Complete The Addams Family(s) Restoration

[Ant-H]

Will one of these make it to pinfest this year mate ??

Cheers

Kev

Yes mate, definitely one of them will be going, possibly both.

 

[Ant-H]

This past weekend I got loads done on both machines.

The first job I tackled was finishing off the integrated Pinstadiums mod on my game. I removed the magnet backing on both light bars and stuck them in place.


I’m really pleased with how these turned out as when I originally cut the groove out in the sides of the cabinet, I wasn’t 100% confident that the playfield would clear them, and the whole point of this mod was so I wouldn’t have to remove them every time I needed to lift the PF. Plus it wasn’t the kind of thing I could easily change.

But they turned out perfect, as when looking down the length of the cabinet, you can’t see them at all, so I’ll have no issues with them catching the playfield.


As the Pinstadiums were now integrated in the cabinet, the wiring for them would also need to be installed differently from the standard method.
I had to carefully trim a 10mm piece of the under cabinet away on both sides, so that I could completely hide the ribbon cables from view.
I then run all the wires and the pcb board on back of the cab so it was out of the way of the PF.


I think the biggest worry for me with this mod, was if there would still be enough light projecting out when the light bars were sunk back into the sides of the cab.
But doing a quick test, I was really surprised with how it lite up.


All I need to do now is connect it up to my wifi so I can then use the app and set it to the colour I want.

For the other Addams I can’t fit the Pinstadiums until after the PF is installed but I thought test out the magnet mod I did and see how straight the sides now were.


If I’m honest, I was more pleased with how this turned out as it showed me that the side that was warped like a banana, had straightened out nicely from the work I did earlier on in the restoration.


As before the original Pinstadiums wouldn’t sit flush with the sides and fell off quite easily.

Next up was the job I’m always a little apprehensive about, plugging everything back in .
When I start testing, I always start by only plugging the cabinet harness back in and doing a “smoke” test, just to make sure there’s no issues with the boards or any of the cabinet wiring since I stripped everything down. Both games were spot on.


Before fitting the playfields back into the cabinets, I prefer to plug everything back in whilst the PF is still on the rotisserie sitting next the cab, as I find it a lot easier to do any adjustments, tests and possible fault finding when it’s not in the cabinet.
I test one harness at a time, starting with GI, switches then the coils. That way I think it’s easier to trace any issues.

Other than adjusting some switches, leds and swapping a couple connectors, everything worked great.




Lifting both playfields back in went relatively smoothly as well and they both dropped in without an issue.
Sanding the wooden side rails and the new playfields down slightly earlier on in the project was definitely the right thing to do as there is now a good 3-4mm gap either side so there will no issue with catching, even if they had mirror blades fitted.



I did a little bit more cable management and added a couple more stickers to finish them off.
Before PF swap

After

Before PF swap


After


Last thing I did, which I finished last night was to plug everything back in, install the OCD boards and tidy everything up.
Before



Now





For this week, my plan is to connect up the Pinstadiums with the app, fit the side rails plus a couple more mods I’ve been working on.

 

[ChrisH]

Absolute works of art!

 

[Happypin]

Ant
fabulous, getting these to pinfest will be a treat for everyone following your work.

 

[Ant-H]

I didn’t end up doing much on them last night other than some play testing. I did manage to tour the mansion on my game which was cool .

I also did a little work on the random plastics that I have left from the sets I bought.
This small blue piece never seems to get used or seen on other TAF.


On all the TAF that I have played, there is always a GI bulbs that is in my direct view when playing, and is pretty bright especially if leds have been fitted.


I have no clue if this is correct as I’ve never seen one used, but the little blue plastic is a perfect fit for that area. The screws for the ramp hold it in place and it perfectly blocks the light from shining in your eyes when playing.



I’ve started modding the other random unused plastics I have left but I’ve run out of the tiny metal brackets, so I need to think of a plan b to finish it off.

 

[Happypin]

mine doesn't have it, does shine bright.
Will take a look to see if I have one in stock.

 

[Ant-H]

Another group of plastics that are included in a new set are these:-

From what I understand, these were intended to be used around the cemetery but were scrapped on the production games. I’ve seen some people on pinside glue them together but I wasn’t sold with the final look, so I did something else.

First thing I did was to mark out what part of the actual plastic I wanted to keep and then got cutting with my dremal.

I then filed down the corners slightly, as I thought it would look better.

