Practicalsteve's Pinblog: I put everything back where I found it.

So its been a minute since I updated this, been busy but I have at least had time to work on it. Playfield is now 99% repopulated! It would be done but I ran into trouble buying replacement screws for the guides that feed to the flippers. First set were too thick, second set were too short, hopefully the set I bought today at the old hardware store will work, no reason they shouldn't. So here's how it looks:

I could not be more pleased with how it looks, The mylar removal went so well, and everything cleaned up so nicely.

So what do I have left? I am in the process of rebuilding all of the flippers. Take a look at the pic, think it needed to be done?

Old flipper on top, new on bottom if its not obvious. Going to do all new bushings, and converting the spring style to the WPC era ones for extra snappiness. If you are new to flipper rebuilding do yourself a favor and check out this guide. http://www.performancepinball.com/rebuilding-flippers.html

Next up, I will be replacing the switches on the slingshots. No pic handy but believe me they are bent!

I still need to paint the bottom lip for Rudy, went to the hobby shop the other day and of course they had zero red or yellow testors, going to check another spot or order online. Also I still need to replace the springs for his eyelids and eye balls, they don't look to be correct and should help. I also have new arms that control the eyes too, going to replace those as well.

After that I will be checking all of the fuses for continuity and correct value, which you should always do when a new game comes into your house regardless of whether it is already playable. Chances are the guy (or gal, lets not be misogynistic) before you dis not have the correct one and threw any old fuse in there.

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So the main purpose of this blog has always been to show my friend the progress I am making on his machine. But in the offhand that someone else stumbles upon this trying to do their own Funhouse restoration I would like to highlight some tips and processes I went through. I found Funhouse to not be too difficult, this was the third machine I did a complete top teardown on.

1. Order. I started at the bottom of the playfield and worked my way counter clockwise. pretty much went: Flipper area, slingshot area, left side of playfield, steps ramp, main ramp, left wireforms, all other plastics and pop bumper area last. I took a ton of pictures and took notes of everything I removed in order and then just started at the end and worked my way back to put everything back.

2. I did forget the small cover that goes on the top of the main ramp after putting everything back and it was quite a pain to remove everything again just to put it on, so watch out for that. Wasted a good hour on that.

3. There was a lot of Loctite on screws in the lower half of the playfield. Mostly on the slings and guides for the flippers. To combat that use your soldering iron underneath the playfield. Hold it on the bottom of the screw until its nice and hot, then quickly lower the playfield and "walk" the post or screw out. Loosen it a little, then tighten it a little, then loosen then tighten, keep doing that until it comes free or in the case of 80% of my screws or posts, it breaks off in the playfield. No worries, just tap out the T-nut and replace. I had a hell of a time finding the right size replacement posts so good luck with that. Try Bay Area Amusements.

4. To remove the main ramp you need to remove the diverter. Under the playfield on the side of the shaft is a tiny little set screw you use an allen wrench on. Easy enough if you know where to look.

5. You got all this stuff off the playfield, the least you can do is put cliffy protectors on your scoops. If you have the playfield cleaned off it takes maybe ten minutes, no drilling. Go here for them if you want order from the man himself: http://www.passionforpinball.com/fhscoop.htm. My friend decided against installing the ramp ones since we bought a new ramp that is formulated from thicker plastic, so I can't speak for installation of that.

That's all I can think of. As far as future posts I want to detail what color combo I end up using to repaint the lip to help others. I want to give some tips about working in Rudys head, replacing the springs, etc. And when all is said and done I will figure out a place to put all of my shop pics online so people can use them for future references.

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Just for fun, here a couple of pics of my work area: