Shopping Out
When I picked up this machine, the previous owner said he had already cleaned up the playfield, and that it had been seriously dirty before he cleaned it.  Well, needless to say, he only cleaned the main area of the playfield.   He missed..... a lot. So, it needed a good "shop job".  My intention here is to clean it up, fix any issues, and make a player machine out of this.  I'm not looking to create a high dollar collectible.   I bought this machine because I enjoyed playing it back when pinball still appeared in arcades,  and I want to play it.  If I ever get bored, I'll sell it.  I do want it to look good, but I don't want to be afraid to hit the start button.
So, rather than goof around, I opted to just take the upper playfield off to get at the ramps and the rear orbit lane.  A bit more  work than I had originally anticipated, but once I got that upper playfield off, I felt vindicated in going through the effort. Everything under there, filthy.  Ramps, playfield, you name it.  Black ball trails everywhere.
	Just look at this mess in and around the boulder garden.  Note that it's not just ball trails causing this mess,  everything has a coating of the evil black dust.  I've heard a lot of theories about where this stuff comes from,  personally I blame the black rubber set that was on this machine.  Notice how dirty it is around the whirlpool,  and those two black post sleeves that are right there next to it. As I went through cleaning it all, I also installed all new rubbers and Cliffy post sleeves.  A few of them are already done here, but not all of them.   By the time I put it together again though, they were all done. This photo doesn't really do it justice,  this area was NASTY.
Now just look at my Disaster Drop ramp.  One of the dirtiest I've ever seen.  Back here, however, it's all ball trails.  No black rubbers around here to start flaking off dust.  Just as a side throught,  you can see how rarely the Secret Passage here gets a ball through it.  The regular route up through No Way Out is filthy, but the Secret Passage has very little by the way of dirt.
	Another view of the No Way Out hazard.  This is probably the most common shot in the game,  and one of the most important as it leads both to the multiball lock area as well as a more easily controllable upper flipper shot when it kicks over to the upper playfield.
Another closeup, this time of the boulder garden.  Yuck! To see how dramatic the cleaning was going, look at the pop bumper skirt where I've partially cleaned it already.
	Now for a comparison once I've cleaned it up.  This is the entryway into No Way Out.    A weeee bit cleaner, eh?  You can see that I've also changed the two green Lite/ Lock targets, and swapped in a yellow Cliffy post sleeve.   Not perfect, a few smudges here and there, but still a dramatic improvement.  Eventually I'll do new ramp flaps, but that's for later. Oh, and there's nothing wrong with the LITE insert.  My dog's hair gets everywhere,  and I didn't notice until I uploaded it.
Now take a look at the whole upper playfield area.  It was surprising how much of the black dust was actually on the undersides of the ramps.  Again, not perfect, but it's as good as I can get with the original playfield. For a machine that I plan on playing a lot,  I'm not looking for perfect.  I'm looking for clean, reliable and smooth from a players perspective.  Remember, this isn't a restoration, it's a shop job.
http://www.siegecraft.us/pinball/whitewater/wh2o-015.JPG	Then the whole playfield, re-assembled.  The only significant smudge I wasn't able to get out was where the shooter ramp drops the ball into the upper playfield.  Not surprising, really, as you see the ball getting dropped there at least three times in a really bad game.  If you've got a good game running,  a good dozen or more ball launches isn't unheard of.
I'm sure you're also wondering, given my lengthy diatrabes on circuit repairs, what it took electronically to get it running? Not much. These are the BR1 and BR2 rectifiers from the power driver board.  The F114/F115 error I was having also came along with a blown fuse F114.   My first suspicion was rectifier BR1, as it's what F114 is protecting. BR1 is on the left, and had already been replaced once.  The bad news is that it wasn't quite the right version,  as it has spade lugs instead of wire leads.    Theoretically, if done right, you can do this kind of install. Not pretty, but functional. BUT.  It was assembled 90 degrees off of what it should be.  This caused the A/C input to dump straight to ground,  blowing the fuse.  Once this was replaced, the game was rocking and rolling.
Now, I'm sure you'll ask why I kept the original ramps.   It's simply,  a new set is $600 or more and these are still serviceable.  This cleaning was just to get the machine to a playable state, and any modificaitons are later.  I did take the time though to replace all the rubbers and all the post sleeves.  Burned out bulbs were taken care of.  The ramps were cleaned,  but at some point will also get a flame polishing too.  All that, though, will get covered in future chapters. I've got some interesting plans for this game.  Some fairly conventional, such as a full LED swap.  Some not so conventional that I'll show later on if they work out.