Silverball Mania - First Pin

orion3311

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I accidentally put a thread under general repair so I'm making a new one here. Basically I got my first pin a week ago, a Silverball Mania. Its been sitting for some time, has no playfield glass or back glass (sadly), and the playfield has been touched up badly in the center and covered over in mylar, but is otherwise still there and in somewhat rough shape. The paint is still still on there for the most part.

I'm not worried about making it perfect (maybe down the road), but for now just want to get it working/playable/presentable.

First things first I cleaned it up a bit and vacuumed out the cab. Put any spare pieces/parts I found in a baggie for later. I ordered a rubber kit and the pop bumper caps from Marco, I should have ordered bulbs but I guess I'll get those next. I got a playfield glass and a junk Future Spa glass from Todd/TNT to fill it in for now - the Future Spa glass fits perfectly and has the same display layout.

Next I opened up the head, and removed all the boards and vacuumed that out. The boards are in great shape with no acid damage. The solenoid driver board has had 1-2 repairs but you can tell someone knew what they were doing.

At this point I have to clean up some questionable solder joints, check the voltages, and fire it up if everything looks ok. From there I'll replace most if not all the bulbs with 47s, clean up the playfield and wax, then maybe do some upgrades to the boards/power supply and pray I find a proper backglass down the line.
 
They've kind of hinted that a backglass will eventually come, but it could be years. Maybe the coming playfield will get that ball rolling. I recall reading that the backglass is complicated not only by the amount of mirrored ink, but the printing method used on that.

I bought the plastics set. Well worth the money.. all the CPR plastics I've seen look REALLY good.

Study that guide! Do the power checks, mods, and testing before you power it up. Replace connectors, etc.. good luck
 
Yep I've been reading up on that as time permits.

Next question - do these things use a coin box? Anyone point me to a pic of it? Is there a difference between the Bally and other brands coin boxes?
 
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Bumpage - forgot to ask Fred about this today while I was there.

ALSO...picked this up today!
 

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Damn for your first pinball and you can't play it yet. Should have checked here before purchase and you would have been advised not to get a project pin for your first pin. But oh well now you need some things to get her playing. How much did you pay for her?
 
Here are a couple of pics of the coin box.
 

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Damn for your first pinball and you can't play it yet. Should have checked here before purchase and you would have been advised not to get a project pin for your first pin. But oh well now you need some things to get her playing. How much did you pay for her?

If you know me I'm all about the projects...unfortunately LOL. The thing thats stopping me is time and space more than anything...just got back from spending 4 hours at the garage re-vamping the layout and cleaning up tons of crap. I think I found a layout that may work and even fit the pin so we'll see.

Oh and by the way, in my travels..I FOUND THAT EXACT COIN BOX!, Or something that looks really close to it. Not even sure where it came from! I guess Santa Claus was there.

(Wish Santa didn't leave that huge ass spider I tangled with though)

Thats it for arcade stuff this week most likely...chances are any other time I might get I'll just do the little mods to the pinball boards so they're ready to go. Have jury duty on Thursday then another road trip this coming weekend.
 
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Hey Wish, are the legs supposed to be black? I think I read that somewhere - mine are painted with that crappy silver paint that looks horrible.
 
Bally legs are actually a dark grey color. Not sure of the exact color if you're going to repaint them but I'm pretty sure you can get new legs in the correct color.
 
York Pinball show is coming up in a month or so, maybe I'll see if I can get some new ones there, but for now I'll just use what I have...my game room is not exactly the Smithsonian (in fact quite the opposite). I have to paint some other stuff black (on another project) so if i feel like it I'll wire brush the crappy silver paint off and see what I can do.
 
York Pinball show is coming up in a month or so, maybe I'll see if I can get some new ones there, but for now I'll just use what I have...my game room is not exactly the Smithsonian (in fact quite the opposite). I have to paint some other stuff black (on another project) so if i feel like it I'll wire brush the crappy silver paint off and see what I can do.

Nothing wrong with painting them black. Unless you've got a lot of hard core pinball collectors coming over no one will know the difference.
 
you can buy bally grey legs from marco. I picked some up for my fireball II i am working on. they look nice and i understand are powerdercoated grey so they should hold up nice.

but mine where chrome and rusty to start with
 
Hey Wish, are the legs supposed to be black? I think I read that somewhere - mine are painted with that crappy silver paint that looks horrible.

Yeah...it looks like they were originally black. Mine came with silver (chromed) legs when I bought it, so I guess someone swapped them out at some point before I got it. I don't have any plans to paint them black or swap them out for black legs.

I guess I'm just used to them.
 
Oh it looked like they were black in the pic...chrome would be a nice look on this pin considering the white body...black would go with the back glass though...decisions decisions...

Anyhow...had a few minutes tonight while I waited for laundry. Soldered up all questionable points on all 4 boards, and did all the ground mods from the guide. Cleaned up all the connectors and also removed the battery. Next will be the rectifier board when my bridges come in. I did get the molexes in so if I have a couple mins I can get those swapped out.

Edit: Also replaced the C23 filter cap with a new one. Molexes are for the rectifier board.
 
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Yeah...it looks like they were originally black. Mine came with silver (chromed) legs when I bought it, so I guess someone swapped them out at some point before I got it. I don't have any plans to paint them black or swap them out for black legs.

I guess I'm just used to them.

They were dark gray originally. They look black on the flyer but trust me they were dark gray like all the other Bally games from that era.
 
Once I was packed for my road trip I decided to spend some more time on this thing before I step away from it for a few days...

Yanked out the transformer assembly, yanked the burnt molexes off the rectifier board, as well as the bridges...cleaned up the board and fuse holders, installed new molexes, found half the fuses fell apart in my fingers. I have to check the book for mods on this before it all goes back together but it'll get 3 new larger bridges (per the repair guide) with heat sinks, then whatever mods I have left to do and I should be ready to fire her up!

(Also have to prob replace the molex housings/pins on the wire harness too - got those as well.)

I guess I'm not as cheap and lazy as I thought...this is the most work I've ever put into anything BEFORE even powering it up!

Rest of rectifier board pics here: http://www.junknet.net/arcade/?g2_itemId=7258

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