After doing a few SS restorations, I'm ready to try my first EM. Previous documented restores if anyone is interested:

Williams Black Knight (1980)
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1980-black-knight-player-s-condition-to-something-better

Stern Meteor (1979)
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1979-stern-meteor-project

Bally Mata Hari (1978)
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hardtop-install-for-ss-mata-hari

Bally Eight Ball Deluxe (1984)
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hardtop-install-and-restoration-for-eight-ball-deluxe

Bally Black Jack (1978)
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/my-first-restoration-1977-bally-black-jack-ss

A month or so ago, my CL filter picked up a "pinball" hit for an estate sale set for Friday morning, about 20 miles from me. In the CL pictures, amongst the usual estate sale fodder, sat an EM Night Rider in a dark corner of the basement. I emailed the guy that night asking how much, is it working, and could I possibly come check it out Thursday before the estate sale. Much to my surprise, he answered me within 30 minutes with the asking price and a time Thursday to come by, check it out, and potentially buy it before anyone showed up the next day. He just wanted this pin gone. It's not working - it powers on with GI lit but nothing else happening.

Got there yesterday morning and the guy was nice as can be. His dad passed away a couple of years ago and they're finally getting around to clearing out his house. This was the family pin and it sat in the same spot in that basement for more than 22 years but hasn't worked in the last 10.

A few hundred dollars later, I was loading it up in my truck. He had the key for the coin door but not the backbox, so I had to drill out that lock to break down the backbox for transport.

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My initial goal was to get this Night Rider working and teach myself about EM's. I spent the next several weeks going thru a punch list of things that didn't work, starting with the first issue of it powering on but not starting a game. Once I got by that, it was onion-peeling time. I wound up fixing about 15 things but in the end, I had a dirty, cosmetically challenged Night Rider but working and flipping 4-player games.

If you're interested in the issues resolved, most of them are documented in this thread (where I was reaching out for a lot of help being an EM newbie):
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/getting-an-em-night-rider-going-again

Here are a few "before" pictures.....

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The backglass is in near-perfect condition. No flaking, no scratches, just a little dirt. Amazing after 46 years.

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I'm still finishing up my Black Knight restoration (down to the coin door....waiting for parts to come back from powder coating) but I just couldn't wait to start tearing down Night Rider after I got a delivery from CPR this evening. I pulled out the Night Rider playfield from the cabinet, mounted it in my rotisserie and started cataloging the parts I'm going to refurbish and the parts I'm going to replace.

OLD & BUSTED:
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NEW HOTNESS:
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The CPR playfield is for the SS version of Night Rider, but topside everything is the same with regards to holes. The underside, however, will require some carefulness. The CPR is dimpled for a SS wire harness which is quite different than an EM harness, so I'll have to make my own dimples. Should be fun!

Pretty pleased with this CPR so far - such an improvement in clarity (and of course, colors). Here's an example where on my original, the background color is bleeding into the tops of the text and the text color is bleeding out of the bottom. The screen pass for the black text outline seems to have been off (too high) when my playfield was made - wonder if that's common or not. Will have to look closer at other NR's when I see them. So nice to see it cleared up on the repro.
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Spent about 5 hours this afternoon tearing down the playfield underside.....here's what I started with:
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About an hour or so into it - started at the bottom/front of the playfield which is heavily loaded with connections (especially the Bonus Unit). The method I use is to unsolder the wires and zip tie a metal-rimmed tag with the location written on the tag (and covered with tape). That, and hundreds of pictures as I go along.
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About 4hrs into it....everything is disconnected, tagged, and photographed.
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Ready for the dishwasher. There is so much dirt and grime on this EM wire harness....you can just lightly touch it and your finger/hand turns black. I probably washed my hands 12 times during the 4hr tear down.
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1hr rinse cycle is all that's needed.
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While the harness goes thru the rinse cycle, assemblies are removed and bagged. Each assembly will be torn down, ultra-sonic cleaned, tumbled if necessary, and perhaps painted if they don't buff out nice. If needed, parts will be replaced before reassembling. The old playfield will serve as a guide for running all new ground wire, installing new lamp sockets, and putting in new t-nuts. I still need to remove and clean the Jones plug sockets, rollover switches, the last two Pop Bumpers, and some brackets.
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Out of the dishwasher and mission accomplished:
- you can now handle the wire harness without your hands turning black
- colors are better identifiable
- tags are still legible, and none came off
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The wire harness will have plenty of time to dry out - it'll be at least 2 or 3 weeks before I'm ready to install it on the new CPR playfield and probably a week after that before I do a simple GI light test on the rotisserie. It'll be spring time by the time I'm able to do the cabinet and a full on power up test.

