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The Getaway Restoration: FINALE

Cary Hardy·video·32m 46s·analyzed·Apr 8, 2020
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Cary Hardy completes two-year Getaway restoration with custom mods and troubleshooting.

Summary

Cary Hardy documents the complete restoration and customization of a Getaway pinball machine over two years, detailing extensive playfield work, component replacement, troubleshooting a faulty MPU and opto connector issue, and adding numerous mods including a custom airbrushed mountain mod, Donut Heaven mod, mirrored backglass, LED upgrades, and cosmetic enhancements totaling approximately $862 in parts and mods.

Key Claims

  • Missing capacitor (C2) on the WPC board was discovered during troubleshooting; not required for operation but needed for board longevity and 12V filtering

    high confidence · Cary discovered missing capacitor, upgraded from 25V to 35V, explained its filtering function

  • Opto sensor issues were caused by swapped connectors on the opto board connectors, not the main MPU or board

    high confidence · After extensive troubleshooting, Cary identified two connectors were swapped despite being keyed, fixing the issue completely

  • C2 and C8 capacitors on WPC game boards tend to leak and should be inspected regularly

    high confidence · Cary explicitly warns WPC game owners to check these capacitors as they can leak into traces

  • Custom plexi modification with airbrushed road scene adds gameplay difficulty by obscuring ball visibility on the right orbit

    high confidence · Cary explains the mod increases difficulty by preventing shot planning on right orbit approach

  • Getaway restoration total project cost was approximately $862

    medium confidence · Cary states 'that total amount for the whole project was $862' at conclusion

Notable Quotes

  • “I want this thing to look brand new top and bottom if I'm putting this much time and effort into something guys I want it to really look good”

    Cary Hardy@ 0:00 — Sets restoration philosophy emphasizing personal ownership pride and quality standards

  • “I do not recall removing this and I'm pretty sure the machine worked fully years ago, but I guess I could be wrong, but there's a damn capacitor missing right here”

    Cary Hardy@ 8:29 — Documents discovery of missing C2 capacitor during troubleshooting, key technical finding

  • “So I replaced that capacitor and i upped it from a 25 volts to a 35 volts but something to note also guys is that c2 as well as c8 on these boards for your wpc games tend to leak so if you have a wpc game you might want to take a look at your board”

    Cary Hardy@ 9:07 — Educational content warning WPC game owners about capacitor leakage issues

  • “I assumed that all those connectors were keyed to where you cannot swap them out. Turns out you can swap out cables even though they are keyed”

    Cary Hardy@ 10:34 — Identifies root cause of opto sensor failure—swapped keyed connectors despite apparent keying

  • “After I swapped those connectors and put them in the correct place, the game worked 100%. Everything worked. It was great. It was a fantastic feeling.”

    Cary Hardy@ 11:25 — Successful resolution of major technical issue after two years of troubleshooting

  • “I got a bare bones just framing 3D model straight off the press. Because, one, I'm cheap. two i wanted to airbrush it my way”

Entities

Cary HardypersonGetawaygameMr. TantrumpersonMarco SpecialtiescompanyClassic Playfield Reproductions (CPR)companyPinball PlatingcompanyChris RoyaltypersonMeasle Mods (or Measlemods)companyComet Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Video restoration content format demonstrating technical troubleshooting methods and parts sourcing serves educational function for pinball community

    high · Detailed explanation of capacitor leakage issue and opto connector diagnosis provides specific guidance for other WPC game owners

  • ?

    community_signal: Active ecosystem of small-scale 3D printed mod creators (Mr. Tantrum, Measle Mods) providing affordable customization options

    high · Multiple mod sources cited, Mr. Tantrum produces high-quality 3D printed mods available on Pinside at reasonable cost

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Restorers creating unique one-off custom elements (laminated cards, custom vinyl, leather shifter boot) to personalize machines beyond standard mods

    high · Cary emphasizes custom elements created by himself and brother (laminated cards, chrome vinyl, leather boot shifter) as unique to his machine

  • $

    market_signal: Restorers increasingly sourcing custom parts from multiple specialized vendors rather than single manufacturers

    medium · Cary sources from CPR, Marco, Pinball Plating, Measle Mods, Mr. Tantrum, Titan, Comet Pinball, showing fragmented supply chain

  • ?

