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Black Rose Pinball Machine
At the 2011 York Pinball show, I played this machine for
the first time. It was owned by Eric, who organized the show.
I was very impressed by the game play, the theme, the music,
etc.
As a result, I decided to start looking for one.
About a
year later, a local pinball friend found this machine on Craig's List.
We went to go see it, and purchased it from the owner.
The
price was very reasonable, and I almost missed out on it as another
buyer was ready to step in if I did not buy it.
Since restoration, I have come to really like the game play and the level of difficulty. One of the mods was to switch some white and blue lamps to LEDs, which really causes the machine to shine.
Repairs and Mods
Typical condition of playfield before restoration. I used Novus 2 to clean
and polish the surface. This is a Diamond Plate playfield.
The
playfield was in really great shape, and except for a tiny chip under a
ramp flap, had no paint loss. This is because the machine was
HUO
for the past 15 years. However, it not been cleaned in a
while,
and the whole playfield was very dirty. I was able to restore
its
condition to like-new with Novus 2 as can be seen at the top of this
page.
Original condition of the left side of the cab. The red has faded. The
other side has no fade.
Head repainted with translucent paints.
Cab repainted. Note also the cab protectors for the flipper buttons.
The
cab was faded on the left side, so I used translucent paints from
Sharpies to repaint the cab. The before and after pictures
are
shown above. Be sure to use fresh pens to reduce streaks.
Bottom edge of the canon body lid was missing, and right side of the
hinge was broken off.
One
of the prominent features of this machine is the canon, which you load
with the pinball, and that is fired at targets. You can
control
the targeting, and is a fun part of the machine. The bottom
edge
of this canon lid was missing, but I was able to recast it with epoxy.
The right hinge point was also broken off, so I repainted the
missing line as can be seen above.
New cab speaker. Size is 6 1/2".
The
surround foam on the cab speaker was completely ripped up into shreds,
and it greatly affected the sound quality. I installed a new
6 1/2" woofer in the cabinet, and it sounds good. I
might add a powered sub one day, but it is quite acceptable for now.
Broadside scoop lined with felt to dampen the ball.
On
occasions, the ball will not enter the scoop at the center of the ship
when fired from the canon. The ball seems to rattle around
and
bounce out. I decided to try and dampen this by lining the
scoop
with adhesive felt. After that, the shots into the broadside
scoop are more muffled, but time will tell how effective this is.
One final annoyance is the occasional airball from the flippers that hits the low hanging cross-playfield ramp. I am working on a fix for this. At this point, I am convinced it is not due to bounces off the canon lid.
One final annoyance is the occasional airball from the flippers that hits the low hanging cross-playfield ramp. I am working on a fix for this. At this point, I am convinced it is not due to bounces off the canon lid.
Log
- 9/15/12 - Machine purchased from Diane and Ron Cudd.
- 3/30/16 - Machine sold to Steven and Tabbie. They are real happy about owning it.