It seems like when you buy a car you think you rarely see on the road and then, BAM they are everywhere. That's how I feel about my first pin purchase.

My journey has been watching Facebook groups for well over a year now and in that year I moved from MN to GA, so even though I was shopping in MN, I knew I couldn't buy till after the move. It's sad too cause along the GA coast it's like a pinball dead zone (I'll make it to Brunswick someday to play). Everything I have found that I felt was a reasonable drive get scooped up so fast. Well last week was my week!

Just a little 6 hour round trip for a top 100 EM. I knew the first one would be either and EM or SS in which I would need to work on and learn. The theme isn't my first choice, but the PF is pretty cool and the the price was good.

So when I got there I knew there was no keys and the back box was off, so I stuck my face in the hole and didn't smell any signs of mouse so I was like, "I'll take it". Took off the legs, loaded it up, and drove home. It was late so I left it in the car until morning and then extracted and put the legs back on. The I seen the droppings in the car, oof, gross. Busted out the drill to knock the locks out and what a yummy surprise. The guy originally told me he had it for 8 years and never got around to it, but yet the rubber kit and lights were brand new. Plus I had already messaged the "original" owner a moth prior trying to buy it when it was only $400 . I'm almost 100% that he lied about not having a key, cause he didn't think he could sell it with all the mouse leavin's in there.

So I grabbed some gloves, alcohol (to spray not drink), and a shop vac. Then once that was done and I put it away for the evening I was trying to find info on mouse clean up, but really no luck on one specific chemical to neutralize. Then I started reading about the hantavirus and went "oh crap" I should have been way more cautious, so if in 8 weeks or so this thread never goes anywhere, it was death by Flip Flop!

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Anyway the PF was in great shape and the BG is also just amazing, Must have had a good paint set up for this table, cause everyone I see still looks really good.
Got on Marco, Pinball Life, and Amazon and ordered everything I should need to get it back to flippin'.
My hope is that after cleaning and adjusting everything works. Can't let the first one be a money pit, otherwise the wife wont allow more.
I have to renovate my shed (yup have to work in the shed), so there is adequate room to pull out the guts and remount on clean wood. And I'll need space to clean all the parts and start adjusting.

Hey phylaxis , we can maybe work together on out machines even though you have a head start.
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Awesome! I thought it looked a little rough. It may be a while before I can test. Everything I've read so far said "Do not turn on the machine" until you go through the whole thing. Unless I can test without power? I was trying to do the ohm test on the coils the other night and they numbers were all over, so not sure if they are good or not.

Originally I was afraid to remove it (first pin jitters), but after watching a bunch of videos I plan to pull it and cut all new wood. The bottom of the cab has a 8" or so hole as well, so I'll have to figure out how to replace that as well. Butt all new wood should help remove some of the nastyness.

And I'll do my best to make it look real good again.

I've read about the Evaporust, but haven't been to the store yet to find it. I saw the video of the person the basically washed out the bottom of an old pin and hosed it off. I am not doing that, but is there something I can manually use on the leaf switchs and solenoids to clean them up without damage?

Also I see "ME" and "Naptha" in a lot of posts. What are they and are they just cleaners?.... if you know.

But what is ME?

The only thing I can get out of Google is "methyl group", but not what the actual chemical is.
I have not been able to figure it out looking at all the forum posts either. No one ever uses the full name

Lol. That I have seem a thousand times, oof

Spent some time going though this yesterday. Crazy amount of info here!

Man, he had made some awesome progress. Thank you for sharing this. It will help for sure in what I need to do.

There's 2 on Facepage (Charlotte, NC and Edinboro, Pa) if you're up for a drive. The one is an early run with the yellow metal back and green flips up in the barn. Not sure if thats more desirable or not. And 1 on here in NY.

Where you are there was a Knock Out close I wanted, but the drive was too far.

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Honestly I like a lot of Gottlieb's for the art (there was a Paradise for $800 but 2" flipper and a 10hr round trip). My biggest passion around this hobby is the art (no pokey people ). I like the new machines and they are fun to play, but I've really taken a liking to the EMs and SS because they are actually quite challenging. I'm not a giant score maker, just love the art and to flip.
I'm also a hands on type of person that loves to create and fix. Learning to fix things has saved me lots of money in my life.

Finally had a few evening in the last week to make my once packed full of crap shed into a little workshop. I think it’ll work fine for my first restore cause it’ll keep any chemical smells out of the house/garage. No room for a custom rotisserie so I’ll probably just make a brace on the work bench.

I’m getting so antsy to jump in I had to do a little ME/alcohol test on the back box. Of course I got it once and went, “crap take pictures”! So just did a small patch until the ME was slimy then wiped it down with the Naptha. OMG I’m even more excited to get into this thing. Unfortunately I’m going to start with the bottom board mess, so the exciting cleaning is going to be on the back burner.

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This morning I was able to cut a new mech board and the riser boards on the sides. Thought it would be fun to paint it to match the cab design. Lining up my mask didn’t pan out real well and I missed the black in one start, but most of it’s covered up anyways.

Next up will be removing and cleaning all the mechs….. scary.

