In Progress Whirlwind vs DE Jurassic Park

[PinIB]

Welcome to my first Shop Log. I don't post very often but I thought I post what I've been doing in 2022 so far on my Whirlwind and DE Jurassic Park.

I'll probably do some things a bit differently so go easy on me! I'll try and attend one or two pinball events in 2023 if possible.

Whirlwind - I wanted this title for many years after playing a new one back in 1990. It was the first machine that made me sit up and take notice of pinball. I bought one off the forum in late 2021 - the electronic side of things fully work but (imo) the machine is cosmetically poor and the mechs all need rebuilding. The plan is a no compromise refurb to the best of my ability as this is the machine I'm interested in most.

DE JP - Bought off eBay back in February in the middle of the night after a few beers. Non worker with loads of faults (which a few people on the forum helped with). The playfield is excellent and cabinet super solid. This machine is basically freeloading on everything I'm doing on Whirlwind and for theme reasons the family are more enthusiastic about Jurassic Park.

So here goes .......

 

[PinIB]

Whirlwind is the first machine I've not picked up and paid cash on collection but I was willing to purchase without physically seeing the machine in this case because of this forum and because I really wanted to get my hands on a Whirlwind. To avoid any unintended offence/confusion I was 100% happy with this purchase despite the courier smashing the shooter rod off. Unless you're doing what I'm doing I'd always view the machine before purchase.

 

[PinIB]

I picked the DE JP up off a really nice family. It's the type of machine that's had £100s spent on mods but was running on 30 year old rubber in places and the batteries weren't changed. I've never understood why people just don't change the sleeves and rubber plus clean the playfield then play decent pinball. Especially if you don't care whether it has cracked plastics or not.

 

[PinIB]

These were the only naughty bits on the Whirlwind - not much in the grand scheme of things. The playfield pivot bolts and bent lockdown bar receiver were changing the angle of the playfield so much that it was playing like s***. It took me ages to workout what was going on. Someone no doubt on location also created their own 8 amp fuse .......

 

[PinIB]

I got the thing playing well (apart from the mechs) by adjusting the angle of the playfield within the cabinet with these rags. The shooter was misaligned with the playfield. We started playing it for a bit instead of thinking about the refurb. This coindoor has a 1978 label on the back!!!

 

[PinIB]

The DE JP was a different story. The batteries had leaked - not causing any faults believe it or not. The C2 capacitor had gone and the traces didn't look to healthy on the driver board, super toasty connectors, raptor coli well and truly fried, Q48 transistor failed. I sorted it on the playfield and ran the machine with my XPIN spares that I already had for the DE SW.

The combination of faults was a major pain in the a***. To cut a long story short - it didn't go well for a while!

 

[PinIB]

I got to the stage where I was happy that both machines were fully working so I could dismantle both without losing sleep about rebuilding them later .........

 

[PinIB]

The cabinet might be rubbish on the Whirlwind but everything comes off easily to get the playfield out. It's clearly been wet on one side at some point judging by the wood and art. The serial number has been deliberately removed. Anyone know whether the serial number is the same as the number on the boards? I'll probably reprint that label.

Note the enthusiasm for mill wax. The inside of the cab and even the coils are covered in it.

 

[PinIB]

I give the Jurassic Park the wallpaper striper and a few belts with the hammer to get the same result. The Whirlwind had 1990s chewing gum on it but the JP had dinosaur s**t on the top.

 

[PinIB]

Playfields out of both ready for removing the lockdown receiver, transformer and earthing braid. I'm not good on tidying up but with two machines on the go I've had to be a bit more disciplined.

Loads of photos taken and everything bagged separately so far.

 

[PinIB]

Here's the black painted metal work for both machines. I asked on the forum whether I should get some stuff chromed. I got some good sensible advice which I ignored. Chroming the original parts is the way we are going plus a few special bits that I'll post later.

The parts all went through an acid bath at the local alloy wheel refurbishment place first. The plan is to scrap the coin doors so I wasn't bothered about them - if you do this then expect surface rust as shown below.

 

[kev a]

Looking good so far! WW doesn't look to bad to me, solid candidate to go to town with a full resto. Have you sourced new decals?

 

[PinIB]

Looking good so far! WW doesn't look to bad to me, solid candidate to go to town with a full resto. Have you sourced new decals?

Yes - I’ve got the chrome, new playfield and decals from Mr Pinball. It was the playfield swap pre Christmas that put the brakes on the WW.

Top notch decals are already on the JP from Phoenix Arcade. I’ll update tomorrow.

 

[PinIB]

Working on a Williams is a breeze compared to Data East. The original parts were better and less likely to be rusted and seized. Everything came out of WW without a fight.

The Jurassic Park had a few seized nuts and bolts - the main rust being on the transformer t-nuts and bolts. Nothing was moving so the impact wrench came out. It ripped three of the bolt heads clean off and I just tapped the t-nuts out. The last one was drilled out.

 

[PinIB]

Before I started the process of fill, sand, rinse and repeat forever - I used some edging strip on the bottom of the cabinets and plained them down to fit. This gave me a clean edge underneath the cabinet. Although when tombstoned the cabinet sides will look thicker than original.



I kick started the filler (Big Boy filler from Toolstation) and sanding. Plus some wood glue to hold the WW together.