    product_concern: Keyed connectors on opto board can be swapped despite apparent keying, leading to intermittent sensor failures that are difficult to diagnose

    high · Cary discovered swapped connectors were root cause of opto sensor issues despite assuming they were keyed to prevent swapping

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.098

0:00
I want this thing to look brand new top and bottom if I'm putting this much time and effort into something guys I want it to really look good if it wasn't my machine that I wouldn't care as much but it's something that I'm gonna be looking at looking down at for years to come
0:39
here we are in the beginning of bringing this getaway back to life get the show on the road I have now reached the point to where it's gonna get a little bit more interesting. Now we're going to be doing the wire harness. The mounting to the new playfield process has begun. This is essentially the main components and mechs of the getaway. slide right on in there got the trough area all assembled over here so now we've come to the point to where i start doing that i've been working on getting all of the metal rails attached back onto the play field after i need to tighten that one up that one's loose this is wrong at first i thought i'd ordered wrong but no this is how these damn things come when you receive them a lot of parts are required in order to get your pop bumper working appropriately pop bumper switches are attached so i'm going to get a hold of my buddy jason and once again he's going to lend me a hand and we're going to get all new wood rails time to install brand new light sockets not saying i'm the first but i'm one of the few that is going to be going through and just making it look a little bit more aesthetically pleasing to the eye and this is where I'm at now the only thing left to do is the general illumination but all the switches and flash bulbs and solenoids are wired up
2:54
I had decided to dig out all of the boards for the controlled lamps get them all cleaned up gave them a bath they're all back on to the machine this playfield started to look pretty populated now here i am now and i'm stapling the leads from the uh pop bumper the gi bolts the fact that it's a full tear down but if i'm having to do soldering and everything like that i'm going to make sure i do the gi line first i have wired the entire back of this playfield has got continuity to where it needs to go.

Cary Hardy@ 12:20 — Explains custom approach to mountain mod sourcing and personalization

Color DMDcompany
Titancompany
Pinball Lifecompany
Todd Tuckyperson
Arcade Shopcompany
PIN Stadiumcompany
Retro Refurbscompany
Advantage Powder Coatingcompany
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
Last Action Herogame
WPCproduct
  • ?

    technology_signal: WPC board capacitors C2 and C8 show tendency to leak, compromising board reliability and longevity

    high · Cary identifies missing C2 and warns about leakage on C2/C8, recommends inspection for all WPC game owners

