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Complete The Addams Family(s) Restoration

Ant, I thought yours was all black but I'm seeing a ix of plain and black or did you just powder coat some of the bits on the 2nd one as well ?
Yes that’s right, on the 2nd PF, I’ve powder coated the chair and swamp scoops, bookcase bracket and the Thing scoop.

Reason for that is the swamp and chair scoops are stainless, so you don’t want to plate them as it’s impossible to polish the insides to a level that the rest of the game will be.

Same as the bookcase mech and Thing scoop, however they are mild steel but are awkward shapes to polish ready for zinc plating so the finish wouldn’t be as good either.

Everything on the top side of the PF on the 2nd game will be mirror polished or chromed minus 2 small ramp brackets. 👍🏻
 
I had some spare time this afternoon so I installed the swamp accelerator mods I got for both games. It’s made from a piece of milled aluminium, but I believe there are 3D print plans online.

This basically improves the flow of the ball when it’s in the swamp and should speed up the gameplay slightly.
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The angle of the Accelerator directs the ball to the kick out lane and prevents it from rolling around or getting stuck.
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It’s a really simple fit, I basically just had to unscrew the ramp and stick it down with double sided tape.
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I think I’ve said before, that I love pottering about down the garage working on pins in my spare time as a way to unwind, especially if I’ve had a busy day at work. Stick the radio on and I’m good to go.
Yeah I do know what you mean, only 3 years ago I'd be working into the wee hours of the morning flattening inserts on a funhouse clock face , scraping off glue after lifting sheets of mylar or sanding and filling cabinets ready for decals but I've lost the enthusiasm, no doubt it will return. 🤞
 
Yeah I do know what you mean, only 3 years ago I'd be working into the wee hours of the morning flattening inserts on a funhouse clock face , scraping off glue after lifting sheets of mylar or sanding and filling cabinets ready for decals but I've lost the enthusiasm, no doubt it will return. 🤞
I’m sure it will. I think what you said is spot on though, as I believe with any hobby, if you do it to much it becomes a chore in the end, and like you said you loose your enthusiasm for it.

It happened to me with a previous hobby a few years ago. I used work on it all hours of the day and in the end I hated it, sold everything off and jacked the hobby in.

Which is now why I take my time and work/play on my pins from when I get home from work until around 8pm weeknights and most weekends if we’ve got nothing planned.
 
I had some spare time this afternoon so I installed the swamp accelerator mods I got for both games. It’s made from a piece of milled aluminium, but I believe there are 3D print plans online.

This basically improves the flow of the ball when it’s in the swamp and should speed up the gameplay slightly.
View attachment 192752
The angle of the Accelerator directs the ball to the kick out lane and prevents it from rolling around or getting stuck.
View attachment 192751
It’s a really simple fit, I basically just had to unscrew the ramp and stick it down with double sided tape.
View attachment 192753
Ive noticed the ball lingering in there many times - though I thought it was my level must be off or something.
May have to try 3d printing one of these.. Looks simple enough.
However I feel I am compelled to ask why you have not painted it back 😢😂
 
However I feel I am compelled to ask why you have not painted it back 😢😂
That’s an easy answer………..I forgot I had it! Don’t worry I did think about getting it done on my next trip to the powder coaters, but I just wanted to get it fitted and move onto the next stage 😂
 
Turns out theres on on thingiverse. Slightly different to the one you have by the looks - this clips onto the side
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Alas it doesn't fit. Spacing incorrect.
There is another version that looks like it will do.
 
That’s a shame. Hopefully the other one fits. Is it the same design?
 
I've been reading this thread all the way through for the past few days, in order get caught up.

I am absolutely amazed at the effort and attention to detail you have put into these, Ant.

I lost it tonight when I saw you wit rubber gloves on dipping metal in chemicals. You've died connectors, flipper bushing, the lot.

You even got the same paint used for the text on the back of the backbox. I mean what the actual F...

You seem to "have" everything you need just lying around or know where to get it - it's both admirable and hilarious.

I keep wondering what it would take to build a pin from scratch (I've always wanted a one based on the first Terminator and have designed it in my head). You'd just know how to build it because you're that talented.

My hats off to you. Keep going because these two machines will be a massive success.
 
That’s a shame. Hopefully the other one fits. Is it the same design?
Similar, but there must be variations on the swamp assembly because the sizes are different.
Will probably stick a thread up see if the first one is any ose to anyone.
Second one fits fine.
 