I also made some cuts on the other piece I needed

Ideally I needed a couple of those small angled brackets that are used sometimes to rivet plastic together, but unfortunately I only had 1 spare.
So plan b was to make my own. I had a dig through my spares box and found these 2 S/S plates that were from an old arcade coin door that I stripped a while ago.

I cut 2 some small stripes from then, shaped the corners and bent them to a 90 degree angle. Then drilled a couple of holes and painted them black.


Now I had all the parts I could start assembling by riveting them together using the small brackets I made.




Last job was to mount it on the end of the plastic ramp so it forms a sort of arch way for the ball to roll through. Now I just need to make another one

 

[Jay Walker]

I won't be able to look at an Addams now, without picturing those.

 

[Ant-H]

I finally got Wi-Fi installed in the workshop so I could set up the Pinstadiums on the app. I set it to white as I think it really brings out the artwork of the playfields.
I’m really pleased with the extra light they give this game as well.
Before:-

After

Before

After

Before

After

The owner of the other TAF originally was planning on ordering custom shooter rod with a glass handle from the US, however I said I could probably make something similar as when I looked closely at the photos online, the quality looked questionable.

I simply drilled and tapped a brass collar so it could accept an M8 shooter rod and then had it powder coated.

I did 2 different types but the purple one is the one we went with.




I also fitted the side rails on both cabinets as well, which only leaves the lock bars as the last pieces of armour left to go on.

 

[Ant-H]

I’ve been busy this week finishing off some of the last few jobs to do.

A couple I got crossed off the list was fitting the shooter rod on my game and rebuilding both aprons.
Like literally everything else on my TAF, all the shooter rod parts were powder coated black.


The TAF manual states that you should use a green shooter rod spring, but when I tried it out, you would hit the skill shot every time, and that was with a full plunge. So I settled for a blue spring so that a full plunge would send you round to the pop bumpers, this making the skull shot harder.


Another last minute idea I had was to make a plate to go around the shooter rod bracket. Firstly I made a rough cardboard template so that I could check the dimensions.

My son then machined it out of a piece
of aluminium plate.


It was then blacked out to match.


Next up was rebuilding the aprons. Both were fully stripped and powder coated in gloss glass.

New decals were added next followed by the wire form and some new apron cards.



The decals I used were slightly different in the way they were cut, as they came from different suppliers, but I think they both came out great.


Last job was to fit them to the playfields and add a replacement warning decal.



For me, one of the best things when playing TAF is the whole multiball sequence. I really like how the sound gives the effect like the the game is powering up with the electricity noises and lighting etc . Its actually my youngest daughter’s favourite part of the game.

So at the start of the projects, I had the idea that I definitely wanted to incorporate the shaker motor to that sequence plus I wanted to try and add a smoke machine as well.
You can literally set it up so that it, in theory could come on every time you hit the pop bumpers. However I think the room would quickly fill up with smoke if you did that.

My initial thinking behind it was for it to come on with the electrical and powering up sound effects along the the shaker motor rumbling away. The idea being that the smoke machine would add that last thing in order to give the impression that the actual game has started to smoke.
Plus I thought it would be funny as **** to see my friend’s reaction when they play it and don’t expect that to happen

I’ve been working on it for about a month now, and I think I’m at the point where I’ve dailed it in and am happy with how it works when playing the game.

I started by finding the smallest smoke machine I could. As standard they come with a wired switch/button.



The PinSound shaker control board would be used to control it, but I needed to work out how to mod the wired switch/button so that it would work with the control board


Another challenge was to work out the best way to power it and where to mount it on the game. My first thought was to put it in the cabinet and add a pipe so that the smoke blast outside. The issue with doing that, is that smoke machines get hot!

So that idea was scrapped. Plan B was to mount it under the cabinet itself. This worked well but also highlighted a couple of other problems.
Firstly I wanted to wire it up to the actual game so that it comes on when the pin is switched on.
I also noticed that even though it was mounted outside and underneath the cabinet, when I felt the wood on the inside on the bottom of the cab, it was getting hot from heat transferring through the wood.

So I bought some heat shielding used for car exhausts and made a plate to go below the cab.


This did the trick as there is hardly any heat transfer coming through now.
To power it, I cut a small hole in the bottom of the cabinet and wired it directly to the transformer, so that it would come on at the same time the pin is switched on.


Next up, was getting it to work with shaker motor control board. My idea was to simply cut the switch/button off and simply wire it directly to switch relay on the control board. Unfortunately this didn’t work as when I tried it out, nothing happened .

