Picked a Stern Grand Prix up, advertised as a “little restorer project”, from EBay.
Advert said seller was from Czech Republic but the machine shipped from Italy.
Bought last Monday, arrived by TNT today. Would have arrived last week but got delayed in Italy for a couple of days and same in France. Both times there was a message on tracking page saying “Package delayed in transit, recovery measures started” - very dramatic - seller said TNT employees in Italy on strike in dispute over danger money they were promised for working during lockdown so that explained that delay.
Anyways from photos you could tell it had been damp at some point in its life as all metal hardware under playfield was rusting and plate in backbox that boards mounted to badly rusted too. Asked the guy about the damp and he said it was totally dry now as he had dried it out in a car spray oven!
When it arrived today there was wet mud on the base. I suspect that was picked up in transit though as photos on EBay advert showed it in warehouse (guy is selling other pins on there and they all look to be stacked in a warehouse).
It was advertised with no DMD though seller posted photo of it with DMD to show it was working (with video also).
Luckily I had a DMD lying around since as I upgraded my Elvis to Color DMD last week.
I wiped the mud off the bottom and then sanded it down.
Installed DMD.
Swapped EU plug for UK plug.
Crossed my fingers.
Switched it on.
Display shows Stern Grand Prix but does not get past that.
However the game plays - albeit display not working properly and right flipper bat is cracked so just hangs loose (though coil fires for it) and the sound rims are in Italian.
This is going to be a long shop log - good job there’s no footie on for at least a month or so to distract me - first task is buy myself a tumbler!
Advert said seller was from Czech Republic but the machine shipped from Italy.
Bought last Monday, arrived by TNT today. Would have arrived last week but got delayed in Italy for a couple of days and same in France. Both times there was a message on tracking page saying “Package delayed in transit, recovery measures started” - very dramatic - seller said TNT employees in Italy on strike in dispute over danger money they were promised for working during lockdown so that explained that delay.
Anyways from photos you could tell it had been damp at some point in its life as all metal hardware under playfield was rusting and plate in backbox that boards mounted to badly rusted too. Asked the guy about the damp and he said it was totally dry now as he had dried it out in a car spray oven!
When it arrived today there was wet mud on the base. I suspect that was picked up in transit though as photos on EBay advert showed it in warehouse (guy is selling other pins on there and they all look to be stacked in a warehouse).
It was advertised with no DMD though seller posted photo of it with DMD to show it was working (with video also).
Luckily I had a DMD lying around since as I upgraded my Elvis to Color DMD last week.
I wiped the mud off the bottom and then sanded it down.
Installed DMD.
Swapped EU plug for UK plug.
Crossed my fingers.
Switched it on.
Display shows Stern Grand Prix but does not get past that.
However the game plays - albeit display not working properly and right flipper bat is cracked so just hangs loose (though coil fires for it) and the sound rims are in Italian.
This is going to be a long shop log - good job there’s no footie on for at least a month or so to distract me - first task is buy myself a tumbler!
Attachments
-
9450B803-AFCC-4709-BC24-1EA6F88BCE20.jpeg199.4 KB · Views: 106
-
648359F3-2710-400C-A215-AB37431416A4.jpeg189.4 KB · Views: 104
-
6B92EEB9-D1DF-4970-B409-A066DA069F3B.jpeg165.7 KB · Views: 101
-
7CE6A919-905D-4182-8678-2C414C8BA4A2.jpeg134.1 KB · Views: 103
-
1D9F41F0-E709-4924-9982-BDD297BDCBFE.jpeg186 KB · Views: 101
-
EB888523-2626-40C3-A0FA-46406C38C6EF.jpeg237.9 KB · Views: 100
-
10518385-DC08-4A98-AB74-F9BFE52E6BF6.jpeg191.4 KB · Views: 102
-
1AE1F43E-4C5E-4AAC-A6EC-CFF4F5336563.jpeg158.5 KB · Views: 103
-
8E1A23A2-0A94-4EEA-A685-EA719D17F370.jpeg142.7 KB · Views: 102
-
566F2582-AFB9-40D1-991E-FB3B63F365FC.jpeg183.8 KB · Views: 99