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Complete Roadshow - Under construction

My playfield suffers from colour fade. In an ideal world I'd be doing a full strip down, replacing posts and replating all metals and doing a playfield swap.

I'm being enforced by Holly to stick a budget on this one (rightly so TBH), so I'll get it looking as good as I can by tumbling existing parts and polishing others.

The Ramps are going off for a replate.

All large cab metals have been sent off for powder coat.

Roadshow doesn't command much money and only the die hards like the client build I did last year would go and spend insane money on it.

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My playfield suffers from colour fade. In an ideal world I'd be doing a full strip down, replacing posts and replating all metals and doing a playfield swap.

I'm being enforced by Holly to stick a budget on this one (rightly so TBH), so I'll get it looking as good as I can by tumbling existing parts and polishing others.

The Ramps are going off for a replate.

All large cab metals have been sent off for powder coat.

Roadshow doesn't command much money and only the die hards like the client build I did last year would go and spend insane money on it.

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I dropped lucky with the playfield, eBay 118 quid, a kind member pointed me in the right direction
 
I dropped lucky with the playfield, eBay 118 quid, a kind member pointed me in the right direction
God damn thats a steal!

Normally its like 1130 Euro's!

 
God damn thats a steal!

Normally its like 1130 Euro's!

Yes very lucky but still been an expensive restore I must have spend 1500-2000 in bits so far
 
Yes very lucky but still been an expensive restore I must have spend 1500-2000 in bits so far
Honestly the builds I normally do hit 3 - 4k.

2k so far is pretty good. This is honestly the reason I don't put my games up for sale after I've restored them.
1. A lot people don't appreciate the costs surrounding a restore, let alone the labour
2. I've had people in the past compare unrestored to restored.

Its just easier to keep my own games to myself and restore ones for other people then look to make some sort of profit on restoring and selling.
 
Got the playfield out today, stripped the cab, threw more metals into the tumbler.

In between I tackled the dreaded transformer...


Some of the tumbled parts I had threw in there a few days ago.

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The transformer...

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Looking better but I'll need to paint it I think

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Cabinet is going to take some effort tomorrow.

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Legs plates are for the bin

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Till tomorrow!

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Watching this with awe! Loved my RS and its sad to see mine go but so happy to see this one getting saved rather than skipped. Hopefully you can work your magic on it and make it look like the last one you did with the yellow armour. Good luck with it.
 
Ok it’s begging to be asked

Why not get some ply from a hardware store and build a new cab ?

Effectively it’s all you’re achieving ?

Nothing about cab is original, battle scars etc

No negativity intended ……but I don’t get the amount of effort you’re investing

I absolutely admire your commitment though

Respect

MM 🐰
 
Ok it’s begging to be asked

Why not get some ply from a hardware store and build a new cab ?

Effectively it’s all you’re achieving ?

Nothing about cab is original, battle scars etc

No negativity intended ……but I don’t get the amount of effort you’re investing

I absolutely admire your commitment though

Respect

MM 🐰


There used to be a guy called Manny who made cabs, but he got chased off a while back.

I'd need access to plans to make my own no one in the UK as far as I know has attempted to make their own cab in a while.

Repairing for me at least is easier.
 
As I said respect, I couldn’t ever achieve your level of restoration

I think I’ve l met Manny….nice guy….bit fat 🤣

So is this the “MM 🐰” s000m show or would someone like to contribute ?

MM 🐰
 
I would definitely repair the old cabinet, replacing the cabinet requires a different set of skills.
Get the measurements wrong would lead to loads of headaches.
 
It really amazes me how quickly you get through these restorations. Huge respect. Your doing an amazing job. Saw the work you did on Neil's Tom first hand and it looks top tier. 👌
 
There used to be a guy called Manny who made cabs, but he got chased off a while back.

I'd need access to plans to make my own no one in the UK as far as I know has attempted to make their own cab in a while.

Repairing for me at least

It really amazes me how quickly you get through these restorations. Huge respect. You’re doing an amazing job. Saw the work you did on Neil's Tom first hand and it looks top tier. 👌

It really amazes me how quickly you get through these restorations. Huge respect. Your doing an amazing job. Saw the work you did on Neil's Tom first hand and it looks top tier. 👌
 
There was another guy in the UK that made cabs - near Stratford upon avon. He always wanted the old cab and backbox for a pattern. He used to charge £400 from memory - and Manny was £1000. Also keep in mind Manny was a good decade before this other guy.

Manny had issues, and fell out of love with Pinball. He made some kitchen units and furniture for people I have spoken too and it is magnificent.... I did have a pinball 2000 cabinet that Manny made and it was not correct, which was unusual for him. I sold it on in the end and someone turned it into a vpin, as it would not fit the playfield.

In the past - I have put new parts into cabs. New fronts, sides, bases etc. Making a cabinet is not that hard, but the original design is not that good. Sometimes it is easier to start from new than repair something.

With CNC routing you can so easily do corner joints.

You can make a cab out of two sheets of 8 x 4 ply. Another for the BB.

It is simply having the gear and space. I used to make guitars from scratch and those are a darn site harder than a pinball cabinet. With a table router, mitre saw and circular saw and a good long days labour then one could be built.

You can not make standard cabs as there are a lot of games that have different layouts. Look where the transformers are mounted on different games. All over the shop. Speakers are in different places.
 
More work completed today. The backbox frame was hanging on by a thread. So I've pulled the joins backed, packed in wood glue and clamped all the corners back together.

I forgot to take some pictures so I'll take some before I disassemble the clamps.

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The cabinet primer went down today, I had to switch filler primer at one point as the cans ran dry.

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Backbox straps dug in a bit, so I'll need to perform some extra work on the surface but at least now the backbox frame doesn't feel like its going to give out one me!

Cut a small 5mm square to act as the base as so much of the corner was missing, will sand, fill and cut it tomorrow..

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Could only really sand and spray for an hour or so as it was late and neighbours might complain over the noise.

Managed to spray the final side on the cabinet and wood fill/finish the backbox. Its looking a lot better now.

I'll do another sand and coat on the weekend. I'm in London for the next two days :(

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Weathers been a bit rubbish so painting is postponed. I've decided to focus back on the wiring, metals and plastics.

I did however manage to sneak in a quick spray for the transformer.

I normally don't like spraying them but this one was so heavily rusted I had to or the rust would have come back.

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Decals arrived and I convinced Holly to spend our Friday sorting this out. Not before I spent 2 hrs cleaning my neighbours garage 😆

This cabinet was a bit of a nightmare, delamination kep lt occuring every step of the way.

It's a definite improvement over what it looked like but honestly I'd just preferred a new cab. The effort on all this was mental.

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