After opening the smoke machine activation button/switch up, I eventually worked out through trail and error that I needed to in incorporate the small pcb board when wiring it up to the control board.


Now I knew it would work, I needed to somehow mount the small pcb board. I asked a friend to 3D print me a little box that I could fit it into and then install somewhere inside the cabinet.


When it came to finding a location to fit this, I ideally wanted it to go somewhere easily visible so that you could quickly see the leds on the board. These basically tell you that it is ready to use. So I decided to mount it on the bottom in the cabinet.


Locating it where I did gives you a perfect view of the leds when you open the coin door.


I also added a Molex connector to the wire running upto the control board, so that everything could quickly be disconnected, if I needed to move the game.


The next hurdle, was to find an appropriate smoke fluid to use. The basic stuff on the market is fine if you wanted the smoke to stay in the room for 5 to 10 minutes. Obviously I didn’t want this so I found 3 different brands of extra quick dissipating fluid.
After the initial testing, I’d say 2 of the manufacturers were talking bull**** as I timed their products to see how long it took to disappear and both were between 3-5 minutes.
But the third one I tried was spot on, with the smoke lasting approximately 10 seconds.

I used the standard PinSound program to set up when I wanted the switch relay to kick in. You can basically adjust when it happens, how long for and how many times you want it repeated.
I knew I only wanted it to be activated on the start of multiball and to only go off the once. What I wasn’t sure of was how long it should smoke for. So I went with 5 seconds at first. As you can see, 5 seconds was to long


After a lot of trail and error, I found the perfect timing was 0.8 of a second. That gave a good blast of smoke and evaporated within 10 seconds so it doesn’t fill the room but still gives the effect that the actual game has started to smoke, especially when your standing in front playing the game .

I’ve also programmed it to come on during both, Raise the Dead and Seance modes, but with slightly different timing. It particularly goes well with the music and knocker during the seance mode.

I’ve also now fitted one in the other TAF as well.

 

[Bobbdobalina]

Just WOW

 

[Big Phil]

After you’d modded the topper with the cloud effect, I was half expecting a smoked black apron with a similar effect.

Truly awesome work!

 

[Scorn]

truly no words

Just wow

 

[Happypin]

Unbelievable Ant, that smoke machine is a great idea.

 

[Silverpaolo]

Another level buddy no one does work like yours this side of the pond !

 

[Toxteth O'Grady]

And again..........wow!

 

[Ant-H]

Thanks guys. I actually picked up the last couple of parts from the powder coaters yesterday, so the the plan is to try and get both games finished by the end of next week.

I can then move them out the workshop and replace with a BSD.

 

[Ant-H]

After you’d modded the topper with the cloud effect, I was half expecting a smoked black apron with a similar effect.

Truly awesome work!

At the start of the project my initial plan was to do another custom apron and coin door, with a glowing type effect but as with a lot on my ideas/plans, I end up changing them at the last minute and do something else

 

[newdos]

I’ve been busy this week finishing off some of the last few jobs to do.

A couple I got crossed off the list was fitting the shooter rod on my game and rebuilding both aprons.
Like literally everything else on my TAF, all the shooter rod parts were powder coated black.
View attachment 200956

The TAF manual states that you should use a green shooter rod spring, but when I tried it out, you would hit the skill shot every time, and that was with a full plunge. So I settled for a blue spring so that a full plunge would send you round to the pop bumpers, this making the skull shot harder.
View attachment 200957

Another last minute idea I had was to make a plate to go around the shooter rod bracket. Firstly I made a rough cardboard template so that I could check the dimensions.
View attachment 200958
My son then machined it out of a piece
of aluminium plate.
View attachment 200959
View attachment 200961
It was then blacked out to match.
View attachment 200962

Next up was rebuilding the aprons. Both were fully stripped and powder coated in gloss glass.
View attachment 200967
New decals were added next followed by the wire form and some new apron cards.
View attachment 200969View attachment 200970
View attachment 200971

The decals I used were slightly different in the way they were cut, as they came from different suppliers, but I think they both came out great.
View attachment 200968

Last job was to fit them to the playfields and add a replacement warning decal.
View attachment 200965
View attachment 200966

For me, one of the best things when playing TAF is the whole multiball sequence. I really like how the sound gives the effect like the the game is powering up with the electricity noises and lighting etc . Its actually my youngest daughter’s favourite part of the game.

So at the start of the projects, I had the idea that I definitely wanted to incorporate the shaker motor to that sequence plus I wanted to try and add a smoke machine as well.
You can literally set it up so that it, in theory could come on every time you hit the pop bumpers. However I think the room would quickly fill up with smoke if you did that.