It's at this point I realise that I won't have time to get both machines up and running before Christmas.

 

[PinIB]

The wood is so dry/flakey on the WW cabinet that the more I sand the more holes are appearing. The plan is to spray the whole cabinet inside and out with different colours on the base. The MDF and wood needs sealing.

This involves removing dust then sealing ..... at the beginning it has a ratrod look. I rescue some stickers along the way but a guy on inside reproduces most the Data East ones for me so I might not need them.

I've not lost sight of the fact that the cabinets need to be super smooth for the side art later but I'm not as worried about removing every bit of paint as other on here.

 

[PinIB]

This is where I park the cabinets for a while. I still need to fill and sand again but I've lost the will to live and know I'll do a better job after a break.

The transformers are going to be yellow. I want a yellow transformer for Whirlwind so Jurassic Park can have the same.

First step - get the legs off each transformer. I drill the Jurassic Park bolts off again.




Wire brush the rust off, rust treatment, mask and spray. Funnily enough Evaporust melts the old vanish over a couple of days.



Make my own bolts out of a threaded rod for the Jurassic Park. I'm just reusing the WW bolts as they look good.

 

[PinIB]

The cost of chroming rises massively and sterling drops in value so much I have a rethink. This only impacts the Jurassic Park as I got the WW bits when everything was more affordable.

I rescue the old coindoor and decide to fill a hole in (mesh, resin and filler) and paint in a hazard tape style. A chrome gun is also dropped in favour of black. £50 in rattle cans vs the circa the cost of a decent EM pin???! No brainer for a machine that is freeloading on my Whirlwind build.



Forget Evaporust on big parts. Citric acid gives you this .....



Cut the mesh to size. .....



Glue, fill and sand .....

 

[PinIB]

Ready to spray .....



Undercoating a load of bits .....

 

[PinIB]

Concentrating on the coindoor and gun. I just measure the angle of a hazard tape image on google, measure up, paint black, mask and paint yellow then remove the tape.



I'm pretty happy with the results. Note the chrome screws - these were done prior to the change in plan.



For info - I did clear coat these bits.

 

[PinIB]

Other bits were getting done simultaneously so I always had something curing somewhere ......



That's cotton wool in the GI/flasher cutouts. Toolstation spray cans are the best I've ever used.

 

[PinIB]

Some of the chrome bits are in ......



This was all done by Leigh Metal Polishing. This isn't cheap but it is fantastic. Those are the original rusty Data East parts plus new side rails that I got chromed. I got every bolt off both machines chromed - shame both machines had random bolts missing!

 

[PinIB]

I get back on the Jurassic Park cabinet. More filling and sanding before a final spray.



I'm working on it all hours which is why one picture is in the dark.



The final dents and dings before spraying .....

 

[PinIB]

My wife goes out and I take the opportunity to use the living room for the start of the rebuild. Apart from a missing bottom speaker grill and a missing backbox lock and plate this is now just a jigsaw puzzle.

I start with the earthing braid. Then the impact wrench comes out to get the t-nuts in for the transformer - this is the hardest thing in the whole build. I've made a note to get the t-nuts in first when I do the WW playfield and cab.



The dinosaur s*** off the top of the backbox now.

 

[PinIB]

Someone has previously used parcel tape on this. It doesn't want to come off so I've tidied it up with weather tape - I don't like the old parcel tape look.

 

[PinIB]

My wife helps me get the decals on. At one point she said to me 'I thought you'd ****ed it up' after I struggled with the front decal. Four hour job in the end including moving the machine.



I start to get cold feet about not painting the back of the coindoor now I can see how the rest of the machine looks. I get the spray cans out again.



I get everything on and the playfield back in before taking a break.

 

[PinIB]

It goes back together and works first time. Lucky.



I embark on a top playfield strip, clean, change GI, starpost lights and change to clear rubbers.

I replace the broken plastics with a CPR set I found on eBay. They have a deeper blue and lose a bit of detail so I keep the originals where possible.



This is less offensive in real life but will be too bright for some. Frosted natural white comets everywhere - I prefer it bright when playing.

The inserts haven't been done yet.

 

[PinIB]

I keep the machine on the floor with the playfield up to change the insert bulbs and rebuild the mechs with new sleeves etc. The flippers are quite snappy but when you look closely the parts have had their day and 100% need changing.

I use ghosting bulbs (yes cheaper comet ghosting bulbs) as I'm fitting an OCD LED board. The bulbs are great with this board installed.

I don't do coloured LEDS anymore - frosted natural white everywhere and the cheapest comet flashers bought in bulk for both machines.

 

[PinIB]

If you've not done a redecal before buy these and don't miss this step otherwise the legs crease the decals over time. Everyone learns the hard way - I did and didn't forget this time.

Super sharp knife to cut round the leg protectors .....



I pick the machine up and my wife puts the legs on with yellow nylon washers. Work buy me a pinball machine because I must have mentioned this build once or twice.

 

[PinIB]

I get the side rails on and a light up flipper buttons which aren't that bright in real life.



CPR backglass goes in. ColorDMD goes in.



I break my 5th 455 bulb. Nightmare design - when you swing the light board open it squashes the bottom left bulb every time.