Tonight I finished fitting both the main ramp and Space Shuttle Defender toy on my Space Shuttle Pinball.

The ramp I’m using is the Pinball Inc reproduction, and man is it ever thicker than the flimsy original! It’s super stiff and strong – while it will probably never break and last the rest of the life of the game, it was also a bit challenging to fit. Going back several months, I had prepared to fit it by modifying my playfield. That wasn’t the only change needed to fit the ramp in my game though – some posts needed to be ever-so-slightly bent out of the way, too. With that, I was able to squeeze it in just enough to screw it down to all the attach points.

The Space Shuttle toy (also a new reproduction) also needed a small mod to fit correctly. When I first installed it, the nose of the shuttle was so low that the ball would just barely clear it, and even then not always – it would sometimes nick it a bit. That’s a sure recipe for a broken Space Shuttle, of course, which is unacceptable. My solution was to use some small foam insulation tape squares under the wings to ever-so-slightly raise the nose. It worked, is invisible and is totally reversible if needed!

Fitting this all was a bit tricky – definitely among the hairiest tasks in the playfield swap so far! But in the end, it’s done – the ramp seems to work, and it looks great, so I’m happy!