Only a few pinball updates this weekend. Our hardwood floors are being resurfaced on Monday, so the main focus has been moving furniture from the top floor of our house to the main floor, basement or garage. The master bedroom has been moved to the basement, and the kids are sharing the other half of the room. Baseboards were removed and door framing too.
The rest of the house is in utter chaos. Furniture is hidden everywhere we could find room. This is the first time since we have moved into this house 10 years ago that we are spending any money on aesthetics. We've dumped money into brickwork, chimney repointing, landscaping, a new roof, and some foundation work. I don't think we've even painted since we first made this place our forever home. Needless to say, it is overdue.
Pinball updates. If you are ever playing a Williams/Bally pin, drain, and the hear the trough kick multiple times it's because you have a broken trough wire gate. This is what my Creech was doing. It was driving me nuts. I managed to get one from a local merchant here. Used, but the price was free so I didn't complain.
For whatever reason, these gates always seem to be broken. Over the years, I've owned or had in my possession 10 Williams/Bally pins. Every single one of them had a broken gate, or no gate at all. Simple fix on most pins, but on Creech it's a bit of a pain in the ass because of the whirlpool. You have to move the whirlpool out of the way first.
Onto the plunger. For whatever reason, I find plungers are something that are never correct. More often than not, they have the incorrect coloured spring installed, or the improper washers installed. My Creech was no exception.
The e-clip was replaced with a makeshift one. Not a bad job in a pinch, but I can't let it stay this way. You can always tell something is wrong with the install of your plunger if you can't lift the playfield without it clipping the rubber tip, or without pulling the plunger back a bit. Most often the spring(s) need replacing, but I've found the spacer washers are often missing too.
Replaced the balls tonight too. New ones are on the bottom. The old ones weren't terrible, but they did have some pitting.
Cleaned up my Snackbar subway too. First image is the before. Second (Installed) is after.
Another thing that really bothers me on a pin, and is a simple fix is when the wood from the cabinet starts to peek through. I usually take some cheap craft paint, a paint brush, and a rag and fill in the wood that is showing. It was actually pretty bad on my Creech. Here's a BEFORE and AFTER of the area under the lockbar. I will get to cleaning the lockbar mech soon. Stickers on order...
Here's a photo of the BEFORE on the inside edge of the cabinet. Left side. You can see the wood peaking out under the plastic guide that the glass slides into.
Here is a photo of the right side. I've painted about half of it here.
Here is what it looks like finished. I've only done the right side. I use a brush to fill in the black, and then give it a rub with a rag to blend it. I allow it to dry overnight before putting the glass back in place. AFTER shot below.
Here is the paint I use. Nothing special. $2 at a craft store. I bought a bulk pack so I got a rainbow of colours.