OK...it has begun. I bought a Stern Lightning on Ebay for a cheap amount and it has been sitting in my workshop for almost 2 months... time to get cracking! It works if I use the power supply from my Galaxy, so it is a good sign! Here is what needs to be done:

- board updating (lots of burnt connectors)
- corrosion omnipresent (bad storage)
- pf needs a big-a** cleaning and MINUTE touchup
- 2 inserts need to be reglued
- need a better backglass
- LOTS of polishing

Of course, I forgot to take a global pic of the machine... I will later. This is what I have done so far:

Lower cabinet work so far:

- vacuumed all the crap
- installed a new power cord
- removed power supply to clean up and update
- all small metal parts are in the polisher
- shooter rod and prop rod polished

Next: reassembly and coindoor polish/paint!

Parts in the polisher... and shooter rod knob before... and after!

Lucky, this is a really fun pin !! I hope to see more pics soon !

ouin .. .fallait qu'on s'en parle pour que tu te d�cide

i too can't wait for pics.  but what i can't really wait for is a meeting when its all nice and done.  keep up the work and the info.

Sheesh! Talk about sudden interest! I didn't think that there would be such an interest in an old Stern pin.

Well Phil... yes and no... I have been thinking of working on it for a while, but with all the house renos and all, it was difficult.

And for those who asked me for more pics, here they are...

As you can see, backglass has big paint cracks in it... but it does fit the lightning theme!  

And as for the playfields, the main one has magic-eraser dust on it right now after I have scrubbed it... can you see any wear? I don't!    The upper playfield has 2 small chips in the middle, but other than that, is extremely nice!

Once the cab is refreshed, I will start dismantling and cleaning the playfield... top AND bottom. And for any of you that know my work, I don't just pass a rag...

More updates to come!


Sparky

Here's what the cab looks like...is quite decent! A couple of chips here and there, but is structuraly 100%.

I have a lot of interest about this pin, don't forget to update your work !! I like those old stern pins for the great sounds and robot voice !! I hope i can heard the real sounds coming from this pins because vpinmame doesn't emulate them well.
Flight 2000
Freefall
Lightning
Split Second
Catacomb
are my best stern from this era

UPDATE! I have COMPLETELY dissassembled the coindoor and will be sandblasting and repainting it. All metal parts behind the coindoor have been polished... yes, I am that crazy.

Here's a quick breakdown and pics:

- retouched the black inside the cab
- coindoor dissassembled and going to be sandblasted
- lockbar mechanism has been sanded, polished and clearcoated (this was COMPLETELY rusted... now looks new! You can even read the STERN lettering on it now)
- started reinstalling polished metal parts
- cleaned flipper button assemblies with Mean Green and toothbrush
- PinballPro sub kit has been ordered
- cab wiring has been cleaned in the dishwasher
- prepping for sanding of inside of cab (best way to remove the crap on the bottom inside)
- received new Stern coindoor decal, so will install it when paint is done

Here's a couple of pics...

Sparky

damn nice.  great work.  picky bugger ain't you.

Quoted from gorydeath

damn nice.  great work.  picky bugger ain't you.

As my Grandfather used to say:
Anything worth doing is worth over doing!

Nice work Ian

Adam

Pour peinturer la porte et les pattes, chez walmart et home depot y a une peinture qui s'appel RUST OLEUM fini martelé, ça se raproche en crisse de l'original. Faut mettre une bonne couche sans primer.
Avec deux couche tu perd l'effet martelé.

Quoted from AMX

Pour peinturer la porte et les pattes, chez walmart et home depot y a une peinture qui s'appel RUST OLEUM fini martelé, ça se raproche en crisse de l'original. Faut mettre une bonne couche sans primer.
Avec deux couche tu perd l'effet martelé.

ca vient avec ou sans le marteau ?  

Very nice work !!! I hope i can have the place in the future to make project like that !!
Let us know the next improvement as soon as possible  

Quoted from Mrhide

ca vient avec ou sans le marteau ?  

une masse, epais!!

I'm actually quite impressed with what the machine has for it's 1981 era  

• Timed Ball
  

• Speech
  

• Split level pf
  

• 2 and 3 ball multiball
  

• Does it have 2 sets of slings???  
  

And pretty decent artwork!

