# The Getaway Restoration: Part 4

**Source:** Cary Hardy  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2020-02-17  
**Duration:** 15m 7s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5RfC20uX1E

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## Analysis

Cary Hardy documents detailed restoration work on a Getaway pinball machine, focusing on component replacement from a Pinball Life order and precision reassembly of slingshot and pop bumper mechanisms. The video emphasizes quality control challenges with new playfield components, including misaligned mounting holes and improperly oriented leaf switches that require adaptation and specialized riveting tools. Hardy demonstrates proper assembly techniques, tool specifications, and tolerance management for switch gaps and component fitment.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] New playfield components from CPR/reproduction suppliers have inconsistent hole mapping and require manual adaptation rather than direct plug-and-play installation — _Hardy demonstrates missing mounting holes for stand-up targets across multiple playfield sections and states 'don't be expecting everything to be perfect and in place for you to just plug and play this is gonna require a little bit of finagling and finesse'_
- [HIGH] Leaf switches for slingshots arrived with incorrect orientation (short leaf facing wrong direction) making them unusable until re-riveted in correct direction — _Hardy identifies orientation error: 'the long leaf switch is supposed to be in front because the short switch can't even touch the rubber' and takes switches to friend Jason for re-riveting_
- [HIGH] Quarter-inch discrepancy in switch gap positioning is critical for slingshot performance and can drastically affect gameplay responsiveness — _Hardy demonstrates measuring gaps: 'we're talking like it's a pretty good distance right there almost a quarter of an inch and the quarter of an inch is drastic when it comes to switch gaps'_
- [HIGH] Hanson Rivet HT-174 die tool ($25) is essential for properly crushing eighth-inch rivets with full engagement around the entire rivet head — _Hardy provides specific part number and recommends tool: 'that right there is your... It's golden for doing rivets. Otherwise, you're not going to get your perfectly crushed all the way around correctly.'_
- [HIGH] New pop bumper components require sanding/routing of playfield clear coat to fit properly due to thickness, even with precision manufacturing — _Hardy demonstrates sanding bumper skirts: 'the clear coat is so damn thick so I've got to sand around here' and eventually requires wood eater bit for faster material removal_

### Notable Quotes

> "don't be expecting everything to be perfect and in place for you to just plug and play this is gonna require a little bit of finagling and finesse and adapting"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~8:00
> _Core message about realistic expectations for reproduction playfield quality and restoration complexity_

> "the long leaf switch is supposed to be in front because the short switch can't even touch the rubber"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~12:00
> _Identifies critical orientation error in newly supplied leaf switches that requires component re-work_

> "a quarter of an inch is drastic when it comes to switch gaps keep that in mind"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~16:30
> _Emphasizes precision tolerance requirements for slingshot mechanism performance_

> "if you want your pop bumpers to be ultra sensitive then get that gap as close as you can and then you will have some super fast reactive pop bumpers"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~20:00
> _Technical guidance on pop bumper switch gap tuning for desired gameplay sensitivity_

> "No substitutions when it comes to rivets"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~14:30
> _Emphasizes importance of using proper specialized tools for component assembly_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Cary Hardy | person | Content creator documenting detailed Getaway pinball restoration, known for technical precision and educational breakdown of restoration techniques |
| Pinball Life | company | Online retailer providing pinball parts and components; supplied ~$300 worth of restoration parts for this project including switches, bumpers, targets, sockets, and hardware |
| Getaway | game | Pinball machine being restored across multi-part video series; recipient of extensive component replacement and precision reassembly work |
| CPR | company | Reproduction playfield manufacturer; implied supplier of the replacement playfield being used in this restoration (referenced as 'new playfields') |
| Hanson Rivet | company | Manufacturer of rivet tools including the HT-174 die tool recommended for crushing eighth-inch rivets; Hardy recommends their products for proper rivet installation |
| Jason | person | Friend and collaborator who possesses equipment needed to re-rivet leaf switches in correct orientation; provides technical support for restoration |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Playfield component fitment and quality control, Slingshot mechanism assembly and switch alignment, Pop bumper rebuild and sensitivity tuning, Rivet tools and fastening techniques
- **Secondary:** Reproduction playfield manufacturing tolerances, Switch gap precision and gameplay responsiveness

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Hardy maintains positive, problem-solving demeanor despite encountering multiple quality/fitment issues with new components. Tone is educational and helpful rather than frustrated, though he expresses mild frustration with thick clear coat and misaligned holes. Overall optimistic about completing restoration with proper techniques and collaboration.

