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The Grasley Garage! Projects Galore! The good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·25m 14s·analyzed·Nov 20, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Grazley Garage tour showcases multiple restoration projects and newly acquired machines.

Summary

Mike Dimus visits Grazley Garage to document restoration projects and check on machines in Kevin's queue. The garage is actively working on multiple cabinet restorations (Stern Stars, $6 Million Man for JC, Evil Knievel), receives new machines including Beat Time and Sea Witch, and hosts a cluttered but productive restoration workshop. The visit captures detailed playfield and cabinet work while documenting acquisition of vintage machines in various states of disrepair.

Key Claims

  • JC is acquiring a high-end restored Evil Knievel from Grazley Garage

    high confidence · Kevin confirms JC commissioned the Evil Knievel restoration and has multiple machines in his collection being restored by Grazley Garage

  • Kevin completed three cabinet stencil jobs in a couple of weeks

    high confidence · Kevin states he 'tried to get bunch of the painting out of the way' and mentions tackling 'three cabinet stencil jobs uh in like couple weeks'

  • A $6 Million Man machine was picked up from Toronto in worse condition than Garbatron

    high confidence · Kevin mentions picking up another $6 Million Man from Toronto that is 'Bigger than Garbatron' and 'wasn't the head, it's the cabinet' that's damaged

  • Beat Time was acquired for $1,000 on Marketplace with 37 other bidders competing

    high confidence · Kevin states 'For cheap as hell. 1,000 bucks' and Mike confirms 'I was very surprised to hear that you were competing with 37 people'

  • Beat Time is a Beatles spoof with approximately 2,500 units produced

    medium confidence · Discussion mentions 'The Boodles though is obviously a Beatles ripoff' and Kevin states 'I think I checked it was about uh 2500 or something'

Notable Quotes

  • “Bigger than Garbatron. Oh, Garbatron was pretty bad. Close. It wasn't the head, it's the cabinet.”

    Kevin @ ~13:30 — Describes the severity of damage on a newly acquired $6 Million Man project

  • “Yeah, I tried to get bunch of the painting out of the way. Yeah. So then I can go back and do like field. So I didn't want to like keep having to move all the back and forth and back and forth.”

    Kevin @ ~7:00 — Explains Kevin's workflow strategy for managing multiple cabinet restoration projects simultaneously

  • “Except I bought some old piece of [___]”

    Kevin @ ~2:10, ~32:15 — Humorous admission about acquiring Beat Time in poor condition

  • “For cheap as hell. 1,000 bucks.”

    Kevin @ ~29:00 — Beat Time acquisition price, despite competitive bidding situation

  • “Al must have pulled this out of a freaking ditch.”

    Mike Dimus @ ~32:00 — Comments on the extremely poor condition of Beat Time when it arrived

Entities

Grazley GarageorganizationKevinpersonMike DimuspersonDutchpersonJCpersonJay the neighborpersonSean BennishpersonRob VieirapersonAlfro (Mr. Alfro)personStern Starsgame$6 Million Mangame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Grazley Garage managing multiple concurrent restoration projects with workflow optimization strategies to minimize disruption (batching painting work to avoid repeated movement of machines)

    high · Kevin explains: 'I tried to get bunch of the painting out of the way... So I didn't want to like keep having to move all the back and forth and back and forth. I get overspray.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Grazley Garage functioning as active restoration hub with multiple machines in concurrent restoration stages, attracting collectors and enthusiasts for drop-offs and acquisitions

    high · Multiple machines in queue (Stern Stars, $6 Million Man x2, Evil Knievel, Medusa, Sea Witch, Harlem Globetrotters, Beat Time), various community members dropping off/picking up machines

  • ?

    community_signal: Collaborative restoration ecosystem with multiple specialists contributing: Alfro sourcing machines, Rob providing sign services, Grazley Garage doing cabinet/playfield work, Sean Bennish owning machines

    high · Multiple community members involved in machine acquisition pipeline, Rob Vieira providing services, specialized trade relationships documented throughout visit