Brian

Me? Picky? ... Damn straight... You guys haven't seen anything yet. I have 4 hours of work just on the coindoor!!!

I completely dissassembled the door, and put ALL little parts in the polisher for 24 hours. The parts were so crudded up that my media is now toast! This door was really rusted bad.

Well, I brought the door, frame rails and a few inner parts to work, sandblasted it all, and put on some TREMCLAD SILVER HAMMER PAINT, which is an EXACT match of the original finish. I got it at Canadian Tire if anybody is wondering (and I picked up 6 cans!!!). And yes, you can put 2 coats of hammer paint, but just make sure the last coat is thick! Before and after pics are below!

I also scrubbed all the coin display inserts and plastic guides with meangreen. Lookin good! I will reassemble it all Saturday... can't Friday, I have a concert to attend (The Musical Box...).

As for my obsession for perfection, I have decided to leave the cab original and not repaint it, but the rest is fair game! Let's just say that I wanna have some real fun with this pin, and once I am done, I just wanna stare at it for an hour and say "ooooooooh yeah... I did that".

Quoted from Centallica

I'm actually quite impressed with what the machine has for it's 1981 era  

• Timed Ball
  

• Speech
  

• Split level pf
  

• 2 and 3 ball multiball
  

• Does it have 2 sets of slings???  
  

And pretty decent artwork!

Brian

Yup, 2 sets of slings (although one set is a bit hidden on the sides), and oddly enough... no pop bumpers!!! But this game is phenomenal! Stern nailed it with this pin. I can't find too many negative points on this one...

Hey Ian, j'vais voir Musical Box aussi pour la 5ieme fois!! 116-R-16 T'es placé ou??
To all Genesis fan, don't miss this show, Selling England By The Pound! Musical Box is the ultimate Genesis tribute band in the world!

http://www.themusicalbox.net/

Quoted from Sparky

Yup, 2 sets of slings (although one set is a bit hidden on the sides), and oddly enough... no pop bumpers!!! But this game is phenomenal! Stern nailed it with this pin. I can't find too many negative points on this one...

I always thought 2 sets of slings would be interesting if placed right!  I think they help with no pop-bumpers to create some more ball movement.

The only 80's Stern I've played are Flight 2000 (didn't like then) and Bezerk (great game) in the 80's.

Very interested in playing this Lightning Pin!
Brian

Quoted from AMX

Hey Ian, j'vais voir Musical Box aussi pour la 5ieme fois!! 116-R-16 T'es placé ou??
To all Genesis fan, don't miss this show, Selling England By The Pound! Musical Box is the ultimate Genesis tribute band in the world!

http://www.themusicalbox.net/

J'me rapelle pas trop... dans les 100, rangée FF (quasiment en bas).

Quoted from Centallica

The only 80's Stern I've played are Flight 2000 (didn't like then) and Bezerk (great game) in the 80's.

Brian

I have both of those too! I am just missing the monitor bezel to complete my Berzerk project...

I also remember Iron Maiden and playing it but don't remember if I liked it.

Nice to see the detail in your restoration work too  

Brian

Quoted from AMX

Hey Ian, j'vais voir Musical Box aussi pour la 5ieme fois!! 116-R-16 T'es placé ou??
To all Genesis fan, don't miss this show, Selling England By The Pound! Musical Box is the ultimate Genesis tribute band in the world!

http://www.themusicalbox.net/

I've seen the Musical Box a few times. They put on an absolutely amazing show. And, of course, the music kicks serious a**!

OK...Today's progress... It went well today, as I had JD to give me a hand! Thanks again buddy!!!!

Here's a breakdown:

- Top of playfields completely stripped (I might send it out for a clearcoat...still debating).
- JD washed ALL the plastics and posts
- All pf metal parts are in the polisher
- Took TONS of pics of under pf for future dismantling
- Completed the coindoor!!!  Oh yes... this door didn't look this good since it came out of the factory!!! 10 hours of sandblasting, painting, cleaning, polishing and reassembly have paid off! All I have left to do is pick up a few adhesive tie-wrap supports to secure the harness. EVERYTHING has been cleaned and polished! Right down to the last screw! I even polished the backbox key!!!   It looks simply fantastic! JD even said that I should pick up some crapped out coindoors and sell em rebuilt like this one.

Take a look at the pics...

Next, I finish the cabinet (less than 2 hours of work), and then back to the pf!!!