### Signals

- **[product_concern]** New leaf switches for slingshots supplied with incorrect orientation (short leaf forward instead of long leaf forward), making them non-functional until manually corrected through re-riveting (confidence: high) — Hardy explicitly states switches came oriented incorrectly and had to take them to friend Jason's facility to reverse the rivet orientation to correct the problem
- **[product_concern]** Reproduction playfield components (CPR or similar supplier) exhibiting inconsistent hole mapping and manufacturing tolerances, requiring manual remediation during assembly (confidence: high) — Multiple instances of missing/misaligned mounting holes for stand-up targets, pop bumper skirts requiring sanding of clear coat for fitment, leaf switches arriving in wrong orientation
- **[technology_signal]** Aftermarket rivet tools (Hanson HT-174 die tool) becoming standard/recommended equipment for precision pinball restoration work, indicating shift toward specialized tooling requirements (confidence: medium) — Hardy provides specific part numbers, pricing ($25), and strong recommendation for proper rivet crushing tools, emphasizing they are essential for quality restoration work

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## Transcript

 All right, I have got my first pinball life order in. So, let's see what we got. Let's get it. My fancy schmancy invoice. and a pinball lock keychain. Okay, that's something new. Don't typically get that. All right. Here is all my lead switches that I ordered. Pop bumper skirts. The cups and switches for my pop bumpers. Base for the pop bumpers. Body for the pop bumpers. basically rebuilding my pop bumpers very little is original so got all my yellows all my greens all my reds drop targets and my bulbs sockets for my pop bumpers now this is something that i'm changing up and i honestly don't know how it's going to look so i'm going to mount these up just to get a good visual but I'm going instead of the original white drop target not drop target standard targets I'm going with orange I'm hoping and I think it will I'm thinking this orange is gonna go really good with the playfield art we'll see how that looks all my brand new shiny light bulb sockets compared to my rusted up crap ones, my flasher ones, all my t-nuts that I'm missing, and my slingshot switches. So this is my coil for a location machine. And that is it. I think that is everything. Check my invoice just to make sure. Where's my metal yokes at? Okay, yeah. they're in there okay good all right and that's almost about 300 bucks worth of stuff right there here we have a brand new stand-up target these slide in through this direction and as you can see i've got nice little holes that give me an idea of where they are supposed to be attached You'll notice I've got one for my green one One for my yellow one And this is what I'm talking about guys When it comes to these new playfields Don't think that everything is going to be mapped out for you Ready to go Because I've got them all on this one I got them all on this one But I slacking on these right here and the same ordeal goes up with these targets I got one for this one and I got two for this one I'm missing the third one for that one that just goes to show you that you know don't be expecting everything to be perfect and in place for you to just plug and play this is gonna require a little bit of finagling and finesse and adapting so keep that in mind i started mounting my leaf switches for my slingshots now according to this and the other two playfields that i've got so i know that the play field isn't wrong is and this is how they mount in they go in like that holes match up probably needs to be a little bit further forward but right about there that's where the holes are at right about there anyways this is wrong at first i thought i'd ordered wrong but no this is how these damn things come when you receive them it needs to have the longer leaf switch on the other side of this now i'm not sure if this is how they're supposed to come or they're just making these wrong or this plate field is just drastically different or what but i cannot put these on the playfield like this so let's say i put these on here like this because i've already um done some testing with this let me walk around the other side see i've just put some of this old stuff on here just to confirm my theory but if i was to have this on there like that then you would see that the long leaf switch is supposed to be in front because the short switch can't even touch the rubber i'm calling in reinforcements it wouldn't such a bad ordeal but it's riveted and i here do not have what's necessary to fix that so going to my buddy jason's and we're going to see if we can get these things going the right direction these are the old leaf switches for my slingshots now this is to point out the reason why i decided to go all new and two it also points out that these new switches i purchased are in fact different There we go. Take that guy off. Put it on a terry cloth or any type of microfiber. Make sure you fit a piece of plastic over it because if you don't, you're going