I do like basket case projects - Williams Black Knight

I have some mylar sheet I'm going to put over the decals if they don't already have them on it.

The problem with the decals is they get marked up easily. The spinner decal on my Space Shuttle came with mylar top layer and with just a little bit of play the decal shows edge wear and what looks like air bubbles from where the ball has hit it.
 
In the home stretch, got the bowed front straightened out and cleaned up lockbar receiver.

Cleaning the door SS and the door bolts.

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Hopefully I'll be able to get the playfield back in the cab soon.
 
Thankfully all the coil transistors on the boards are good. This is the first time I've tested them. I had only tested the boards with the playfield out.

I was able to play a first game on it, as much as a person can play with the apron out where balls drain into the bottom of the cabinet.

The trough kick out is funky, it seemed like there wasn't enough travel on it when I put it together, that area had the goofy long screw so I'm thinking maybe that coil plunger got replaced with one that is too long and not allowing full travel.

The flippers were acting super weird and it made me worry I wired them wrong or something then they started working a little better and I realized I had never cleaned the flipper button lead switches. They are probably dirty as hell.

I need to add the metal plate that goes over the ball lock as the balls really slam into the bottom of that plastic.
 
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Seems like interest in this thread has tapered off...

I tried cleaning the flipper button leaf switches with a low grit file and it helped a little but I think they are just too pitted and the one on the right was majorly bent out of shape so I ordered a new set of the double switches form Planetary Pinball, they had the best price at $9.95 each.


One of the last things I need to do is clean all the red paint splatter off the apron, I'm been been putting it off because is going to be time consuming. Hopefully I can get all the paint splatter off without loosing the original apron paint.
 
Ditto! its great watching a craftsman at work... I have a Firepower that I'm going to do soon so its been fun watching the restore.
 
To back track a bit on the plastics, the repro plastics included the vertical pieces but they require drilling out and re-riveting the brackets back on. Since those original plastic were in good condition but just dirty and warped I decided I would first try cleaning them up and straighten them out.

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Turned out just about perfect.

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And I finally removed the protective film on the upper playfield.
 
It's amazing how people have such a hard time with replacement screw length.

Yeah just drive a long ass screw right into the shooter lane. I'm sure the balls on this game were beat to hell.


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To solve this issue of screws going into the shooter lane I pivoted where the coil bracket is mounted. The wood in the original area is super thin because of the routed out shooter lane. Even the tip of the factory screw from that wire holder was visible in the edge of the shooter lane.


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This may be a dumb question, but are you going to sell this when you're done with it? I'm strictly an arcade guy. I like pinball, but I don't really have any nostalgia associated with pinball, nor do I have the room for them. The one pinball exception to that is Black Knight. So if you're interested in selling once it's all done, please let me know.
 
This may be a dumb question, but are you going to sell this when you're done with it? I'm strictly an arcade guy. I like pinball, but I don't really have any nostalgia associated with pinball, nor do I have the room for them. The one pinball exception to that is Black Knight. So if you're interested in selling once it's all done, please let me know.

Not a dumb question. Not planning to sell it anytime soon.
 
Great job on the plastic piece! I misread the post and thought you replaced it with the new one, it looks that good!

This is really coming together nicely. It's a labor of love for sure, but it will look fantastic when it's done. Seems like you're in the home stretch now!

Chris
 
I am loving this thread, can't wait to see more. The care that you take in the restoration of this machine is amazing and artful! It reminds me of watching the @LyonsArcade videos where a dilapidated, almost destroyed machine becomes whole and playable again.

- jon
 
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