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In Progress Dr Dude - from ebay, what was I thinking

Wintonmartin

Site Supporter
Joined
Mar 28, 2020
Messages
442
Location
Formby
Alias
Wintonmartin
I got this back in November when when there was 2 on ebay at the same time. Coming up to Christmas I barely had the time to work on it nevermind do a shop log. I'm about half way through so far so this is a little run down. I should hopefully be able to update as I go now but things will be slow.

Naturally I went for the worse one. I put my max bid in and tbh I thought it would go over given the current market, it didnt (Lucky me)

It was only near Bradford so went to collect it myself. It was on the drive ready to go when I arrived and I probably should've walked away. I got it home and after a few strong drinks I decided not to throw it on the bonfire.

Its a little bit more than I wanted to do. And limited on time and space being moved into the garden room, I had to do what I could to get it to a reasonable standard so the garden room didn't turn into a full blown workshop (Which I wouldn't mind but the misses would). I'm still learning and I would've liked to have made it a bit nicer but didn't want it to become a money pit! If I don't have to fork out on any major parts like boards etc I'll replace a few things. Open to advice/criticism.

YOLO

A few photos from the listing
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Better pictures of the condition of the playfield when I got it home. Playfield and plastics in generally good condition, little planking on the left hand side and some slight bubbling on the inserts. And obviously in need of ALOT of cleaning. Translite and cab decals in pretty good condition too apart from a gouge on the front. Ideally would've replaced these give time and space.

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Stripped out the boards and removed the playfield, the mildew seemed to get worse 🤢

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I started with the back box, Completely stripped it, thoroughly cleaned it, resprayed it and replace the T-moulding

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My new best mate for this project, Evaporust. I could not believe my eyes!

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Next up, the speaker panel. My god this was bad. Still cannot find the chrome trims for them. If I ever need to do this again I definitely wont do it myself, it needs to be powder coated. But looks 10x better than it did.

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The outside was pretty easy to get stripped back and smooth but the inside was really bad so removed most rust and just primed and sprayed it.

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Slowly started to work on the cab. The bottom was bowed and ideally would've liked to replace but no time and space I glued and clamped it then resprayed the inside. Again my spraying isn't the best but once dried and most things fitted back it doesn't look too bad. I also resprayed the legs but even though its a nice smooth finish, they just mark easily.

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Got to work on the harness giving it a good clean and replacing the 2 failed connections where they soldered directly on to the interconnect board. I haven't replaced the transformer side of the GI input as iver ordered the wrong part and waiting till something else crops up before placing more orders.



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Refitted the main cabinet harness apart from around the coin door area and refitted the boards

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This is where I got kicked into the garden room. So thought I would drop the playfield in and see what happens. All voltages check out ok but the 5v LED on the CPU isnt working. All lights up and displays fully work. Fuse 4 is blows which is linked to 4 solenoids that need looking at along with the transistors. I can toggle through the menu (Buttons don't work so having to short the contacts), it coins up and the music plays with all speakers working. The CPU has some acid damage so was worried about that but all seems to be good so far.
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Now time to start on the playfield stripping and cleaning. Plenty to be getting on with
 
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God, I think I'd have walked. Still...
anyway this chrome trim?

View attachment 160427

This is what I used on my Party Zone https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272240794542 1/2" or 12mm wide adhesive. Cheap too!

Yep, ive certainly learnt a lesson or two. I'm sure a few have done something similar 😬

That looks like it could work. I was looking for more of a right angle trim but would struggle to fit well as ones acute and ones obtuse.

I'll get some ordered
 
Yep, ive certainly learnt a lesson or two. I'm sure a few have done something similar 😬
Yeah, with cars and women.... those lessons turned a lot worse than a pinball machine.

The chrome is a self adhesive and as I remember it, pretty much dead on match for what came off mine. Mine was mashed due to being crushed into the side rails when transported.

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Trims look good.

In other news.

I found the coil that was blowing the fuse. Disconnected it and powered up with seemingly everything OK. So thought I'd see if it would play. Went to set it to freeplay and opened the coin door to smoke coming from under the playfield!!! Didn't have time to see where it was coming from before unplugging it all.
 
Smoke is usually a solenoid locking on. Did one “clunk” on when you powered on?

You could try it briefly again and see if you can see or hear one locking on ? Check fuses first might have also blown a fuse.

Whenever I switch on a machine i’ve done major work on, I always turn my music off so I can hear if anything triggers.
 
I assumed it would be a solonoid as is didn't do that last time with that circuit out of action.

A ball was in on of the kick outs so was hard to tell if there was a noise elsewhere.

Might try it again with the playfield up but the smell was awful.

Any tips for stripping the underside of the playfield? There's only a small amount of rust on the odd lampholder so was going to cut the harness from the major parts and leave the lampholders fitted.
 
wow looks fantastic, if you toss those metal parts in a tumbler as well they will come out super shiny like new :)
 
Yes better with the pf up, so you can see if anything starts smoking.

If you’re servicing under pf mechs. take plenty photos, desolder all wires and unscrew.
 
wow looks fantastic, if you toss those metal parts in a tumbler as well they will come out super shiny like new :)
Cheers man. I could've done a better job of spraying the inside of the cab and regret not replacing the base when I had the cab in bits. I recently bought a lyman tumbler and looking forward to giving it a whirl.

Yes better with the pf up, so you can see if anything starts smoking.

If you’re servicing under pf mechs. take plenty photos, desolder all wires and unscrew.
Not gonna lie, I've got the fear on doing the bottom and stripping out the harness.
 
Cheers man. I could've done a better job of spraying the inside of the cab and regret not replacing the base when I had the cab in bits. I recently bought a lyman tumbler and looking forward to giving it a whirl.


Not gonna lie, I've got the fear on doing the bottom and stripping out the harness.
Only remove what you need to. removing the whole wiring harness is a major job. why do you need to?
 
Only remove what you need to. removing the whole wiring harness is a major job. why do you need to?
I suppose I don't need to just wanted to give it a thorough clean. I'll see if I can work around it and save myself the mither
 
Dr Dude has always been on my wanted list. I was very close on getting the other Dr Dude that was for sale but got outbid at the end. Glad to see this one getting the love. What did you pay for this one ?
 
Just to update this thread.

I now own this machine so if you want to see what adventures could happen:

 
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