Similar, but there must be variations on the swamp assembly because the sizes are different.
Will probably stick a thread up see if the first one is any ose to anyone.
Second one fits fine.
Could you post a link to the one that did fit. I couldn't find another.
 
 
I installed the switch harness with all new switches on both playfields this past weekend.
First thing I did was to fit new stand up targets. On my game I choose to go with green for the swamp instead of the standard orange.
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The harness and switches could then be soldered, screwed in place and tidied up. I also added the large Thing box and re-capped the opto board.
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Next up was the subway. The old one was really brittle and cracked on one side.
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I also had to drill out the rivets for the old micro switch bracket so that I could replace it with a black one.
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Once this was complete I did the same process for the other playfield.
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The last couple of evenings have been spent on another job I don’t like doing and that’s changing all the bulbs sockets and diodes.
It’s definitely a job worth doing imo especially when the whole harness is on the bench.
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Once done, the harness was transferred back to each playfield and screwed back in place.
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I also changed over the Thing flips optos on the second Addams as I remember these were a little flaky when playing the game.
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Before re-installing the final harness I’m going to rebuild the bookcase mechs as I’ve been working on my garage/workshop on and off since just before Christmas and I really need to get it finally finished so that I can get everything back in there and out the house.

Then I’ll fit the coil harness and will move onto the topsides of the PF’s 👍🏻
 
Both coil harnesses are basically ready to re-install but before I do that I wanted to finish off the last of the mechs.

First up was the Thing mech on the second Addams. The first thing I noticed when dismantling this was the butchered wiring.
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I have no clue as to why this was done, but it needed sorting so I cut all the wires off and basically started again with new wires.
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Then as I did with the motor housing on my game, I polished it up to an inch of its life 😂
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I then fitted everything back together and installed it in place.
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Next up we’re the book case mechs. Both these had seen better days, and as this mech gets used quite alot in the game, I decided to replace all the plastic parts and optos with new replacements.
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First job was changing the optos.
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To go with the whole black look on my game I decided to paint the blue plastic gloss black, so all the parts were lightly sanded before getting 2 coats of paint and sealer.
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I added 2 different decal mods to each book case. The stone effect one on the second Addams as it’s a-lot brighter and will suit the look of that PF and for mine I went with the dark wooden floor decal.
I then put everything back together.
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Like everything else, both motors were cleaned thoroughly and polished.
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The motor and the bookcase could then be bolted back to its metal bracket and have some new plastic pivot arms installed
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The finished bookcase mechs looked great………..however, that blue impact rubber on the one for my game was bugging the hell out of me. It just didn’t look right with the black body.

I wanted to change it, but the issue was finding something that had the same spec in terms of hardness as the standard blue rubber, as otherwise the ball would be bouncing all over the place.

So I did some research and found a place who could do the same Neoprene Rubber in same thickness and shore hardness as the original and more importantly, it was black 😂.
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Final job was to get them fitted and adjusted so that they were nice and level with the each playfield.
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Had quite a busy weekend and managed to get quite a few jobs crossed off the list.
Got the coil harness on both games all finished, fitted and tidied up.

The one on my game was pretty straight forward. I didn’t end up using the inline fuse kit to prevent any future magnet burn and only one Molex connector needing to be replaced. Overall considering how much wiring and mechs is on TAF, I was able to neaten them both up pretty well compared with how they were before I started the projects.
Before:
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After:
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The coil harness on the second game however needed a bit more work. I think I’ve mentioned before that this game has been restored in the past at some point and some of the wiring fixes were a little dodgy imo.
Whilst on the bench I fitted new flasher bulb sockets and tidied the harness up.
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There were some standard car connectors in some places and a few other questionable looking fixes. So replaced wires and installed everything with the correct connectors.
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Once done, I installed the in line fuse mod for the magnets on this one and got everything fitted back in place.
Before:
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After:
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Another couple of jobs I got done was firstly sand all the dirt off the underside of both cabs.
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And then fit new flipper and start buttons as well as the newly restored legs. Chrome on one, gloss black on the other.
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Last job I did was to fit some replacement warranty and cabinet decals that I printed off as well as a couple for the playfield.E24C6252-5CE6-48BE-9DB0-96D1878BA4D4.jpegA6DF5CD4-F7E5-4C1A-8F4E-F993A5334612.jpegC22F166E-4758-42C8-87F5-4BD5CE3D1D09.jpeg9B2F6548-33D1-44A8-B41C-4CF70BCF1E0D.jpegB9116CD8-7144-49D2-B244-80AE03622FC8.jpegA028B909-32D5-42C8-84F0-AB7095B644BC.jpegEA34A6C7-74CF-4169-8277-E99D4B9F0A18.jpeg
Plan for this week is to fit some lighting mods as well as start on the topsides. Now that I’ve had my delivery, I’ll also try and install comets in the inserts and fit more parts to the cabinets.
 
