Viper Night Drivin'

[LLUncoolJ]

Well, the functional part of the pinball semi-restoration is nearly complete. Just need to treak a few things. The cabinet has a bit of fade and needs a little touching up in the front, but it's not bad, I've seen much worse. I replaced the DMD this morning, wow what a difference it makes. Got all 3 black light lamps working, replaced purple LEDs with Blue. Of course, previously replaced every #47 bulb (weird, all of the #555's but one worked, none of the #47s), cleaned, waxed, replaced most of the rubbers, replaced 2 target switches, fixed another, and maybe the worst chore, had to soak, scrub, soak, scrub, soak, scrub all of the glo-balls.

A few little asides:

Pinball Life ships mega quick. I ordered the DMD and a few other parts Thursday and got them this (saturday) morning with regular shipping.

To any noobs intimidated by pinball, I bought my first machine less than a year ago. It wasn't bad, learned a little bit about them. Then bought a pristine ToM, learned a little more, but not much to fix (knock on wood). Then I took the plunge with this project. I didn't know what I got myself into when I got it home and looked it over better. But I have about $200 in parts in it, $125 of which being the display. Just attack one problem at a time, ask for help here, and have fun.

I played ToM for the first time in a while last night. Of course I played horrible since I have gotten used to these wacky Viper balls. That being said, it is just an beautiful game...not as clumsy or random as viper, but an eligant game, for a more civilized age.

[Pinball Wizard]

I've played this once but it wasn't fully working. I know someone who bought one just to go with there 2 Vipers. Wish I had enough money to just but 2 vipers and a pinball.

[LLUncoolJ]

No kiddin' with the vipers. I was bidding against a viper owner at the auction and tried to sell it to him afterwards. It's gonna cost him at lot more now that it's finished if he wants it.

PBJ...you would truly be appalled...the weight and physics of the balls is totally different, It is a novelty. Once you go back to a regular pin, it is like a time warp...completely different. Still, it feels very satisfying to bring one back from the dead. The kids really love it. But I'm gonna list it on Craigslist and if it sells, they will have to deal with it.

[pinballwizard79]

Damn LL are you are turning into one of those CL pin flippers?

Looks good dude, nice & clean!

[RayB]

Xiau2? Where's your opinion on this one?

[LLUncoolJ]

Damn LL are you are turning into one of those CL pin flippers?

Looks good dude, nice & clean!

Thanks. Flipper isn't really the term, although I will be trading out of this one at some point. Only ToM is safe until I land one the the big 3 on the list. That being said, I wanted to see if some Viper enthusiast was dumb enough to give me $1900 for it. I already took the ad down for CL though, I have too much going on to mess with it right now.

For now it it looks good and fills the empty space in my atrium.

[LLUncoolJ]

Her bikini glows in the black light...didn't realize that until all of the black lights worked. Although I finds the dancing raccoons much more random. Hoochies and sportscars often go hand and hand.

[lilshawn]

He told the insurance company he hit a deer.

does that even work anymore??

someone smashes out my car window, and the insurance company gives me the head-toe look. 

[LLUncoolJ]

***Update***

I did sell this machine a couple of months ago and pretty much broke even. I had a resetting problem that I eventually figured out was caused by a broken wire on the coin door. About a month later I found one of the extra glo-balls in my parts box. I put it on Ebay and it sold for $94. I thought the outrageous sums these were fetching was a myth, but to my delight it was true. I knew I had 2 more somewhere. My wife eventually found them in the pantry (?) I sold the second one last week for $99. I am about to list the last one. I'm wishing I had sold the machine with standard balls and kept the other 4 glo-balls. Who knew they were worth 4 times their weight in silver.

[ChadTower]

Everything pinball has shot up ridiculously over the last 18 months.  I am very thankful I acquired most of my A list project queue before the market went nuts.