Creature... The Project

If I knew ahead of time the number of challenges I would face and the amount of time it would take to complete this project I very likely would have just purchased a cabinet from Big Time Cabinets.  Looking back I'm glad I did all the work as I learned a great deal which I'll put to use on other future pinball projects.  The below represents about 120-140 hours worth of work.  See the finished game here.

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Here's where it all began.	Cabinet obtained in trade for a Theatre of Magic lower cabinet.	Rear is a little bit chewed up, probably from being dragged on it's belly, but is structurally solid.	Inside cabinet at rear.  Hole drilled there for some reason separated the wood.
Masked off the area below the damage since I was going to use a lot of wood glue.	Used a ratchet strap and piece of 2x4 to help down the area where wood had lifted and separated.	Now on to the decal stripping. Used a heat gun to loosen and razor scraper to help peel it up. I did it in narrow sections rather than big sections at a time.	Once heated it pulled off pretty easy. Where it didn't come easy I gouged the cabinet a little with the razor trying to scrape it up.
Same deal on the other side.  For whatever reason this side came up a lot easier, but...	...in some places pulled up hunks of wood.  The entire side was a little "furry" when I got done. Both sides of the cab appeared to be made out of a completely different type of wood.	Filled in the drilled hole with a couple round pieces I had laying around.	Used bondo on the larger areas needing repair, especially the areas that would be stressed.
Same deal on the front.	Patched some gouges on the inside of cabinet while I was at it.	One of the differences between Dracula and Creature is that Drac has a "tray" at the bottom where the power supply sits. I had to take that out for the mirror assembly to fit.	The tray came out a little hard since it was glued in there.
More bondo to fix the area occupied by the tray.	More bondo at the back where hole was drilled.	After sanding.	After sanding.
After sanding.	Now some wood filler for the smaller areas, the theory being it's easier to sand than bondo (but turned out it really wasn't).	Miscellaneous repairs on backbox area.	Rear of cabinet after sanding, wood filler, and more sanding.  Ready for paint.
All gouges, etc filled in and sanded.  Ready for sealing.
Sanded underside of cabinet to clean it up.	Bought some slim mount speakers hoping to not interfere with projector light and mirror assembly since it would be mounted in the middle. I wasn't really sure if this was going to work.	Creature cabs normally have speaker off to side for clearance. I removed the riser where speaker is usually mounted to help give a little more clearance.	Had to make a small riser for speaker to mount so I could install the speaker grill.
Here's a regular Creature with the slim mount speaker next to it. Eyeballing it, sure looked like it would work.	Ready to paint the cabinet interior. I used Rustoleum satin black.	Cabinet interior painting done.
	Templates for mirror, projector and power supply so I would know where to drill holes in cabinet bottom. I was a little worried about this since I had only one chance to get it right!	Rear of cabinet painted.  I masked off the warning text in yellow and feathered around the edges so it would blend.  Turned out pretty good.	Now the cabinet sealing starts. I used a good brand of varathane but for some reason it decided to fisheye in a few places even after cleaning up with thinner. These were a pain to sand out and seemed to take forever to dry.
Oops! Regular Creatures use a shooter rod...	...Dracula uses a launch button.	Made a shooter template from Creature.	Ready for a shooter.
40 hours later, cabinet is sealed, sanded and ready for black painting around edges. Cabinet sealing was an absolute pain and took about 3 months to complete between drying times, sanding, re-sealing, and me getting discouraged.	Edges painted black.	Finally ready for decals.	Don't forget to pain around top edge that is exposed when front moulding is removed.
Cabinet decals sandwiched between playfield glass in back of truck to help flatten before application. Decals are gorgeous and courtesy of bud Darin Jacobs at PhoenixArcade.com.	Cabinet is sprayed down with a liberal coating of Windex. (I left the inner part of cab masked off to keep Windex from making too much of a mess inside.)	With the help of good friend and pinball obsessed Mark Pearson, exposed decal is carefully laid on cabinet and soaked with more Windex.	Here's me in action using the squeegee to get out the excess Windex and help it lay flat. Allowed this side to dry and get tacky for about 4 hours before I did the same thing on the other side.
Threw in some blocks of wood here before applying the front decal...	...to keep the center from sinking down and potentially mis-aligning it.	Used a spotlight pointing up to help me find the centering for the front decal, especially around the start button hole since alignment is critical.	A near perfect alignment after trimming.
Sweet	On to the backbox. I was tired of peeling and sealing so decided to sand, fill, and prime on the backbox.	Backbox is from the "project" game which had tipped over at one time (and my back still hurts from trying to catch it). Corners were a little tweaked so used some wood glue and ratchet strap to stabilize.	Masked off backside to protect yellow warning text.
Masked off inside where circuit boards are mounted.	Primed.	Sanded and black painted around edges. Ready for decals.	Backbox applied using same method as cabinet.
These were a lot easier and turned out perfect. If I had to do it over again probably would have just sanded the cabinet and primed rather than peel and seal.	Backbox is done and ready to mount.	Oops, forgot about that backboard sunset/lagoon display.	Backboard is glued and stapled in from the factory, guess they didn't want that going anywhere. Since my project game cabinet was toast I just ripped out the entire tray, then removed the backboard.
Yet another difference between Creature and Dracula. Notice the longer and wider opening on the one on the left (from Creature) compared to the one on the right (Dracula). Found out later it's for extra for the wire harness and to keep it out of the way of the projector assembly at the rear but this works.	Had to remove the angled wood braces glued in the corners of the Dracula cabinet for the backboard to clear.  The one on the left came right out but the one on the right fought me the entire way, shard by shard.	Metal tabs mounted to backboard in lieu of gluing and stapling. As you can see I goofed in this first attempt and put the tabs where the harness opening was.	Don't forget to paint the top strip of the backboard... it is exposed when the backbox is in the down position. Tabs have been moved so they will have a place to be secured.
Backboard mounted.  Nothing to it.	Another angle showing the close fit.	Opening for the wire harness showing the exposed part of the backboard.	"Now the legs huh?" (Scarface movie fans will get it.)
Ready for the playfield.	At one time I had three Creatures setup to help me put things back together. The one on the far right is the machine I got from my pal Grover and playfield donor. The one in the middle is the project game that's in a world of hurt.	Both playfield removed. One on the left is going in the restored cabinet, one on the right going back into the other (complete) cabinet.	Perfect opportunity to see a hot pink playfield (left) compared next to a non-hot pink playfield (right).  The one on the right came out of the project game.  It's complete and in surprisingly good condition given the sorry shape of the cabinet.
Playfield installed for a test fitting... it fits!  Even the backboard and shooter area match up perfectly. Cabinet rails are installed in the next step after playfield is removed.	Ready to put in new ground braid. Ground braid purchased from Scot Bogart at PinRestore.com. Factory correct brass colored staples courtesy of pal John Wart Jr. Siderails have already been installed. John also helped hook me up with a mirror bracket assembly, missing on my project game, which was huge.	Ground braid installed. Using an air stapler and the other Creature cabinets as a guide tried to mount it as close to factory original as possible.	Obligatory beauty shot.
At this point I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and am really admiring my work.  :-)	Ground braid routing at back.	Backbox installed and ready for playfield.	I lucked into a set of the metal playfield rails and decided now was the time to install them. What a pain but was able to do it removing only a minimal number of parts and luckily the ramps didn't have to come off.
Circuit boards installed and lower cabinet harness hooked up.	Playfield installed, this time for good.	Hooked up and ready to fire up for the first time.	IT'S ALIVE! Game fired up with no errors and is pretty much ready to go.

Return to main Creature page to see the finished game