In Progress Fishy, Fishy, Fishy! - 3 x Fish Tales Restorations

[Asiapinball]

Ant

Incredible work as ever. A question though. On the orange fishy I see the slingshot and kick out pivots have been powdercoated. Is there enough clearance to get them back together OK. I have always got.my powdercoater to mask off any where there is moving parts as i see uoh have done for some other parts. Is masking off the pivots unnecessary? Also does your powdercoater make sure anything threaded doesn't get powdercoated so the machine screws go back in ok? Mine does but I'm not sure how he does it and he says its a faff. Maybe it's also unnecessary?

 

[Ant-H]

Incredible work as ever. A question though. On the orange fishy I see the slingshot and kick out pivots have been powdercoated. Is there enough clearance to get them back together OK. I have always got.my powdercoater to mask off any where there is moving parts as i see uoh have done for some other parts. Is masking off the pivots unnecessary?

Good question. No I would say masking off pivot points is a good idea as due to the thickness of the powder they will bind.

Like you said my parts were fully coated. What I do is to use a small drum sander in a Dremel and remove the coating from any of these kind parts.

Also does your powdercoater make sure anything threaded doesn't get powdercoated so the machine screws go back in ok? Mine does but I'm not sure how he does it and he says its a faff. Maybe it's also unnecessary?

My powder coaters do however tape off any threads which imo is definitely a must for me.
He uses a heat resistant tape to mask the treaded parts up. You can actually see the tape still on one of the threads in the below photo as well as a couple where I’ve removed it.

 

[Ant-H]

I made a good start on rebuilding all the mech for Fishy No1.
All the coils received new coil wrappers and any screws were polished and any nuts, coil sleeve and springs were replaced.






The last one I rebuilt was the fishing reel mech.

The motor was cleaned and casing was polished up to remove the tarnished look it had.
Before

After

I also replaced all the optos to ensure they would be nice and reliable.

A belt was also replaced as before I started the restoration, the reel would occasionally slip when trying turn.

The opto bracket was then mounted to the reel mech so that it was ready to refit to the playfield.


Next job is to do that all again for Fishy No2

 

[Asiapinball]

My powder coaters do however tape off any threads which imo is definitely a must for me.
He uses a heat resistant tape to mask the treaded parts up. You can actually see the tape still on one of the threads in the below photo as well as a couple where I’ve removed it.

Mine must do the same. I think he mentioned that he tapes off the screw threads but he must have always removed the tape as I have never seen any.

 

[Ant-H]

Now the zinc plating is done I could make a start on rebuilding all the mechs for Fishy No2 as I’d like to get it so it’s basically at the same rebuild stage as Fishy No1.

Once I’ve completed the underside on both these games I’ll finish rebuilding the top sides and completing shop Fishy No3.

The mechs came out great considering how rusty they all were.


Pop bumpers were first on the bench to be rebuilt.

Catapult mech was next followed the fishing reel.


The last ones to go back together are the flipper mechs for both games, as well as the rear gate mech.

With all the mechs for both games fully built and could start on the harnesses. The first one to go back on is the switch harness, so I fitted new switches throughout and also replaced the old plastic tubing.
I also fitted the harness stand off posts for both Fishy No1 and No2



Next job is the lamp harness which I’ve started but I lost the will to live half way through removing the old rusty sockets

 

[Jay Walker]

Ant,

I see that the two catapult units have different links fitted; the orange one has the older pointed link, the zinc-plated has the newer type. I'd be worried that the newer type would break the spring, as tended to happen with flipper assemblies when using that combination.

 

[Ant-H]

Ant,

I see that the two catapult units have different links fitted; the orange one has the older pointed link, the zinc-plated has the newer type. I'd be worried that the newer type would break the spring, as tended to happen with flipper assemblies when using that combination.

I’m not too worried. If it was a mech that gets used constantly, like for example a flipper mechs then yes it may break the spring eventually. But for this mech I think it will be fine.

If it does however end up breaking the spring, they cost pennies and are quick to change

 

[Ant-H]

I finally finished replacing all the old lamp sockets on both games. The ones on Fishy No2 weren’t great.

It took a while but was definitely worth it in the end.

The coil harnesses were next , so all the old cable ties were replaced as were some more lamp sockets.

They could then go back onto the playfields.

Once everything was in place and the wires soldered back to the coils, I like to neaten the wiring up so a few extra cable ties are needed

At this stage both Fishy No1 and No2 and pretty much neck and neck and the next job was to rebuild the boat ramps for all 3 games.
Out of the 3 ramps, the one from Fishy No3 was definitely the best which is good as that isn’t being replaced.
The ones on the other 2 however didn’t look good at all.


Old one on the left next to its replacement.