to catch the microfiber lint edges underneath the edge of that rivet. You'll have lint ball all the way around. around so let's do that right there the other really get them both in there alright turn that's been those switches bag I'm not all the way touch you So, some of these switches, you'll have a small washer and some of them don't. So, be aware if you've got a small washer in there, make sure you put the washer back for the correct crush. This is a die. If you want to chuck this up in a vice, this is a die that works for the head of the rivet. So that would be for an eighth inch rivet And that would fit on the head of the rivet if you want to put that in a vise And this guy contoured in order to crush flare out the tube of the rivet out. So both of these are offered by Hanson Rivet. They're very good. I've used them on a TAF, Mainly this one, I didn't use the die. I just used it on the flat bar. I've got it on a big flat bar here. Kind of like the head of a big vise. Kind of protect the metal with that. And then I'm going to add a piece of plastic over it. Because I don't want to scar up the nickel plating of the new rivet. So I'm going to put it on that plastic like that. It'll smash your rivet down with your driver. So, pretty well does that. And if you want to note down, I know this was for the die, but if anybody wants that 1⁄8-inch rivet crusher, the part number is HT-174, and that'll get it from Hanson. I highly recommend buying that. You can find them on the web for about 25 bucks, but that right there is your ... It's golden for doing rivets. Otherwise, you're not going to get your perfectly crushed all the way around correctly. So make sure you buy the right tool to do the right job on that. No substitutions when it comes to rivets. Yay. That's a piece from- These right here? these right here yeah so they're using three millimeter metric flats you're gonna be good to go man well it's to the yeah play some pinball all right now that the switches are facing the appropriate direction we have a gap that's in between all the switches so that should work accordingly and then i'll move these because these aren't even clean or new to this slingshot and do it again something i want to point out is the drastic difference between what the playfield recommended me to have and what I actually had to do. This was way off when it comes to the holes lining up toward they needed to be in order for my switch gap and slingshot rubber to be in the ideal position. Now that that has been corrected I can move on to the next sling. And so for this next switch this hole right here is where it was already dimple this little black dot here is where that bottom one actually needs to be I mean we're talking like it's a pretty good distance right there almost a quarter of an inch and the quarter of an inch is drastic when it comes to switch gaps keep that in mind so this is the ideal scenario for your slingshots what we want here people so whenever I push on these look at that doesn't really require too much of an effort for those switches to make contact which is going to force that mech to launch the ball out that's what we want moving on to the pop bumper switches I very glad that these have nuts and bolts so I able to swap this metal flange around to the other direction because I going to need to in order to get these to be where they need to be like for instance this technically could go to this one but that's not where that one's actually going to go because it needs to flop the flange around and activate this one over here but I can't with it being on this side but once I put it on the correct side then it will so now to get these in the appropriate orientation and get these going pop-up mer switches are attached I've got probably maybe if I can get a good angle on here a business card gap in between those contacts and that's something to monitor accordingly as you're putting everything back on the plate build as well as putting everything assembly wise back on here to make sure that gap is close if you want your pop bumpers to be ultra sensitive then get that gap as close as you can and then you will have some super fast reactive pop bumpers so moving on to getting my pop bumpers assembled uh this will not slide into the hole because the clear coat is so damn thick so I've got to sand around here using my handy dandy dribble and I'll just basically root around there just to kind of get the outer portion of it to where that piece will snug slide fit in there gonna need a lot more sanding got it in there so it it required a little bit more than a sanding sanding bit i had to use my wood eater because the sanding bit would have taken way too long and this did the job pretty quick and that is in there really snug but I'm able to maneuver it around if need to be but it is not just it's not just sitting in there and free spinning it's in there nice and snug that is where I want it two more to go God damn dust! And here's the difference between pop bumpers, the metal assembly, polish with no polish. makes a big difference guys.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 59f45f81-716f-4d04-9595-7a59a8f25fcd*