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I was
originally a little hesitant to buy this machine mainly due to the fact that
the cabinet graphics were in such bad shape. I found that the Pinball
Resource had the complete 5 piece set available for under $150. With that
in mind I purchased this pin for $2,000 knowing I could make it near
perfect for under $2,300 finished. With the playfield removed, I started to remove the old graphics. |
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Here you can
get an idea of the cabinet condition. Rather severe damage around the legs and scrapes mainly from ruff handling. |
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The right side of the head is ready for the
new art. The adhesive that was
originally used takes some elbow grease to get totally off. |
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The new art
work is now applied and trimmed. |
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The head is
now totally finished. I have repainted all the exposed areas and added new
red t-molding. |
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The cabinet
is now also ready for it's new art work. Notice the cabinet bolts have
been recessed and filled with body putty. |
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The cabinet
is now clean and neat without the crudely semi-recessed cabinet bolts of
the earlier machines. |
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The cabinet
is getting close. All the new decals are now in place along with new
freshly painted legs & coin door. New leg bolts and levelers have also been installed. |
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One of the
problems with the pinball 2000 machines is the poor quality heat sink
& fan on the computer motherboard. If the fan should fail, the
processor could overheat and take out the machine :( In this case someone
has replaced the factory fan with even a smaller one. |
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For only $20
I purchased a much higher quality heat sink & fan but it wouldn't
quite fit due to the prism card next to the processor. An easy trim of
3/16 of an inch let it slide right in place. |
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Here is the
finished installation. |
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Next to be
done is to shop the playfield. The only problem area I had to deal with
was the saucer outhole. There was quite a bit of damage around the edges. |
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I added a
clear Mylar patch over the outhole extending ¾ inch all around the
opening before I routered for a clean new look. You
can't hardly see it in the picture but the playfield is now well protected
by the Mylar. Then I also added two coats of marine varnish to the exposed
wood to keep out dirt and help protect from further damage. |
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The last few
things to do before cleaning the playfield was to replace two switches that were bad, one cracked stand up
target & added a new skip ramp. I also will be replacing the apron decals
with a NOS set. The decals are all starting to peal around
the edges and the center Bally decal is missing all together. These NOS
decal sets are available from DMS Pinballs. |
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Here is the
finished playfield with new apron decals and martian spotlights now added.
The spotlights are available from DMS Pinballs. |
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Now my RFM
is finished and ready to put back in the game room. This machine would
easily rate as a 9.7 out of 10 and is a replacement for the Star Wars Episode
1 that I sold recently. |