My initial thinking behind it was for it to come on with the electrical and powering up sound effects along the the shaker motor rumbling away. The idea being that the smoke machine would add that last thing in order to give the impression that the actual game has started to smoke.
Plus I thought it would be funny as **** to see my friend’s reaction when they play it and don’t expect that to happen

I’ve been working on it for about a month now, and I think I’m at the point where I’ve dailed it in and am happy with how it works when playing the game.

I started by finding the smallest smoke machine I could. As standard they come with a wired switch/button.
View attachment 200955
View attachment 200972

The PinSound shaker control board would be used to control it, but I needed to work out how to mod the wired switch/button so that it would work with the control board
View attachment 200992

Another challenge was to work out the best way to power it and where to mount it on the game. My first thought was to put it in the cabinet and add a pipe so that the smoke blast outside. The issue with doing that, is that smoke machines get hot!

So that idea was scrapped. Plan B was to mount it under the cabinet itself. This worked well but also highlighted a couple of other problems.
Firstly I wanted to wire it up to the actual game so that it comes on when the pin is switched on.
I also noticed that even though it was mounted outside and underneath the cabinet, when I felt the wood on the inside on the bottom of the cab, it was getting hot from heat transferring through the wood.

So I bought some heat shielding used for car exhausts and made a plate to go below the cab.
View attachment 200944View attachment 200945View attachment 200946View attachment 200947

This did the trick as there is hardly any heat transfer coming through now.
To power it, I cut a small hole in the bottom of the cabinet and wired it directly to the transformer, so that it would come on at the same time the pin is switched on.
View attachment 200973

Next up, was getting it to work with shaker motor control board. My idea was to simply cut the switch/button off and simply wire it directly to switch relay on the control board. Unfortunately this didn’t work as when I tried it out, nothing happened .

After opening the smoke machine activation button/switch up, I eventually worked out through trail and error that I needed to in incorporate the small pcb board when wiring it up to the control board.
View attachment 200949View attachment 200950

Now I knew it would work, I needed to somehow mount the small pcb board. I asked a friend to 3D print me a little box that I could fit it into and then install somewhere inside the cabinet.
View attachment 200953View attachment 200951View attachment 200952

When it came to finding a location to fit this, I ideally wanted it to go somewhere easily visible so that you could quickly see the leds on the board. These basically tell you that it is ready to use. So I decided to mount it on the bottom in the cabinet.
View attachment 200977

Locating it where I did gives you a perfect view of the leds when you open the coin door.
View attachment 200964

I also added a Molex connector to the wire running upto the control board, so that everything could quickly be disconnected, if I needed to move the game.
View attachment 200976

The next hurdle, was to find an appropriate smoke fluid to use. The basic stuff on the market is fine if you wanted the smoke to stay in the room for 5 to 10 minutes. Obviously I didn’t want this so I found 3 different brands of extra quick dissipating fluid.
After the initial testing, I’d say 2 of the manufacturers were talking bull**** as I timed their products to see how long it took to disappear and both were between 3-5 minutes.
But the third one I tried was spot on, with the smoke lasting approximately 10 seconds.

I used the standard PinSound program to set up when I wanted the switch relay to kick in. You can basically adjust when it happens, how long for and how many times you want it repeated.
I knew I only wanted it to be activated on the start of multiball and to only go off the once. What I wasn’t sure of was how long it should smoke for. So I went with 5 seconds at first. As you can see, 5 seconds was to long
View attachment 200948

After a lot of trail and error, I found the perfect timing was 0.8 of a second. That gave a good blast of smoke and evaporated within 10 seconds so it doesn’t fill the room but still gives the effect that the actual game has started to smoke, especially when your standing in front playing the game .

I’ve also programmed it to come on during both, Raise the Dead and Seance modes, but with slightly different timing. It particularly goes well with the music and knocker during the seance mode.

I’ve also now fitted one in the other TAF as well.

Amazeballs Ant !!!!

 

[Happypin]

At the start of the project my initial plan was to do another custom apron and coin door, with a glowing type effect but as with a lot on my ideas/plans, I end up changing them at the last minute and do something else

Cant wait to get my hands on the flipper buttons.
just love it mate.

 

[Ant-H]

I’m finally on the last few jobs and should have both these games done within the next couple of day.

I decided last week that I wanted leg protectors that would match the colour of the legs, but didn’t want to use the plastic ones as they hang down lower than the cabinet. So, like I did in my T2, I made my own from some mild steel.