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Kevin pursuing high-end restoration standard including detailed stencil work, polished metals, and premium finishing touches on machines like Stern Stars and Evil Knievel

    high · Detailed star stencil patterns on multiple machines, gray powder coated legs, high polished metals treatment, new speaker panels and glass for Indianapolis 500

  • $

    market_signal: Competitive secondary market for vintage machines: Beat Time acquired for $1,000 with 37 bidders competing, indicating strong demand for acquisition opportunities despite machine condition

Topics

Cabinet restoration and stenciling techniquesprimaryMachine acquisitions and condition assessmentprimaryGrazley Garage operations and project workflowprimaryPlayfield restoration and custom partssecondaryJC's collection building through Grazley Garage restorationssecondaryVintage machine community transactions and dealssecondaryBeat Time (Beatles spoof) machine history and conditionsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— Enthusiastic tour of active restoration workshop with collaborative energy. Positive excitement about project progress and machine acquisitions, though tempered by acknowledgment of damage severity on some machines. Humor used throughout despite Mike's voice issues. Some frustration with Beat Time's non-functional power cord, but overall tone remains upbeat and solution-focused.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

Going to Fork River to play some pinball. It is tournament night. Oh, here's Kevin. Let's see what he's saying. Just walking the dogs. Yo, fancy seeing you here. We're going to your house. Thanks for your help. Thanks for your help. Except I bought some old piece of [ __ ] [laughter] Yeah, beat time. The oddity of the time of the day. I'm Mike [music] Dus and this is Pinball Shenanigans. Hi doggies. Oh [ __ ] All right, boys and girls. I'm here with the infamous Jay the neighbor. Ah, yeah. There he is. It's a little dark. We're going to Fork River. Oh my god, my voice. You'll have to uh bear with me. Going to Fork River to play some pinball. It is tournament night. Oh, here's Kevin. Let's see what he's saying. Just walking the dogs. Oh, he's walking the dogs. Okay, so on the way to Fork River, we're going to go check out the Grazley Garage action. And uh maybe Dutch can fill in for my voice because I sound like garbage. But it's been a couple weeks since I've been there, so a lot has happened. There's been a lot of progress on Stern Stars, $6 million man. Hearing my voice is hilarious. This is [laughter] This is so bad. $6 million man progress. Evil conval progress. Um, Medusa is now set up and I would like to uh play a game on that because the restoration on that was temporarily paused. Maybe I'll film you playing a game on Medusa. Have you played that before? No, it'll probably be quick. All right. [laughter] Like your Donkey Kong game. Uh, and uh Oh, yeah. Sea witch has showed up at the arcade as well. That's another of Shawn Bennish's machines that is now in the queue. And also JC might be at the uh arcade possibly. He was there earlier dropping off uh another $6 million man that Kevin is going to do a high-end restoration on for JC. He may have a pretty killer lineup in no time. Like a full row of Gracie Garage restored machines cuz the stars is his. Six million dollar man is his. Evil Con is his. He's got my Gracie Garage restored um Adam's family. A this is a typical EOA neighborhood action. [laughter] Anyway, yeah. So, I don't know if he's still there or not, but uh we'll check that out as well. And uh got some lumber here. Well, can't really see that. There you go. Yeah, we got lumber. I want Kevin to build me a shelf. And way back there, actually, you can see it with flight 2000 head. I'm trading Kevin that. I'm going to give him that. He's going to turn that into like a back glass light box and for for the old evil convivo backlass actually. And he's going to build me a shelf with my lumber. So we'll uh see you boys and girls at the Grazley garage. See any uh anybody walking any dogs yet? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. See somebody on the right here? Let's accost them. Does that look like a dude with some dogs? Yes, it does. Yo, fancy seeing you here. We're going to your house. You want to meet us there? Yeah. Hi, doggies. [laughter] All right, Jay the neighbor coming in clutch again. London pinball uh hoodie, too. I uh come back for that. We'll just leave that. All right. I saw Kevin. He actually uh beat us here because When I was recording while driving, I drove right past his house. I'll get that for you, sir. All right, that can probably uh just set down anywhere. Is this garage open? Let's go find out. It is. Should we do a sneak preview? All right, I see Kevin. Oh, wait. Jay's doing it on over there. Hey, Mabel. You What you got? I just stuck my finger in her mouth. What's up, dude? Oh, you know, I can almost talk today. So, better than yesterday. I did have a J. He cheated. He got a sneak peek. I haven't seen yet. I dropped something off. Did John Youssi what's in there? Backbox. Light box. Yep. For the old Evil Convo back glass. Got a display cabinet. That's interesting. Sometimes two. I got it. An old skate shop display cabinet. Oh, really? Oh, look at that. Sims. That's pretty cool. Nice. We have got the $6 million man progress. Where's Dutch? He was supposed to be my voice for today. He will be. He's just in the shower, so he'll be on a minute. Oh, look at that. That looks amazing. Wow. The detail on these stencils is ridiculous. But, wow. Uh, is this one of the more detailed uh stencil jobs you've done? Yeah, I was like up to my elbows in [ __ ] paint trying to get that stuff off. Oh my god, it looks like a serious challenge, but it looks like it turned out amazing. There's a there's a theme going on with these uh recent cabinet jobs. There's enough detail as it is, but once you do all these stars, that just adds to the pain and suffering of the whole thing. It turned out amazing. Wow. Look at that. Oops. I am going to not step on that. [laughter] I'm going to walk very intentionally and carefully. I tried to like spread it around [laughter] without stepping around. And I'm already uh bumping into things. Fail. And then there's Evil Conievil. Oh, so I guess John's Trust is not here anymore. He was messaging me earlier. He's like, "Oh, you got to take a video of all my uh my games before I take them home." Like, I plan on it. So, wasn't sure if I'd bump into him here or not. I guess he went to pick up game three, I guess. Could be the third one here. What game is that? The the second $6 million man. Yeah, he didn't drop that off. Yeah, it's in the other. Oh, it Okay. Right. He's got stars here. He's got evil convo on. He's got $6 million. Yeah, he drove to Toronto today to pick up uh another $6 million man project. Project. Big project, I hear from uh Mr. Alfro. Bigger than I was expecting. Oh, really? That's fine. Bigger than Garbatron. Oh, Garbatron was pretty bad. Close. It wasn't the head, it's the [snorts] cabinet. Oh, okay. Well, we'll have to check that out, too. But uh so this is uh JC's machine now. And uh this thing looks amazing. But yeah, was it a pain in the ass to do all these stars? Like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Bit of a pain. There's a million of them. But it it came home like perfect. It was awesome. Yeah. You were really wanting to do an evil con evil 2 when you got this and uh had a job with back in the day. He was considering, oh, should I just get it up and running and get it sold or should I do the high-end restoration, but it would be nice to have a customer um you know, in mind already. And well, that's where JC came in. He's like, "Yes, I want a high-end restored Grazley garage evil conval." Yeah. So, that gave you the green light to uh start this project. And man, like you pretty much tackled three cabinet stencil jobs uh in like couple weeks. Yeah. I tried to get bunch of the painting out of the way. Yeah. So then I can go back and do like field. So I didn't want to like keep having [snorts] to move all the [ __ ] back and forth and back and forth. I get overspray. So if I could just get through some painting and then back. Yeah, hence all the tarps and stuff. Well, definitely uh some major progress in here. This is awesome. So, yeah, I did blue and black last night. Oh, did you? And it gave me a little bit of time after it dried that I could tape the neck off and paint it black. So, yeah, I seen the the progression of the photos and um it's really cool to see. I might have to add some of those photos cuz obviously you go one color at a time. The red stripes were really cool and then the blue filled in. And then now you got of course your black neck and stuff. But yeah, you must be stoked about this. One $6 million man done and another one coming. So, let's go check that out. I got some lumber for you. I busted out the drafting table and drew up some plans [laughter] for a very uh complex shelving unit. And uh here it is. Here you go. That's the shenanigander way. Basically just a 3x3 box with a few adjustables. Exactly like what I get at