# Johnny Mnemonic Pinball Restoration: Episode 9

**Source:** Cary Hardy  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2022-03-07  
**Duration:** 14m 58s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7h2iam8HMc

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## Analysis

Cary Hardy continues restoration of a Johnny Mnemonic pinball machine, focusing on reassembling the playfield underside after clearcoating. He reinstalls the wiring harness, reconnects switches (testing each with a ball to account for height changes from clearcoat), resolders solenoid and GI connections, and prepares new ramps for installation. The powder-coated cabinet arrives, and he demonstrates the ramp riveting process to transfer hardware from old ramps to new ones.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Clearcoat application increased playfield height, requiring switch testing to ensure proper activation — _Cary explicitly tests switches with a ball and notes height change from clearcoat as reason for verification_
- [HIGH] All pop bumper caps using OEM teal color; Titan red rubbers installed throughout — _Cary states color choices and rubber selection in restoration summary_
- [HIGH] Comet 2 SMD frosted cool white LEDs installed throughout playfield — _Direct statement of LED choice in restoration summary_
- [HIGH] Chrome flipper bats chosen, matching style used on previous Getaway restoration — _Cary references his earlier Getaway project when describing flipper choice_
- [HIGH] Johnny Mnemonic powder coating will be two-tone blue and black — _Cary describes powder coating color scheme and notes difficulty in predicting final appearance_

### Notable Quotes

> "Oh man, I might have gotten this right on my first go around, ladies and jelly spoons. Yep, I got it right the first freaking just lay down."
> — **Cary Hardy**, early in video
> _Expresses satisfaction at correctly positioning wiring harness on first attempt_

> "tasks like these guys where i i literally use my phone or i'll put the tv on here in the garage and just play something to keep me somewhat entertained"
> — **Cary Hardy**, during wiring reconnection
> _Shows practical approach to tedious restoration work, using entertainment to maintain focus_

> "after i screw in my switch i'm going to be using a ball and not my finger to make sure that this switch actually functions accordingly listen for the snap"
> — **Cary Hardy**, switch testing segment
> _Demonstrates testing methodology accounting for playfield height changes from clearcoating_

> "I find this really helps with the lighting of the playfield and it gives a cleaner look"
> — **Cary Hardy**, playfield finishing segment
> _Explains design philosophy behind replacing teal posts with clear ones during restoration_

> "The most difficult part of this is going to be removing the old"
> — **Cary Hardy**, ramp riveting segment
> _Identifies ramp removal as most labor-intensive step in ramp replacement process_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Cary Hardy | person | Content creator performing Johnny Mnemonic pinball restoration; demonstrates technical expertise in playfield reassembly, soldering, and ramp work |
| Johnny Mnemonic | game | Pinball machine being comprehensively restored by Cary Hardy; receiving new ramps, playfield clearcoat, powder-coated cabinet (blue/black two-tone), new rubber, LEDs, and component replacements |
| Getaway | game | Previous pinball machine restoration by Cary Hardy referenced as stylistic reference for chrome flipper bat choice |
| Titan | company | Rubber supplier; Cary selected Titan red rubbers for Johnny Mnemonic restoration |
| Comet | company | LED supplier; Cary installed Comet 2 SMD frosted cool white LEDs throughout playfield |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Playfield reassembly and wiring, Switch testing methodology, Ramp replacement and riveting, Component upgrades (rubbers, LEDs, posts)
- **Secondary:** Soldering and electrical reconnection, Cabinet cosmetics (powder coating), Playfield restoration workflow

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Cary expresses satisfaction with progress, celebrates early successes (correct first-try wiring placement), demonstrates confidence in technical execution, and shows enthusiasm for final aesthetic choices. Minor frustration noted with congestion and complexity but framed as manageable challenges.

### Signals

- **[design_philosophy]** Restoration philosophy prioritizes practical upgrades: replacing teal posts with clear posts for improved lighting effect, installing modern SMD LEDs, using OEM-accurate teal bumper caps for authenticity while selecting modern Titan rubbers for durability/contrast (confidence: high) — Cary describes post replacement as 'new standard' and provides reasoning (lighting, cleaner look); discusses color choices and their visual/functional impact
- **[product_strategy]** Clearcoat application on Johnny Mnemonic playfield increased height, requiring post-treatment switch testing and validation to ensure proper activation with new geometry (confidence: high) — Cary explicitly states clearcoat increased height and tests all switches with ball to verify function, contrasting with original finger testing