Full disclosure....she doesn't know, lol. I'm using the rarely-used dishwasher in the rec room wet bar at night after the family has gone to bed. Shhhhhhh.....

But yes, I do have an understanding wife for her to put up with my pin hobby (obsession!).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone - pinball, football, turkey and family. It's going to be a great day!

De-pop is done...
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Got some goodie bags with new hardware fasteners, lamp sockets and what-not. Next phases....
- Install new T-Nuts
- Install new lamp sockets
- Run new grounding wire and jump/daisy-chain wires for grounding
- Clean up and move over rollover wires, some brackets, and two Jones plug sockets
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That only took a couple of hours - all of the shiny new t-nuts and lamp sockets are in. One of the trickier things with this playfield swap is that the CPR Night Rider is for the SS version of the game, and the EM wire harness is very different. In most cases, I have to ignore the dimples and instead drill holes where they need to go to accommodate the EM harness. So it's...line up the piece, use an awl to mark the spot, drill a pilot hole with a collar on the bit so it doesn't go too deep, apply some wax to the screw or staple the ends depending on the socket type, and then install the piece. Rinse and repeat.

Tomorrow I'll move over the rollover wires and brackets. I'll probably staple and solder in the ground wire Sunday.
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Only had an hour this morning to work on NR - rest of the day is family stuff. Jones Plug Sockets, rollover wire brackets, and pop leaf switch brackets ultra sonic cleaned and installed. Ground wire work starts tomorrow.

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This restoration has a bunch of little sub-restorations coming up after the ground wire is on the playfield. Going to be spending a lot of time on the bench rebuilding each of these assemblies to look as good as possible and work as good as new.

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Found myself with an extra hour or so tonight so I got started on the ground wire....knocked out about 75% of it. I'll finish the other 25% plus jumper wires tomorrow.

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Underside ground wiring and jump wires done. Call me nuts, but this is probably my favorite phase of a restoration....there's something relaxing and cathartic about wiring a completely new playfield with new parts. That is, until I power it up months later and spend hours figuring out what I did wrong after something doesn't work, lol.

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Life has gotten in the way of pinball these last several days, but I found some time tonight to rebuild the flipper assemblies. Used a rebuilt kit from Marco's and I had a set of new flipper bases leftover from a previous restore that I didn't use. Same old coils (work fine) but I put some new wrappers on them to freshen up the look. And most importantly - got rid of the slotted screws and now all are Phillips heads. I HATE slotted screws, and this pin is chock full of mis-matched screws and sometimes just the incorrect screw. Check out one of the screws attempting to hold in the EOS leaf switch in the Before picture....it's not loose, it's too big to screw completely into the bracket. Examples of that are throughout this pin, can't wait to get everything clean and looking uniform again!

x3 pop bumper rebuilds coming up next.

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Good progress today.....

Got the studs in to secure the pop bumper brackets:
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The new bases didn't fit too well....used my dremel to take a bit off of the plastic base and then was able to get them in with a couple of soft mallet hits:
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Nice, shiny clean assemblies!:
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New skirts, bodies, and caps:
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Also got the cleaned and refurbished slings in this afternoon:
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So here's an EM vs SS difference I didn't actually notice until I put in the refurb'd sling mechs today

#1 - the playfield cutouts for the sling arm are long oval-shaped on the original EM playfield vs. triangle-shaped cutouts on the CPR SS playfield. It doesn't make a difference with regards to slingshot arm movement.
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#2 - I *think* the head of the slingshot arms on the SS version is "centered" and has a plastic head. The original slingshot arms on my EM have the head to the side of the top of the arm as opposed to centered. The new plastic heads I got won't fit (but they do fit my SS Mata Hari). As a result of the EM slingshot arm head being to the side and not centered, when mounted on the playfield the head isn't quite centered within the triangle cutout. And there's no room to move it over. Again, the slingshot motion seems unaffected and it'll probably play just fine. We'll see - if the slingshot action is weird, or the off-centerness drives me nuts, I'm going to track down and install "SS versions" of the slingshot arm and head.
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Ball kicker, Bonus Unit, and Top Hole Unit assemblies cleaned up and installed tonight:

