# Batman '89 Pinball Overhaul: Episode 2 **Source:** Cary Hardy **Type:** video **Published:** 2023-10-02 **Duration:** 12m 8s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc1cWowE6Z0 --- ## Analysis Cary Hardy documents the second episode of a Batman '89 pinball machine restoration, focusing on playfield teardown and assessment. He disconnects components using a rotisserie stand, identifies wear issues including flaking paint, drooping hardware, and deteriorated inserts, and begins cleaning decals with naphtha. The machine is being restored to playable condition within budget constraints rather than a full cosmetic restoration. ### Key Claims - [MEDIUM] Ramp-O-Matic makes replacement ramps and decals for Batman '89 — _Speaker mentions these parts are available but uncertain about budget_ - [HIGH] Replacement target decals cost $9 each; six needed totals significant expense — _Direct quote about cost-cutting decisions on decals_ - [HIGH] Mylar protection is critical—areas without it are 'trashed or on the verge of being trashed' — _Extensive discussion of playfield condition in areas lacking mylar coverage_ - [HIGH] Owner's scope: fully playable condition with improved appearance, not full cosmetic restoration — _Owner's stated requirements mentioned explicitly_ - [HIGH] PenDoc rotisserie is 'lovely, very heavy duty' for playfield work — _Direct endorsement with reference to prior video demonstration_ ### Notable Quotes > "The glorious thing about having a lovely rotisserie is that it makes this job really easy." > — **Cary Hardy**, early in teardown sequence > _Endorsement of equipment used in restoration workflow_ > "basically if it didn't have mylar over it it's trashed or on the verge of being trashed if not already been attempted to be touched up by previous owners" > — **Cary Hardy**, playfield condition assessment > _Core diagnostic observation about machine's preservation challenges_ > "you see what I have to work with which is a quote from this movie right here that I commonly use you see what I have to work with the plastic surgeon" > — **Cary Hardy**, mid-restoration commentary > _Batman '89 film reference used to contextualize restoration constraints_ > "I don't know if I want to go with cool white LEDs on this one guys I don't know something about it's telling me maybe I should go sunlight" > — **Cary Hardy**, LED color decision point > _Design decision-making process for machine aesthetics_ > "Cool whites is going to make this thing look really weird." > — **Cary Hardy**, final LED color decision > _Justification for selecting sunlight LEDs over cool white_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Cary Hardy | person | Pinball restoration content creator; conducting Batman '89 machine restoration and documenting process on video | | Batman '89 | game | 1989 Batman pinball machine undergoing overhaul/restoration; specific focus of this video episode | | PenDoc rotisserie | product | Specialized equipment for rotating pinball playfields horizontally during restoration work; endorsed by speaker | | Ramp-O-Matic | company | Supplier of replacement ramps and decals for pinball machines, including Batman '89 parts | | Molex connectors | product | Standard electrical connectors used in pinball machines; disconnected during teardown | ### Topics - **Primary:** Playfield restoration and teardown procedures, Paint deterioration and damage assessment, Decal replacement and cleaning techniques, LED lighting color selection (cool white vs. sunlight), Budget-constrained restoration workflow - **Secondary:** Equipment and tools for restoration (rotisserie, naphtha, microfiber cloths), Mylar protection and its role in playfield preservation ### Sentiment **Neutral** (0.5) — Speaker maintains pragmatic, educational tone focused on documenting challenges and solutions. No strong positive or negative emotion; matter-of-fact assessment of machine condition and restoration constraints. Some mild frustration with budget limitations but acceptance of scope requirements. ### Signals - **[design_philosophy]** Restoration approach prioritizes playability and improved appearance within budget constraints rather than full cosmetic restoration; owner's scope explicitly limits restoration scope (confidence: high) — Owner stated 'it doesn't need to be beautiful you just you know wants it to be fully playable and look better'; speaker making cost-cutting decisions on non-critical components - **[product_concern]** Batman '89 playfield exhibits significant age-related deterioration including flaking paint, bare wood exposure, drooping hardware, and crispified inserts; previous amateur repairs evident throughout (confidence: high) — Extensive visual documentation of paint loss, blistering, wear spots, and failed touch-ups; speaker notes mylar-protected areas are relatively preserved while unprotected areas are severely degraded - **[technology_signal]** LED color temperature selection (sunlight vs. cool white) impacts perceived aesthetics; speaker decides sunlight better suits aged/dulled playfield appearance before cleaning completion (confidence: medium) — Speaker reasoning: cool white 'is going to make this thing look really weird'; sunlight chosen after assessing current condition and noting potential change once cleaning/refurbishment completed --- ## Transcript all right it's time to start the tear down with the play field i got my ziploc bags ready to go i'm gonna get my tools but the first things first is that we're gonna be disconnecting all of the connectors because if you follow my videos you should know this stuff by now uh we're gonna be disconnecting all of i wonder what that goes to We're going to be disconnecting all of these connectors that way everything on the top side should just be able to come right out. So all of these Molex connectors and everything like that. The glorious thing about having a lovely rotisserie is that it makes this job really easy. For those that are curious of what I use, I use the PenDoc rotisserie. I have a video showing you how this thing works. It is lovely, very heavy duty, doesn't mess around. All right, we are merely in the infancy of disassembling this plate fill. I've pretty much only removed like three things, but that's just a lot of the big things. You got this metal molding right here, and of course the giant ramp that feeds all around right here, and the museum piece that goes right here. So looking at the ramp that I've got down here, overall it's, well, it's seen better days. Now there have obviously been some repair jobs been doing on this in the past. I mean, technically it'll probably still hold up okay too. I might be able to do a little better on the reinforcement, But they do make replacements for these ramps. I think they're on Ramp-O-Matic. And I want to say they even have the new decals for this, which would really make this thing look a lot better. Just