    • 3:42
    Got kind of worried on that one. So now I should be able to start working on the top side again. And here we are now. Got the nice and shiny new side rails on. I mean, so shiny that you can actually see a reflection off of this. I now have all star posts in place. Let's see if we can fix that up a bit. And that looks a lot better. Alright, got the cabinet rails on here. I'm going to install the LEDs while I've got the play field in this position to make things a lot easier. LEDs are all in here. I want to say the only thing left to do is flipper bats. I have yet to receive those. Yeah it's painted. Metal is all polished up, reattached. High voltage sticker has been put back on there with the four staples just like they did on the originals here we are guys we're getting closer time to install my red titan rubbers on this and after two years it's finally come to fruition
    5:15
    all right i've got my items back from powder coating Here we go guys. Over two years this machine has been taken apart. And now we are about to turn it on and see what happens. But one thing I need to mention is that the MPU in there is faulty. So I can't judge this completely by the play field. I know that the board is faulty. there is anything that I love more than a pinball machine that looks good, it is one that is also very effective and working. And this board does not give me that at all. This is not good. This is not ideal for a pinball machine that you want to be working especially non-stop for an entire weekend at the Texas Pinball Festival. Time to update this. Reliability is key and this is gonna give me that. But did the board make the machine reliable? No. It helped. It helped. But it didn't make it reliable. All my regular switches worked just fine, but I was still having my opto issues, like 1 through 5, were not reading correctly or not at all. There was no voltage going to my opto. I couldn't understand why that was, and it was very infuriating because it wasn't making any sense. So I've only got a little bit of footage of me actually doing a little bit of troubleshooting on this and I discover something Had issues going through this Ended up backtracking trying to figure out where my 12 volts has gone So going through all of this I eventually make my way up to here and I'm like where the hell is this capacitor at? I do not recall removing this and I'm pretty sure the machine worked fully years ago, but I guess I could be wrong, but there's a damn capacitor missing right here. I don't have any of these in stock. So going over the schematics, come to find out that this capacitor is not necessarily required in order for the game to work. No, but it is definitely needed in order for the longevity of your board and all the operating, you know, things to be going good for 12 volts because it's filtering your 12 volts making it better so i replaced that capacitor and i upped it from a 25 volts to a 35 volts but something to note also guys is that c2 as well as c8 on these boards for your wpc games tend to leak so if you have a wpc game you might want to take a look at your board to make sure that you're not seeing any leakage around that capacitor as well as C8. And just surfacely, just looking at it, sometimes it's not good enough. Sometimes it can even leak into the traces. So I replace and upgrade that capacitor on the board, and guess what?
    9:39
    Yes, still not working. But like I said, in retrospect, at the time I was going through the schematics and it was like, okay, so I figured out that that capacitor was definitely not required. So yes, the board was working and it was running for the year that I had it without that capacitor. So take that for what it is. But then I knew at that point it can't be the board. It can't be the board because all my connectors are good. Everything was great. I had 12 volts going all the way to where it should be going. And then for some odd reason, I wasn't getting voltage to my optos. I was like, that's it. Let me look underneath the plate field and look at my OptoBoards and see what we got going on right there. So, looked at the playfield and I went through all the connectors and I found out I messed up whenever I was assembling this game, guys. I assumed that all those connectors were keyed to where you cannot swap them out. Turns out you can swap out cables even though they are keyed and let's talk about that my issue with the opto sensors was this connector I can get an angle this one on this board and this one on this board back here so these two were swapped making my opto sensor issue very prominent. Once you put those in the correct order, then all should be working good.
    11:25
    After I swapped those connectors and put them in the correct place, the game worked 100%. Everything worked. It was great. It was a fantastic feeling. I had to brag to my wife a little bit. I'm like, baby, I got this game 100% working on your birthday, just for you.
    11:48
    She didn't laugh, but that's when it happened. And so now I was pleased that the game was fully functional. Now it came to time to put more money into the game by adding mods. And one of those mods is the mountain mod, which is very common to see in games these days. And the thing is, there's like three different versions that you can get of this mountain mod through various people or websites. I wanted a particular one from a website, but they were actually out of stock. But I'm kind of glad with the decision that I went to go with Mr. Tantrums because I got a bare bones just framing 3D model straight off the press. Because, one, I'm cheap. two i wanted to airbrush it my way uh i think he hand brushes his uh he's not doing the airbrushing thing just yet but i wanted to airbrush mine because i wanted it to have a little bit more of a realism-esque to it and uh i go over that now and here we have the mountain mod this was done by mr tantrum available on pinside i was able to make a deal with him to get the price a little bit better if he just let me do the airbrushing so now I'm gonna airbrush this thing to look more like a mountain very good though very good craftsman like I say craftsman I mean like the 3d printing quality that he does is a very good I highly recommend it got the base coat on there now time for the next layer next code is on I'm gonna work on the next layer next code is complete
