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In Progress Atari Middle Earth

DanLewell

DanLewell

Registered
10 Years
Joined
Jul 21, 2011
Messages
1,049
Location
Northampton, UK
Finally getting my teeth stuck into this.

so we started with this dusty / rusty old wreck. Id lost the keys so had to drill the lock...


20170509_175656.jpg

Tired to get it working but no joy.

Mark (@Pinballsurgery) worked his magic and got it working. (http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/atari-pinball-repair.36493/)
so I can now turn my attention to getting it back to it former glory.

This is my first shop log, (actually my first full strip and clean of any pinball) so I may have too much / not enough detail, but I enjoy reading the logs other people put up so I thought I should do one as well. I thought it would be best to practice on this rather than something like TAF, although Im planning a playfield swap on that once the cpr playfields are finished, so I'd better get good quick...

First up is the issues on the outside of the cab. All the metal work is pretty rusty. Some bits worse than others. I thought I'd give the coke and foil trick a go, but I'm not sure there is enough coke or foil in the world to recover these.
20170824_174448.jpg

I certainly didn't have enough patience to make a noticeable difference. I then tried sanding them down so I could polish them up, but still not really getting them as good as I wanted them.

The leg on the right is the one I attacked.

20170824_222542.jpg

So then I talked to some local Plating companies to see if I could get them shot blasted and re-plated. but that was coming in at too much money for this pin. In the end I've opted for shotblasting and powder coating with a 'chrome' powder coat. I should get it all back next week so I'll let you know how they come out.

Once the metal is off the cab you can see how faded / dirty the cab is.

20170912_200836.jpg

Not sure what to do about this. The dirt can be cleaned off but the paint is faded so there's no getting that back to the bright yellow it once was. If there were stencils readily available it would be fairly easy, spray it yellow then reapply the green and then black over the top.

So choices are:
  • Create Stencils and do it properly.
  • mask off the green and black to just respray the yellow.
  • Leave it and accept that a 40 year old game is going to look like a 40 year old game.
Any other suggestions or ideas are welcomed.

I still need to sort out the back box and back glass but they are still buried behind other crap so they will have to wait until later. (The boards are inside the cab and the head is just for show so I haven't needed to get to it to get it up and running. )

Next Job - Stripping the playfield
 
@DanLewell re: the cabinet I wouldn't bother trying to repaint it. What I generally do for cabs like this is give them a clean with a damp magic eraser :thumbs: That should get the major dirt off and make the colours pop a bit. When you start seeing yellow on the magic eraser it's time to think about stopping :)
 
Yeah, good idea, I can give that a try. do you use water or IPA with the magic eraser? I'm sure I read somewhere that IPA was best but that might have been referring to playfields.
 
I agree with Ronsplooter original paint is desirable and reflects its age. You've got nothing to lose re. the ME if you don't like the result the stencilling is pretty straight forward. Btw, if you do start sanding that cab remember the paint is likely to be lead based so take necessary precautions.
 
on to the playfield.

Being a single level makes it a bit easier to strip, They only used about 4 different screws and bolts as well so its not too hard to track which type goes where.

Acorn nuts off first. then most of the plastics just lift straight off.
20170910_105855.jpg

which reveals some unusual rubber layouts

20170910_110029.jpg


some of which I suspect aren't factory fitted.;)

20170910_110316.jpg

Keep stripping away and I've got a pile of dirty plastics

20170910_113159.jpg


and an almost bare playfield with a load of knackered rubbers.



20170910_113223.jpg

Keep going and I've got a load of rusty / corroded metal than need cleaning. Time to finally use the tumbler I bought about a year ago.:clap::clap:

20170911_222300.jpg

I did have my doubts as to how well this lot would come out but I've been running the tumbler for a few days and nights and they looked pretty good this morning. I've left them running all day so they might be ready to come out when I get home later.

