The Plan of Attack

The success of any project relies on having a good project plan behind it!

I have been working out a strategy on how to best attack this project.  As this is intended to be a 'keeper' I am going to be giving this pin the 'full works' with a thorough strip down and rebuild.

I have decided on the following approach but I am open to other suggestions:-

1. Electrical - Due to the loom being previously cut and repaired, I am going to check all electrical aspects first.  I have already completed the switch testing and all switches and optos are functioning except for one or two I need to sort out.  The continuity back to the main board is all OK as most switches in the matrix are responding, this indicates that wires in the columns and rows are fine and the problem lies with the switches themselves.  I am probably going to have to buy a few micro switches as some are a little 'sticky'. 
2. Playfield Clean - Once everything electrical has been tested and rectified I will then start the main playfield strip down and clean.  First, I am going to remove everything from the upper to give it a thorough clean.  I then move on to the underneath of the playfield.  I am not intending to remove everything from underneath at the same time as I am worried that I will struggle to put it all back!  I will be working from the front to the back and clean and tumble as I go.  I have been thinking about fully removing the loom but unless my confidence grows I will continued as planned, a bit at a time.
3. Metal Components - All metal components will be tumbled and all rubbers, star posts etc. will be replaced.  Depending on how the hardware (nuts, bolts, screws etc.) clean up, I may purchase a whole new set, especially for the upper playfield.
4. Plastics - The plastic ramps and playfield plastics will be washed and then polished with Novus.  I may flame polish the plastic ramps to remove any ball marks but they don't look too bad at all, I think they should be fine after a good session with some Novus 2.  None of the playfield plastics look too bad either and I can't see any scratches that would need to be flame polished out.  I have never flame polished before so I am a little nervous about trying this!  THIS IS NOT HOW TO FLAME POLISH - but well worth watching!
5. Metal Ramps, Wireforms and Ball Guides - The metal will then be polished and re-grained where necessary.  Certain parts will also be sent away to be electro plated in gold.
6. Playfield Waxing - The playfield will be cleaned and waxed with 5-6 layers of yellow Carnauba wax.  I use Harly Pure Wax which is totally pure and contains no additives that can cause later issues with the playfield, plastics etc.  I will then reassemble the upper playfield.
7. Testing - Once everything is back together I will give the pin some thorough testing to make sure everything is back working.
8. Cabinet - I will then move onto the main cabinet which I intend to fully strip, fill, prime, paint and add new decals.  I will also be restoring the shooter gun but I haven't decided yet whether to get that gold plated too.  I will then ad new siderails, legs, lockdown bar, flipper buttons etc.
9. Speakers - I will be replacing the existing speakers with some more modern and higher grade components.
10. Mods - I don't like too many mods on a pinball machine unless it adds to the overall playing experience or improves reliability.  I believe all mods should be reversible though, if you put them on you should be able to remove them with no damage.  I have 'modded' one of my current pins, a Twilight Zone where I added additional light at the back, added light to the gumball machine and replaced the clock lamps with LED's to reduce heat.  I may add one or two 'tweaks' to the IJ such as:

• LED's, 
• a moving propeller on the bi-plane, 
• the "lost" plastic and light board, 
• the kit to illuminate the jackpots on the speaker panel 

 Well thats the plan.  Any comments on the approach would be appreciated.

I couldn't wait for the key!

As I only work until lunchtime on a Friday, I got impatient and decided to bite the bullet and take a large drill to the coin door lock and open the IJ up.  Who needs keys!

Once I got the pin open, I decided to clean some of the playfield to see what lay under all the grime.

I am really pleased with the way it cleaned up.  I only spent five minutes with some Novus 2 but the dirt lifted beautifully and the colours came through as you can see below.  I probably won't spend much more time cleaning until I do the full strip down but I do find it very satisfying to remove grime!

I still haven't found any wear on the playfield except for near the E N T drop targets.  This area is always susceptible to damage.  As previously mentioned though, I am not too concerned as I intend to add a 'Cliffy' protector here anyway.  The protector will cover the area and prevent further damage.

Tomorrow I will be taking some 1000 grit sandpaper to the wireforms to see how they clean up.  A lot of this rust seems to look at lot worse than it actually is.  I am hoping that they'll clean up ok without having to be replated.  I still intend to get everything gold plated but if they clean up to my satisfaction I may delay the gold treatment.

Balls Of Steel - Pinball Plastic Scans

Broken Plastics

Very often plastics are damaged on pinball machines.  Common plastics can be located quite easily but for rarer machines this can be difficult.

The Balls Of Steel website contains thousands of high resolution scans of pinball plastics that can be downloaded and used to reproduce the broken or missing item.