Sparky

ok I ate way too much for lunch... yeah right I guees it is time to get back on the wagon.  

Looks awesome! I am talking about the pin, not JD

lol

With Sparky and JD you know that a project is going to turn out great. No two guys I would trust more with a pin then Sparky and JD

BZM

This is great, i have some coin doors in bad condition, lot of rust and dirt, you give me good idea and motivation !!   I apreciate very much to see this project step by step running like that, thanks !!

Up !! I'm waiting for news hi hi !!!!

Jeez!!! Sorry, I haven't worked on it lately as I have been finishing up the sheetrock in the gameroom. I will probably get work done this weekend.

Oh...I almost forgot... I sent all the boards... I mean ALL... to Mindstorm88 for a complete overhaul. He just finished em. Even the power supply is now A1. I will be changing all the Molex connectors to insure reliability (I have TONS of them... hundreds of those 20-pin connectors used for displays). Once everything is in place, I will see about the displays. If bad, I will either get new glass or go for a complete PINLed set. Pricey, but cool.

Playfield is now completely stripped. I have 2 inserts to repair (warped), and a good cleaning to do... no biggie. All playfield upper parts have been cleaned and polished.

Okely-dokely.... Playfield time!  First point to address... inserts!!!

I had only 2 inserts that were REALLY bad... the 2 large blue arrows near the center of the lower playfield. They were really curved, to the point that the upper and lower part of the insert were sticking out of the playfield... they looked like blue bananas!!! I used the heat-gun method. Here's what I did:

- Work on a nice, clean, flat surface. In this case, I used a galvanized steel plate I had that was flat. glass works as well, but beware of heating too much.

- Use a heat gun found pretty much anywhere... mine was from Canadian Tire... 9.99$.

- Clean the surface you will work on very thoroughly.

- Clean your insert, remove all traces of old glue.

- Heat the top surface of the insert a bit at first in order to get it warm... makes it easier to take shape after.

- Flip it over and heat it until it starts to soften.

- When you see it soften a bit, either use your finger as it cools a bit, or a CLEAN object OF THE EXACT SHAPE OF THE INSIDE OF YOUR INSERT  and flatten it out.

- Clean abd buff with extremely fine grit sandpaper (I have 2000 grit I used with Novus 1).

You're done! See the pics I took to show what I did.

Sparky

PS:  If you want to try this, I suggest you practice on a scrap playfield first. I say that the hardest part was simply removing the inserts without breaking them.

Last pics:

Merci beaucoup pour les conseils pour redressir les inserts hi hi je ne connaissait pas ce truc et j'en aurais justement qqes-uns a redressir sur ma firepower !!!!

Alright, so I started on the uder-playfield tonight... what a dirty mess!!! I put the playfield on it's side on my work table and started on the left side of the playfield at the flipper assembly. I will sum it up:

- all new coil sleeves
- all new switch contacts or in some cases switch blades (all flipper switches were toast... they all have new contacts now, bought TONS a few years ago)
- all metal parts cleaned and polished
- all plastic parts cleaned
- ordered new drop targets, assemblies cleaned and reassembled
- tested all coils
- changed 6 diodes on various switches
- cleaned all the inserts with q-tips and windex
- cleaned all the wiring
- cleaned and inspected the display under playfield (looks OK)

I think that is enough for one day... bringing a pin back from the dead is hard work, but fun!

Here are some pics of the BAD flipper switch contacts, drop atrget assembly once cleaned and halfway in the work...

Sparky

Saturday night update!!!

Tonight I wanted to concentrate on finishing the cabinet. I had polished all the hardware so I simply needed to reinstall it all. Here is a synopsis:

- sanded and vacuumed the bottom of the cab
- fixed a playfield rail
- installed the flipper buttons and switches, and installed new switch contacts on the switches (old ones had heated up...)
- installed all the tilt-bob hardware
- sanded down the power supply plate and installed it with the completely updated power supply
- installed all the completely updated and refreshed boards and power supply (by Mindstorm88 of course!!!) in the cab
- changed ALL the Molex contact pins with new trifurcon ones (since boards have new header pins...). This was long...