The plastics have come up pretty good as well. I used some miracle cleaner powder that I got off someone at one of the shows years ago. make up a solution put in the dirty plastics and leave them for 10 minutes. give it a quick rub with a soft brush and rinse. Here's the before and after of the clear plastics.
20170911_211628.jpg


20170911_220225.jpg

I think these were probably clear originally but have discoloured over time. I'll give them a once over with novus before they go back in, but I think that's about as good as they are getting.

The metalwork on the bottom of the playfield is pretty corroded as well, so I'm going to remove each mech, strip it and polish it then refit.

20170509_212829.jpg

I'll put up some more up close shots as I strip them down. I'm going to try and get everything stripped and rebuilt before I get the stuff back from the powder coaters, so hopefully it will be up and running by next weekend.
 
Yeah, good idea, I can give that a try. do you use water or IPA with the magic eraser? I'm sure I read somewhere that IPA was best but that might have been referring to playfields.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't use IPA for this application as its a bit too aggressive and you'll get into the paint quicker than you'd like. Soaking in water works (wring it out so it's just damp) but my preference and what I generally always do for cabs is to use window/glass cleaner. Spray onto the cab directly (don't go too mad) and then rub with the magic eraser. Yellow painted cabs seem to react quite well to this as I've done it previously on Fireball 2 and Wizard and it looked loads better :thumbs:
 
Dan

Ipa and a magic eraser is very effective but it is extremely powerful. You have to be so careful if you ever use this combo. It is great for getting rid of ball swirls, but you are through to the wood before you know it.

Nice to see an atari getting the treatment. I have never played an atari pinball before.
 
Very interesting looking pin. Love those flippers and the play field looks amazing for its age. Great artwork on that play field aswell.
Would love to have a few games on that.
 
Didn't get as much done this week as I wanted to. but there is some progress.

Cleaned out the inside of the cab. hoovered all the crap out. Didn't want to strip all the wiring out so got a few baby wipes in there to clean it up a bit.

Before:
20170917_122310.jpg

after:
20170917_122645.jpg

started to take bits from the bottom of the playfield and tried my hand at polishing. Definitely need more practice but its a marked improvement on what it was like to start with.

20170921_180214.jpg 20170921_181430.jpg

and some metalwork back from the powdercoaters.

IMG_0301.JPG

IMG_0302.JPG

I did try to do one side of the cab with magic eraser and water last week but didn't really make too much difference. I'll give it another go later this weekend hopefully then I can get the cab back together.
 
But, there is a problem that came up yesterday. :(

Stripped one of the flipper mechs. and the coil stop is broken. its come away from the plate it is riveted to and is stuck in the coil sleeve. It'll probably work like that but isn't going to be as good as it could be, so I thought I'll just get a new coil stop. Except, this is an atari so bits aren't readily available.

I was planning on getting the closest thing I could find and then make it work. The problem is the coil stop fits the opposite way around to all the other coil stops in the world...

20170923_114028.jpg

There is a solution by the looks of things though. you can get a replacement coil stop for the existing bracket. :clap:

does anyone know if I can get them in the UK anywhere?

IMG_0300.PNG
 
What’s the media your using in the tumbler? I’ve got screws that look like that which I’m trying to make shiny again!
 
I used Corn cob with a big squirt of autosol. They came out a treat.

I've still not finished it though. There is an issue with the display not showing properly. I'll put some pics up once its all done. I did take a load of photos of the shiney bits but I think I've lost them when I changed my phone. :mad:
 
You can have them if you cover postage, or collect them, or I can add to any future order.
 
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No rush, but if you get a minute could you PM me details of where you got the rails and legs powder coated. If you have some close ups that would be great to. Cheers Tom
 
Loving this thread @DanLewell :D Much rather see you go all the way and out on this rather another TAF! Atari pins are so rare, this one deserves some special TLC. That playfield is absolutely lush and in great condition. What beautiful artwork! Would love to have this pin in my collection. Watching your thread with interest... also, I too would be interested to see some close-ups of the chrome powder coat.
 
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