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After messaging mrm_4 for some reassurance today I grabbed the Zep citrus cleaner, a spray bottle, a bowl, and a cut down paint brush (saw this method in a video somewhere) and started cleaning. I’ve had a little phobia and just gross feeling touching the mech board after reading about mice.
Unfortunately I was not quick enough after work to have any real sunlight left to help dry it out. So then I bright it back to the work space and decided to at least loosen all the screws with the fan on it. While hovering I could just smell the nasty nasty wood so….. full removal happened today (hope I took enough pictures).
Even just brushing it down with the citrus cleaner made a huge difference. The coin mech and the ball count actually can move and reset, but for sure need more love. Left the original board outside to dry so I can use it for measuring and possible salvage the T nuts off the bottom.

Added a little triple pic of pickup day, semi clean, and much cleaner. So gross.

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The worst part is the ADHD (if you want to call it that) cause I am the type of person to continually think about "what's next, what can I do today?" and then I wake up at 4am and lay in bed with my mind racing.
I think having a really cool project is the addiction part. And even though I finally scored a machine, I still look on facepage everyday. I think the wife knows that there will be more.
In the future I plan on building an extra stall and a half for our classic car, then the main 2 stall (connected to the house) will have room for the rabbits to grow

I was already out looking over the mechs this morning and trying to decide how I want to tackle all the metal on the coils. Probably best to do a full tear down and use the Evaporust I bought. It'll probably be easier to clean all the contacts as well with it fully disassembled.
I haven't searched yet, but is there a database anywhere on here with all the "correct" screw/bolt/nut/washer sizes? I need to replace a lot and thought why not just get all new.

Well, we have a nice garage set up but I'm not allowed to add anything..... yet. I have a full sized VPin and tool chest, but she has her own work bench and cabinet for her Etsy store. And until I get a proper lanai built the golf cart and the grill live in the garage.

I did buy the Evaporust at HB, since that was the only place I could find it. But then I was able to give them more money foe other tools as well. I was also wondering about the re-use, which I had planed on trying anyway.
I was thinking of having the legs powder coated, that's what I did for my VPin (orignal Centaur legs). They came factory grey colored so I'll check on cost down here. Where I used to live I got my side rails, lock down and legs all done for $75 which I thought was good.
I thought the lock down was stainless on pinball machines, cant I just steel wool and wipe polish on it? I clear coated my original VPin one and it started to wear off, that was pre powder coating.
As for screws/bolts, the coil ones seem to be brass with a super thin brass washer (probably why some are broken). Is there a reason for that if you know?

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Yes! these are the ones I was talking about. Last night I pulled all the coil brackets to get them into the Evaporust. I have one that's burnt and it basically fell apart once I pulled the screw out. I'll have to do some Googling today to see if I can track some down. they are 1/4" head with a lock washer and the super thin washer, all in brass.

As for the lockdown, it's pretty decent with 2 rust rings. The top of the game will get worked on much later. Staring with the mech board, then I need to replace the entire bottom board in the cab (this should be fun), then the coin door/lockdown with assembly, and lastly the playfield and rails.
Still not sure what to do with the cab paint. It's not terrible for its age. I thought about just cleaning it as best I could and clear coating it without touch ups.

Yesterday and today I made decent progress. The T-nuts removed from the old board and added to the new. The hole size needed matched a 7/32 drill bit perfect. To get all the holes lines up I just clamped the boards together and drilled through all the holes (centered as best I could) with a super tiny bit. I only did a full plunge where the T-nuts needed to be installed. Worked out pretty slick.

On to the coils! This is quite tedious but I know it’ll be worth it versus just trying to spot clean. I’m really glad the vintage wire and solider was tough. You can move this stuff around pretty good without the worry of it cracking and breaking. So all removed and into the Evaporust.

I had one G-33 2800 basically fall apart once removed so that’s in the shopping cart already. I’m going to try and test the rest before buying just one. There are a few others that look like they got toast at one point. The G-33 is completely burnt though.

Did some Googling and the coil machine screw is basically non existent in the form factor here. They are Brass 8-32 3/8” SEMS. I did find enough parts on Amazon to fulfill my needs. They are 1/2” so I’ll have to add a washer it two.

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So Evaporust is my new favorite thing. This stuff is amazing. I’m only letting my parts soak for like 4-5 hours and they are coming out so clean. Originally I was expecting the parts to come out looking like trashy metal that was rusty, but that’s not the case. So I had a can of metallic silver ready to paint, but skipped it now.
I don’t own a tumbler and not sure I want to invest in one… currently. But I saw someone in one of these threads talking about waxing the metal after you pull it. So that’s what I did, got everything nice and rinsed and squirted some buffing wax all over them. The tag worked great for the screws and tiny bits, but all the coil assemblies, coin and ball counter, and the score reel I manually rubbed them all down with my hands and then again with a rag to buff them out. Worked great and after a few days now that seems to have sealed them up perfectly.
Split the gear box, cleaned, and super lubed cause I saw that posted. Dremel wire wheeled the coin and ball counter and lubed the contacts. Reassembled a few things and just tested all the mech board coils. Just that one 2800 failed, so that’ll be on order soon.
Hoping to clean all the contacts this weekend so I can start the putting it all back on the new boards.

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I used the super lube on my finger, just a light amount. If it needs more I can
surly add some.