Managed to get quite a lot done over the weekend with varying degrees of success. On Sunday afternoon my two oldest boys helped out and that was awesome.
Taxi: Z helped me clean and start putting back together Taxi. We switched out some star posts, vacuumed, cleaned, switched out bulbs, and put back all of the lane guide posts in the upper playfield. Emmett soldered a broken connection on the Spinout ramp, fixed a couple more broken connections, and installed a new socket on a light board (the spinout value counter). My plan is to rebuild pop bumpers, wax, and put this back together. It’s hard to let some things go, so i may also do a bit of metal polishing but honestly i just want this one back together and playing, even if not tip-top. A full shop job on this is needed but I’ve got too many other projects.
Big Guns: E desoldered and removed a hack where the battery holder used to be and installed a new battery holder on the main board. I sanded down the red paint on the backbox on Saturday, then Sunday night i painted black over/around the backbox graphics and did a single coat of satin varnish to protect when i mask and paint the stripes this week. I really like how this is looking.
Space Mission: Sanded out the ball trail up the top arch so that I wouldn’t lock in the dirt under the clear. Also roughed up the clear that was on the playfield from filling inserts and gouges/cracks with 600 grit. Then touched up a couple of areas that i screwed up by sanding. Cleaned the whole thing with naptha twice, and put on a layer of clear with a foam brush. The results were disappointing. Due to the extensive planking on the playfield, the clear sunk in on some areas and not on others, and i’ve got a really uneven layer now (you can see the reflection in the photo above). With any luck, subsequent coats will not follow suit (i’m hopeful because it didn’t happen over inserts and parts i had filled previously). It’s just going to take a long time. I plan on block sanding tonight, then filling all the low parts with a dropper again (all 10,000 spots!). It will take some time but i’m not going to rest until this is dead flat. Next coats will go on with a foam roller instead of brush.
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