Complete Theatre of Magic - Three's a hat trick.

[s000m]

On to the next restoration. This one is sticking to the original decal design, will be good to see original VS. re-theme next to each other.

Cabinet:

• Cabinet Restoration
• New Cabinet Decals
• Interior Restore + Paint Job
• Powder Coated Cabinet exterior and Interior metals
• New Cabinet Braid
• New leg plates
• New leg bolts
• New Leg levellers
• New Side Rails

Backbox:

• New Backbox decals
• Re-wiring/Re-pinning of 'J' Headers
• Assessment of PCB's in backbox for Cap replacement etc.
• Powder Coat of Backbox metal

Playfield:

• Playfield Swap,replace any broken posts etc.
• Complete new plastics set
• New Playfield Rubbers
• LED assessment/replace to match themeing
• Underside Mech cleaning/assessment for replacement
• New opto interruptor
• New Trap door bracket and trap door
• Tumble/Polish metals
• Apron Powder coated

I'll update this once I've had a dig around.

 

[s000m]

Begun the strip down last night.

 

[s000m]

Playfield is out, that's most of the cab stripped.

 

[s000m]

Cabinet sand is well underway!

Cab has a fair amount of damage.

 

[s000m]

Cab interior prepped and first coat down

 

[s000m]

Second coat was set this morning, onto the first and second coat of the cab interior. Need to leave it to set for a bit.

 

[s000m]

Third coat, check the filters!

 

[s000m]

Cabinet is all prepped. Onto the backbox tomorrow.

 

[s000m]

Onto the back box. This thing had 2 decals slapped ontop of each other!

 

[s000m]

Backbox all prepped

 

[s000m]

Backbox is all done.

 

[s000m]

I've moved onto the playfield.

Had a pretty bad day, progress was slow. My machine screws kept shredding due to the pressure I was putting on the TNUTS.

My TNUT press relies on these screws along with a nut to apply pressure.

Either this playfield has denser wood or the new batch of TNUTs have duller teeth..

Got most of them done in the end.









This TNUT is especially high risk. You have to burr out the clear and strike a balance between the hole being too small and risking a crack or too big and showing around the teeth.

This one came out rather well.







Tomorrow I'll finish up the last of the TNUTs and then I'll begin with playfield population.

 

[s000m]

Made some decent headway today.

Began by labelling up the parts as per usual.






Finished off the TNUTS.







Part transfer peace mealed across with clean and polish where appropriate.







The subway is unobtainable, it has some damage but nothing major. Gave it a flame polish for good measure.

Before





After


Replacement slingshot arms



Existing trap door mech was FUBAR.

The ferrous metal just can't take the beating.





Replacement Stainless steel trap door also needs a stronger coil due to coil strength being sapped by the stainless steel mech (yes this is a thing).





All sleeves are being replaced as I go.



Will work on it more tomorrow evening

 

[s000m]

Spent most of the evening cleaning metal parts.

The bushings were only secured by one screw! Definitely had seen better days.











Most of the underside metal is now done.

 

[David_Vi]

If this is Neils, didn't he have the up post installed between the flippers or am I thinking of someone else?

 

[s000m]

If this is Neils, didn't he have the up post installed between the flippers or am I thinking of someone else?

Hmm no up post on this one, just lots of axel grease for some reason on the coil sleeves.

 

[David_Vi]

Hmm no up post on this one, just lots of axel grease for some reason on the coil sleeves.

I'm thinking of a different one that was modded either by Mark Squires or Stan

 

[s000m]

More cleaning and polishing today. Spent a good while stripping down each coil bracket, replacing sleeves, stops and yokes.




Before pop bumper rebuild



After



Coil wrapper was knackered so I printed a replacement.






Slingshot before



Side by side, before and after



After



Playfield old progress



Playfield new progress




Hopefully tomorrow I begin harness strip and can begin topside strip.

 

[s000m]

Harness is off and so is the top side, parts are either in the tumbler or sonic bath.

Tomorrow I can begin topside population.

Old playfield shot

 

[s000m]

Began installing all the metal works.



Talked Neil into replacing the star posts. The pigment has just left most of them.





Installing metal guides always a high risk element, moved on a lot since my earlier work.





This was the original height, Neil has opted for a more flush level.




Gotta admit I prefer flush.

Taking a break as I've been working since 7.

 

[s000m]

That's most if not all the topside metalwork in.

Harness next.

 

[s000m]

Switch harness on, sort of. Need to replace slingshot fingers, eos leaf switch and some roll over switches.

 

[nes4life]

Great work so far. Following this closely as the amount of effort going in is astounding!

 

[s000m]

Great work so far. Following this closely as the amount of effort going in is astounding!

Thanks it's my third Theatre of Magic this year. A lot of it has become muscle memory at this point.

 

[s000m]

Didn't have much time today unfortunately.

Replaced some switches, slingshot fingers and secured all switch harness elements to the playfield.

GI harness now on dry fit stage, all bulbs have found a home.

 

[s000m]

GI is all in. Coils are in dry fit stage.

Awaiting some stuff to arrive before I lock everything down.

 

[s000m]

Getting the trunk off is always a PITA. Managed it though. This one had multiple decals stuck on top of each other... Took ages to get the crap off.

Cleaned it all up as per usual.

 

[s000m]

Most of the top side is now in. I'm short some rubbers, these kits are never accurate!

 

[s000m]

Metal Opto plate on, check out the old one. Every ToM I've done these are cracked.





Installed the post mod. Will see if these are tall enough.



The long term loan rivet press I've had for about 2 years has been sold to someone else, so I had to buy myself a new one. Thankfully I managed to source one and it's miles better too, so that's a result.

 

[s000m]

Did some dialing in with the coil bracket positions.

Most of the plastics, installed. Work will need to stop while I wait on the powder coat stuff to come back.