This machine was posted for sale on RGP, it was at a low price and it
was close enough that I
decided to purchase it. It is one in a series of three
machines
(Pinbot, Jackbot and Bride of Pinbot).
There were some minor defects with the
electronics. Here
is how they were repaired:
With these repairs, Pinbot's electronics were now completely
functioning. The machine is fun to play with its ball-lock
visor
and wrap around ramp to the bagatelle on the right.
A commonly broken item on this machine is the
plastic to
the left of the ball visor. Before restoring the playfield, I
decided to see if I could make my own reproduction.

This is the site of the repair. This plastic is commonly
broken.
I had originally thought
that this
plastic was a small piece. My plan was to simply replace it
entirely. However, when I disassembled the top of the
playfield,
I realized that this plastic was very large, and spanned the ball
lock. Since it is not practical for me to build such a large
piece, and I did not want to cut the plastic in half, I had little
choice but to just replace the small part that was missing.

Color was matched by using a color wheel. Here you see that
the
plastic is much
larger than just the long part next to the visor.
I found a scan of this
plastic on
ballsofsteel.net.
I cleaned up the image by removing blemishes and making the colors
solid. I then printed the first test print on glossy photo
paper
with a color wheel. That allowed me to calibrate and color
match. The next important part is to figure out what to print
on. I tried a variety of substrates (waterslide paper, clear
transparency plastic, translucent paper, glossy photo paper,
etc). I needed to match the translucence of the original
plastic
(when backlit), and also how it looks under ambient light (front
lit). In the end I found that, surprisingly, ordinary white
paper
produced the best look. Thicker paper blocked too much light,
and
painting a clear film white produced too many brush strokes or also
blocked too much light.

A material was needed that filters the light in the same way as the
white paint
layer in the back of the plastic. Here you see the new piece
backlit,
and the match is
quite close.
So the color-corrected
image was
simply printed on plain white paper, and then bonded on some polished
cut Lexan plastic. The glue used was 467MP transfer adhesive
(sample courtesy of
Bryan
Kelly) . The results were very good. When
backlite
(above image), the amount of light blocking matched quite closely with
the original plastic. Also, when lit with ambient light such
as
from the GI circuits, the match was very close. Be sure to
rub
down firmly to remove the tiny air bubbles under the glue.

Same two items front lit. With the bright flash of the
camera,
the new piece looks
lighter, but it looks rather close under ambient light.
The original plastic was
trimmed back
to a black line, and the new piece was mounted with a clear protector
underneath. In addition to preventing ball hits, this
protector
also serves as a means to line up the
original plastic with the new one.
Two views of the restored area. Note the clear protector to
prevent future ball hits.
Gotta touch up that playfield some time.....
Links to
other plastic repair
and reproduction sites below.
Another commonly broken
part on this
machine is the mounting tab of the ramp. Since it is exposed,
ball hits tend to break this tab off.

Before repair. Tab is missing.
The tab was repaired by
cutting out a
small piece of clear Lexan. The bottom of the existing tab
and
the new piece were sanded rough. These were then cleaned with
alcohol. Then the new tab was epoxied under the existing
tab. I then prepared a tape dam all the way around the tab
and
dripped in more epoxy to replace the missing plastic. This
technique produced a flat square edge, matching the original ramp's
appearance. After it is all cured, the ramp was test fitted
into
the machine, and the mounting hole marked and drilled while the tab is
still transparent. Finally, the top face of the tab is sanded
flat, and painted with acrylic paint. I found a color among
my
collection that matches the color of the ramp very closely.
It is
"Folk Art # 719 Plaid Blue Ribbon".

Tab repaired and painted.
See also:
Space
Shuttle Ramp Repair
Indiana Jones
Ruins Repair
Ball
lock repair
The two ball locks in the back of the playfield performed
poorly
mainly due to damage at their entrance. To begin with, hard
shots
from
the flippers would very often cause frustrating bounce-outs.
In
addition, once a ball was locked, the depression in the playfield cause
by the wear would sometimes trap a second ball, and you had to nudge
the machine to get the ball out. Finally, the ball eject
mechanisms would sometimes get stuck in the 'up' position, and it would
not allow the ball to enter the lock.

The ball lock area before repair. Both locks looked like
this. The wear was
so bad that the ball lock could sometimes hold two balls in each lock.
The repair was done by
putting a
small strip of duct tape in the opening of the ball trap to form a tape
dam. I then filled the worn area with epoxy. Once
cured, I
used a small round file to recreate the bevel at the lip of the ball
lock. I then finished the area by painting it back
in. I
was able to obtain a near-perfect paint mix by using the right
proportions of pastel green, plaid
white, and brown. The match is indistinguishable by naked
eye,
but you can see a difference due to
the bright flash in the photo below.
The colors used were:
Folk Art #619
Poetry Green, Delta Ceramcoat Antique White, Crafter's Edition #72029
Spice Brown.

The repaired ball locks. The touched up area color is perfect
match with the naked eye.
By the light of the flash, one can see a difference.
In addition to the
repaired
playfield, I also raised the deflector tab about 1/4" above the
playfield. This extra room, allows the ball more space to
drop
down into the ball lock. The result was very
impressive. I
can now hit the ball lock with a full force flipper shot, and it did
not bounce out in three test games. Prior to that, I had
tried
applying some of the same foam used on the IJ and MM on the deflector
tab, but that did not work as well.