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Quality of TNT restorations
- Thread starter PeteB
- Start date
Something to cheer you up @PeteB and restore your faith in quality restoration/maintenance work. All this for a humble gate opener 
Here's what I started with, a Bally A371-00014-000 OUTHOLE GATE COIL ASSEMBLY. This little gizmo opens and closes a small sprung-load flap in the drain hole to capture the special gold in my err... GOLD BALL!
Stripped to bits there's some nasty patches of rust all over, particularly on the fold in the main chassis:
Sleeve, plunger, spring washer and 3 of the 4 brackets done. You can see the rust on the main chassis clearly in this photo:
And after a few hours getting jiggy with the Dremel, Autosol and Novus we have this:
I even made a little improvement by adding UNC A2 8-32 NYLOC nuts to the bracket screws so that they don't work loose. Ever.
And here it is in its place on the playfield:
LOVELY JUBBLY
Here's what I started with, a Bally A371-00014-000 OUTHOLE GATE COIL ASSEMBLY. This little gizmo opens and closes a small sprung-load flap in the drain hole to capture the special gold in my err... GOLD BALL!
Stripped to bits there's some nasty patches of rust all over, particularly on the fold in the main chassis:
Sleeve, plunger, spring washer and 3 of the 4 brackets done. You can see the rust on the main chassis clearly in this photo:
And after a few hours getting jiggy with the Dremel, Autosol and Novus we have this:
I even made a little improvement by adding UNC A2 8-32 NYLOC nuts to the bracket screws so that they don't work loose. Ever.
And here it is in its place on the playfield:
LOVELY JUBBLY
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I did the nylock upgrade on all mecha on firepower def worth doing
Yeah, that's the impression I get too. It was probably the customers choice to have a touched-up backglass rather than a repro.
My only problem with their restores of late is that they are going a bit mad with the ultra-bright LEDs everywhere which imo colourises the playfield way too much for my taste, but again the customer can choose not to go for that.
Agree on the LEDs. If you look at the pins for sale on their website it says they all include LEDs. Good for them in terms of maintenance, but on a game like BLACKOUT I'm not sure a 100% conversion to LEDs looks right. It's all personal taste of course, each to their own. I think my 1982 VECTOR looks great with LEDs on the playfield; they suit the futuristic theme, style and colours. But I think they'd look tacky in my PARAGON. For me, that needs the warm glow of genuine incandescent lamps.
My nylocs were about £8 for 100 on eBay. Should be about enough to cover the worst offenders on all 3 of my pins. Bargain upgrade!
Such beautiful work @Nedreud I'm actually doing similar work right this minuted on my RFM flipper assemblies!
Re TNT: They do LED's all wrong. Using coloured super bright's in the GI circuit not only makes the game look gash but it doesn't illuminate the playfield properly. Super bright's direct most of their light straight out, you can see this when they use them behind back glasses and translites, the artwork is 'blown out' with hot spots around each bulb.
This is how old games should be LED'd:
B-E-A-U-tiful!!
Re TNT: They do LED's all wrong. Using coloured super bright's in the GI circuit not only makes the game look gash but it doesn't illuminate the playfield properly. Super bright's direct most of their light straight out, you can see this when they use them behind back glasses and translites, the artwork is 'blown out' with hot spots around each bulb.
This is how old games should be LED'd:
B-E-A-U-tiful!!
Yeah coloured LED lights in GI look well gash IMO too, that Playboy looks spot on. 
Good example, @PeteB. I've dabbled with several different types of LEDs in my 1982 Bally VECTOR. I think this game is suited to LEDs due to the futuristic theme and because the artwork is mostly black with strong colour accents. The style is quite "neon" already. But selecting the right LEDs for each area is so important. I did a bunch of tests and wrote up about it with photos and videos on another post: http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/testing-leds-in-an-old-ss-bally.12616/
The YouTube videos are best when you turn the playback speed down to 0.25.
The YouTube videos are best when you turn the playback speed down to 0.25.
I've just noticed the granny in the hot tub on that PLAYBOY backglass! Ha ha!
I've just noticed the granny in the hot tub on that PLAYBOY backglass! Ha ha!
She's present somewhere on the DE Playboy as well (and possibly the Stern one?).
For all the TNT lovers out there, here's a recent 1 star review just posted on their Facebook page:
"I DONT EXPECT THAT TNT WILL LEAVE THIS REVIEW UP FOR LONG , BUT MY EXPERIENCE WAS TERRIBLE - I PAID 2549.00$ FOR A SUPPOSEDLY REFURBISHED 1978 BALLY MATA HARI GAME. I WAS SHOWN A VIDEO PRIOR TO MAKING MY FINAL PAYMENT AND SHIPPING , THE VIDEO DISPLAYED THE MACHINE IN A LOW BACKLIGHT ENVIRONMENT AND LOOKED FINE. WHEN THE MACHINE ARRIVED IT WAS LITERALLY A SLAP SOME PAINT ON IT AND OUT THE DOOR PIECE OF JUNK. A CABINET THAT WAS FALLING APART , SHODDY PAINT JOB WITH FINGERPRINTS ALL OVER IT , BROKEN PLAYFIELD PLASTICS , SILVER " SPRAY CAN PAINTED" LEGS. A MOLDY INTERIOR. IT WAS JUST AN ALL AROUND SLOPPY JOB. IT WAS SO POOR I ACTUALLY PAID 427.00 TO RETURN IT RATHER THAN LOSE THE 2549.00 , AFTER RECEIVING THEIR JUNK BACK THEY REFUSED TO REFUND 250.00 OF MY ORIGINAL PAYMENT THAT WAS FOR THE ORIGINAL SHIPPING - JUST A LOW CLASS ORGANIZATION. ANY DOUBTS AS TO TRUTH OF MY STORY ....CONTACT ME AND I WILL GLADLY SEND YOU THE PICTURES VIA FACEBOOK."