    13:58
    on to the next one there we go I'll just shoot a quick layer of clear over it just to give it some extra protection. There she is, complete. We'll let her dry and then we'll put her in the machine. All right, so let's go over everything, if that's all right. Just to give everyone, make sure I give credit where credit is due for what all is in this game. First off, let's start from the top up. These little babies right here are from Measlemods or Mezzelmods, I think it's Measlemods, but those are able to be purchased on their website. These I've added to the topper effect just so everyone has an idea of what that looks like. Let me show you. And that is what that looks like with that mod on there. And I'm telling you right there, that is plenty distracting whenever you're in multi-ball mode without a doubt. Moving on is the mirrored back glass. That is available through Classic Playfield Reproductions. I purchased this through Marco, but mainly I went through Marco so I could get it faster. But I want to say they get it through CPR. I want to say that's where they get it from. If they don't, I'm sorry, but I'm not trying to lie. That is just the information I have on the top of my head, but I got this one through Marco Specialties. Very good. Along with this I have a nice chrome trim pull bar that available through pinballplating Chris Royalty got in contact with him I was able to get this as well as a metal version of the H for the back box but I just wanted it to be bare steel. And he can do that. He doesn't offer it, but I told him I needed it to be bare steel so I could have him powder-coated to match what I've already got powder-coated. He does the powder coating and everything as well, but I wanted it to be the same color. I didn't want any kind of issues with color matching. So he sent me a bare steel H channel and a U channel, and I was able to get those powder coated to match the rest of my machine. So props to Pinball Plating for giving me that. I say giving. He didn't give. but giving me the service that I needed.
    17:16
    All right, moving on, I've got Comet pinball LEDs, 2SMD frosted throughout the entire machine, frosted white. I've got some reds mixed up in here, just every other one at the top just to add a little bit more red to the back glass, and honestly, I don't really notice that big of a difference. So if you want to go completely frosted white 2SMD, by all means, go right ahead. I tried all rep like I've seen people do, but it just does not look good in my opinion. So moving on the inside, the only thing I really had to do with these boards, and that's the thing I guess I'm lacking on this restoration, is not going through and replacing all the capacitors and stuff like that. I didn't do a lot of that. So chances are down the road I will have to do power board work. I'll have to probably more than likely replace some of these capacitors. Ah!
    18:16
    Shout out to you, Todd Tucky, for that. But replace some of these capacitors and stuff like that. But the only ones that I actually ever did on this game was replace the C2 that was missing.
    18:28
    C8 was fine. I didn't see any issues with that one. Moving on down here. I have got the color DMD from color DMD obviously and these are just some regular old audio channels uh I think they're the four inch channels for like you know car stereo kind of thing I went with these mainly because of the color not gonna lie there's no like you know other reasoning behind the quality other than the color it looks good and you know what it sounds great too so I'm not to complain about it. It just happened to work out. It's plenty loud enough even though it's just, you know, the channel the way it is just a mono channel split between them but I've actually got them tied together so they now actually have the same audio quality. They're both channels and the subwoofer sounds good so I'm not complaining about sound quality. Eventually, I will upgrade to a pin sound but not right now. But in the future, that is my plan. I got the MPU from arcadeshop.com. Let's see here. I'm trying to think if there's anything back here else that I did or got from somebody, and I don't think so. All right, so let's go over to the play field now. There's a lot here, so we're going to go over it little by little. Here we go. Essentially, I found this police car. This was available through an online store somewhere. that's not going anywhere but I wanted it to be able to be removed if I need to access the machine so that's on there I think just buy some velcro but that's not going anywhere I this is available through websites as well but knowing me I'm cheap so I just made it myself I just did a reproduction of it myself got it printed out and eliminated so now that's on there good the hairpin turn all new plastics were from cpr those took a couple of weeks to get in that's actually very good quality stuff so highly recommend them for the cpr and the plastics i've already been over the mountain mod i've seen this mod before available on pinside as well uh once again i'm cheap they wanted like 35 bucks for it i was like no so i was able to craft this myself in a 3D program and had a buddy of mine print it out. My brother did a lot of the actual 3D modeling for this and was able to get it together. Made the sticker for it. I've even got my logo on this so it adds a little bit of an extra like mine to it. So that's done. This is available through Mr. Tantrum on Pinside. Highly recommend this. Very easy to install and looks amazing with the game now typically on all your games for a getaway standard is just a clear plexi right here I have altered this and funny enough after I did this now I'm starting to see people do this as well via a decal that is not what I used I got this car like eBay it is the appropriate car for this game and And this is actually just an airbrushing behind this with mast off to make it look like the road. Now, of course, that is what I had at the time.
    21:52
