What I learned today

camperjohn

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So today I thought I would begin the restoration (read: make look nicer), my High Speed pinball. I started with something easy to refresh my memory on how to take stuff apart, clean and put back together. I chose to repaint the lightboard on the head. Basically it was full of fingerprints, discoloured, the stickers had worn off and the metal brackets were tarnished. This was an easy 2 hour project, and my machine wouldn't be out of commision so I could still play it when I was done.

Here is what I learned.

- It always takes longer than you think. Even though I am a programmer, and I KNOW this, it still takes longer.
- Take more pictures than you think you will need.
- Things don't always go back together the way they came apart.
- Part orientation is the easiest thing to mix up. You know where the part goes back, but you will forget "does it go this way or does it go that way?"
- Write down the order of the nuts, washers and bolts. So when you put them back, you know if the washer goes on the outside, inside this, before that, after etc etc...
- Post it notes don't work for labeling. They fall off.
- The pinball machine top and/or playfield is not a workbench. Repeat: Not a workbench.
- The part you are cleaning, is always dirtier than you think.
- There are more parts than you think, that need cleaning / repairing.

This is just from repainting the lightboard. I haven't even started on the cabinet, head or my god the playfield!!

John
 
Hehehe. Now that is funny. The physical repair stuff can be frustrating, but unless you catastrophically break something, you will always be making progress of some sort.

What really frustrates me is board work on which you can spend 2 hours+ a night for 2 weeks, and have little to nothing to show for it.
 
What really frustrates me is board work on which you can spend 2 hours+ a night for 2 weeks, and have little to nothing to show for it.

That DOES suck. Just look on the bright side... in just one short decade the whole thing will make sense and you'll be able to repair boards with ease ;)
 
I am lucky, as I had a guy that loves to work on pins come over to my place and spend 5 hours resoldering the boards. Now everything on my machine fires all the time.

So now it's just a matter of making the machine look pretty. I have most of the parts, just need to install/paint/repair etc.

My next mini-project will be to restencil the head. I will probably do this seperately from the cabinet body, as I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. The head is a complete repaint, where the body will be a repaint the bad areas and leave the art alone.

I will post pics in time of todays work.
 
I just did my first thorough pinball cleaning on my Taxi. I divided the PF into numbered sections and kept all the screws, bolts, and anything else in separate, appropriately numbered containers. That, and the hundreds of pics REALLY bailed me out when I finally got to put the thing back together. Still had to fall back on just trial and error when it came to remembering which way to mount the light array under the spinout skill shot ramp.
 
I will be following this thread so keep it up to date :)! Also, photos will be nice as I dont recall you posting any pic's. I have HS too and this will be helpful as well to other HS owners. What NEW parts you speak of that you are installing? When you said this --My next mini-project will be to restencil the head." Did you buy the whole stencil kit or what? Where did you order it from? I just just need the head sides on my HS done but dont want to spend $140 for a whole kit. Let me know? Thanks
 
I will be following this thread so keep it up to date :)! Also, photos will be nice as I dont recall you posting any pic's. I have HS too and this will be helpful as well to other HS owners. What NEW parts you speak of that you are installing? When you said this --My next mini-project will be to restencil the head." Did you buy the whole stencil kit or what? Where did you order it from? I just just need the head sides on my HS done but dont want to spend $140 for a whole kit. Let me know? Thanks

I have quite a bunch of pictures of my HS playfield, both top & below. I took a bunch of them for my playfield swap. If anyone needs some I'll be happy to email them.
 
What is up with the straw in the shot glass? That is something I would not worry about, can't SEE IT from the outside, it's there and great condition on mine. Mine looks ok not to waste time on this. I was told not to use all the sockets in the light board , as it puts strain on the power supply. They dont look good with the bulb bright marks all over through the backglass. What I'am trying to say is you dont need many bulbs in to light up the backglass, experiment see what you like, you can color match the bulbs that are behind certain colors on the glass to customize/personalize it a bit, like for example the RED ferrari on the glass that the cops are chasing, you can put 2 red bulbs to light up the car red, the star on the cop car and Williams logo between the HIGH-SPEED you can do with yellow bulbs, the "APB" paper the cop is holding-- I put LED white frosted and it matches real good with the blue art on the glass,etc. etc.
 
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It was just a closeup to see that it was indeed a straw that I was using to cover the light bulbs. I slipped straws over the bulbs then taped off the top to spray paint. Took about 20 minutes to do the entire lightboard.

Next I am polishing the lockdown bar with the mothers stuff I got last weekend, and the day after christmas I am taking down the head and repainting the head. I have clear acetate to make templates from. I will do the head and body seperately to see how difficult it is and make sure I don't screw up the artwork on the body.
 
I could use those templates camperjohn for the head side art as thats all that needs attention on my machine, so when your done send them my way please let-me know?
 
Ok will do. I hope to be doing this weekend. But you know how it goes...

I will not be doing the entire side of the cabinet, just the entire head. The cabinet I am keeping the side art and repainting around it. The head, is a total repaint.

I will be in touch.
 
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