The Getaway Restoration: Part 5

Cary Hardy·video·15m 10s·analyzed·Feb 24, 2020

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.016

TL;DR

Pop bumper assembly, wood rail restoration, and electrical socket replacement on The Getaway.

Summary

Cary Hardy demonstrates detailed restoration procedures for The Getaway pinball machine, focusing on pop bumper assembly, wood rail replacement, and electrical socket installation. The video provides step-by-step technical guidance for proper orientation, component positioning, and assembly sequencing, with emphasis on accessibility challenges when working in confined playfield spaces.

Key Claims

Pop bumper assembly requires specific orientation of the body to allow rods, light bulb holes, and wood screw mounting holes to align properly
high confidence · Detailed visual demonstration showing hole positioning and alignment requirements throughout assembly sequence
Rod-to-body fit varies between machines, sometimes requiring the rod to be inserted before the body rather than after
high confidence · Hardy explicitly states 'sometimes this rod is not able to fit over this body so the rod needs to go in first' but notes his particular machines had compatible sizing
Pop bumper sensitivity is directly controlled by the gap between leaf switch contacts
high confidence · Hardy demonstrates: 'depending on how big that gap is between the two contacts on that leaf switch depends on how reactive your pop bumpers are going to be'
The Getaway's original wood rails had deteriorated black veneer coating that could be stripped using heat gun and then refinished
high confidence · Hardy shows the deterioration issue and demonstrates using heat gun to remove the veneer; decided complete rail replacement was more practical than patching damage
Wet sanding without proper cleanup or masking caused corrosion/damage to light bulb sockets requiring full replacement
high confidence · Hardy explicitly shows damaged sockets and explains: 'This is what happens guys when you do wet sanding and don't clean up afterwards or do not mask very well'

Notable Quotes

“A lot of the times that is not going to be the case, but in this way I figured this is going to be a good way to show you how to assemble one when I've got no other obstacles in my way”
Cary Hardy@ 1:19 — Establishes the pedagogical approach: demonstrating assembly in ideal conditions before tackling real-world constraints
“orientation people orientation make sure that you've got your holes open right there”
Cary Hardy@ 2:51 — Emphasizes the critical importance of correct component orientation, a recurring theme throughout the assembly process
“depending on how big that gap is between the two contacts on that leaf switch depends on how reactive your pop bumpers are going to be”
Cary Hardy@ 8:49 — Technical explanation of how gap adjustment directly impacts gameplay feel and bumper sensitivity
“I'm not gonna putty and bondo these little wood rails like this that's just not worth it I'm gonna make all new ones”
Cary Hardy@ 11:01 — Decision to replace rather than repair severely damaged components; practical restoration judgment call
“This is not a typical thing that you would see on a getaway let alone a pinball machine in general 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”
Cary Hardy@ 13:44 — Acknowledges going beyond factory standards for wire management aesthetics during restoration

Entities

Cary HardypersonThe GetawaygameJasonperson

Signals

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community_signal: Detailed instructional content on pinball restoration techniques with emphasis on proper methodology and component handling
high · Multi-part video series providing step-by-step guidance on pop bumper assembly, switch adjustment, rail replacement, and electrical work

Topics

Pop bumper assembly and component orientationprimaryLeaf switch gap adjustment for sensitivity tuningprimaryWood rail restoration and refinishingprimaryLight bulb socket replacement and electrical workprimaryRestoration accessibility challenges in confined playfield spacessecondaryWire management and aesthetic refinement during restorationsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Hardy maintains an encouraging, educational tone throughout. Shows satisfaction with progress ('definitely in the making') and collaborative spirit. Some frustration with damage extent and working constraints, but overall constructive and forward-focused approach.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.045