I took some measurements, marked them out began cutting.


The trickiest part when making these is to get the bolt hole cut as it involves quite a bit of grinding and filing.

Last thing to do was to drill and counter sink a couple of holes for the mounting screws.

After picking them up from the powder coaters, I marked them on the cabinet and removed the decal from underneath where they go to avoid any wrinkling. I then used some of the felt I use on the cabinet and screwed them in place.


The last part I also picked up from the coaters last week was the lock bar. I asked @Dracoola to do a design for me last year. After a few different drafts, we went with this one, as it included The Addams Family Crest at either end.

I then had the design engraved into the lock bar.

When it came to applying the finish the bar, unfortunately it had to powder coated twice, as the first time it was done, the powder went on a little too heavy and the engraving lost most of its detail.
So it was stripped down and lighter coat applied. This time it actually exceeded my expectations as every bit of the design is still clearly visible.



So all that left to do now, is to add a couple more decals to the back boxes and install the back glass

 

[Happypin]

Be sad to see this one finished, only because I look forward to the updates.
Roll on your next project. Which is ?

 

[Ant-H]

Be sad to see this one finished, only because I look forward to the updates.
Roll on your next project. Which is ?

Im putting my own pin projects on hold until I get the parts I need for my IJ.

However after the 2 TAF’s are gone, I’m doing a cabinet re-decal and general playfield shop/mods on a T2.

But the next full on restoration projects are a BSD followed by a FT and then 2 x WH20, which I’ll do side by side again like I did with TAF.
I’m particularly looking forward to starting the WH20 as your one turned out great and I’m hoping to do something similar

 

[Jmac]

I’m getting worried about you Ant you have real evil genius traits . Some of the stuff you are doing on these restorations is mind blowing. Can i commission you to build me a machine that will predict the euro millions results because if anyone can you can

I’m all seriousness absolute top work mate

 

[Tucks]

Just amazing. WOW!!!

 

[s000m]

I’m finally on the last few jobs and should have both these games done within the next couple of day.

I decided last week that I wanted leg protectors that would match the colour of the legs, but didn’t want to use the plastic ones as they hang down lower than the cabinet. So, like I did in my T2, I made my own from some mild steel.
View attachment 214197
I took some measurements, marked them out began cutting.
View attachment 214215
View attachment 214198
The trickiest part when making these is to get the bolt hole cut as it involves quite a bit of grinding and filing.
View attachment 214199View attachment 214200
Last thing to do was to drill and counter sink a couple of holes for the mounting screws.
View attachment 214201View attachment 214202
After picking them up from the powder coaters, I marked them on the cabinet and removed the decal from underneath where they go to avoid any wrinkling. I then used some of the felt I use on the cabinet and screwed them in place.
View attachment 214203
View attachment 214214View attachment 214213
The last part I also picked up from the coaters last week was the lock bar. I asked @Dracoola to do a design for me last year. After a few different drafts, we went with this one, as it included The Addams Family Crest at either end.
View attachment 214222
I then had the design engraved into the lock bar.
View attachment 214220View attachment 214221
When it came to applying the finish the bar, unfortunately it had to powder coated twice, as the first time it was done, the powder went on a little too heavy and the engraving lost most of its detail.
So it was stripped down and lighter coat applied. This time it actually exceeded my expectations as every bit of the design is still clearly visible.
View attachment 214206View attachment 214205View attachment 214204
View attachment 214223

So all that left to do now, is to add a couple more decals to the back boxes and install the back glass

Super glad that the details Holly did came through in the end. Getting all that detail to fit on such a small surface was a pain!

 

[Ant-H]

Thanks guys. They have both been really enjoyable projects to undertake. I’ve literally just got to add a 2 replacement decals on both games and I think they are finally done

 

[Ant-H]

I finally got the last 2 decals in place in the back boxes.



I’ve decided to swap out the pop bumper leds on my TAF from the disc style that I had originally fitted, to the led rings as I like how they also light up the playfield as well. Big thanks to @David retro for sorting me out with the new leds so quickly.
Old:-

New:-

I also unwrapped my CPR mirror back glass and fitted trim around the sides as well as a powder coated metal lift trim.

I’m well pleased with how it looks.
Just a final check and the glass to go on and I think they are done.

 

[Silverpaolo]

Best in show at pinfest ! I called it ! Well done ant can’t wait to play it … a work of art

 

[Happypin]

Best in show, I called it first 2 weeks ago lol