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Working on the Top Hole Kicker now - the metal fins are missing but the rest of the parts are in decent shape:
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I've got a donor assembly with fins - it's solid, but tarnished and a bit rusty. I've got the donor torn down and the main bracket with the fins is in the tumbler. We'll see what it looks like after a day or two of tumbling with walnut media - it'll likely be smooth but discolored. I'll probably wind up painting it. Plan is to move the good working bits from my original assembly onto the donor plate with fins.
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Fairly pleased - put the donor bracket with fins thru the tumbler for 24hrs, got the rust off and smoothed out the surface:
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Sprayed on a couple of coats of self-etching primer:
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Then sprayed on a couple of coats of "metal silver" Rustoleum paint. Came out a little darker than I expected, but I'm ok with it:
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Test alignment and preview look (I haven't put the assembly back together yet). Again, a little darker than I expected but it'll work. Later this week, I'm going to stick down some mylar on the exposed bit to ward off any potential paint chipping from use, reassemble, and install.
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Top Hole Saucer Assembly completed and installed. Up next - restoring both drop target banks and polishing up the ball trough. That should finish up all of the playfield sub-assemblies.

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Something to do while waiting for parts to finish tumbling and for paint to dry / cure....zip tie the playfield harness!

Bally used string to bind the harness in this EM. The string was originally white, but with all the dirt and grime in the pin, it appeared black before I cleaned the harness (and after cleaning it's still a dingy white / gray appearance). Kinda frustrating when I acquired this non-working pin and started going through it to get it running again - a lot of the string is frayed and loose, and at first glance it looked like loose or broken wires which was quite confusing while troubleshooting issues.

Anyway, I figured as long as the harness is out (and clean!), let's get rid of the nasty looking and decaying string and zip-tie it up right.

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Thanks...I was actually thinking of doing that and still might. My only hesitation is that the last couple of times I tried doing something like that (and it was Rustoleum 2x Gloss Clear on top of Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover paint), I got the crocodile / peeling finish after a few hours and I had to strip it and start over. I prepped as instructed by the can, and also allowed a week for curing between the last paint coat and the first clear coat (can said to wait just a few hours, so I thought a week would be more than adequate). Weather was good too - mid 70's and barely any humidity in CO. This was on a Mata Hari apron, so a bit thinner and different metal vs. the bracket I'd be doing here, but it still made me gun shy.

I would prefer the clear vs. mylar and I haven't applied the mylar yet. Still time for me to change my mind.

Ball trough cleaned up nicely in the ultrasonic cleaner and with hand polish. Think I'll skip the tumbler for those pieces.

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One drop target bank done, one to go.

Dirty, grimy parts all broken down and ready for the ultrasonic cleaner:
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Came out pretty ok. There's some tarnish here and there, but not enough to drive me to paint (plus which, these parts move too much for me to be comfortable that the paint would last). Sending out to be re-plated not in the budget for this game, and perfect is the enemy of good. With every bit nice and clean, this should work just as well as it did in 1976.
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Reassembled with new targets, new springs, new coil sleeve, and new e-clips. The reset bar in this bank had a lot of slop and I think the pivot pins that were in it are too long - they should be shorter. I found two short ones in my spare parts bin and that, along with a single washer, pretty much eliminated the slop.
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Bench test works well - 30 for 30 on manual resets and the targets staying up. It'll be several months before this gets checked out in an assembled, powered-on game. Actually, I think the coil's terminals should be 90 degrees to the right (it is on the other drop target bank) but this is the way it was when I pulled it out of the pin. Once the bank is in the playfield and I get the wiring harness hooked up, I'll see if the coil can be turned.

Both drop target banks are clean as a whistle! New targets and springs and all slop with the reset bars mitigated - works nice and snappy on the bench.
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Here's how I'm lining up to drill holes for mounting the drop target banks. Let gravity hold the target in place with the playfield upside down and use my phone in selfie mode to see how the targets line up with respect to the cutout. When it looks good, hold the assembly in one hand and drop/reset the targets with the other making sure clearance is good front to back and side to side. Once satisfied, use an awl to mark the four drill points, take off the assembly, drill the holes, then mount.
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That's the last of the playfield assemblies! I put a couple of the old rails back in temporarily....with the heavy drop target banks installed, I don't want the playfield to warp due to the extra weight. I'm also using a small bottle jack to support the middle from underneath when I'm not actively working on the playfield and/or rotating it.
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Now on to finishing up the wire harness with zip ties and then the fun begins with soldering everything back in (shooting to complete that by the weekend). After that, I'll be repopulating topside, probably by Christmas. That'll probably be the last major work for a while on this pin - with winter weather in full swing now in Colorado, it'll be spring until I can work on the cabinet or re-finish the rails.

Reached a couple of Milestones today: #1 - wire harness is back in!

BEFORE
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DURING (with tag references still attached, each one removed as wires are soldered back in)
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AFTER / COMPLETE
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Took about 4 hours spread across three days.