A lot of parts are required in order to get your pop bumper working appropriately. I've already got two out of the three ready to go. Well, yeah, okay. This is the one I'm going to be doing now. The easiest way to go about doing this is to have obviously no other obstacles in your way, so this is the ideal scenario whenever you are assembling your pop bumper, when there's nothing in the way. A lot of the times that is not going to be the case, but in this way I figured this is going to be a good way to show you how to assemble one when I've got no other obstacles in my way so let's flip this thing over first thing you want to do is make sure that this is in the correct orientation this needs to be in the correct orientation and everything that you build up you need to remember that this is gonna have to go in like so so just remember those two big holes that feeds the rods then these holes feed your light bulb so these need to be able to go all the way through as well so keep that in mind and then the other two holes are for your wood screws to mount that sucker to the playfield so it's not rocking and moving around once you have this in place the next thing you need to do is apply your little spring that's gonna bounce your skirt up keep this thing all nice and bouncy right here it's brings in place let's get the skirt in the appropriate position now like I said if you just throw this in here let's just say like this yeah it's in there right but again orientation people orientation make sure that you've got your holes open right there now this is something that's gonna be a little controversial because not all the bodies are the same size so typically the next piece would be your rod because sometimes this rod is not able to fit over this body so the rod needs to go in first and then the body sometimes but these just happen to be the appropriate shape and these rods and the circles seem to be the perfect size for me to be able to feed things through without any issues with that being the case i'm going to be installing the body next i'm just going to line this sucker up and feed it like that once again orientation folks now i going to be screwing in the wood screws to get that body locked down and with the magic of editing wood screws are in place this pop bumper body is now secure let's go ahead and run these through get my lighting in position one-handed oh man and then I'm at the flip it over if I can't to see if I've got any obstructions and yes I do so this is gonna be the interesting part I'm gonna feed this through this wire this direction I want these leads to my GI to spread like John Youssi on the other ones over here left to right and then eventually these are gonna have to be bent and then stapled down and then I'm gonna have to solder the GI to it now this is gonna be difficult to do with one hand so I'm gonna have to do some more editing here there we go so it's in there all right now this is where we start I want a bunch more parts in order for me to really get this installed I'm gonna have to remove this coil because I can't get the actual solenoid rod in there unless this coil is up so let's remove this coil so this is the ideal situation got your metal yoke plastic yoke this is gonna go into this should have a big enough hole to get that sucker in there like that. Alright I don't have the coil actually bolted down or anything yet but that is in the appropriate position but nothing's really locked in place yet until I get this sucker through the other side of the playfield to lock into these holes. That's the orientation that it goes in you got your metal yoke plastic yoke and your spring now let's get this rod through the playfield get on this side over here there it is now this is gonna be difficult one hand so once again magic of editing I'm gonna feed these rods through the holes that are on the yolks and there we go now I just need to attach the washer and nuts to these rods and then bolt the other side of my coil in place and this thing should be done There you have it Popover is assembled Now time to attach the actual switch for it Now I got the switch essentially just kind of like screwed in because that the thing out there You can see there's a lot of slack and how this can be tightened down and that is for a reason because you want to be able to tweak the positioning of the yoke to the stem of the skirt tail to get that centered as well as you can. Now once again this is going to be difficult with one hand so let me get this a little more snug. I've got it snug in place now I want this to be able to be visible the switch contact so that would make the pop bumper pull down. Once that contact touches like that that causes this solenoid to activate and push down which causes the ball to shoot out. So what I want is no matter which side of the skirt I'm touching that contact is able to make easy contact and that looks pretty good to me and depending on how big that gap is between the two contacts on that leaf switch depends on how reactive your pop bumpers are going to be. If I wanted to get those a little closer together, that would make this pop bumper even more sensitive to touch. But I want to make sure that this pop bumper is able to freely move all the way around the skirt without it getting stuck on any kind of side or anything like that. And that looks pretty good to me. And that folks is how you assemble a pop bumper. Let's talk about wood rails. The portions that go on the outer perimeter and next to the shooter lane on your playfield. Now typically on this machine they have like a black coating. It's not really a coating it's more of a veneer that can just be peeled away. Mine was all messed up so I am stripping that veneer away and I'm going to be sanding these smooth again and painting them black and with a nice shiny clear coat to go on top of that. A method you could go about doing on this is slowly but surely peeling away but I'm using a heat gun to loosen the adhesive and then it comes away a lot smoother and that's what I'm working on now. heat gun stripped away all that black veneer on these wood rails now to get them sanded and then i've got to use some putty some bondo on certain areas that have taken some damage where's the other portion there's some other areas here that i'm going to have to get all patched up before I can begin any kind of a paint so I think that's it right there yeah that's where the ball keeps jumping out and hitting right there whenever it ejects not anymore it's gonna be like that okay after sanding these wood rails a little bit came to the realization just how bad they are and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna putty and bondo these little wood rails like this that's just not worth it I'm gonna make all new ones so I'm gonna get a hold of my buddy Jason and once again he's gonna lend me a hand and we're gonna get all new wood rails Thank you Got some new wood rails made up and I've got them screwed in up underneath this wood right here so that way they do not fall over. And we're just going to be cryolining this up with a gloss black. I've got a test piece out of curiosity with a cherry red. I don't think it's going to look good, but I figured, you know, what the hell, I'll give it a shot. So that's just a test piece. Time to install brand new light sockets. Man. All right, I have got all of the new flasher bulb sockets installed. to the standard 44s. The way I'm going about this is I'm starting from essentially the top portion of the playfield. Got all the boards right here. This controls the supercharger and stuff. and I'm just working my way in this direction and once I get the switches then it's on to some GI bulbs and uh yeah just working my way around it's gonna be a task this is what I've got going on so far when it comes to my wire management this is not a typical thing that you would see on a getaway let alone a pinball machine in general 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 especially when i'm dealing with all of this mess down here goodness gracious and in case i haven't already shown you this is why i'm getting all new bulb sockets for like my flashers and GI bulbs. This is what happens guys when you do wet sanding and don't clean up afterwards or do not mask very well. This is what you get. Okay we are getting further along now. Still got a while to go but it's uh definitely in the making um this is a task that is definitely uh keeping me busy work continues Thank you.