Another satisfied customer for TNT then.
"I DONT EXPECT THAT TNT WILL LEAVE THIS REVIEW UP FOR LONG , BUT MY EXPERIENCE WAS TERRIBLE - I PAID 2549.00$ FOR A SUPPOSEDLY REFURBISHED 1978 BALLY MATA HARI GAME. I WAS SHOWN A VIDEO PRIOR TO MAKING MY FINAL PAYMENT AND SHIPPING , THE VIDEO DISPLAYED THE MACHINE IN A LOW BACKLIGHT ENVIRONMENT AND LOOKED FINE. WHEN THE MACHINE ARRIVED IT WAS LITERALLY A SLAP SOME PAINT ON IT AND OUT THE DOOR PIECE OF JUNK. A CABINET THAT WAS FALLING APART , SHODDY PAINT JOB WITH FINGERPRINTS ALL OVER IT , BROKEN PLAYFIELD PLASTICS , SILVER " SPRAY CAN PAINTED" LEGS. A MOLDY INTERIOR. IT WAS JUST AN ALL AROUND SLOPPY JOB. IT WAS SO POOR I ACTUALLY PAID 427.00 TO RETURN IT RATHER THAN LOSE THE 2549.00 , AFTER RECEIVING THEIR JUNK BACK THEY REFUSED TO REFUND 250.00 OF MY ORIGINAL PAYMENT THAT WAS FOR THE ORIGINAL SHIPPING - JUST A LOW CLASS ORGANIZATION. ANY DOUBTS AS TO TRUTH OF MY STORY ....CONTACT ME AND I WILL GLADLY SEND YOU THE PICTURES VIA FACEBOOK."
Another satisfied customer for TNT then.
If TNT are as bad as you are making out then there would be a lot of posts on Pinside complaining about them as most of the users on there are from the USA.
From the videos I have seen they don't act or claim to be high end restorers. I just don't see any problem with them, the videos are quite enjoyable and Todd seems a nice family guy.
From the videos I have seen they don't act or claim to be high end restorers. I just don't see any problem with them, the videos are quite enjoyable and Todd seems a nice family guy.
I love the videos, very informative on games from the past, and as I am never going to buy from them don't care about their restoration work.
Todd makes me laugh same as the guys on sky that do up American muscle cars , but I ain't gonna buy a mustang from them.
Todd makes me laugh same as the guys on sky that do up American muscle cars , but I ain't gonna buy a mustang from them.
That's one piece of feedback, out of how many hundreds of games he sells each year? We all know that if you do a good job you hardly ever hear back, but do a bad one and you are 10x more likely to get a complaint.
Let's just review the overall situation. TNT and by extension Todd is a well loved member of the community, bends over backwards to go the extra mile for people (I know, having had him help me with my documentary project a few years back) and has saved more games from going in a landfill than everyone on this forum combined.
Then we have people like GRC, who sell massively overpriced games and have been repeated BANNED from Pinside for doing nothing but antagonising people and making inflammatory comments about its users and just generally bashing on TNT. I ended up unsubsribing from them because I found the constant TNT bashing and the fact that they were trying to use 'sexy' girls on their videos pretty low.
GRC will sell 1 game for something stupid, for example take their Roller Disco which has sat unsold for 6 months + because they want $4995 for it - nearly as much as an NIB Stern over in the states, whereas I think TNT has sold 2 of these games in the same time frame for half the price or less. At the end of the day they are both business with overheads etc, but in my opinion TNT does a better job actually being a business. You do not win customers by constantly ragging on the competition. I'd actually be willing to buy a game from TNT if I lived in the states or if they had something I desperately wanted and I felt I could afford the shipping.
Let's just review the overall situation. TNT and by extension Todd is a well loved member of the community, bends over backwards to go the extra mile for people (I know, having had him help me with my documentary project a few years back) and has saved more games from going in a landfill than everyone on this forum combined.
Then we have people like GRC, who sell massively overpriced games and have been repeated BANNED from Pinside for doing nothing but antagonising people and making inflammatory comments about its users and just generally bashing on TNT. I ended up unsubsribing from them because I found the constant TNT bashing and the fact that they were trying to use 'sexy' girls on their videos pretty low.
GRC will sell 1 game for something stupid, for example take their Roller Disco which has sat unsold for 6 months + because they want $4995 for it - nearly as much as an NIB Stern over in the states, whereas I think TNT has sold 2 of these games in the same time frame for half the price or less. At the end of the day they are both business with overheads etc, but in my opinion TNT does a better job actually being a business. You do not win customers by constantly ragging on the competition. I'd actually be willing to buy a game from TNT if I lived in the states or if they had something I desperately wanted and I felt I could afford the shipping.
blimey, the old GRC vs TNT battle, haven't seen this for a while
blimey, the old GRC vs TNT battle, haven't seen this for a while
Haha yeah, personally I think GRC lost that one but opinions differ
