In Progress Whitewater Full Refurb

[Jsyjamie]

Cut a long story short I bought this Whitewater off eBay about 3 years ago as 100% working. When it arrived it wasn't just not working but it was a completely different pin than those in the pictures! So I opened up a dispute with and got my money back but now I was stuck with a pin which had cost me ££ to get delivered and was going to cost more to send back. I contacted the seller and made them an offer which I thought was fair and luckily they accepted. So from a nice Whitewater I ended up with a non worker with almost every plastic and ramp broken.

I've been accumulating bits over the years and started on it twice before moving house both times. Now I have the time and space to crack on and have set a target of June to have it done as I would like to have it at the wedding.

Anyway I started stripping the cabinet and back box Boxing Day and have been filling and sanding the back box the last couple of days. Luckily there was no battery corrosion on the boards even though their use by date was 2009. However the power driver board has been hacked to fcuk and will need replacing so any suggestions which way to go?

I'll shut up and post some pictures of the last few days progress.

Ps thanks to @Paul @newdos and @Spandangler amongst others for posting their logs and giving me inspiration!

 

[DRD]

Some classy operator fixes in this one. Great title, worthy of saving

 

[Jsyjamie]

One "fix" I'd never seen before was this lock installed next to the start button.

 

[Spandangler]

Nice one mate. I haven't stopped playing mine since the week before Xmas. It soooooo frickin hard yet keeps you coming back for more.

I need to mark my shop log up as complete actually. My cabinet is mint and unfaded so I naturally I left it. My back box however would benefit from a touch up. Maybe one day!!

God speed

 

[RudeDogg1]

Think that's an alarm

 

[newdos]

will be watching with interest man!!!

Cheers Kev

 

[Paul]

looks like a method of adding credits manually without opening the cab - hence why cabled to the coin i/f board....

 

[Jsyjamie]

Bit more progress today.

Had the first lot of bits out the tumbler I had going all night. Really happy with how well it works!

Applied and sanded what is probably round four or five of filler. Decided it is the best I am going to get with my skill set and patience levels!

Worked my way up through grits 80 > 120 > 240 and I would say it's 99% smooth which is good enough for me considering no one is going to be looking at it through a microscope.

Gave it a quick blow with the compressor and put it to bed for the night. Tomorrow will be priming weather and hangover permitting

Happy new year all!

 

[newdos]

Looking good!!!

 

[RudeDogg1]

I do like a shop log must do some more to bsd the issues have made me loose interest abit :0(

 

[Dunc]

do love whitewater! keep up the good work, I shall be watching with interest!

Dunc

 

[Jsyjamie]

Hangover yesterday and biblical weather today has put the stops on getting the back box primed and painted.

So made a start on the mini playfield today and it is filthy! Stripped everything off the top and bottom and some ball bag decided to stick three screws through the bottom for some reason. Luckily they didn't go all the way through! No idea what they were there for? All of the screws and posts seem to have been over tightened on the top so will need repairing. Bit of a learning curve!

All the metal parts are in the tumbler getting polished so that's it for the day.

Tomorrow's jobs will be remove the Mylar, rebuild the flipper and hopefully get Bigfoot stripped and cleaned.

 

[Moonraker]

Stripped everything off the top and bottom and some ball bag decided to stick three screws through the bottom for some reason. Luckily they didn't go all the way through! No idea what they were there for?

Looks like an operator bodge to stop the ball getting stuck or jumping off the indended route. I wonder if a wire guide is missing on or near that location...

 

[Jsyjamie]

Mad what people do to keep the ££ coming in!

 

[newdos]

looks like bigfoot could do with a face wash lol!!!

 

[Jsyjamie]

Lol, he's in need of a full sponge bath!!

 

[RudeDogg1]

How the hell do u guys clean his fur

 

[replicas]

Remove it, wash it, then glue it back on.
Or if it's moth eaten replace it.

 

[RudeDogg1]

Oh didn't know it was removable

 

[replicas]

Oh didn't know it was removable

Anything is removable.

 

[RudeDogg1]

Easy tiger

 

[Jsyjamie]

Didn't get much done as I was watching England embarrass South Africa this morning.

Pulled the two areas of Mylar off the playfield using the hairdryer method which worked really well. Then gave it a wipe with white spirit and the the glue came right off after leaving it for about a minute so happy days!

Gave the whole thing a good clean but there is some proper ground in ball trails which don't want to budge, anyone got a good method of cleaning these??

Got all of the flipper parts out of the tumbler and hand polished some of the bits which were still a bit dull with autosol and wire wool. Gave the coil a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner and dryed it out with the compressor. There are some screws and washers missing and rather than ordering individual parts does anyone do a pack of common parts in the UK like those on the Marco website??

Cheers

 

[Paul]

Coil in the ultrasonic??!!!! Personally think I'd steer clear of that !!!

Ball trails on the Mini PF - Novus 2 or 3 and lots of elbow grease Wont get it perfect, however as close as it'll get

 

[Paul]

There are some screws and washers missing and rather than ordering individual parts does anyone do a pack of common parts in the UK like those on the Marco website??

@bartron - you did a kit a while back - are you still doing these (personally i found it rather useful and wouldnt mind a couple more!), or have you a list of the bits that were in the kit at all??

 

[Jsyjamie]

Haha, I did think that but on quite a few threads on pinside people do it and they're fine so fingers crossed!

Cheers Paul, I'll give that a go.

 

[Paul]

quite a few threads on pinside people do it and they're fine so fingers crossed!

Really?? Would have through that any issues with the copper coating and sticking them in there would screw it up completely, however i guess if others are doing it...

 

[Spandangler]

I have the same ball trails on my mini pf mate. There's just no getting rid of them afraid. You'll improve on them but never eradicate them. I used ipa and magic eraser as far as I dared then just called it a day. Most of its covered by boulders anyway

 

[Jsyjamie]

Very true mate, I probably need to realise that it's never going to be perfect!

 

[Jsyjamie]

Stripped Bigfoot this evening but got stuck trying to get the head bracket off. Seriously frustrated and nearly ended up ripping it off!
Think I'm right in saying that the hole in the picture should be loosened off with an Alan key but all of the sizes I have are either too big or too small so I'm guessing it has been stripped to the point that it's too far gone?
Any other ideas how to get it out?
Cheers

 

[aaronhicksuk]

You are using imperial allen keys right? If so and its totally stripped I'd use an easy out, kinda like a tap with a reverse thread:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8pc-Screw...570662?hash=item3ab67a4966:g:giMAAMXQL99Sczcf

You'll probably need a pretty small one though, but wouldn't need to drill a pilot hole first.

It looks like theres still plenty of meat in that grub screw though, so the correct size key should work fine.