A bit more progress tonight disassembling the top side of the playfield. Making more progress from this point on will get progressively more difficult without a pinball playfield rotisserie… Sounds like I may have to make one!
After Diner, on to the next project! I first played Space Shuttle in the “Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection” video game. I always found it simple yet addictive, and knew I would love to own the real thing one day.
I found a decent one last year in San Francisco – while it plays great, it is in desperate need of a new playfield. Over the last year I have been playing it a whole bunch, but now that Diner is out of the way, it’s time to give Space Shuttle some love! It will get:
Working on this game will be quite a few “firsts” for me – first playfield swap, first cabinet repaint. Big jobs ahead, wish me luck! As you can see by the photos below, it’s in desperate need.
Diner is back to life! I bought it over a year ago and it was in the worst shape of any game I’ve ever bought – missing parts, burnt out/missing bulbs, crumbling rubbers, loose screws and hardware all over, and finally, unbelievably dirty. It got a new diverter I had to make myself, amongst other things, and finally I just completed a good tear-down/clean-up/put-back-together with all new lamps/rubbers/plastics.
The game has already left the house and is in the hands of a new happy owner. Although I was sad to see it go, I’m super proud to have brought the game back to life, and really enjoyed working on it and making it look nice!
Here’s the result!
This video illustrates pretty clearly the problem with most LEDs! What a mess. Only the ones near the flippers don’t flicker – they must have a capacitor to smooth out the current pulses. Suffice it to say though I will be converting this game back to incandescents, as I had to do with my Tales of the Arabian Nights.
Alpha Bravo Pinball 