Here's a couple of pics of the clean cab:

Sparky

Merci pour les pics !! C'est vraiment nice ce que tu fait, le coin door a l'air vraiment bien !!
J'aimerais tellement avoir de la place pour faire revivre mes games, chaque jour qui passe me raproche de ce rêve hi hi, merci de me faire rêver !!

Saturday MORNING update??? Yup...I had an emergency at work, so I am posting from there right now. I was here at 4:30am... and got whatever I had to do done in less than 30 minutes... so... instead of going back home and waking everybody up, LET'S BE PRODUCTIVE!!!

Hmm... let's see... I have pinball legs that are rusted to crap... a sandblaster at work... a paint shop... and paint... HEY! LET'S PAINT SOME LEGS!!!!

So here goes... sandblasted every leg (I had 12 Stern legs), primed, and painted with Tremclad hammer paint for the original look. Took me 5 hours total. I have included pics of 4 legs I have left to do (old Bally legs) and you will see how bad they were...

They now look NEW!

Sparky

PS: I will probably work on the main machine tonight... post ya later!!!

Been a while since I posted here... well, some work has been done since.

- I have put the playfield on hold as I will be eventually sending it out for retouches and a clearcoat.

- I have sealed the backglass and will attempt retouching it (never have before), but I am on the lookout for a new one.

- I put on the fefurbished legs and new levelers

- I have ordered a set of PINLED displays as I had to give the originals away.

- I am now debating redoing the cabinet (very minor scratches... dunno if it is worth it).


...Needless to say, I will never get the money back, but I am enjoying every minute of it!!!

I thought that game was sold/traded already ?

Quoted from Azatotht

I thought that game was sold/traded already ?

Not yet... here's what went down:

Originally, it was to be traded against Mrhide's sweet Firepower, but he later contacted me saying that he found a GREAT pin that couldn't be passed up (I know I would have jumped on it!!!), so he said he couldn't trade because he needed the space for the new one... but offered to sell me Firepower instead at a great price. I did say that he still has first dibs on Lightning when I get it finished (in between all the MAME machine orders...5 so far).

So in the meantime, I try to get a little done every weekend. Kind of like my therapy these days...

OK...I am insane. This project is far from dead... in fact, I will be going even further! I have started to strip tghe underside of the playfield so that I may send it for a clearcoat, and I have also decided that instead of spending a couple of brown bills for 25+ year-old displays, I will be ordering the PINLED displays.

You know, there is NO WAY IN HELL I will manage to get my money back on this one, but I want to be able to say "wow...I did it" when I am finished.

Call it stupidity, or pride... which are similar when you think about it...

J'apelle ca de la passion !!  

ps : the great pin in question is Centaur

Quoted from Mrhide

ps : the great pin in question is Centaur

c'est dans ma cave .. tu peux venir anytime !

All I have to say is this:

MMMMMWWWAAAAAHHHAAAAAHHHAAAAHHHAAAHHHAAAA!!!!



All because of this:  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250143395632

I have been looking for a half-decent one for ages... It's about time I get a break!!!

Sparky

...and JUST when you thought the project was stalled, I am now stripping the playfield for a complete retouch and clearcoat... done by me!

I used to do some painting in college (I preferred sculpting though...) and I have a complete paint booth at work with a painter willing to clear it for free. We are going to do a couple of tests to see how it comes out first.

Sparky

Let me say awesome job...man do I have a lot to learn about pins...I thought I was an expert because I played them for hours during my teen years... Great updates, thanks

Thor

This machine is now alive !!!!!! all electronics reinstalled , power connector replaced, all displays installed !!!!

Now i have to repopulate the PFs , i hope i'll be able to play for Christmas !!!!

Great news!!!

ben hate d'essayer ca c't'e game la

Finally , First game played  

Still some light socket givin problem but other than that everything is alright !!!

Not that easy for an old one !! middle drop targets can be b**** if you hit it straight , very fast down the drain  

DES PHOOOOTOOOOSS SVVP!!

Any chance on  seeing pics of this after restoration?I take it Mindstorm88 owns it now?Sorry I kind of got confused when the thread got away from english .

ok some pics

another

Very Nice!

Wow that turned out really nice.What is the display on the playfield for?The backglass seems to have the ball in play and match numbers so is that a bonus counting display?.

Nice to see the project being finished!!! One day later on this year I may just grab another sleeper like this one off Ebay and finish the project entirely! I had a blast working on all the metal on it!!!