It’s been a long time since I did any work on my Fireball Classic. I worked with a friend and had the artwork recreated over 6 months ago. It was only recently delivered in physical form. Finally. But it looks good. Really good. With my Xmas holidays about to start shortly, I figured it was time to once again give some attention to my Fireball Classic restore project and complete it. The main thing left is the side art, although there are a few other ends I want to tidy up also before I’m happy to say “I’m done”. In this update, i’ll be adding new side art to the head box. As you would have seen in previous updates, I had the side art reproduced (since it’s not actually available anywhere). A lot of attention was given to the detail of the curves and the stars, so it’s pretty accurate. The side art on my machine is very much faded and is also torn in several places. The t-moulding is also cracked and will need to be replaced.
restoration
All posts tagged restoration
It feels like forever since I was last working on Pinbot (in truth it’s been about 4 weeks). A project I started last year and then set aside for 10 months while Pinball took over my life needed to be completed in November. That was successfully done and now it’s time to turn my attention back to my beloved Pinbot machine and continue its rise to awesomeness. The last part of the playfield to do is the flippers. To be more specific, rebuilding both and sorting out the right flipper (which does not work).
So the starting point. Normally Pinbot has white flipper bats. This machine came with some ribbed blue bats. They don’t really do anything for me, so i’ll be looking to replace them. The rubber is dead (and I’ve since removed it) so that will be replaced also. As mentioned, the right flipper does not work, but the left is fine. There is some playfield damage in this area, but it’s not an issue since the whole playfield be will replaced shortly.
An area of the playfield I’ve been looking forward to working on is the mini playfield and the pop bumpers that live beneath it. I’ll also take the opportunity here to look at the bank of 5 stationary targets that sit just to the left of the pop bumpers. It’s going to be a long update I think and lots of photos to look through. So hopefully you hang in until the end 🙂 The starting point is good. All plastics and posts are there. The mini playfield itself is in one piece, although I can see some small cracks at a few point that will need to be looked at.
I’m really starting to run out of things to do with rebuilding the playfield. The flippers are waiting patiently, but this update will cover the motor which drives the target bank and visor. Truth be told I have put this off. Not sure why exactly, but now is the time. I need to remove the motor, clean it up and also survey any damage to the target bank. To start with though, let’s look at that motor.
It’s in working condition, raising and lowering the playfield when required by the game. So that’s a good start. A quick inspection shows a few bits of blue tape in the area which will need to be looked at (as in – why are they there). Otherwise it just needs a solid clean. I have noticed that the target bank tends to tip to one side while being raised, but I suspect that’s more to do with the target bank assembly itself than the motor.
Something that didn’t quite make it into my update last night was looking at an issue with the drop targets. I rebuilt them recently, but noticed a problem once complete. The targets sit a bit too high when they retract, which causes them to sit over the top of the playfield. This causes the ball to jump when hitting them – especially on the right target. Not good for the life of the drop target, and puts the plastic above it at risk of damage.
