to move:

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After the move:

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Ready to clean:

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The GI lighting was much easier to remove than anticipated. There isn't a ton of GI lighting on this game, and a portion of it is single lamps in sockets that are screwed under the playfield. The amount of GI lighting that was strung and stapled was pretty easy to loosen. In fact, all I'm doing is pulling the staples and transferring it to the new playfield. One wire broke and will have to be replaced, but that's it.

The plan now is to thoroughly clean all the wiring and everything under the playfield. I also need to clean all the removed components such as coils, pop bumpers, the T-Rex, ramps, etc.

As for the top of the playfield, I now need to remove the side rails.

Time so far:

Playfield: 11.5 hours
Cabinet (including coin door): 4.25 hours
Backbox: 0.25 hours
Total: 16.25 hours
 
It Lives!

It lives again! No, I haven't forgotten, I've just been busy with other machines. Since the last post I've purchased several other machines and fixed and sold a couple. So time to work on JP has been in short supply.

I got the playfield back in the cabinet yesterday and everything major is now installed and working. There really were no major issues or problems, I hooked everything up and it worked. The only electrical things not hooked up are the lights and flashers on top of the playfield. Next is to install all the upper playfield items and flame polish the ramp. I'll get some more detailed pictures later.

Playfield: 28.75 hours
Cabinet (including coin door): 6.75 hours
Backbox: 1 hours
Total: 36.5 hours

dsc6431large.jpg
 
Looking good! I'll be interested to see how the green and blue leds turn out. Was thinking of doing that to mine too.

I've been flame polishing my ramps and have a few suggestions if you haven't done yours yet.
1. Practice on the ball trough under the playfield first. This will really help.
2. I think it helps to have a darker background to hold the ramp up to. Then you can see the contrast and the plastic getting shinny.
3. I used a small pencil type torch attachment for doing mine. It allowed me to really control the flame and not overheat an area too much. This is were the practice comes in. Too long in one spot and you get bubbles. A small torch means smaller amount of bubbles if you mess up a little.
4. When the area that has the ball tracking does not look like it is not doing anything be careful. This is when you can overheat the plastic. A lot of the haze from tracking will come off with some novus 2 after you have hit it with the torch.

Good luck and post more pictures when you get it done.
 
Looking good! I'll be interested to see how the green and blue leds turn out. Was thinking of doing that to mine too.

I've been flame polishing my ramps and have a few suggestions if you haven't done yours yet.
1. Practice on the ball trough under the playfield first. This will really help.
2. I think it helps to have a darker background to hold the ramp up to. Then you can see the contrast and the plastic getting shinny.
3. I used a small pencil type torch attachment for doing mine. It allowed me to really control the flame and not overheat an area too much. This is were the practice comes in. Too long in one spot and you get bubbles. A small torch means smaller amount of bubbles if you mess up a little.
4. When the area that has the ball tracking does not look like it is not doing anything be careful. This is when you can overheat the plastic. A lot of the haze from tracking will come off with some novus 2 after you have hit it with the torch.

Good luck and post more pictures when you get it done.

Thanks for the tips, but I flame polished the ramp this morning. :D I did practice first on the subway ramp. I had pretty good success, but I can't get all the marks out because the ramp is simply too scratched. It has had a lot of play. I actually had to sand the tracked areas first because Novus 3 & 2 just wasn't cutting it. The plastic was too bumpy and dirty. After sanding with 600 and 1000 grit, the ramp was smooth enough that the flame polishing could remove most of the remaining scratches. In the end it doesn't look brand new and I don't think it ever could, but it looks better. And...I didn't ruin it. :D
 
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