1979 Stern Meteor SS

I picked up this classic Stern Meteor for a few hundred bucks. It sorta worked - you could flip balls and most switches scored. The list of things needing attention to turn this into a good players machine (or restoration) was long:

• Weak flippers and pop bumper

• Lots of GI lights out, even with new bulbs

• Several drop targets won’t stay up after being reset

• Severely cupped inserts dramatically changing ball trajectories

• Backglass pretty trashed, beyond fixing

• Garbled sound

• PCBs need new caps, transistors, and cleaning

On the cosmetic side, more of the usual: rough and planking cabinet, rusty legs / lock bar receiver / other metal bits.

My plan for this was a full up restoration with a bit of a resto-mod feel. At a minimum I’d be doing a new backglass and had planned on touching up the playfield and fixing the cupped inserts, but along the way I had an opportunity to pick up a new playfield for close to nothing. More on that later.