As far as I can currently determine, my IJ only has one plastic that is broken and needs replacing, the "Jackpot" plastic as shown on the left.  Fortunately this plastic is readily available and I will probably just purchase a new one.

The following links will help me out if I decide to reproduce the broken  plastic myself:-

Indiana Jones scans on the Balls Of Steel site

How to recreate plastics

Plastic Protectors


One additional thing I will purchase is a full set of plastic protectors.  These are made from an impact resistant plastic (PETG) which don't break from ball strikes.


This photo shows the protectors with blue protective film which needs to be removed before being installed.

The protectors are the same shape as the original plastics but protrude about 1mm further out and therefore protect the original plastic piece.

Cliffy's® Protectors

Once the IJ has received its full playfield clean and wax I am going to add some metal protectors to save wear and damage in particularly vulnerable areas.

Protectors for various pinball machines are produced by Cliffy.

This photo shows a number of protectors fitted.

Ramp protectors, stainless steel ramp flaps, plastics protectors and the 3 drop target slot protector.

Further details of the IJ protectors can be found on this direct link.

Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure Restoration Project - Day 0 - Photos

The following are the photos of the IJ that I used to decide whether to buy the table or not....



The boards all look fine and boot up with no errors.



You can see from this photo why it got the nickname 'The Mega Rust Bucket of Doom'!

The door was replaced before it was delivered. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was locked and I don't currently have the key! If it doesn't arrive by Saturday I will drill the lock out as I always use 'show' locks with identical keys on all my pins.



For some reason someone must have had thought it was a good idea to cut the main looms between the head and the table! Luckily the seller has spent some time rejoining them!



The play field is really dirty. You can just see where Indy has been cleaned a little. On closer inspection I can't see any issues at all and it should clean up very nicely.



The cabinet decals are faded but this does not matter as I am going to be replacing them all when I shop the pin.



A close up of the bottom left of the play field shows some of the rusty wire forms.

These are going to be cleaned and plated in gold. I am giving the pin the full gold treatment with gold wireforms, siderails, lockdown bar and legs.



Here is a closeup of the bottom right of the playfield showing the multi-ball Idol.

So far I have not noticed any issues with any of the plastics except for the centre drop target area.

The Idol needs some work as it has worn and lost its colour in places.



Here is the top right of the pin showing one of the two planes.

The ramps all look intact with no damage that I have spotted.



The Bi-Plane has a damaged tail which I will look at repairing.

I have sourced a replacement if this can't be fixed.

The ramps are going to be re-grained and polished professionally.

I can't tell if there is any wear behind the drop targets but I will be fitting 'Cliffy' protectors to the pin to save any further wear in the vulnerable areas. I will add some more information on the Cliffy protectors in a later post.



The 'Path of Adventure' (PoA) looks to be in good shape.

I intend to add an LED mod kit to the clear red plastic areas.

The ball divertor that should be located at the back of the PoA is missing but should be on it's way with the keys!



Another shot of the upper playfield.

The ramp 'flaps' need to be replaced but generally I am very pleased with the playfield, plastics and inserts.



The underneath of the playfield is not too bad except for some rust.

Once I have stripped both the top and bottom, I intend to tumble as much of the metalwork as I can.

Parts Tumbler

As part of the pinball restoration process I will need to purchase a 'tumbler' to clean all the metal components.

I am currently asking around to see what I can find for sale in the UK and so far I have been given the following links:

Sportsman Gun Centre
Midway UK

UK Pinball League Website

A revamp of the UK Pinball League website is now on line.

http://www.ukpinballleague.co.uk/

Great work by all involved!

Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure Restoration Project - The Journey Begins!

My First Pinball Restoration

I am about to embark on my first full pinball restoration so I thought it would be a good idea to create my first Blog to record the process and document other pinball related topics.

I have recently purchased a Williams "Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure" (IJ). The table is in a very poor state and needs a lot of work carried out on it. In fact it is now known as "Indiana Jones: The Mega Rust bucket of Doom" in certain circles!

I believe the table was 'found' in a barn or similar building but I will find out more details hopefully.

History

Williams released the IJ in 1993 and it was designed by Mark Ritchie who also designed other classic pinball tables including Fish Tales. The artwork was created by Doug Watson.

Further details can be found on the Internet Pinball Database.

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1267

Delivery

I took delivery of the table on the morning of Monday, 25th January 2010 and I am now ready to start working on the restoration... well almost. When the pin was delivered I was never given the key! Hopefully, it is now on the way so I can start work this weekend.

I will post some photos in my next posting.