First job was to strip and clean the ramp from Fishy No3. I simply used some foam cleaner followed by a good polish.

Next I re-grained all the ball guides to remove the ball trails and refitted them to each ramp.


The holes for the wire guides on the 2 Mirco replacements, were much too small so needed to be opened out to avoid chipping the clear coat.
I then added a piece of Mylar to where the captive ball goes and installed new ramp decals.

The centre ball guide went on next as well as new stand up targets.

They were then flipped over so that the mounting bracket, lamp boards, Comet LEDs and wiring harnesses could go back on. Like the main GI harness, the Boat ramp harness for Fishy No1 and 2 received new lamp holder throughout. I also tidied up the wiring.
Final job before they could go on was to finish re-assembling the ramp for Fishy No3 with new Titan post rubbers, captive ball, plastic and plastic protector.
I installed the ramps for Fishy No1 and 2 onto their playfields but am holding off with the one for Fishy No3 as my plan next to completely strip and shop that playfield so that it will be pretty much at the same rebuild stage as the other ones.

But with boat ramps now in place on the other 2, they are really starting to take shape

Fishy No1

Fishy No2

 

[Smraedis]

Is a shame starboard is spelt wrong on the replacement ramp.

 

[Paul]

Is a shame starboard is spelt wrong on the replacement ramp.

Startboard you mean???

 

[Ant-H]

Is a shame starboard is spelt wrong on the replacement ramp.

Yeah its unfortunate but is what it is when you go with a Mirco Playfield, and repros in general to be honest. There just not many options out there.

Personally things like that don’t bother me to much, as i’d still rather go with the a new ramp as the originals get battered and these too had ****ed inserts chipped up clear.

 

[Triple H]

Doesn't it bother your customers?

 

[Silverpaolo]

Doesn't it bother your customers?

I’m his customer and the answer to that question is….no … I didn’t even notice it till people pointed it and it doesn’t bother me I’d still rather have a nice new pf than an old pf in … it won’t be first time a mistake has been made on a pf and it certainly won’t be the last

 

[Ant-H]

Doesn't it bother your customers?

No not at all. As I said, if you want a new playfield there’s not many options out there. CPR or Mirco. Both seem to have issues when reproducing some games artwork from the originals.

I’ve seen some misaligned or have added/missing text.
On a Mirco IJ playfield you get a Vampire Willie, though I’ve heard he has finally fixed that.

So a decision needs to be made at the start and for a FT, to either accept the small misprint on the new one or if bothers you, live with a ****ty ramp/playfield with cracked inserts/clear coat.

 

[Ant-H]

Before I start stripping the top side on Fishy No3 I wanted to do a few more little jobs on the other two.

First up was to install the flipper mech and as usual the dimples for these were way out. If I used what was there the bushing wouldn’t even line up with the holes

But once I drilled new holes for the screws they all line up great.
I also finished cable tying all the harnesses together soapart from fitting the insert LEDs on one of them, I think I can say the undersides are done. Though I am waiting on new stand up targets and decals so I will have to change those.




The backboards needed to be done next. Firstly I filled and sanded them down, followed by some primer and 2 coats of satin black.

I replaced all the lamp sockets as again they were rusty. I also polished all the screws as well.


After that it was a quick job to re-instal the lamp harness and get them back on the playfields.

I wanted to install the plastic ramps next as I had a feeling they might be a pain in the **** to do.
So before they could go on, I fitted a few plastics.
These kits came with Planetry Pinball and though they are licensed and the quality is really good a couple of them still needed adjustments to fit correctly.

For example the plastic that goes around the base of the fishing reel was slightly to big when compared to the original so was hitting the bottom of the mech.

So I basically drew a line around it and used a dremal to sand away the excess in order to give me enough clearance.

The other plastic that I suspect will need looking out is the one that goes at top right. I think it will hit the wire form but won’t know until I get them back and installed.

The others I fitted went on great.

The last thing to do was to try out the plastic ramps. Both the originals I took off were cracked in various places so need to go. The ramp flap on fishy No2 had even started to rot away

The replacements came with Starship fantasy and look great. The reason why I thought they would be a bitch to fit was they have been made in slightly thicker plastic when compared to the originals

New vs old

And I was right, due to the increase in thickness they were a complete ball ache to align with the boat ramp and mounting posts.
After some slight adjustments to the mounting posts I managed to install them so that they were spot on. The final test will be once the wire forms are fitted.

 

[Happypin]

Yeah its unfortunate but is what it is when you go with a Mirco Playfield, and repros in general to be honest. There just not many options out there.

Personally things like that don’t bother me to much, as i’d still rather go with the a new ramp as the originals get battered and these too had ****ed inserts chipped up clear.

The TAF from Mirco I fitted on my restore was not identical. Like you say we don’t have many options.