work. [laughter] There you go. All right, let's see what's going on in here. Holy [ __ ] Machines everywhere. That's usually the case. I know. I kind of stack them up though because Holy [ __ ] What's two in garbage? The two in garbage. This thing. No. Second one in. Oh. Oh. Second one in. Garbage. What the hell is this? [clears throat] What the is that? Sea witch. Nope. See witch is right there. See which looks still pretty. Is that the original cabinet? There's so much here to look at. Oh my god. Okay, let's start with the Wow. Ooh. My god. Oo. The back's a little punchy. Someone got fancy with the red coin door. Whoa. The kitchen in or after the kitchen? Yeah. That's got some serious uh dentage there. Yeah. So, remember you're saying garbage? Uh this is Yeah, definitely worse than Garbatron. I was going to say look at the back. Wa. Oh my god. Missing a bunch of stuff on it. Yeah, it came in a basket. Oh, that's great. Got the stuff. All the playfield uh components. Uh project was starting. So, Alfro started this project, pulled off all of the stuff on the uh playfield, I guess. And uh you got all the playfield parts in a bag, I guess. Yeah. In that little pocket. Yeah. And it's got boards and it's got a bunch of stuff. It's got a second coin door, lock bars and stuff. So, it's got the the parts to put it together. It's complete. It is, you know, just needs a a little bit of love, maybe a lot. But yeah, there's all your playfield parts. That's the Alttech MPU. And you got the Altech uh lamp driver, too. That's good. And you don't have to worry about having LED adapters for your LEDs. Oh, that's what this is. Beat time. The Boodles. Yeah. [laughter] Awesome. Don't you love that? Okay. Hey, the dog off. This is really cool. You saw this on marketplace? Yeah. For cheap as hell. 1,000 bucks. And I didn't I didn't think that was like a great price. And I mean artwork. Y especially now that I see the cabinet, the black and white edition. What's it supposed to look like? Uh not like that. White with like green stripes, black stripes, like nothing crazy cool, but some generic art. Yeah. Oh, and you said you found this in the cabinet. So that's awesome. Nice. Some good tunes on here. Barbara Anne Jay, you know that song? Barbara. Yeah. Sing it. Favorite song. Barbara. Oh my god. But uh so I was very surprised to hear that you were competing with 37 people. 37 other people for this beat up. Beat up time. Hey, there you go. The Boodles. The Boodles though is obviously a Beatles ripoff. I like the A Yokoon Onoesque lead singer or groupy. Groupy. She's uh another one. The one who looks like Yoko. This chick. No, the one who's pale with the black hair. Yeah, it looks kind of like Yoko. So, this is supposed to be Paul and Ringo. And that's John and George. All right. I was reading the whole story about how they got the character. It was supposed to be a Beatles spoop. Yeah. They didn't want to pay the licensing fee. Obviously, we should put down the side. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the idea is that Kevin is going to do a high-end restore on this game, right? I was thinking, yeah, might as well. Hey, how many of these exist? Like I think I checked it was about uh 2500 or something. Who that? You're supposed to be my voice. I I don't have a whole lot of voice, so you got them, but I'm hanging in there. I'm hanging in there. Uh, okay. Well, yeah, this is uh pretty fantastic. So, is the uh or the two in this 2 in? I don't know. I've never played this game in my life. I kind want to play it, but might be able to put it together. It might work. Okay, so what else we got? So, this is a Sean Penisher's Medusa. I thought it was set up and I wanted to play it, but I guess a demo. I know. Jay was going to play it for everybody, dude. It was literally set up yesterday. And Sea Witch. Oh, no. Start full. Oh, there's also there's Rob. All right. So, this is the Sea Witch. And Rob Vieira brought over this Harlem Globe Trotters. You're going on a like a hardcore early stern valley restoration binge here. Vinyl again. and some do some decals. I thought you were like the DMD WPC guy. What happened to you? These aren't mine though. Well, this is true. Except I bought some old piece of [ __ ] Yeah, beat time. This the beat time. The oddity time of the day, [laughter] isn't it? Multiple times a day. There are four times on that drum. Oh, 12, 3, 6, and 9. Beat time. Perfect beat time. Those are all beat Those are all beat times. So, here here's the Oh, nice. This looks like game. Whoa. My god. That's not good. Whoa. Oh, I didn't even see. Do you like a souvenir? Stick that