    Now I'm seeing that evidently someone has made it to where it matches the style and type of road on the playfield, which is very tempting for me to, you know what, get that instead. But at the time, this is what I've got, and I'm perfectly content with it. This adds a little bit of a challenge to the game as well, guys. having this the way it is because you're not able to see the ball coming down this right orbit to plan your shot accordingly. So this adds extra difficulty to the game. Some of you may like this. A lot of you probably will not. Moving on to the Donut Heaven. Now this is the second version of this that I've gotten. The first version I had was through Measle Mods and it worked and it looks good. I actually ended up putting that on my location getaway and I upgraded to this bad baby.
    22:43
    There's no way that you could tell me that this doesn't look good. This is a 3D printed model and LEDs throughout to make this glow and make the inside glow. On the inside, the donut glows. This is a very good mod. I highly recommend this one. I even recommend this one more than I do the stoplight because this basically just oh it looks so good but uh you can customize what you want on this guys you can tell him that you want a particular color of roof he has all different kinds of versions you can order to your needs so by all means contact mr tantrum on pinside for that another simple mod through mr tantrum on pinside is this plastic piece right here this simple little plastic piece because normally there is no plastic here it's just bare ramp behind this and the targets so this has just a little bit of a little extra there so that's also available i have the do not enter sign on this flap right here because obviously you don't want to go back in there nor should you be able to i saw these available i want to say i ended up crafting it myself putting it on here. All rubbers are from Titan. I put Titans on all my games. Titan rubbers throughout. This is an all red kit. All the rubbers that you need are available on the all red kit. I didn't have any missing rubbers or anything like that so that one's a good to go. I was so excited to be able to find the all chrome flipper bats. These are plastic with a chrome finish so they're not like the heavy flipper bats that I've seen in the past before. These are very shiny, very clean. They go very well with what I was wanting to go for So I happy with those I want to say I got these through Pinball Life If I am wrong I will definitely put it on the video right here but I want to say yes I did get these through Pinball Life. This is something that only my machine has as of right now because this is completely custom to work with this machine. I've seen it, someone on went on pin side they used the plastic piece that comes with the new cpr plastics uh i liked it but i wanted it to be uh this right here this color and the way it's set up this orientation of it there the way they had it set up was basically a good foundation of what i felt would look better and so i went with this instead of the decal over the metal right here i like the way it looks, I'm going with it. I've stated in a previous video when it comes to the plastic portions right here, I have the LED strips underneath these to make these glow because without them they do not glow. It does not look as good. I have custom laminated cards that my brother also created and all the chrome vinyl was completely hand put on here piece by piece. A buddy of mine was able to get that printed for me, and I had my brother also attach that. So that is also completely custom. Nobody else has this. So this is a one-off custom for me. It looks amazing. And, of course, we have our Lockdown Bar Receiver cover available through Titan. I went with a push start button instead of the turning key mod to anticipate Texas Pinball Festival. I wanted it to be just a push button. I didn't want to take a chance of someone taking the key or breaking the key off. I didn't want to take that chance. I have swapped out to the engine start button, as you would see in a lot of modern day cars. Custom chrome vinyl again, as well as custom cooling inserts as well.
    26:37
    custom shifter knob. This is all my doing as well as the printing job that was done to still show the shift up and shift down as well down here. So that is a, a lot of people do the different knob or a glowing knob, but I want to say I am the first to actually have a boot, leather boot to attach that to make it a little bit more of a, for you car enthusiasts out there. So I decided to go with black flipper buttons instead of the glowing ones that I had before. I just like the look of it better. I may in the future end up going to a chrome button. That's a thought, but I have not pulled the trigger on that yet. The powder coating is a ruby powder coating, so there is metal flaking throughout that that gives it a nice little shimmering look. That is done by a local business here in town, advantage powder coating they've done my other machine the last action hero i'm very pleased with the results that i get from them so i will stick to them not to mention their locals so i can get a quick turnaround the decals are from retro refurbs very good decals no issues with them so very pleased with that as well and i want to say that that is all oh oh penn stadiums obviously. Penn Stadiums are on here. I put them on all my games, especially after I do a restoration on them. So yes, Penn Stadiums from pennstadiums.com also. I went with side art instead of side mirrors just for a change of pace. I think I've got side mirrors on all my other games, but I was like, you know what? I'm going to do just the art on this one. And I'm glad I did. It looks great. I was able to print these off from a buddy of mine to save me a little bit of extra cash on that as well because I think the original site that had them they've been sold out or out of stock or something like that but I was able to get the art file printed them off for myself I think that might be it
    29:01
    Thank you. Well guys, that's it. The Getaway series has come to a close.
    31:22
    It's been fun. But now I think I'm ready for the next adventure. Hopefully this one won't be as difficult.
    31:31
    This one should be easy, right? Join me! by doing it my way. And that total amount for the whole project was $862. I look forward to my next project. And if you do too, then by all means, give me that thumbs up to let me know. And if you haven't already, do not forget to hit that subscribe button down below. That way you can be notified of whenever I upload something for your viewing pleasure. Until next time, guys.
    32:23
    Peace out. We'll see you next time.