Complete Stern Galaxy - Serial Number: 1411

[8bit-1up]

Bought this pin last year from a farm in Cadeby. After lots of procrastinating I have finally decided to get it out and start working on it.

Sadly when I bought it the backglass was missing. Fortunately everything else was present.

 

[8bit-1up]

Usually I like to rebuild and use the original boards and save a bit of money, but this time I’m going to order a new rectifier board from Pinball Heaven and rebuild the original board at a later date and use it as a spare.

 

[8bit-1up]

It’s always exciting when a parcel from CPR arrives.

 

[8bit-1up]

After resoldering all twelve wires to the correct locations on the rectifier board and recrimmping the connector pins, I now have a fully booting Galaxy with sound.
All voltage readings seem to be good now also.

I was quite surprised when my new rectifier board came supplied with new connector housings and pins. A big thanks to Pinball Heaven for their quick delivery and great service.

I’m very happy to say goodbye to those horrible burnt connector housings.

 

[The seeker]

Looks nice ! Give me a shout if you ever move it on Tnx

 

[8bit-1up]

Installed the new CPR backglass with a new stainless steel lift and sorted out the majority of dead bulbs.

Also made a start recrimping a lot of the connectors in the backbox.

 

[8bit-1up]

It’s time to clean, sand and paint the coin door and make it look a lot more presentable.

After doing a little research into which paint to use for classic Stern coin doors I’ve settled on Hammerite Hammered Silver. I’ll report back with a comparison to the original and see have close a match the colour is. Looks promising so far.

 

[8bit-1up]

Next up is some replacement pop bumper plastics.

 

[8bit-1up]

Coin door fully dismantled cleaned and sprayed.

I had to flatten a piece of metal someone bent trying to get access to the lock.

 

[8bit-1up]

Looks like I’ll need a new plunger rod, the metal part at the end has flattened into a lip. There’s no way to remove any of the parts without cutting the end off.

 

[8bit-1up]

So the Hammered Silver appears to be a very good match to the original colour. It’s not perfect but very close. The picture below shows the difference between the two. The original colour is the one at the bottom

 

[8bit-1up]

Time to reassemble the coin door.

 

[8bit-1up]

Made a start reassembling the coin door. Should hopefully have it finished by tomorrow.

 

[8bit-1up]

I managed to save the original shooting rod by using a grinding machine to reshape the end.

I also buffered the end to make it look a bit more presentable.

 

[8bit-1up]

Coin door reassembled and attached.

Before and after pics below.

 

[AlanJ]

Nice! where did you get the stern sticker?

 

[8bit-1up]

Nice! where did you get the stern sticker?

Here you go Alan.

$3.99 at Marco

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/12A-143

 

[AlanJ]

aha cheers

 

[Jay Walker]

Stern took long enough getting round to producing the coin door sticker. As far as I know, the 'dots' typeface is actually called "Chicago" (appropriately)

 

[Mooseman]

Great work @8bit-1up
I’m hoping to of bagged a galaxy project.
Looks like you have done some of the work for me.
Are you considering a stencil kit?

 

[8bit-1up]

Great work @8bit-1up
I’m hoping to of bagged a galaxy project.
Looks like you have done some of the work for me.
Are you considering a stencil kit?

Congratulations on buying Neil’s Galaxy! You got a really good deal there. I was very tempted to buy it myself and use the CPR playfield in my Galaxy.

I’ve decided not to restencil it because it’s going into a retro arcade and is likely to get scratched or worn.

 

[Mooseman]

Unfortunately the doofus hadn’t updated his thread so I didn’t win a great project after all. It had already been sold. Hopefully someone else does a crack in job like yourself.

 

[8bit-1up]

Excellent! My playfield protector arrived from Beehive Pinball.

Hopefully my seven month old son will allow me to install this today

 

[Deleted member 2463]

please please please please please please for the LOVE OF GOD

don't put that playfield protector on the game. Stern's are known for ball speed and spin on the ball; that protector will be like wearing welly boots on your knob whilst on a hot date with <Insert your fantasy date>

Neil.

 

[M4carp]

Lube it up and will be fine (wax)

 

[8bit-1up]

please please please please please please for the LOVE OF GOD

don't put that playfield protector on the game. Stern's are known for ball speed and spin on the ball; that protector will be like wearing welly boots on your knob whilst on a hot date with <Insert your fantasy date>

Neil.

This pin is going in a local arcade and will be getting set to freeplay, so the playfield will get trashed if I don’t take preventative steps to preserve it. The majority of people playing this machine will be children and parents and not tournament players, so I doubt they will even realise the difference.

If I had unlimited funds I would just swap out the playfield with a CPR playfield when the original gets destroyed. The good news is protectors aren’t permanent, so if I don’t like it I can always take it off.

 

[8bit-1up]

Playfield protector installed.

It now plays lightning fast!

 

[8bit-1up]

I’ll now mark this log as finished.

If anyone wants to play this Galaxy it’s located in The History of Video Games in Bristol.