right in there. Oh, no. Not in the hole in my Oh, look at the grass trap fall out the bottom and everything. Oh, that's nice. Or is that going to be a new cabinet? Wow. Al must have pulled this out of a freaking ditch. Uh, is uh Wow. Best way to store a machine is in a boat. Well, let's let's I'll keep the pieces together. I won't I won't pluck any more off, but it is kind of fun. I got a splinter. I might have gave Dutch a sliver. Well, we should set up some beat time and play it. [snorts] [laughter] I think everybody wants beat time. This is the best game in here right now. Okay, so there's more stuff going on over here. This is Brian's uh $6 million man playfield. And then what do you got going here? What's this? This is my new Neato. This is this side. And awesome. This fits in this, right? Okay. Question. Shoot. Uh where where is it going to go? It's going to be There's a little bit of space there. That's the big Dairy Queen science goes up. Okay. No space there, but uh you know things are pretty populated around here. Uh these can come hanging from the ceiling. So that's love it. I still got uh a lot of other ones to go. Yeah, I know. He got crazy garage one too as well, right? So that's part of uh Rob's globe trotder deal. Oh yeah, he's wheeling and dealing with his signs. Yeah. So, he's going to make me a can for my top hat sign and my GR garage sign. And he's actually Rob went and picked this up in Mr. Ser for me. Oh, so that's part of that. That's a Rob deal. He was just a nice guy. Oh, yeah. Really? His moniker is the mad scientist. So, there you go. Scientist. Scientist, not scientist. I thought it was scientist. I thought it was scientist, but either way works. Not science, but science. Oh, yeah. Whatever it is, it is. He's He's mad. So, we also have, check this out, behind the back glass of $6 million man. Brand new CPR Sea Witch Playfield. Not CPR. Not a CPR. It was Is it Mira? Uh, I don't know. I Sean said it was somebody out east made them. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Um, this is like 10 years ago or so before they were make before people were recreating it and some guy just did. I think I had a sea witch and these colors are a little bit different. Not better or worse, but the blues and and just colors in general are a little bit different. But that's going to be gorgeous. And also, what else? Uh, we've got, check this out. The stars project here. The cabinet is done. More stars. I told you that I I'll chop all that out. Oh, sure. Gray powder coated legs. High polished metals. What's that? That's the wrong size leg. We got to get powder coated. Oh, wrong size legs. Have you not Have you noticed? Oh, is that plexi? Yeah. Oh, then don't watch out. Don't watch out. Look. Look. This is [laughter] It does look a little high. Notice how it was like 3,000 light years. 36 in legs. Like what the hell? Look at that. But I just those beautiful. Let's check out the other side. I know it's just your image. Watch out. Oh, don't watch out. Plexiglass. This is the new the new Grazy garage thing. Getting all the metals like high polished and like my garbetron. Same kind of treatment. And then there's the head there. Dutch, be my Vanna White, please. Yeah, look at that. Uh, I feel like you've just spent like the last 100 hours doing stenciling of stars and whatnot. Very good job, Dana. And other side. I'm really scared. I can't see [laughter] much. I'm going to get you into trouble here. You're going to knock freaking something. Ronald's head. You're going to break that plexiglass. Oh no. Something's going to happen. What is this plexiglass even for? garbage. It was the one from Indy500. Oh, that's what it is. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. No glass. This is what I had in it for too long. Yeah. Yeah. Where is the Indy500? It's back from the uh the show. And your coat's on it. Oh, yeah. There's my coat rack right now. Three, [snorts] sold one. Nice. But yeah, so we got the new 11,000 um speaker panel, plastic, and actual glass for the Indianapolis 500. Those were like the last couple touches that were needed to complete this machine. Anyway, I think I'm going to wrap things up, preserve my voice for forked river a little bit, and uh I got to get you some lumber. All right, I just asked Dutch to give me a hand with my uh wood here. And by giving me a hand, I mean he does all the work, and I just sit back and uh hold the camera. I can do that. I'm doing all the work. Works every time. All right, let's see if you can successfully bring this in without smashing into anything, including myself. Oh [ __ ] What do