Dirt everywhere!

Well, after finishing the dismantling of the playfield yesterday, I started cleaning all the bits and bobs today.

This morning my attention went to the metal pieces.

Dirty, dirty, metal bits...

After some experimenting I found that using some steel wool for the biggest dirt followed by some chrome polish did wonders. On the painted parts I just used some soap.

Clean, shiny, metal bits...

There is some rust here and there, but I cleaned it up as best I can. I’m not too worried about the finished product not being showroom quality. This is a project to make a presentable, playable pinball machine, not a brand spanking new one… Who knows, maybe in the future I might revisit these pieces and get them back to mint condition.

This afternoon it was time for the plastics. I used luke warm water and handsoap. I’m too scared of damaging the paint to try anything else.

Plastics, some dirty, some clean.

The most fun part to clean was the upper playfield.

The upper playfield, very dirty.

I took of all the posts, all the metal wires and the habitrail and gave the plastic plate a wash. Same as before; luke-warm water and handsoap. Cleaned the wires, the posts and the habitrail and put it all together again with the new rubbers I bought.

Clean upper playfield with new rubbers and plastic installed.

Unfortunately, while disassembling the posts, two of the special “stud” screws broke. I was able to remove the broken off part from one of the screws, but the other one is still firmly lodged in the playfield. Looks like I’ll have to drill it out. Not something I look forward too.

The "studs", two of them broken.

Also, whilest dumping all the posts in the sink, a tiny little half-post piece dropped down the drain. I immediately turned the water off and opened up the drain, but too late. It’s gone.

Two two-part posts, one with the top part missing.

Tomorrow I’m going back to work on the playfield.