TSPP Restoration – Pt. 6 – The Grand Finale
After a hard month of work, I put the finishing touches on my restoration of my 2003-built Simpson’s Pinball Party. The final chapter actually started about three weeks ago when I moved the playfield back in to the cabinet. My lovely assistant (and wife) Heather helped me move it from the rotisserie to the cabinet. Over the rest of the evening, I reconnected all connectors and routed them back through their cable stays. By about 10 PM, I was ready to power it up.
The fully restored Simpson’s Pinball Party
As expected, things weren’t exactly perfect. They never are. I put a pretty good gouge in the cabinet as I lowered the playfield in. I also had a few switches that needed adjusting. Once these were resolved, I was able to play a few trial games. Again, I found a few things that needed work. The schoolbus kickout hole plugged the ball into the plastic guard and often wouldn’t make it out of the hole. Probably most seriously, the couch release plunger stuck open.
I fixed the couch plunger by tearing the mechanism apart. I realized the coil stop was broken off and the plunger would go in too deep. Since a new weldment with the coil stop is about $45, I decided to make my own. This involved a big washer and a rubber stop mounted to the weldment. It worked perfectly! The kickout hole issue was fixed by adjusting the clear plastic to give it a little more room.
The last issue resolved was the plunger. It was worn to the base metal and the compression spring was partially embedded in the knob. This made it pull very rough and it made the plunger stick out too far. Since it stuck out too far, the autoplunger only barely touched a waiting ball giving it a very wimpy launch. I solved this by buying a new shooter assembly from Pinball Life for $18.
The finished playfield
All pictures from the restoration can be found here: TSPP restoration pictures