you call that? Break checking. Don't break check me, [ __ ] Hockey. Can you get the gate? Well, oh, this is like commando style. Look at this guy go. He probably wants that in the garage, though. Not in the arcade. Hey, look. I helped. All right, now it's the scary part. Uh-oh. Cuz there's evil everywhere and they're looking real nice. Yeah, let's keep them that way. All right, success. Thanks for your help. Thanks for your help. While we're here, let's check out this beat time uh playfield. Back to normal. Here we go. Made some space. Okay. Oh, I love the apron cards. That's amazing. [ __ ] like bike reflectors. Is there actually like these are like ripoffs of other bands? Yeah, the the the the vultures of the ventures. The groaning bones is the Rolling Stones, right? Uh I don't know any other Rolling St. The Boodles is the Beatles. And uh yeah, neat bloods, lurches, and low humbles. Do you want to like set this thing up? Yes, I do want to set this up. Oh, is there like a roto target system? Look at this. Uh oh my god. Look, there's like targets beside. Well, that's kind of interesting. So, that must spin around. How much time do we got? What time is it? It's beat time. Not enough time. Around like a time like a clock. Oh, like the four different numbers on the clock. Uh, we got this game figured out, but I don't think we have enough time to set it up before forked. Let's What time is it? 7:35. 7:35. 7:36. We got like 10 minutes. Can we do it? Fine. Nah, we're not going to be able to. All right, we'll save that for the next video. Break it all back down. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, true. All right, no beat time for y'all. Sorry. Oh, no. You broke it. These guys are going to entertain my desire to try and see beat time. This is amazing because now I'm going to have to clean all this [ __ ] up. Yeah, you had everything all so nice and organized and then me and Jay come here. You for financial compensation. Let's fire up the bug, too, and move it around. We got time. So, the idea is we're going to like forget the legs, set the cabinet down. Oh, okay. Hey, ball. And we got a ball. That's good. Hey, look. We got a Beach Boys eight truck. I don't know if we already told this. I I did. I did. Throw that on eBay for a tuning. The American Beatles. [clears throat] They were so close. Yeah. Oh, seems great. Oh, no. What the hell is that? Oh my god. We really need just like two or three connectors. Two, I believe. So, this is supposed to be the power cord. This looks like speaker wire. If that's supposed to be the power cord, then uh looks like speaker wire. that our our mission here may be. Uh yeah, end of Yeah, game over. Game over. [ __ ] No beat time. I tried. I tried. Boys and girls, we've got five more minutes before we got to get to forked, but apparently this is our power plug. So, that's the end of that. And to think 37 people were competing for this, but you guys are the true winners. Yay. especially because of this. Oh, what we got inside here. Let's see. We're missing uh tilt parts. And uh there's your leg bolts over there. Couple in the the knocker is in the very back of the cabinet. No, that's different. Look, the other only thing even resembling Oh, yeah. That is definitely the power cord. You could literally stick it into the socket. Where's the second transformer? But uh here Dutch demonstrate the beat time mech working here. Look at this. So it's just a single solenoid. It pushes the clock. Oh, neat time advances. There we go. We got our beat time after all. There you go. Yay. Best game ever.
Evil Knievel
game
Beat Timegame
Medusagame
Sea Witchgame
Harlem Globetrottersgame
Indianapolis 500game
Garbatrongame
Addams Familygame
Pinball Shenanigansorganization

high · Kevin notes 'For cheap as hell. 1,000 bucks' despite 37 other bidders competing for the machine

  • ?

    community_signal: Rob Vieira (mad scientist) actively involved in machine acquisitions and neon sign fabrication for Grazley Garage, providing supporting services to restoration operation

    high · Rob brought Harlem Globetrotters machine, picking up machines for Kevin, providing neon sign services for Grazley Garage signage

  • ?

    product_concern: Beat Time acquired in severely damaged condition with missing/incorrect power cord, missing playfield components, and structural damage. Despite being highly desirable (37 bidders), machine appears largely non-functional.

    high · Kevin states 'Bigger than Garbatron' for damage severity; Beat Time missing proper power cord, has leg bolts issues, missing tilt parts, and requires significant restoration work