WH2O restoration post 7: Soaking Wet And Moving Fast

by El_Smack · March 28, 2007

Repopulating the playfield took a lot of time, mainly because I cleaned each piece as I was putting it back on. I replaced all the ramps except Insanity Falls, and I learned a couple things about the repros:

They are awesome.
They are not ready to bolt right back on. Plastic must be removed, and decals must be put on.
The plastic is soft, so it’s easy to work with.
They are awesome. So pretty; so, so pretty.

All the ramps need to have the screw holes countersunk, or chamfered, to accommodate the ramp screw heads. I got a chamfer bit and twisted it by hand.

The lower to upper ramp is too thick where it mates to the Upper playfield. Remove about 1/16 inch of plastic from the underside of the ramp where it sits on the Upper PF. If you don’t, there is a lip that the ball hits and will cause airballs. I got a file and carefully removed enough material that it was flush with the Upper PF.

The lower to upper is also just a bit shorter than original. No problem here, really. The ramp just sits about 1/2 inch further back. You can see how the ramp flap is sitting pretty close to the edge of the artwork.

Putting the decals on isn’t hard, as long at you use a little Windex to make sure you can reposition if necessary. I rubbed a Q-tip dipped in Windex on the ramp and it worked great. I could remove the decal if needed, and there was enough “stick” left that the decal didn’t wander.

If you replace the decals on Insanity Falls, they will never lay flat. Ever. The facory decals didn’t lay flat either. The bottom of the IF ramp isn’t flat, and has complex curves that no flat decal can match. They look fine, but without cutting or getting the decal folded up, you won’t get the edges of the decal to seal. Check out the pics of how mine came out.

On the middle of the ramp, you can faintly make out where the decal hasn’t sealed at some of the edges. I messed with it for a 1/2 hour before I realized it wasn’t going to happen. Looks much better than my old ones did.

I modified the Bigfoot Ramp guide plastic to prevent airballs from destroying the ramp switch. Removing the spacer lowers the plastic and keeps the ball on the ramp.

The VUK to the Upper PF had torn loose of it’s screws, and the op who fixed it did it by moving it over 1/4 inch and sinking new screws. I didn’t like this, so I drilled holes where the old, stripped mounting holes were and put in a screw with a bolt on the other side. It’s not coming loose again.

I also put a buffer wheel in my drill, and used Novus #3 and #2 to (almost) get rid of the ball trail on my Insanity Falls ramp. They were really bad, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. This shot also shows how close I matched the replacement decal to the original that is stuck under the switch mount bracket rivets.

At the end of the Insanity Falls ramp, it looks like there should be a post to support it, but mine was missing. So I came up with this, and I think it’s pretty good. Maybe I’ll call it a “mod” and see if I can get someone to copy me.

This next shot show one of the new slingshot plastics from Phoenix Arcade. They are awesome. I put some 1″ lexan washers under them to (hopefully) keep them intact. After that is the jet bumpers with new rings and skirts.