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## Transcript

 Hit me. Alright. The fun part is figuring out which side went which. I'm just going to start out right about here. And then I'll start dispersing accordingly. I think that's right. This is going to take some time. It's already late, but I figured I'd at least lay it down and I might start on this tomorrow. So I know this is the trough, so I guess I can hook those up. Hey, so there's something. Oh man, I might have gotten this right on my first go around, ladies and jelly spoons. Yep, I got it right the first freaking just lay down. How about that? And with the way I've got them zip tied, should be pretty easy to get this hooked back up where everything goes. Thank you. and that's pretty much it. Wow, okay, that didn't take as long as I thought it would. Now obviously I'm not done. I'm going to do a lot more with this, but I wanted to get everything at least in position. And this is going to be a cluster of a mess with the pop-up area and stuff like that. I got a bunch of switches for rollovers up here. So that's definitely going to be fun. But it all in the general vicinity and connectors are all where they need to be for this playfield so there something Alright so now the wiring harness is on here and it in the appropriate positioning all i have to do now is basically re all my switches in and then re-solder all my wires back to all the solenoids and the stroke switches and throughout the entire play field now it's it's tasks like these guys where i i literally use my phone or i'll put the tv on here in the garage and just play something to keep me somewhat entertained and uh while i'm just putting everything back on here um yeah fun one of the things i'm going to be doing is after i screw in my switch i'm going to be using a ball and not my finger to make sure that this switch actually functions accordingly listen for the snap so right there that means that switch should activate whenever the ball is in the resting position so do that with all my switches because we have had we have increased the height of the play field due to the clear coat so i still want to make sure that my switches are all working accordingly that's part of the process all switches have been bolted back down to the playfield now we're on to where everything else is going to require resoldering so for instance all the connectors right here the wires going to my solenoids and my flippers and right here lights those are gonna be all have to be re-soldered so that's where we are now with that all right i'm gonna get the soldering iron a break for tonight i think i'm done and so is my back but i've got all of this side and a good chunk of around the pop bumper area right here this is so congested right here it's being a little tricky i'm getting the wires where they go i honestly was like where do these wires go and then I was like wait a minute that's right they go to the leads for the pop bumpers but yeah I should be able to hopefully finish this up tomorrow unless something comes up all right another day picking up where I left off we've got this whole side of the play field done I believe all the way up to right here so now I need to get the pop bumper GI I soldered to the leads that are down here, which is going to be a little bit interesting because I have to get down in there. But my soldering iron should fit down there and be all right. But honestly, we're not too far from having the backside of this play field back to working condition. All I've got left, I mean, I've replaced both of these targets that are on both sides of the play field. they're all new. Only thing I got left now is just four more bulbs located right here. These Janos Kiss. Once I get these all connected and replaced, then I think we should be good to go. Okay, folks, going over with my Fluvacure. It looks like we have zero shorts throughout the GI line, which is good I want to say that the backside of the playfield underside whatever you want to call it is pretty much assembled I already got my LEDs in so I guess I can go ahead and put those in right here and we getting close to wrapping up the bottom side so this is where I at with the playfield the backside is all reassembled everything's been removed and put back on here everything is all nice and shiny and clean with some new stuff on here it's all nice and pretty playfield is all nice and shiny so playfield backside is pretty much close to done the cabinet is all right here and my powder coating for Johnny the Monique is all right here it's gonna be a a two so with blue and a black so it's hard to explain how that's gonna look but if it looks like it does on the internet then it's gonna look pretty darn good with this got all my other parts and everything for the cabinet and legs and everything I mean everything is for Johnny is pretty much right here and I've got the new ramps all right here too so I've got all new ramps ready to go nothing special you missed here just me cleaning and polishing the ugly replacing the bad with good pretty straightforward assembly. We have all new pop bumper caps using the OEM color of teal. I debated about going a different direction with clear, but chose to stay with the teal. I have installed titan red rubbers throughout the game, giving the game a nice contrast. I have installed Comet's 2 SMD frosted cool white throughout too. All posts that used to be teal are now clear. This is my new standard when rebuilding a playfield. I find this really helps with the lighting of the playfield and it gives a cleaner look. Surprisingly enough my plastics were in good shape. A bit of Novus II got them all cleaned up. I chose to go with the chrome flipper bats. The same ones I used on my getaway. I think it looks good. Now we need to get these ramps installed, but that won't exactly be a quick and easy job. We're going to be going over riveting, so we need to move all the hardware off of this ramp, all those stuff, all of that and put it on to our nice and new shiny 100 intact ramps now the most difficult part of this is going to be removing the old all right and here we go all right now obviously there's different types of methods of riveting and with this method this is actually going to be a little bit easier to deal with these have just gone straight through like so now the different types that you'll see are usually on the ramp flaps if I get that to focus you'll see how they are like that so thankfully which is gonna make this job a lot easier is that I've got this style right here on a majority of the stuff let me holding on to that with a nice good grip and getting the drill onto this There you go And that removes that piece of hardware that I needed Alright, so now we're ready to attach the new piece, or the new ramp rather, to the new polished up metal that I just took off of this section right here. We're putting it onto the new one. Now the holes did not line up exactly like the old ones so I actually had to drill a new hole in the ramp. I'm just going to make sure this thing slides in there like it's supposed to. Good. It should be a nice tight fit. That's what I want. Alright. So now that I've got the rivet in place, I've got my riveting gun right here. Now this is not going to be a great thing for all pieces. Let me try to get some. All right, so I'm going to squeeze once. Oh, just needed once. Sweet. There we go. New piece is in place and installed on the ramp. Sometimes you've got to squeeze twice, but that one was only once. All right, sweet. All right, moving on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Outro Music

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: be11634b-d631-4db3-a119-931ad665e265*