don't know if it's going to be in the budget. But this is what it looks like all taken apart. But definitely a new ramp and some stickers would really make this game look a lot better. A couple of more Ziploc bags in. Have this whole area taken down. Lots of flaking on the paint right here. I mean, there's no saving that. I mean, it was just blistered up. I mean, a violent breeze could knock it off. A lot of wear I'm seeing throughout this. This is drooping down. It's got too much wiggle for my liking, so we're probably missing some hardware on that other two look to be pretty solid but yeah definitely gonna need a good cleaning on all this play field looks pretty simplistic but that pretty typical for your your later 80 machines and everything so next up is that I want to take this portion apart then the junker ramp and then get all this stuff down here done play field is pretty much stripped down I don't know if I want to go with cool white LEDs on this one guys I don't know something about it's telling me maybe I should go sunlight am I crazy I don't know maybe it's because it just looks so dull right now maybe once I get it cleaned up and everything starts to look shiny and new then I'll get the cool white feeling but as of right now it's like I guess since everything looks kind of dull and I feel like a duller lighting should be suitable but I don't know things change but I'm trying to get you guys some close-up footage so you can see all the bad that's currently on this play field and hopefully be able to give you a good after shot of what this thing is going to look like after giving it a good old once over. there's a whole lot of things I can't do it's already been stated by the owner that it doesn't need to be beautiful you just you know wants it to be fully playable and look better so that's that's doable because uh when it comes to making it like a full restoration we'd have do a lot of touch-ups on a lot of this area. So we're gonna be ordering a decal kit which is gonna be replacing these crappy looking ones. So we're gonna take these stickers off and then we're gonna give these targets a good scrubbing and cleaning to get the residual off and yep and then we'll just wait for the new stuff to come in I feel sorry for those of you out there that do not have naphtha in your state or even parts of the world but this is the only one I've got clean so far but yeah take naphtha and just kind of work your way around it with a microfiber cloth and eventually the adhesive the remaining of it can just kind of rub right off once you get it down low enough but it doesn't take too much and uh this one's all nice and ready for a new decal cleaned up all the way around it and we'll just have to do it to the other two that are right This is still tacky and doesn look as pretty as this one And even then this one doesn look exactly pretty either but it looks better than the other two so but yeah let me tell you how just a little dab will do you on these things And it's little stuff like this where I Turn my phone on put on some kind of show or whatever to make the process of just cleaning every little nook and cranny of a lot of these things. Less monotonous. But we'll go all around this, wear this adhesive down. As you can see that was clean. Now it's all dirty and I'm getting low on NAFTA I'll have to get some more tomorrow actually and see now the remnants of the adhesive pretty much just rub right off and then once that remaining thick adhesive is off then I'll go over it again with nap but now I could also get brand new versions of these but when you're on a budget you have to make do and cut cost where you can you got six of these and they're nine bucks each you know that adds up so we're gonna save and salvage what we can and they're not broke just gotta make them look a little bit cleaner and uh well we should be good to go all right so guys let me go over this play field a little bit more with you maybe you need a better visual on how what i'm dealing with here so thing is with this kind of play field and the age and everything and what's it's gone through basically if it didn't have mylar over it it's trashed or on the verge of being trashed if not already been attempted to be touched up by previous owners so one of the biggest defects is actually right here you can feel how this insert underneath here is crispified like I can push in a little bit I'm not sure if you can see that on the camera or not but uh yeah I mean I don't want to test that anymore it's basically mylar that's giving the ability for that ball to roll across there without issues and definitely not like that over here but still not good any area that doesn't have mylar looks like it's already been attempted to be touched up by previous owners and working on the trop area right now I I got the coral and everything locked I going to get this all cleaned up But I can only do so much With the budget and everything obviously So I'm just carefully cleaning Where there's no mylar Because this paint will just chip off And you can see where a lot of paint has been removed But someone has done some touch ups here, here, here a big old area up here this was probably I'm going to assume bare wood because it's like looks like it's been painted blue now this has been touched up right here all through here uh all this stuff basically just flaked off with my finger I mean it was that it was that cooked and gone all around the pop bumpers you've got bare wood going on thankfully the mylar is protecting where we're at right now all around here is gone big old wear spot right here all up through here it's been touched up this has been messed with as well this has been touched up all right here yeah so John Youssi what I have to work with which is a quote from this movie right here that I commonly use John Youssi what I have to work with the plastic surgeon so yep there's the update on there when it comes to what I'm dealing with but I mean everything had mylar cleaned up relatively well but in any place that doesn't have mylar which luckily is hidden by plastics and everything around around the perimeter. So overall the play field is going to look okay when everything is reassembled and stuff like that, but you're still going to have a little bit of patina and age look to it. So I have made the decision that yes, I'm going to be going with sunlight. Sunlight throughout, not cool whites. Cool whites is going to make this thing look really weird. When it comes to the ramp, got that over here I believe I believe I'm gonna flame polish this up and do what I can to make it look better and in order to flame polish it I'm gonna have to remove these decals so luckily we got a new decal set for this whenever it comes in but uh so yep that's where we're at on that now Outro Music _(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 0fefcf4a-5e4f-40a4-a034-c8aa84595100*