Bally Xenon Pinball

Back in the early 1980's, I clearly remember playing Xenon. That's just one reason I wanted it in my collection. It's a classic from that era. It's the first Bally with speech, and had great artwork from Paul Faris. So, when I found out that CPR was going to run new playfields, I got on the order list. Several months after getting it, I still didn't have a Xenon for that new playfield. I'd been scanning eBay and Craig's List, and posting want to buy adds on Pinside with no success. I was also texting with a few folks I've met in the Pinball community. One of them had a mint condition Xenon backglass, so I made the trek to his house and purchased it ASAP. Good thing too - as I just beat out someone else who was also interested. So there I was, with a brand new playfield and mint backglass - but no game to put 'em in.

Finally, an add came up on eBay for a completely trashed Xenon. It had been listed before with a $100 minimum bid, and didn't sell. Heck, for $100, I might as well try, right? I won the auction. I think I paid $110. The machine was in Florida, so I had to have it shipped to Houston. Shipping was $300, so yeah - I spent three times more on shipping than the machine. Did I mention it was trashed?

This is one of the pics the seller had on the eBay listing.

And here's the pin in my garage, after delivery from Florida.

No way to repair that, so I guess I'll need a new coin door.

It's a bit rusty in places.

Overall, the cabinet was in decent shape.

The head was in worse shape...

Hmmm, no sound boards - gonna have to track those down somewhere.
Also, it turns out the MPU was from a Mystic - not Xenon.
No worries though, I planned to put new boards in anyway.

Up on legs and ready for the work to begin.

Yikes, that's grimy!

Love the professional touch up job someone did here....yeah..

MMMmmm, ok - so it's going to be a long project.

Time to start stripping parts off the top of the old playfield.

It's a good thing CPR did repro plastics as well - these are shot.

The red Kmiec post. It's an interesting story you can read here

The pop bumper caps are going to shine up nice!

OH YEAH!!
It's great to finally see some parts on that beautiful new playfield.

Looking GOOD!

I had to get a new transport tube, and light bar. Also all new blue posts.

Now that the top side (the fun part) is done, it's time to start the underside (the tedious part).

Here's a few pictures that show the underside of the old playfield.

Everything you see had to be removed, disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled on the new playfield.

I took a TON of pictures when taking everything apart - most you won't see here.

The drop target assembly has five coils in total. One to reset the bank, and one for each target to drop as needed.

The four smaller coils on the drop target assembly.

Rust. I hate rust.

It's all coming apart now...

When I'd get depressed looking at all these old nasty parts......

...I'd look up at the shiny new playfield and feel much better.

...back to the nasty.

When polishing parts, it helps to have a beer.

New drop targets - Oh Yeah!!

These are going straight into the parts tumbler.
Notice how one is different?
I think it's an operator fix, that will continue to work in my game as well.

Oh, the dreaded pop bumper section.

...and that blasted ground braid (that is actually the 5 volts positive).

Kickout assembly will need some work.

Rebuilding the flippers is a must.

After some time in the parts tumbler, everything comes out nice and shiny.

Putting some of the first assemblies on the new playfield.

And *poof* - it's almost done.
If only it were that easy.

The underside of the new playfield.
It's not perfect, but it's much better than it was.

Here's the new coin door - just needs a little more shine.

A pic from inside of the machine looking out.
Notice the 'OK 2-15-89 Slim' sticker.

Somewhere in Florida there was a guy named 'Slim' who worked on pinball machines, and this coin mech passed his test.

I love finding old coins in pinball machines.

Pretty sure this board isn't worth trying.

After completing the playfield swap, and putting in all new boards - IT WORKS!!

OH HELL YEAH!!

OMG - DIMPLES!!
I almost freaked out when I started to see the first few ball dimples in the new playfield.
Oh well, the CPR playfield was only going to be new once.
I didn't buy it just to look at it.
Actually, now that I've played it a lot, the dimples are not as noticeable.