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Always look forward to the new photos. Looks like your on the home run now?
 
Always look forward to the new photos. Looks like your on the home run now?
Yes mate, nearly there now. This is the stage I really enjoy.

You have a idea in your head of how things will look but it’s only when you start putting all the parts back on the cabinet and playfield that you really start to see it take shape 😀
 
So far this week, I’ve managed to get done quite a few of those little jobs that I’ve been needing to do for a while now, both on the cabinets and playfields.

Firstly I added a couple more decals to the underside of the PF’s.
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Still working on the underside, I fitted all the leds for the inserts as well as a couple of lighting mods under the chair and swamp scoops.
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On the top side of the playfields I also started installing all the Titan rubbers on my game as well as some of @Colywobbles awesome plastic protectors and a few plastics.
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On the other playfield I’ve started to fit some of the mirror polished ball guides.
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Last night I spend most of the evening on the cabinets.
When I restored the other cabinet at the start of the project, I had an idea to drill a load of small holes in both sides of the cabinet with the idea to fit small flush fitted magnets to mount owners PinStadiums, rather than the standard sticky magnet stripe. I think I put this in a post earlier on in the build log.

So now that the art blades are in place, I could cut the decals to expose the holes.
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Then it was just a simple job to fit the magnets. I’m well pleased with out it turned out in the end.
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Another one of this little jobs was fit a new plastic sleeve for the lock down mechanism handle.
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And a quick job I’ve just completed was to fit the shaker motor in my cabinet.
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It’s was a standard PinSound Shaker, but obviously I couldn’t fit it like it was as it needed some colour, but what colour to choose?🤔😂
So of course I had to get this powder coated black to match everything else 😂.
I’m off out tonight, so I rebuilt it and got it installed this afternoon along with a new sub.
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Got some more jobs done on the topsides of both playfields.

First job was to fit a decal on the thing box as well as some plastics and some of Cols plastic protectors.
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I also fitted some Comet led rings to the pop bumpers.
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I decided to go with something slightly different for The Thing box on my game.
It was 3D printed to the same dimensions as the standard one but in black and with raised rivets around the edge. This was then painted by @RudeDogg1 who did an awesome job with it.
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The main job I’ve tackled over the last week or so was rebuilding all the plastics for both games.
One thing I realised with an Addams was that it had a mixture of the riveted flasher dome caps and also better designed twist fit caps.

The issue I have with those riveted caps is that if you ever have to change a bulb, in order to get to the lamp holder you have to unscrew the whole plastic so you can get to the bottom of it. Which on a game like TAF is a pain in the **** imo as a couple of them are located right at the back of the playfield.
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The twist fittings that I think were fitted to later B/W games, are much more user friendly as you could change the bulbs with dismantling anything.

So I thought I’d see if I could fit the newer twist domes instead of the riveted one. After some research and buying the parts I gave it a go.
First thing I needed to get was the lamp fitting which are used for this type of fitting. These are riveted below the plastic and upon getting them, I could see that they are bigger than the holes in the plastics.
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So I clamped one of the new plastics down to a piece of wood and marked around the fitting.
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I then used a 38mm hole saw to cut the area needed so that the twist domes could lock into the lamp fitting below.
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I then de-burghed the hole, drilled the holes needed for the lamp fitting and riveted it in place.
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Tested the fitment and it was spot on 😀
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Now I was confident the mod worked, I did the same to all the other riveted flasher caps on my game.
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I’m well happy it worked as it will save messing about taking plastics off just to change a bulb. Now it a a 10 second job 👍🏻

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All the new plastics are basically done now
on both playfields so next job I might tackle are a few mods I’ve got in mind and re-fit the chairs.
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@Ant-H - where did you get the thing box from please? I always liked the "stickers" which were similar, however they lacked that "reality"...

Even better if there is a public STL of it i can print myself! :D
 
@Ant-H - where did you get the thing box from please? I always liked the "stickers" which were similar, however they lacked that "reality"...

Even better if there is a public STL of it i can print myself! :D
I’ll dig out who I got it from. Unfortunately the STL file isn’t public as that was the first I checked when I found it 😀
 
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