Milestone #2: Using a 6v modified wall wart, ran power to the GI circuit and all lamps fired up! Hope that bodes well for the rest of the wiring I did.....

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Next steps: light up and check all the control lamps and make sure the new lamp sockets are ok. Once that is done, it's on to re-populating the topside.

Control lamps and sockets tested ok, so it's on to the topside. Got a fair chunk done tonight:

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Wasn't till I was almost done with installing posts that I realized I ordered too few new spools. Can't have the dingy-white-now-gray spools installed next to new bright white ones, so I'll have to wait till I have enough other parts queued up in an order so that shipping costs are reasonable. I'm bound to run into a few more needs along the way.

Wireforms are running thru the tumblers this weekend, will probably install tomorrow night.

More updates tonight....

These original clear plastics have seen better days:
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I was so excited to get these new clear plastics in that I secured down all of the posts / bell stand-offs, totally forgetting these are double-decker plastics and more go on top, lol:
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The slotted screw head on the smaller plastic set is going to drive me nuts (all others are Philips) but it's all I have on hand right now. Will replace later so they're all matching:
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Cleaned up wire forms are installed and I also put in most of the rubber set and a couple more new plastics:
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I'm torn - I really want to finish off the assembly of this playfield but the weather is way too cold for me to restore the playfield rails. I'm thinking I might just put in the rest of the dinged up original rails, get everything assembled, and then take the rails out again in the spring when the weather will allow me to start working on the cabinet.

Couple of tips for today:
#1 - removing the bell stand-offs from the original plastics to use on the new plastics requires heat. I used a heat gun on low and positioned it toward the stand off and away from the original plastic for 5 to 7 seconds. Then used pliers to wiggle it back and forth and free from the plastic pieces. Unfortunately, the new plastic piece holes for the bell stand-offs are WAY too small....I used a barrel sanding bit on my Dremel to carefully widen the holes until they where large enough that the top of the bell stand-off would fit through. Do the Dremel work WITH the protective coating on the new plastics in case you slip with the bit spinning....don't want to scratch up your brand new (and expensive) plastics.

#2 - If your playfield is on a rotisserie and not powered, use alligator leads for your DMM and clip them on to the lugs of your leaf switches for rollovers, stand up targets, pops, etc. Set your DMM to Ohms and tone to on. Then roll your ball around on the playfield to activate the leaf switch and hear the beeps on your DMM without having to visually check the screen to see if the switch engages. This is particularly helpful when dialing in 360 degree action for the pop bumper skirts in the spoon.
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Nearing the end of the road on the playfield - managed to tally a few more parts I need to close this out:

- I ordered too few spool posts when I placed my initial order. Need x4 more.
- While dialing in the pop bumper leaf switches today I was having trouble with the skirt in the bottom pop getting stuck. Upon closer examination, the plastic spoon (brand new) is cracked!
- I've got white plastic acorn nuts securing the plastics. Thinking blue might look better, perhaps even anodized instead of plastic.
- Thinking about putting an LED strip in the ball trough area to illuminate the flipper area....I'll play around with that tomorrow, I'm sure I've got a spare left over from my Black Knight resto project.
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Working on the spinners now - besides the list above, it's the last thing to install. Got all the scratched and flaking paint off of them and they cleaned up nicely in the ultrasonic cleaner. Thinking about NOT painting them white and just leaving the edges and wireforms their natural silver and applying the new interstate sign decals (which have a white background on the faces).
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After all getting through all this, I'll be limited to weather as the next stages need to take place in my garage and driveway. On Thursday, our high will be -1F, lol. General activities in the queue when we get some consecutive days of 50F or higher weather:

- Strip, refinish, and paint the playfield rails.
- Strip, paint, and apply new decals for the apron and shooter gauge.
- Strip, repair, and paint the cabinet and backbox.

Thanks! I have two of these tumblers - they're inexpensive and take a beating. I did have one die after three years and the company replaced it for free - all I had to do was open a support case with the manufacturer, send them a photo of the serial number tag on the unit, and a week later I had a brand new one at my door. They didn't even want the old one back:

https://www.amazon.com/Leegol-Electric-Vibratory-Tumbler-Polishing/dp/B08FFLF35T

For media, I use a low grit crushed walnut which gets rust* and crusty bits off, then I use corn cob media in the other tumbler to polish it up. Usually 24hrs for each. I also put a squirt of Flitz polish/cleaner in with the media for that phase.

* if the rust is particularly bad, I'll let the part(s) soak in Evapo-Rust for a day or two before throwing in the tumblers.